Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Specialized Programs & Centers Committee Meeting, Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 46m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1026754586?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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

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[00:00:02] - All right, good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call this November 5th meeting of the Specialized Programs and Centers Committee to order. My name is Dr. Samara Rasheed, and I'm the chair of this committee. Well, we appreciate your presence today. Thank you all for coming.

[00:00:18] The purpose of today's meeting is to review and approve minutes from our last meeting and to look at the Academy of Global Linguistic Studies update, to also look at the special programs admission data, accreditation and student achievement report for both charter schools and the review of policy 5150 which is adult education before we proceed we value public input and if there's anyone from the public who wishes to address the committee go ahead and fill out a speaker card at the table and since well

[00:00:51] we really don't have anyone that is signed up for a public comment so we'll move on to the first item, if we may, and that is to approve the minutes from our last meeting. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes? And are there any corrections or additions? Okay. So since there's no objections or corrections, I entertain a motion to approve the minutes from October 1st. Great. Okay. And then I second. Yeah, I second. All those. Yeah, someone's got to do

[00:01:25] it. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. And the minutes are approved from October 1st. But now we will move on to review our agenda, which we kind of already did. Is there any adjustments or additions to the agenda? And if so, please raise your hand and state your proposed change. None? Being that there's none, let's move on to our agenda items. And the first item is Academy of Global Linguistic Studies update. I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Slevin to present.

[00:01:59] Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. This agenda item was scheduled to be presented at our last special programs meeting but was moved to this meeting due to time i would like to turn it over to miss katie clark to kick us off the purpose of this agenda item is to provide an overview of a recent proposal for a special program that has been included in our special program status chart it doesn't mean that the program is pending it's more of an idea that's been put on the table for consideration as we plan for expansion of special programs in the future thank you mr

[00:02:36] Slevin. Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing us some time to give an update on this proposal for the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies. Here with me today, I have Danielle Graham, Supervisor of Social Science and Global Studies, and I also have here with us today Kelly James, Supervisor of World Languages and Cultures, and they are going to help with our presentation this afternoon. Thank you, Ms. Clark. So the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies will provide an opportunity for students to become global minded problem solvers. We know the world has become an increasingly connected and increasingly complicated place and so this will be done through meaningful

[00:03:16] engagement in the sphere of international relations and high need languages to tackle current and future global challenges within an academic framework. The program will offer two career focused pathways each paired with a language with a potential for expansion to additional languages. The first pathway would be global leadership with an Arabic partial immersion and the second would be a global business pathway with a Chinese partial immersion.

[00:03:44] Both of these pathways will focus on language proficiency, cultural competence, global problem-solving skills, and academic excellence. Our proposal is that the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies would be housed at one host site.

[00:04:03] That's a correction from what's presented, which states two. All right, now we'd like to share the program rationale. The first thing that we wanted to point out is our unique opportunity with the proximity to Washington, D.C., which would allow students to engage with embassies, government agencies, and global businesses, providing unique learning experiences.

[00:04:27] This program is not like any of the other programs that we currently offer in LCPS. And one thing that really sets this program apart, we did a lot of research and kind of looking, planning what we wanted to propose, is the career preparation. Really, this academy is focusing on diverse careers in government, international organizations, journalism, consulting, business education, community development, and human rights work.

[00:04:53] And we're looking at options for students that are both attending four-year universities, but also some career-ready options so that students in the pathways could go directly into their fields. So pairing with that career preparation is that both Chinese and Arabic have been identified in their national security languages.

[00:05:10] So there's a high need for speakers of these languages in the current workplace. So the goal really is to empower students to become global citizens, effective problem solvers by providing immersive educational experiences in international relations, multilingual proficiency, cultural understanding, and technological adeptness to address some of the contemporary global challenges.

[00:05:42] There's also the focus on the following objectives of language proficiency, cultural competence, global problem-solving skills, and academic excellence. Here is a potential timeline with this year being if it is a priority of the board and a budget item for this year, then we could hire a coordinator, select a school, with the 25-26 being a planning year where we would plan out the additional necessary steps for the program along with recruitment and enrollment and staff hiring and training.

[00:06:19] The 26-27 year would be year one implementation with ninth grade students enrolled and there would be 100 ninth graders at each site. Here in this case, just one site. In the 27-28 year two implementation, we would add in the ninth and 10th graders, which would bring our program enrollment to 200 students, 109th and 10th, and we would continue to build that program through 12th grade.

