Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1015061796?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:00] Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee to order. My name is Arbun Estreffi, and I'm the chair of the committee. I'm joined by my fellow committee members, Chair Mansfield and Mrs. Griffiths. So to get started, is there any public comment?

[00:00:18] No public comment. Okay. So we'll move on to 3.01 and approval of the meeting minutes. Any comments on the minutes from September 17th?

[00:00:35] Seeing none. do i have a motion to approve the meeting minutes uh do you want to just unmute sorry sorry i motion to approve wonderful do i have a second second so motion by mrs griffiths seconded by uh chair mansfield um all those in favor aye aye that motion will pass unanimously the meeting minutes have been approved so we'll move on to our action items so we have two action items and a number of information items always try to find a way to get excited about our finance and operations committee

[00:01:15] so we've got a bunch of we've got wellness methods of procurement playgrounds lots of policies under review but we'll start off with our action items we'll go with four dot zero one business financial services revision of policy 80 20 relations with school support organizations and um yeah um do i have a motion i move that the finance and operation committee recommend that the school board approve staff's recommended updates to policy 80 20 relations with school

[00:01:47] support organizations is there a second we will yeah we just need the motion on the floor so I will go ahead and second that and then we'll open it up for discussion mr. stocks would you like to say anything else I know this was provided as a information item or oh sorry I was still on playgrounds so

[00:02:27] that's miss will be the first change we made based on the feedback was to include LCPS in front of school sponsored activities which we did correct and the second one was school support organization sponsored activities and we corrected both of those based on the feedback thank you board members is there

[00:02:59] any further discussion or questions yes thank you chair Struffy regarding 8020 I was looking at the red line and the clean copy I might have been looking at an old copy clean copy but and maybe you can point me in the right direction not limited to booster clubs PTAs PTOs and recognizes that these organizations are independent and separate from the school sponsored and entities I have a question about that because I have two schools that do rowing I don't know if

[00:03:39] you're from it well you're probably familiar and it's I guess they're considered separate outside the school but they're affiliated with the school they've competed they were top in the state I know Riverside was they're paying to use the row place here in Ashburn they're paying $40 per child to go there and practice and also storage I have heard that these are big boats that need to be stored I guess I'm wondering is there

[00:04:15] anything we could do for this for these two schools to help them in that situation and that's just an example of you know somebody reaching out to me as far as what their situation is regarding the sport they effectively compete and win and I feel like we should be working with them somehow to get them more money get them more storage what what how can you explain that to me please thank you

[00:04:45] So there's another policy that, and I don't have it in front of me, that outlines what sports are, I think we used to call them tiered, that there were different tiers, and that determined what level of funding and the affiliation that they had with the school division.

[00:05:00] I think that would be a more appropriate discussion during either the budget process, if you're wanting to propose a change to that tier, or wherever that policy happens to lie, whichever committee that is with, like I said, I don't have it in front of me. This policy is more so for, as it says, about the boosters as well as the direct school activities and the fundraising that occurs at the schools.

[00:05:30] I'm also working with one of the schools. They are struggling to fundraise for their band to go to England. Now, while I understand that a lot of the schools have all these different extracurricular things, is there any way we're able to help or supplement you know the cost of them going to England they're planning on going New Year's Eve and it's a special it's a it's a big thing so I'm just curious if there's anything we can do again I think that would be another discussion that's outside of this policy

[00:06:08] and I would be happy to have a discussion perhaps with you separately we can meet I know this is something that's come up routinely and there is a line though in terms of what we are what LCPS provides funding for versus what they are what the expectation is for the extra and the fundraising so again I'd be happy to meet with you separately since it's not necessarily directly tied to this policy forgive me for misunderstanding because I saw Brewster clubs PTAs PTOs recognizing organizations they are organizations sports organizations correct however you're talking about additional funding

[00:06:45] from these organizations, and this policy is more providing the guidelines for how those organizations operate and how they interact with LCPS. To your point, it's delineating the relationships and the separation between these organizations.