[00:06:48] So just to show our program capacity, again, this would be grades 9th through 12th once it is fully implemented with a total program enrollment of 400 students. And it was already mentioned, but there would be two pathways.

[00:07:04] Pathway one would be global leadership with 50 students per grade level, and the second pathway would be that global business, again, with 50 students per grade level. Here's an estimated budget for the one school location.

[00:07:20] you'll see it with years to full implementation would be five years with that one year of planning the student enrollment again would be 400 the total cost would be approximately 2.68 million over time and then the total FTEs would be five it would be one coordinator position along with four FTEs for the language courses I also want to turn it over to Mrs. James about a potential grant opportunity so there we're exploring um both state and federal grants there are a lot of grants available especially with the national security languages um so we're exploring some of

[00:07:59] those opportunities to support this program can you talk a little bit more about what you mean by national security languages yes so um as i shared the national security languages there are grants of the that are high need in today's workforce especially in government work so there are grants available to support the education of high school students in those critical needs languages so here is a sample schedule so when we say partial

[00:08:37] immersion at the high school setting that is because they have a double block so with an A day and B day blocks one through four meaning that they would have Arabic every day so about 25% of their school day would be learning the target language additionally one unique aspect of this program is the opportunity to collaborate across content areas so because it is a cohort of students collaborating with the English content area so that they can read works of literature that were written from authors who lived in Arabic speaking countries but in English to help develop that understanding

[00:09:15] and competency for the language and the culture so that would expand into 10th grade where they would start taking so in ninth and tenth grade they're starting to take AP courses and one of the goals with this program as well as to partner with higher education institutions so that they can earn college credit throughout the program that's both in international relations

[00:09:52] and the language so in 11th grade is where those higher level social science courses kick in we have a lot of requirements for graduation in social science so it really falls into the elective so we're looking at dual enrollment international relations on the global leadership side and dual enrollment economics and entrepreneurship on the global business side because dual enrollment economics also fulfills that economics graduation requirement that is where we could look to put in a certification of some sort in technology which would add in some of that career readiness dimension and then

[00:10:31] again 12th grade would be the second part of those dual enrollment courses and then again senior year one of the goals with this program is also that students would earn both the civics seal that's awarded by the Virginia Department of Education as well as the seal of by literacy which is another seal from the video II that goes on their diploma to show that they are by letter in both English and a language other than English and another Another added benefit would be that the coordinator could support the expansion of the Loudoun International Summit.

[00:11:07] Currently, six schools participate in our summit. Last year was the first year we came back in person since the pandemic. And so the coordinator could both help serve as a host site and some of the coordination of the activities. Additionally, the students throughout the year are participating in activities that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

[00:11:25] So that's another thing that occurs during the week of the summit. And so we thought this is a great opportunity to level up the summit in Loudoun. So that concludes our presentation. I do just want to say thanks to Kelly and Danielle. They put a lot of thought and effort into this proposal and visited some other schools and other states just to see what these types of programs look like.

[00:11:50] But that concludes our presentation. We'd be happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you for that amazing presentation. I'm just going to open the floor for discussion. Members of the committee, do you have any questions or comments? I'm Carrie LaBelle, and I'm on the board, and one of the questions that I have, first of all, is about your Arabic.

[00:12:13] Are you teaching straight Arabic, or are you going to look at any of the dialects, like Urdu or something like that? What's the plan for that? We would be teaching modern standard Arabic. Standard Arabic. Yes. That's used in diplomatic circles? That's correct. Okay. You talk about immersion.

[00:12:32] As a former language student, I know one of the reasons I went to the university I went to was they had a semester of immersion in the foreign country once you approved your facility with the language. Are we planning that for any of our students, or is it just immersion in the businesses, or what do you mean by immersion?

[00:12:54] So I'll let Ms. James address the immersion in the educational context, but we also are planning senior year for the students to have a couple-week immersive trip in a location that has the target language. So we're exploring what those options are on the Chinese and Arabic side that would fit all of our procurement and all of those pieces.

[00:13:16] But as far as an immersion, they would start with a double block, so they would make four years of growth in the language and two, and then they would be able to do higher level in their junior and senior year.

[00:13:32] I noticed that you had Arabic 5 and Arabic 6, so that's what I figured out. My next question is, at what point would they become part of the immersion program?

[00:13:53] Would that be just 11th and 12th grade? so that would begin their freshman year and it would be beginning their freshman year on day one okay again it would be a in a way that is comprehensible to them so that they feel like they are understanding and making progress they're not we're not throwing them into complete speaking at the pace that you and I are talking right now in Arabic or Chinese because that's not going to set them up for success there will be a lot of training for our teachers to make sure that that environment is supportive and conducive to student learning that would involve a lot of vocabulary memorization and

[00:14:33] manipulation of verbs phrases etc so that's why I was asking yes it's a lot of repetition of key vocabulary but used in context okay thank you thank you Miss LaBelle I just had one question in this program you know we're talking about enrollment but for enrollment what would be the criteria for like students to enter something like this or is there like would it be for example any specific grade GPA is just some of the specifics or maybe you already mentioned it and I

[00:15:10] missed it no we didn't mention it right now I think we have it set up in the proposal to be a lottery system going into ninth grade but we'll still have lots of discussion between now and when we would start up this program and advertise it to the community yes Miss LaBelle would you be accepting students into this program that were also semi-proficient in the language in other words they had a background that came from Saudi Arabia or any of the Middle Eastern countries would they be part of this as well

[00:15:44] they could because there's also the element of reading and writing and a lot of students who may be speak the language at home or understand it but they have limited speaking proficiency or they are struggling to read and write it and that is a focus in this program okay thank you yeah I think this is gonna be a great program especially taking advantage of what you had mentioned the beginning of the slides that we're close to DC and this will help utilize and take advantage as to where we are thank you so much yeah job placement to job placement absolutely all right so any final thoughts or comments on this

[00:16:20] agenda item so we'll move on to the next agenda item which is special programs admission data I will turn it over to mr. seven to present thank you Dr. Rasheed. Again, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Katie Clark to take us through this presentation. I do want to acknowledge that this presentation is meant to provide an overview of all of our admissions data across special programs, including those at the Academies

[00:16:52] of Loudoun. It is very heavy in terms of data, and so know that if the committee does have an interest in us coming back to go a little bit deeper on a particular program, we're happy to do so and so knowing how much information is in board docs i just want to acknowledge that ahead of time but ms clark's going to do a great job walking us through the presentation oh and dr tyler's joined us we couldn't have done this without our partnership with the research office and so we appreciate the support from dr tyler and his team as we go through this presentation

[00:17:27] all right here's our agenda for this presentation we're going to review lcps reference data admissions criteria and process for each program 24 25 admissions data outreach efforts and next steps before I get started this afternoon I know mr. Slevin just recognized some of the people but I would like to recognize that we have many program owners and coordinators with us this afternoon and these programs and opportunities would not be possible without their hard work and dedication

[00:18:04] Also, again, we'd like to just give a shout out to Dr. Tyler, Dr. Blakelock, and their team for support in providing the data for us this afternoon. So we thought it would be helpful to provide you with reference data as we discuss specific special programs throughout this presentation.

[00:18:23] This first set of data is a snapshot of the current LCPS ninth grade class based on data from the LCPS dashboard as of October 28th. Most of the program data we will discuss today pertains to the 9th grade cohort.

[00:18:39] This next slide offers a snapshot of all currently enrolled LCPS students, again using data from the dashboard as of October 28th. Our 9th grade class notably reflects the overall student population in LCPS.

[00:18:55] Next we'll delve into each program, discussing the admissions criteria and process, followed by a demographic breakdown of applicants, offers, and acceptances. The full packet of data is available as an attachment in the board documents.

[00:19:10] This afternoon we'll start by discussing the three educational programs that comprise the Academies of Loudoun. We'll share admissions data for the Academy of Engineering and Technology, AET, the Academy of Science, AOS, and the Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, MATA.