[00:07:06] Any other comments or questions? I just wanted to thank you for putting the LCPS -- I don't know why that makes a difference to me, but it does for clarity's sake. LCPS sponsored activities makes a whole lot more sense to me and it for me it's better I can read it better so thank you thank you for that I was just curious a quick question around compliance with this policy is there is there any way that we ensure compliance or we audit some of the activities that happen at

[00:07:44] let's say the PT PTS os with the school I know that there are PTS PTOs that are or any support organization that are very active in some schools maybe they're not as active or they don't even exist at some schools so just curious as to if there's anything in place so it's a fine line since these are separate organizations that in terms of what our authority and you know our really our authority is with them what we have initiated is we have in

[00:08:18] draft and we're working to roll out hopefully here in the very near future is an mou with each school support organization to help provide some additional structure regarding expectations and sharing of information realizing that as I like to often say those that booster club that PTO that PTA they don't exist if we don't exist so like there's this natural relationship and so while there's also this very clear line that they are a separate organization they report separately to the IRS they have their own board but realizing that they you know they work in conjunction with

[00:08:57] the school that there needs to be some additional sharing of information and collaboration and we're hoping that when we are able to roll the MOU out with those organizations that it helps to further strengthen what those expectations are and that would be helpful not only for LCPS but also for the SSO as well.

[00:09:20] So would that be in the regulations that you guys are going to come out with your MOUs or is that something we need to put in policy? That is a great question. So right now as we are still working on rolling that out I would envision that that would be something we could actually add perhaps reference to it in a regulation since it's a little more operational and that we could also perhaps use that opportunity with the regulation to provide additional some additional guidance.

[00:09:52] know this 80 20 policy is relatively new you know it was first adopted just in 2022 and as we continue to work with our sso's and learn more and perhaps expect more i think it gives us that opportunity to perhaps create a regulation that we could reference the mou in any other questions seeing

[00:10:18] none board members um should we move forward with a vote um all those in favor aye aye i think that was unanimous yes um so that um motion will pass unanimously and we'll move on to 4.02 support services grant of easements to virginia department of transportation b dot at luckett elementary school this is presented by mr pascarelli oh we will make a motion first so um yes i recommend that

[00:10:57] the Finance and Operations Committee I make a motion that the Finance and Operations Committee recommend that the Aladdin County School Board approve the VDOT deed for the proposed easements at Luckett's Elementary School and further that the chair of the school board is authorized to sign the deed upon presentation motion has been made do I have a second seconded by mrs. Griffiths although actually we'll pass it on to mr. Pasquarelli now thank you so VDOT's doing some road work that's north of our entryway to luckett's elementary it's

[00:11:32] north of our northmost entryway to the school so it'll have very little impact on our on our school but it will impact sort of the north side of our northern entryway so a little bit of work to to rework the entryway there as well as some drainage work as well there but again very little impact on our school itself thank you very much um how long is the work expected to last they're in the process now of just getting um land acquisition so um i'm not quite sure what their schedule is at this moment

[00:12:06] any other questions chair mansfield will this affect uh like the beginning of school after school any of that with the construction any traffic issues no they'll they'll work we'll work with them to make sure there's no interruption in uh school any other questions seeing none um we'll take this to a vote all those in favor aye aye that motion would pass unanimously and we'll

[00:12:39] move on to consent seeing no other objections thumbs up for consent and we'll move on to our information items we'll start with 5.01 business and financial services ifb i25102 custodial supplies and equipment for new schools and ongoing needs presented by miss filial thank you this is is an annual contract we put this out every year for our custodial supplies used by our custodians on our school sites and you will see that we're

[00:13:17] recommending award of the vendor who submitted the low bid or an acceptable substitute and this contract is worth 1.7 million dollars and I'm bringing it before you this evening for your approval to either then be brought forward as an action or consent item at your October 15th meeting thank you miss Filly out board members any questions or discussion seeing no questions or discussion we will move

[00:13:49] on to information item 5.02 do you want to bring that before as a consent item or an action item at your next yes that was what chairman's field also mentioned as well board members is there any appetite to put this on consent for the next committee meeting I'm good with consent thumbs up so we're okay with consent okay all right moving on to 5.02 which is

[00:14:27] construction support services this is a contract that was out of renewals so we once again put this out to bid and we are proposing awarding this contract there is a 7% increase in cost over the last contract that we had and we are recommending award to the vendors identified there on the summary section and if approved this may be brought forward as an action or consent item on your October 15th meeting thank you Miss Philiot board members any questions or