[00:19:29] So we'll start with AET and AOS. To be eligible for admission for both of those programs, students must be enrolled in Algebra I or higher at the time of application. writing assessment and STEM thinking skills assessment and have final grades of C or above in math and science courses from grades 6 and 7 as well as the first semester of grade 8. So here is our AET data for eligible students who applied. We had 1,971 students apply for this program which is a slight decrease since last year. It is important to note that we have more special programs

[00:20:04] available to students than in prior years which could have impacted these numbers we saw an increase in asian applicants and a decrease in black and hispanic applicants from 23 to 24. we saw a large number of male students apply relative to female students here is our aet offered data we had 217 students who were offered admissions we saw a continued increase in the number of asian students offered admission to the program and a decrease in the

[00:20:39] number of black and Hispanic students offered admission when compared to the 2023 cohort. We also saw an increasingly larger number of male students being offered admission relative to female students. And lastly, here is our AET accepted data. We have 159th graders who accepted admission to AET for the 23-24 school year. Male students represented 64% of the accepted students in AET. Representation numbers for admitted students in AET generally paralleled to the

[00:21:14] numbers for offered students described in the previous slide. We do note that the percentage of economically disadvantaged students admitted to the program increased significantly both over time and when compared to last year. Now we'll move on to AOS. Here is our applied data for AOS.

[00:21:35] We had 1,671 students apply for this program, which is lower than the previous year. We saw a slight increase in Asian applicants and a slight decrease in black and Hispanic applicants from 23 to 24 we also saw an increase of English link English learner applicants and a decrease in the number of students who applied that are economically disadvantaged next is our AOS offered data we had 277 students who were offered admissions we saw a continued increase in the number of Asian students offered admission to the program and a decrease in the number of black Hispanic and white students offered

[00:22:14] admission when compared to the 2023 cohort. We also saw an increasingly large number of male students being offered admission relative to female students that applied. And lastly, here is our AOS accepted data.

[00:22:30] We have 150 ninth graders who accepted admissions to AOS. Representation numbers for admitted students in AOS generally paralleled to the numbers for offered students described in the previous slide. We do note that the number of alternative programs might have impacted the number of offers made all programs, since many students have multiple options to select from. Now we'll move into our MATA admissions criteria. To be eligible for MATA admissions, students had to submit a personal resume with their full name, LCPS student ID, and relevant experiences or interests related to the chosen pathways. They also

[00:23:10] had to provide a career goal statement, be enrolled in Algebra 1 or higher, math course at the time of application, and submit their PSAT scores. I do want to highlight that the admissions criteria has been updated for the 24/25 admission cycle which applies to enrollment for the 25/26 school year here is our MATA applied data we have 2000 we had 2239 students who applied for admissions for our MATA pathways which are available to 10th 11th and 12th graders this application data generally aligns to our overall LCPS student population here is

[00:23:50] our MATA offered data we had 1041 students offered admissions during the emission cycle. You will notice that our percentage of offered Asian students has increased over the past six years, while the percentage of Hispanic and white students has decreased. Also note that over time we have seen a decrease in students with disabilities and English learners being offered admission in MATA. Here we have our MATA accepted data. We had 836 students who accepted admissions in one of the MATA pathways for the 23-24 school year. I'm sorry, 24-25

[00:24:28] school year. We note that the male and female representation is approximately equal in the MATA pathways. Now let's move on to discuss the next program our Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps known as NJROTC. Loudoun County High School offers the NJROTC program which is open to rising ninth grade students from public private and homeschool. Out of zone students are selected through an admissions committee and interview process which includes a writing prompt, two recommendation letters, and parent approval. All students

[00:25:06] zoned for Loudoun County have access to this program. Here is our NJROTC applied data. We had a total of 42 out-of-zone applicants for the 25 available seats. Next you'll see our NJROTC accepted data. We had a total of 19 out-of-zone students who accepted their seat in the NJROTC program, which is less than our current allotted number of seats for out-of-zone students. Male students make up the majority of interested and enrolled students for out of zone suggesting the program

[00:25:43] may be more appealing to male students compared to our overall lcps student population data asian and hispanic participation is underrepresented while white participation is overrepresented next we'll explore the international baccalaureate ib program this globally recognized program is designed to develop knowledgeable and caring young people the ib program is available at heritage and Loudoun Valley High Schools. Rising ninth grade students from public, private, and homeschool

[00:26:18] can apply with out-of-zone students selected through a random lottery. All zoned students at Heritage and Valley have access to the program which requires a four-year commitment making out-of-zone students full-time attendees at their respective schools. I do want to note that assignments to IB schools is based on zoned high school and no school selection is permitted.

[00:26:40] Meaning, if you are zoned to Stonebridge High School, your assigned IB school is Loudoun Valley. Or if you are assigned to Rockridge High School, your assigned IB school would be Heritage High School. So here is our IB applied data.

[00:26:56] This data shows that we had 500 total students interested in the IB program across the two schools. So can you clarify, these are 500 out-of-zone students or 500, this does not include the students at the base school?

[00:27:15] Great question. Yes, this is 500 out-of-zone students. the in-zone students have access to the program by virtue of attending. So here is our offered data. You can see here that we had 493 students who were offered admission out of the 500.

[00:27:32] The other seven students either withdrew or moved prior to admissions. Here is our IB enrolled data. All out-of-zone students who expressed interest in attending an IB school were given the opportunity to enroll.

[00:27:47] We currently have 76 out-of-zone students attending 9th grade between the two schools, Valley and Heritage. Despite receiving high interest with over 500 applicants, the IB program at both schools faces a high number of declines, which makes us wonder if students are reluctant to change schools.

[00:28:08] This may speak to a community interest in expanding the IB program to additional high schools to provide closer access to students' homes, making it more convenient and appealing for them to participate. It is important to highlight how the program appears to provide balanced opportunities across demographics, with particular attention to how minority groups and economically disadvantaged students are represented in final acceptances.

[00:28:32] Now we'll transition to discussing our Health and Medical Sciences Academy. This program is designed to prepare students for careers in the healthcare field through rigorous coursework and hands-on experiences. The Health and Medical Science Academy is hosted at both Briar Woods High School and Tuscarora High School.

[00:28:55] Rising 9th grade students from public, private, and homeschool backgrounds are eligible to apply. There are 150 seats available with 75 seats per school site. Each site offered 50 seats for Biomedical Science Pathway and 25 seats for the Biomedical Science and the Language of Medicine Pathway.

[00:29:13] This program requires a four-year commitment, and out-of-zone students who are accepted will become full-time students at either Briarwoods or Tuscarora. Similar to IB, assignments to HamSci schools is based on zone high school, and no school selection is permitted.

[00:29:31] So here is our data for applied applicants for HamSci. We had a total of 758 applicants across the two schools. It is important to note that out of the 758 applicants, 579 of them were students that were zoned to schools that were assigned to feed Briarwoods High School for the HAMSci program.

[00:29:56] Next, we have our HAMSci offered data. Throughout the enrollment process, 354 students were offered admission to the HAMSci program. Lastly, here is our HAMSci accepted data.

[00:30:12] You will note that our demographic split is very different at our two schools. The zone schools attending Briarwoods High School have a much higher percentage of Asian students than those zoned to attend Tuscarora, which skews the data significantly. To the same point, the zone schools attending Tuscarora have a much higher percentage of white students than those zoned to attend Briarwoods, which also skews the data.

[00:30:38] As you recall, selection of feeder schools for the HAMSci program was made primarily on the basis of transportation efficiency. Female students, as you can see here, make up the majority of interested and enrolled students, suggesting that the program may be more appealing to female students, though there is no selection bias due to the lottery.

[00:30:59] And then lastly, the key takeaway is the lottery system enables a broad and diverse pool of students to participate with representation and offers and acceptances closely mirroring initial applications. This process highlights patterns of interest among different demographic groups, but does not favor or disadvantage any group based on selection criteria.

[00:31:24] Now we'll transition to discussing our elementary special program, the Dual Language Immersion Program. program. This innovative program aims to develop bilingualism and biliteracy in students from an early age. Dual language immersion program is offered at two schools, Potomac and Sanders Corner Elementary Schools. LCPS provides a 50/50 two-way immersion model starting in kindergarten and it goes through fifth grade, where students spend half the day learning in Spanish and the other half of the day in English. Due to limited seats, a lottery

[00:32:01] is held for those who complete the DLI lottery registration form before the deadline with a wait list established. Each grade level has 50 seats per school divided equally between in-boundary and out-of-boundary students and both Spanish and English or other language speakers to the extent possible. So here is our DLI kindergarten applied students. We had 427 interested kindergarten applicants this year, you will notice a slightly higher number of applicants for Sanders Corner.

[00:32:37] I do want to point out that they are able to select which school, unlike IB and Hamside. Here is our DLI kindergarten offered data. We offered 179 students admission throughout the enrollment process. It is important to note that we continue to enroll students in this program throughout the school year if a seat becomes available. If a student moves, we do quickly try to fill that seat throughout the year. Here is our kindergarten DLI accepted data.