[00:14:59] discussion yes I'm not able to give my thoughts on consent or action for this item I have a conflict of interest thank you very much any other discussion seeing none would board members like to put this on consent in the next committee meeting I'm good with consent I'm also good with consent miss Griffiths you

[00:15:35] would you like to comment no so I guess we can move that to consent then thank you we'll move to five dot zero three business financial services RFP R two four two five one automotive and special vehicle parts renewal presented by Miss Philly as stated this is an annual renewal for the parts that are used in our transportation facility and this contract is worth three point four million dollars there are several vendors listed on the attachment that we

[00:16:12] do business with and if approved this contract would be effective from January 1 2025 through December 31 2025 and maybe considers action or consent item on your October 15th meeting and this is the first renewal year this existing contract or this is that is correct this is the first renewal okay any other discussion or questions board members would we like to have this item on

[00:16:47] consent in the next committee meeting thumbs up so this will go on consent the next item is 5.04 business financial services revision of policy 6120 wellness believe this is presented by Ms. Mills director of school nutrition hello so as the director of school nutrition we operate the national school lunch school breakfast program and it is a USDA requirement that we provide our

[00:17:25] students with a local school wellness policy to safeguard their health and well-being so recently we were informed that we needed to add additional verbiage related to fundraising just to make sure again that we are selling only smart snack compliance foods during the day if the occasion arises where there our fundraisers that the food is not smart snack compliant we actually count them so that they don't exceed 30 in a year so again just trying to be vigilant

[00:17:57] about keeping our kids healthy thank you very much in reviewing the policy I saw the changes in the fundraising activities I was fine with all of the changes to the policy myself but I was curious about the implementation of the wellness policy and the assessments could you just elaborate on how that works so there what's interesting about this and many people don't know this actually was a requirement that came out in 2004 so the wellness policy has been around a long time it's been strengthened through the years and

[00:18:36] made more transparent but one thing that has never changed is that it's supposed to be a collaborative effort of community, families, students, staff. So we worked very hard back in 2016, 2017 to get it to a better place. It was actually first presented back in 2006. What we did then was try to bring it forward, and it was updated, I believe, in 2019. And I'm sorry, I'm losing track of your question sorry oh it was just the oh how we're assessing so we are responsible for

[00:19:15] making sure that not only that we develop but implement and assess but then we have to also update the policy so we have done that now twice we've done a triant what's called a triennial assessment and it's the third year so you assess assess and then you assess again and on that third year you you report out based on the results of all three assessments so and then you begin again so we just this past year did our second triennial assessment and that is assess having schools under the direction of a wellness representative evaluate their own wellness and then that rolls up to

[00:19:55] the district so very great stuff thank you okay one members any discussion or questions i have a couple um okay so i see so the fundraiser that wouldn't include cast or anything like if they're their coffee um beverages or coffee carts or anything like that right if it's sold during the school day it's all going to be considered a fundraiser now if it's to students not adults so i think when you're talking about cast i believe that is a fundraiser for adults okay yeah i thought there was something that oh but they're

[00:20:34] They're not at Academy's Lodon anymore, so never mind. Okay, the other thing is on line 104, school employees shall not use food or beverages to reward students for good behavior and achievement in the classroom. Does that include candy? That does. We're not encouraging anyone to use food as a reward, ever.

[00:20:54] So for, you get this question right, here's a Jolly Rancher. Correct. That is not according to our policy. Correct. And we're counting candy as food.

[00:21:11] We don't need to separate that out. I know these are ridiculous questions. No, no, it's not ridiculous at all. Just making sure. The other thing that I was curious about is I was really pleased to see on line 199, including reducing or eliminating stress, because I think that's important for staff.

[00:21:31] There was another place that I was like, okay, well, why don't we have that here too, like around line 212 or 213. We have all the rest of that, use of tobacco products and other elements of a healthy lifestyle.

[00:21:49] But why don't we have reducing, you know, encouraging, reducing stress or anything like that in that area as well? Probably should. Could we do that? Good suggestion. Yes, absolutely. I think we should do that. Yeah. I mean, in the times and climate we live in right now.

[00:22:09] So that would be great. And we did get rid of, we got alcohol consumption here, but we also got rid of it in this other, in that same section, 211 through 214. I just wanted to know if we could be consistent there.

[00:22:27] So, and I see use of tobacco products, alcohol consumption, and I guess there was illegal drugs. And is there a reason, is there a better language we can use there, or what was the thought behind that?

[00:22:42] Do we know? i'm sorry that's on line 199 i'm sorry my brain goes zing zing zing yeah it looks like yeah i don't know i think this was wording and i wonder is there some positive rather by by mentioning um the way it was written before by including illegal drugs it almost implies that we condone not condone but that there are legal drugs in our schools so i think we were focusing

[00:23:22] on the the legal items that our employees may partake in which is the alcohol and tobacco and perhaps encouraging them away from that and not necessarily addressing the illegal activity but but in our in our medical we are responsible if there is a problem or misuse problem correct we if they decide to get treatment right okay I just want to make sure and so the

[00:23:57] drinking water there was one area and I'm sorry my board docs was not behaving today or yesterday and there was a place where water where we are encouraging them to drink water and stuff but I also want to make sure that we also are replacing those water filters is that something so you're talking about on the water bottle filling stations in the schools we do have those on a replacement cycle and vast majority of the units have indicator lights on them that will change colors when it's time to be replaced and then if that happens

[00:24:36] we ask for the schools to submit a work order to the maintenance team the ones that don't have those we have an auto generated to kick out work orders so that we can replace those filters that's really all i was pleased to see this i have one last question on the uh so excuse my ignorance but just trying to figure out where the vending machines you know fall in this and what what is vended through the vending machines and how are we promoting the wellness policy through some of those uh the items that are available in the

[00:25:09] vending machines so the policy does address sales food sales and beverage sales during the day So School Nutrition has exclusive rights to sales during breakfast and lunch, so no one can sell during that time. But organizations on campus can sell Smart Snack-compliant foods during the day outside of those windows.

[00:25:33] So they can, and that does not count as one of the 30. What counts as one of the 30 would be candy or what we do have today of Smart Snack foods.

[00:25:55] Okay. Sorry, I'm trying to relay, I'm trying to play telephone. I was wanting to highlight that while, as you heard her just say, our vending machines are operational during the day, so long as they have compliance snacks, that the ones that don't have compliance snacks are actually shut down.

[00:26:12] And so you're not able to pull a snicker bar out of the machine if it was during the time frame where it's prohibited. Got it. Yeah. Very interesting. And we're not doing monster drinks or anything like that, are we? No. no okay sorry okay no worries that could be its own conversation but I'll stop yeah thank you very much well any other discussion board members know all right so we'll move on to ask you guys to like look at some changes yeah so that'll

[00:26:51] come back for action pending those changes okay wonderful thank you chairman's field we'll move on to 5.05 business and financial services revision policy 4320 methods of procurement. I believe this is Ms. Villione. Yes, thank you. This policy is being brought before you for revisions. We worked with division council on this policy to make it in line with the state of Virginia code. But one of the things I want to make you aware of is as per policy 2310, this has no changes in it to what comes before you as a

[00:27:26] finance committee. Policy 2310 still spells out that the contracts in excess of 250,000 will come to the Finance Committee prior to going to the school board so all this policy is doing is identifying the method of procurement we use when do we have to get three informal quotes when do we have to do four formal quotes for not from an RFQ when do we do an IFB when do we do an RFP that is clearly delineated in these policy revisions and presented to you this evening

[00:27:58] Thank you very much, Ms. Filia. So the thresholds, the dollar thresholds have gone up in all of the examples that are mentioned in the policy. And so, as you said, the method of procurement for each of those, now that dollar threshold has changed. Is there anything else in the policy besides those dollar thresholds that you, I couldn't identify any, is there anything else besides those dollar thresholds that is changing in this policy the only thing the other thing that changed was a clear delineation

[00:28:37] between professional services and non professional services professional services have a cap of 80,000 before you have to put those out to bid and professional services are things such as medical auditing services architects engineers so that is different in here and then it also spells out if an RFQ is issued the process we need to go through with an RFQ but those are the only changes as you mentioned was to the thresholds and the separating out of non-professional services from professional

[00:29:10] services thank you board members any other questions or discussions was there a okay so on line 78 on the red line does SWAM was there a definition of that up above somewhere that I'm missing I will spell that out and put in parentheses there was not and there needs to be okay thank you you're welcome because I did see it for RFQ thank you any other questions or discussion seeing

[00:29:44] none we'll move on thank you very much will that be returning as consent or action seeing as that was a technical change would it be okay to move this to consent are you all okay thumbs up yeah Yeah. We'll move this to consent. So the next item is 5.06, Business and Financial Services Revision of Policy 4180, Commercial, Promotional, and Corporate Sponsorships and Partnerships, formerly Policy 864. This is presented by Ms. Filion.