[00:33:16] Kindergarten program was at full capacity with 100 students, 50 in each program cohort. This year, we now have 200 total students enrolled in this program across the two schools in both kindergarten and first grade. Since this is a Spanish language program, you will notice that 57% of our students admitted in kindergarten are Hispanic. And also regarding the other demographic areas, we note that most of the categories generally track with the overall LCPS student population with the exception of our Asian student population. Next we'll

[00:33:53] discuss our outreach efforts for special programs. We'll highlight the strategies we've implemented to raise awareness and engage with the community ensuring that all students and families are informed about the opportunities available. At the elementary school we have developed a special programs one pager and have worked with the counseling office to support upcoming lessons to inform and engage our elementary school students at the middle school we for sixth graders this year we will be holding resource visits to introduce them to available programs our seventh graders will participate in counselor lessons to

[00:34:29] further their understanding of special programs as part of the new course planner and then additionally we held middle school assembly visits during the month of September where we went out to all 17 middle schools that have an 8th grade class and did an assembly where we shared all the opportunities that are available as they enter high school for high school high school students benefit from advisory lessons school visits and tours to explore both advanced AET and MATA programs and then lastly some countywide efforts are we hosted our

[00:35:05] secondary special programs fair that we started last year to showcase different programs across the county we had a student panel and breakout rooms for families to gain deeper insights to the opportunities we have available to our students as they enter high school we held two nights this year last year we only held one we held one at Heritage and one at Parkview and we had an amazing turnout to those events we also organize individual program information nights to provide detailed information to interested students and families presentations are made to various LCPS committees including we're doing GIAC

[00:35:43] this Thursday, we have SEAC tomorrow night, we've already attended LEAF, we'll be attending MSAC, we'll be at the EL FACE family event, and also PEP meetings as well. And we do that to align efforts and share updates about these programs.

[00:35:59] Finally, we ensure that all special programs follow aligned admission timelines to streamline the application process. Next, we'll outline the upcoming steps and open the floor for discussion regarding our special programs. This will ensure we continue to improve and expand our special programs to better serve our students and community so we are excited to share several proposed improvements to our admissions process firstly we will be reviewing and revising the standard operating procedures for each program admission process to ensure

[00:36:35] efficiency and clarity in terms of outreach we plan to continue and introduce new initiatives this includes elementary outreach we've noticed over time that by the time they get to middle school for some of these programs it's almost too late so we're gonna start really trying to get out and do some outreach efforts at the elementary school also creating videos for our programs like virtual tours to assist with course planning we can actually upload those into school links so families and students can kind of have a virtual tour of these programs and then additionally we aim to explore more

[00:37:11] targeted outreach and support for groups that are currently underrepresented in our applications and acceptance rates so now we would like to open the floor for discussion and feedback regarding the data and information shared this afternoon your insights and suggestions are invaluable as we strive to enhance our admission process any questions or comments yes Ms. LaBelle just quickly I noticed that the IB program they are not a lot of choice of schools they just go to the one that is regionally associated with their home base

[00:37:48] but in I'm sorry in the dual language program at the elementary school they're allowed to choose a school why is that I can explain that so at the high school we provide transportation for our students so that is why we have feeder schools that feed at the elementary school for DLI parents have to provide their transportation and therefore granted that option of which school fits better for them to transport. Thank you so much for that awesome presentation and

[00:38:25] giving so much so much information all-in-one I know that we're pressed for time. I think I mentioned this before it is my hope to increase the the diversity in the AAT and the AOS programs especially in the admission cycle. Thank you so much. So we can now move on to the next agenda item which is accreditation and student achievement report for both charter schools and I'll turn it over to

[00:39:02] Ms. Lehman thank you very much good afternoon Dr. Rasheed Ms. LaBelle it is the time for our annual report on charter school academic progress and so as I will share what I wrote in the summary but also attached you will find the actual Virginia Department of Education report for each of the charter schools we received this for all of our schools but this is specific to this committee the two charter schools so Hillsboro Charter Academy which is the first attachment is at a level one for all academic areas for both the current year as well as a three-year average this is great news one area to be aware of is the area of students with disabilities although the student group

[00:39:40] is too small you'll notice on the chart to count it's less than 50 for the current year it is trending down and could be an issue for the three-year average if the trend continues so that's something that we will keep an eye on in subsequent years Middleburg Community Charter School is also at a level one for all academic areas, both for the current year, and a level two for students with disabilities for the three-year average, trending in a positive direction.