[00:30:24] This policy is being brought before you for the first time since 2015. We are bringing this policy before you this evening to get it into the new format of our policies, properly numbered and also to help spell out information related to sponsorships and partnerships educational partnerships as well as educational spark partnerships or sponsorships and partnerships is defined for you it also identifies the requirements for each of those as far as entering into an agreement and one of the things I did want to note for you that we discovered

[00:31:02] is where it says on behalf of the school board the superintendent or cabinet members we're going to be adding designee that is in all of our other policies and we don't have that in here so we will be adding designee prior to bringing this back to you thank you Miss Filial board members is there any comments or discussion wasn't there a policy that we just had was it talking about grant something or maybe it's grants coming up where it had to be

[00:31:36] following our like okay so I'm just gonna say it out and it's if let's say okay so we are structured literacy we're looking at structured literacy things right now and that's what our approach is for literacy and somebody a school has a partnership with somebody who brings in balanced literacy tutors in another policy I thought we had there was some wording and I'm gonna have to look back I'm sorry there was some wording that said that we it had to

[00:32:15] match and align with our you know our strategic plan or our values or whatever yeah I think it might be the one that miss Casale is going to talk about but one of the things too if you'll notice online 166 starts the prohibitions and in there it says promotion of any image that is not in keeping with the established goals and purposes that's there so if it's another school board goal that covers that it would not be allowed but yeah if you're able we can look for that as well and add it in here if you'd like us to do that I mean it's

[00:32:54] in the other policy I think and so but sometimes it's hard to go digging for that other policy so it would be we can also add if it's in the other policy I can reference the other policy down below as well and that will then tie it together for me I'm trying to understand this what the scope of what a partnership could be is it let's say we enter in you know we receive a grant is that a partnership with a nonprofit organization or a grant making organization a partnership is they're basically doing it out of goodwill if

[00:33:34] you look on lines 12 through 16 it's a relationship and the partner share values objectives and educational interests but receive nothing in return except for good public relations or goodwill so that's basically a company says we're going to send 10 employees into the schools to read and then they can put something you know we read at Loudoun County Public Schools now when you're talking about sponsorships you're talking also if you look at the information here it talks about the different agreements if there's any

[00:34:08] monetary value involved you have to put that in there that is under more closely related to the sponsorships so it's a matter of we're going to give you this and we get this in return and then we've got the grant policy that spells out clearly how grants are identified and what's used with the grant funds that helps thank you remembers any other questions or discussion we want to bring

[00:34:43] this back for action or moving on to item information item 5.07 business financial services revision of policy 4030 non locally funded programs this is presented by miss Casale thank you we brought this policy to you as an information item for review at the September 3rd 2024 F&O committee

[00:35:20] meeting based on the feedback that received then we have brought you additional information regarding the grants we have a presentation it is in board docs this is what the cover letter looks like in the beginning all

[00:35:59] All right, Ms. Foglio is gonna help me with the presentation. In the meantime, we'll look at the hard copy. Funding is identified as a grant and accounted for differently based on the funding factors, following factors. Funding is restricted to a specific purpose.

[00:36:14] They may span multiple fiscal years. There may be a reimbursement process. There may be an additional reporting requirement. There's also an approval process. So school board approves funding in the grant fund during the budget process.

[00:36:29] School board provides additional approval if required by the grantor. And our policy and regulation 40-30, as we're bringing today, outlines the vetting and approval process for grants. For grants greater than 5,000, the superintendent or their designee have the approval authority, which has been the relevant cabinet member.

[00:36:47] And then for grants less than 5,000, principals have approval authority. Also, I want to point out that we have an omega system, which all title grants go through, which is the online management software system.

[00:37:06] For application, there's a four-tiered approach for those. which the cabinet member, the relevant cabinet member will have to approve. And then for reimbursements, there's a three-tiered approval for those reimbursements that go through business and finance.

[00:37:22] So the grant summary itself, we have the dollar threshold greater than 5,000. We have federal, state, and local. Federal has 10 awards. The budget amount is 27 million, which you've seen before during the budget process.

[00:37:38] State, 17, which is about seven million. And then local, one for one million. that is our howard hughes we'll go through that in a second and you've seen these during the budget process the federal grants so totaling federal grants with it's about 77 of all of our grants that are awarded the title grants that are associated with federal programs title 6b idea for the special education which we just received about 14 million just over 14 million for that grant we have title one for schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students

[00:38:18] and programs are presented to school board throughout the year as you know one of the smallest federal grants that we manage is title ii mckinney-ventu at ninety four thousand dollars which is less than one percent of total grant awards and that grant provides transportation and other services to homeless children and youth examples are providing cabs hotels school supplies pie graph there we go is 20 of all grants awarded so the state grants appropriated as part of the

[00:38:56] state budget process we have technology grants and which is our largest state grant it's about 2.5 million which is about seven percent of the total grants are that are awarded and then we have the Virginia preschool initiative which is for at-risk four-year-olds next our local grant makes up about three percent which is the Howard Hughes Foundation which is about a million dollars the funds are paid to the Loudon Education Foundation which acts on LCPS his

[00:39:31] behalf the HHMI which is Howard Hughes funds have enabled the LCPS science office to gain staffing to support in this innovative science and stem programs at all levels K through 12 next school activity funds the dollar threshold here is less than 5,000 these are managed by principals and financial technicians at in each school individual school activity fund so we have three levels the elementary middle and high the awards 97 22 and 41 accordingly and the amounts are there of these 160 grants managed at the school

[00:40:10] level a couple of examples are Loudoun Education Foundation backpack buddies and after-school programs the average award is about $1,900 that the schools receive and the largest grantor is Loudoun Education Foundation LEF of which 34% is granted to the individual schools which we'll talk about in the next slide of the 160 school activity awards they are tracked at the schools LEF awarded 74 awards totaling 85,000 ish and then we also have 66 percent of

[00:40:45] those additional grants 86 awards totaling a hundred and sixty three thousand presentation thank you very much for this presentation board members is there any discussion or comments and this is specifically grants no school level donations or sponsorships this is just the grants on a sanity check these

[00:41:20] are just the grants they do include school level grants slash donations because it's a very gray line between those two areas but as miss Casales shared and again this was in response to the questions from I think two finance committee meetings ago of just trying to really showcase that while we have a significant amount of grants coming in that there's a lot of structures already built around the process in terms of approval and vetting as ms klutz kazali shared on the school

[00:41:54] side you know that a third of those are coming directly through lef which is what what they are for they are to you know fundraise on our behalf and the rest are our small dollars so again small risk on the ones that are coming through the division the majority again if you recall that pie chart are federal grants and you do see presentations so specifically our largest federal grant is the title 6b idea grant and you approve kind of you approve usage of those grant funds when you see the the annual plan that comes through so trying to draw a connection on some of those presentations that you

[00:42:33] may see come before you regarding the programs that there's the grant funding that's supporting those programs in the background thank you very much and then In addition to the presentation, we're also reviewing the policy on non-locally funded programs, which includes grants, donations, and monetary proffers, right?

[00:42:58] So it goes beyond the presentation. So, board members, any questions or discussion on the policy being presented? Yes, Mrs. Griffiths? I would like to take more time and review this policy, so I don't know if this would go to consent at this time.

[00:43:18] Oh, yeah, so this is an information item. So we can definitely hold it for action next time. Try to address the questions. Any other -- any further discussion? Seeing no discussion.

[00:43:34] We'll move on to playgrounds. 5.08 support services, revision of policy 6320, playgrounds. This is presented by Mr. Brian Stocks, director of management and coordination. Thank you, sir. I bring before you today a revised policy 6320, playgrounds.