[00:40:04] So another year of positive trends, they should be at a level one. It should be noted that MCCS had concerns in the area of science last year, and the percent of students scoring at or above proficiency increased this year from 58% to 78%, going from a level three to a level one.

[00:40:24] area for MCCS to be aware of is that of chronic absenteeism it is a level 2 for the three-year average but a level 3 going from 18 to 25 percent for the current year so an additional year of high chronic absenteeism would be a concern so we will continue to monitor the progress of both charter schools and we'll give you an annual update any questions thank you thank you miss Lehman any final thoughts or comments on this agenda item okay right there's no

[00:41:02] comments we'll move on to the next and final agenda item which is review of policy 5150 and I will turn it over to mr. Michael Grubbs thank you thank you Dr. Rashid good evening Miss LaBelle before I get started I'd like to introduce our supervisor for adult education Miss Carolyn Solaris we're here to bring policy 5150 adult education and the revisions that have been made before I begin there's really just two revisions that we're bringing before you the first is removal of reference the lpn program that program

[00:41:39] closed last school year so we removed that and the other major revision was a reduction from 10 credits to 6 credits for the adult high school program very quick summary very minor changes we're here to answer any questions or additional follow-up that you have at this time Dr. Rasheed I would just note that the reason we're bringing this policy is that it's up for its five-year review. And so it's due for a review by staff and adoption by the board. Thank you, Mr. Grubbs, for presenting that. And thank you, Mr. Seidman, for that context. I'll open up the floor for any

[00:42:13] questions or comments. I had some. And just out of curiosity, I was just wondering if there's any financial assistance that's offered for adults, if you know of any, if they can't really pay for this type of education. I think there's a little portion that mentions something about fee that is charged as tuition?

[00:42:36] Sure, great question. The program provides reduced-cost courses and offers payment plans as well for our students who have financial burdens. Students may also be referred to the WIOA program, which is the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act at the Loudoun County Resource Workforce Centers.

[00:42:52] If they qualify and participate in the WIOA program, they will receive funding for training, which includes the ABE and GED courses. Anything else that you want to add? Thank you so much, Mr. Grubbs. I have a couple more. Does this tuition increase yearly or periodically, and if so, what determines it, if anything?

[00:43:12] First, it's my understanding it hasn't increased in nine years. The program is also federally funded, and there's been no need to raise tuition costs. And then also there's a segment that talks about assessment, whereby I believe the student is assessed to see where they place.

[00:43:32] I was wondering, how is the assessment provided, and what determines the way that assessment is delivered? - Sure, so we work with the students based on their needs. They are provided both orally and in writing, and then the program uses VDOE approved assessments for working with our students.

[00:43:49] - Fair enough, okay. And what if the student, hence, is now having a difficult time passing the class that they're taking? - Sure, great question. Just like in a normal classroom, we try to differentiate our instruction. The courses are designed to prepare adults to advance their higher academic level learning.

[00:44:07] So we work with the students on passing their exams of the workforce. We provide various tools such as flashcards, textbooks, and additional resources to make sure that we're overcoming any barriers to the learning that help them in areas that they need to improve. Okay, very good, awesome. And are any of these sessions, like, because I'm assuming there's some adults that are working or have child care of some sort that can hinder their physical presence at a class, are any of these classes offered virtually? Sure, so we have some that are offered virtually so they're both in person and online and that mode is either synchronous or asynchronous depending on the course so we could

[00:44:43] expand upon that if you'd like I think mr. Slevin so if there's no additional input from the board at this time staff will proceed to send this out for public comment we'll make appropriate revisions based on any public comment that we receive and we'll bring it back to the December meeting for action if there's no objections very straightforward thank you mr. Grubbs thank

[00:45:18] you thank you mr. seven all right and since there's no other final thoughts or comments on this agenda item I will now move on to the date for our next meeting which is December 3rd at 3:30 p.m. you can take out those calendars and mark I know you guys are so excited for that so go ahead and mark your calendars for that and if there's and I was gonna ask if there's any further business to discuss and if there's no further business I entertain a motion a motion to adjourn uh all those in favor oh we're in motion yes miss labelle okay i second and all

[00:45:55] those in favor yeah yeah you're not close enough it's okay all those in favor of adjourning say aye aye all right meeting is adjourned thanks for coming out

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