[00:43:53] playgrounds it's up for review through our policy review cycle and I will walk you through a few edits that staff have made recommendations and and and otherwise so on lines 25 and 26 we have removed the reference to outdoor classrooms because as we have evolved and grown and developed our playground program we've realized that outdoor classrooms and playgrounds are very different things and so we do have staff in the Department of Support Services working with the instructional staff to identify what our outdoor classrooms look like and that should be coming in the near future but there are various

[00:44:33] spaces used throughout the school system that are used to deliver outdoor instruction that are not playgrounds so we wanted to take that out and let that stand alone and not be held by any of the bounds that this relates to these are for outdoor play areas recreational spaces resource recess and to give children an opportunity to exercise and play safely on a minimum standard of equipment that we provide we made a reference on line 34 related to the regulation on line 50 we have removed the reference to regional elementary

[00:45:09] schools as the intent of that section is to include the specificity of high schools that have a preschool program because high schools would not otherwise have a playground otherwise or anyway I have met with SEAC representatives and discussed further having this conversation moving forward and they have expressed and I did commit to them that I would verbally state today that they are interested in working in the preschool age playgrounds into our policy in some capacity as we understand that currently the standard for LCPS is

[00:45:43] five through 12 inclusive so a lot of this the the next couple edits are mainly to to capture our current practice which is where a year and a half or two years ago we stated operationally we would only be including or installing inclusive playgrounds moving forward no more standard playgrounds but the fully inclusive as guided by the u.s access board and so therefore we're capturing that here saying that any full playground or placements constructed by lcps funding or the

[00:46:18] management of lcps funds new or replacement will be inclusive and and for that matter prior to five or six years ago maybe 10 all playground equipment and full playgrounds were funded by outside funding sources and so therefore we have numerous pieces of play equipment across the county that is maybe a standalone piece of equipment that's not a full playground not not only not inclusive full playground but even a full playground it could be a standalone piece of equipment like a climber with a surfacing and what we've said is as we

[00:46:57] go through and through our lifecycle management the CIP and the CAP build inclusive playgrounds on elementary school sites as those individual pieces of equipment that were built without built with outside funding reach end of life they will be removed by LCPS and then furthermore we added language on line 123 that states that any full playground or playground replacement that is managed that is outside of LCPS funding but managed by LCPS for example proffers or any other funding source it could be end of year funding what have

[00:47:36] you would be an inclusive playground we would not install pieces of equipment that don't have accessibility and the surfacing the port in place hard surfacing for children and mobility devices and then I'd love to hear your feedback and questions here today and then this will be posted on the LCPS white website for community input and distributed to the school board advisory committees I've always I've already begun conversation with SEAC and plan to meet with them and work with them on this as they have some good ideas and suggestions and then once that information is collected and edits

[00:48:12] are um are vetted we'll bring that back to you guys for your all's consideration so this item would remain in as an information item in a future meeting um it actually goes out to the community for a set period of time we review those edits and then bring them back typically it has come back as an action item and then i will highlight all of the edits that staff and the advisory committees or the community suggested if there are changes to be recommended and then let you all hear that then but we could have that conversation at that later date.

[00:48:45] - Sure. I mean, that's the reason I asked. I guess you would come back with recommendations. - Yes, sir. - And then we would see those comments. Yeah, I guess we could talk about potentially keeping it as an information item for members.

[00:49:02] Is there any feedback that you wanna add? - Yes, I know that's shocking. Okay, so I was looking at, there's been a lot of things in newspapers and about playgrounds, particularly because of the asphalt and getting super hot and no shade.

[00:49:27] And I'm wondering, I was looking at the VDOE, what is this? Guidelines for School Facilities in Virginia's Public Schools from 2021. And it says here, playgrounds, okay, so consider providing play areas for non-structured play by means of landscaping, and it's desirable to have a fence surrounding all play areas for security as well.

[00:49:57] So I'm just wondering, do we even think about landscaping around for green or for trees or for shade or any kind of shade at all? Because it can get really hot out there when we're looking at playgrounds. So we do not have a shade structure incorporated into our LSPS standard for the entire playground to include and cover the entire playground.

[00:50:19] There are climbing pieces and pieces of equipment that have hoods over them, the roof that you will see that offers some shade on some of the equipment, but we do not have a current standard to shade a particular square footage of space on a playground or otherwise green play area.

[00:50:39] I didn't mean like above the whole thing. I just meant like to the sides where the kids could also have unstructured play in the green area Because what they're finding now is that the temperatures are rising up and really hot in the asphalt. And so I was thinking, okay, well, while we're doing this and thinking about it, maybe we could have an eye towards looking at shade as well and green spaces, you know, and, you know, trees or something.

[00:51:06] I know that's more expensive and that's hot pie in the sky. But I think if around the country they're seeing problems with it, we might as well try and look at something. as well as it looks like, according to LI, there's an administrative code here.

[00:51:30] A shady area shall be provided on playgrounds during the months of June, July, and August. I don't know if that necessarily works for schools or if that's just normal, like, county playgrounds, but there is a code, and if I will try and get it here.

[00:51:58] It's 8VAC-20-780-330 play areas, and that's where it says that a shady area shall be provided on playgrounds during the months of June, July, and August, and we are open in June.

[00:52:19] So just something to think about while we're doing this. Thank you. We'll look into that. We'll see how that could potentially be incorporated. I'll just say that this policy and then the regulation that would provide our operational guidance for the specificity of the playground standard would be specific to the play pad, the playground itself.

[00:52:41] But we can look at like if we need to expand that out beyond that and offer shade elsewhere. And the playgrounds with the port in place is on a subsurfacing, but it's not on asphalt. So the asphalt area that you're referencing that would be hot would be more like our kindergarten play areas.

[00:52:58] That is typically asphalt unless it's been resurfaced with the port in place surface. I'll send you that article that I found. Sure, thank you. Or that I do all sorts of research, sorry. Also, so regulations.

[00:53:16] So what I would like at some point is to come up with a cost of a baseline of what an inclusive playground would be. know you guys have done it before but so that we can plug it in if we have end-of-year funds or if we have something so that we know so that we're not stuck in that oh my gosh we don't have anything and we want that playgrounds and you know to be able to have the freedom to do something like that outstanding and we've done that and that will be available to you and presented in the cip process and then if we have play we will have playgrounds queued up based on our evaluation of next

[00:53:54] replacements in case there should be end-of-year funding or something we'll be ready this year to select those from the list if you so desire I also know that we have some children who are in wheelchairs some who are able to who are more mobile in wheelchairs than others and I don't know how quickly we can get some of those playgrounds more accessible for them I've been getting a of emails from a certain family and but i that doesn't have it and they have like four or five

[00:54:32] more years at that school so i don't know how we decide what playgrounds go first or second so we have a criteria it's basically age and condition based and there are some other tie break factors we had not taken into consideration specific programs because programs do move and we do have 20 or so schools with children in mobility devices currently so it's it's challenging to try to select those over others that are in need of replacement through our life cycle management but we can definitely we have that information available to you and for you and we can share that

[00:55:11] and and look at it from a different lens um if you if there's alternative ideas but we have developed a criteria for life cycle replacement and the regulations or the that is actually part of the cip presentation that will be presented to you through the cip process because the life cycle management as well as a cip project to get ahead and do some extra playgrounds is all part of the cip presentation coming up this fall include including a priority stacked order for out years and on so whereas in previous years we've selected those through our annual playground inspections

[00:55:49] and then delivered them to you that fiscal for that cip we have done so now out years so you can look at the stacking and see the order and what schools are coming as well as the school so that they can prepare and understand where they are in the queue and then if things get funded ahead through like proffers or outside funding it would only escalate those those schools and this also includes like the PTA supplied playgrounds not just us in some capacity it would have to be an entire playground replacement which is 300 350 thousand dollars so also often times the PTOs PTAs and outside funded organizations will provide a piece of

[00:56:29] play equipment which we are now requiring to have the port in place servicing and accessibility but if they don't do the entire playground it wouldn't take that school off the list and proper funds we are doing full playgrounds to our standard any other comments or discussion yes and forgive me if I missed it I did sit down with mr. Lewis and went over CIP funds was there a list of all the was that provided already a list of all the playgrounds that are coming up for you know to be renovated or fixed no that

[00:57:05] entire list that was not compiled most likely at that point in time okay in the works in previous years we had given you the year the next year's selected schools that would be done so you were about a year in advance we'll be able to give you six twelve years out now so we'll be getting that yes through the CIP process thank you the other discussion seeing none will now adjourn this October 1st meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee. Thank you very much.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com