Coraggio Consulting Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting and SB Adopted FY2026-FY2031 CIP & CAPP Budgets, Tuesday, December 10, 2024 Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2024 Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV) Length: 5h 55m (video) Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1038173179?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 2026-10-18. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:07] Good afternoon. I call to order this December 10th, 2024, Loudoun County School Board meeting. At this time, we'll start with item two, disclosures, and at this time, we'll read our disclosures, and I'll start. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public 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. [00:00:37] 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. [00:00:55] 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. 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. [00:01:24] 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. [00:01:40] 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. We will move to Mrs. Griffiths. 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. [00:02:03] regarding the budget and our 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. [00:02:19] 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. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. 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 tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits [00:02:55] for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I'm 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 in the 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 vice chair Struffy miss LaBelle as a member of the loud and candy school board I make the following disclosure to the school board into the [00:03:31] 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 the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public [00:04:29] records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. Ms. Chernoff. 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 be included 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 the excess the statutory three employees whose interest 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 Chernoff and now we'll move on to agenda item 3 the approval of the consent agenda I have one change there was a mistake on the consent agenda during F&O mrs. Griffiths did not [00:05:05] vote to put an item to put item 3.07 on consent mrs. Byrne would you please move item 3.07 to action as 13.01 please are there any other changes seeing none I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda I have a motion by Vice Chair Streffi do I have a second I have a second by Ms. Chandler it's been properly moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda at this time we'll [00:05:43] take a vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with Ms. Donohue absent for the vote. We'll move on to item four, advisory committee update, career and technical education advisory committee update [00:06:13] presented by Dr. Grubbs, the director of the career technical and adult education. [00:06:55] Greetings Chair Mansfield, school board members, and Dr. Spence. Tonight we have our career technical and Adult Education Advisory Committee quarterly update. Before I begin, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Michael Grubbs. I'm the Director for Career, Technical, and Adult Education. I'm joined with my colleagues here tonight who are gonna go ahead and introduce themselves. [00:07:12] - Good evening, my name is Jennifer Alvers. I'm the Supervisor for Career and Technical Education. - Good evening, my name is Lisa Marie Horvatinovich and I'm a member of the Career and Technical Education Committee. - Before we begin, I just want to address the value of CTE. [00:07:29] The world of work is changing and if you're not paying attention to the news, there is significant increase on focus on career and technical education. There's a lot of opportunities for students beyond just entering the workforce, whether it's increased attendance rates or increased academic achievement. We're really pleased to share with you tonight some of the bright spots of CT and also opportunities for growth. [00:07:50] We encourage you to peruse some of the countless articles that are out there around growing CT and the demand for the workforce. One thing I want to share and just address in terms of misconceptions is CT is not that vocational model of the past. regardless of students' entry into the workforce, career and technical education is for all students. [00:08:10] Whether students are going to enlist, whether they're going to college, or whether they're going directly in the workforce, we really believe that career and technical education can prepare all of our students for whatever pathways come after high school. Now, let me add that in. [00:08:31] Okay, sorry, technical difficulties. So as a member of the CTE, our purpose and mission statement is noted on the right-hand side here. One of the things that resonates with me most is that we participate in the priorities and providing education in technical fields for our students of Loudoun County. [00:08:53] But as a member of CTE, what really drives us is we have representation from multiple industries and multiple disciplines to help really round out the experiences that we can provide to our students. [00:09:09] Thank you. One of probably our most successful events we want to highlight, and I want to thank the board members that could attend, is our LCPS Workforce Summit. In just a period of 60 short days, we lifted off the LCPS Workforce Summit back in October. [00:09:31] We had over 300 attendees from multiple industries in partnership with Loudon Economic Development, Offices of Special Education, and the Communications Office and School Business Partnership Committee. We're really pleased with the next steps. We're starting to analyze the data from that LCPS Workforce Summit. [00:09:48] That data is helping us think about programming that is currently in high schools and what our future expansion efforts look like. Some of the consensus from the LCPS Workforce Summit is to expand CT programming in all high schools in all regions of the county and also focus beyond CT programs to encourage employability and soft skills to be embedded throughout our curriculum. [00:10:11] In addition to the Workforce Summit, we hosted Job for a Day this year. This year, it was a phenomenal showing both on the student and partnership side. We doubled our participation for students and for our partners in the industry. [00:10:30] I want to note that in the top middle picture, I personally work for Northrop Grumman. And Dr. Debasis Basik, who is on the far left, is the chair of our CTE committee. He and I hosted about nine students that day. [00:10:45] we took them on tours of our facility we introduced them to an astronaut and they had a really intimate one-on-one feel with our our employees and our staff it was a really great showing they asked a lot of questions they were very engaged very polite well-mannered students and what else was I saying and yeah it was just a really great success and I had a brain freeze there for a minute but we had a really great success. In that picture there, you'll see that's a mock-up of our Cygnus mission. Cygnus is the cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station that Northrop [00:11:25] Grimman provides to our astronauts. So we take up supplies like toilet paper and books in addition to experiments and new science. So it was really engaging, really exciting to see the students' faces light up for Job for a Day. And if I could just add, I think one of the biggest changes this year for job for days that we had more students than ever in this own building we had probably 20 to 30 students from all kinds of high schools all over lcps working with our chief of staff in our division of teaching learning even in our own office and just to be here today that day and see our students walking this building learning more about education and administration which is [00:12:03] an amazing opportunity for these kiddos all right we are highlighting here a quick snapshot regarding industry credentials in a typical school year. [00:12:18] So you'll see here nearly 10,000 students attempt an industry credential. And since the 2021 school year, we've had almost 25,000 students take and pass their industry credential. [00:12:34] So that is the celebration. Continuing here, other celebrations for CTE students. We are recognizing students who have placed nationally with their CTSO in leadership conferences. [00:12:49] We know that CTSOs are unique in that they directly connect CTE classrooms with real-world applications through student-led activities, competitions, and networking opportunities, which ultimately allows our students to develop industry-specific skills, leadership abilities, and career pathways. [00:13:10] So these are just three examples here for you of our students across the county. On October 10th this year, the United States hosted a Quad Cyber Challenge event at the White House. [00:13:25] We were joined by officials from Australia, India, and Japan. The theme of this year's challenge was promoting cybersecurity education and building a strong workforce. We were invited, we had two teachers and six LCPS students, so Christina Oak and Jeremy Staples accompanied students to this event. [00:13:48] Students were actively engaged in participating and shaping the future of cybersecurity while gaining invaluable knowledge and experiences in this critical field. Right before the winter break, 200 middle school students from six middle schools bloomed. [00:14:11] BLOOM stands for Building Learning Opportunities and Operations in Medical Sciences. We did this in partnership with LEF, Claude Moore, Innova, and Loudon Fire and Rescue. Students had the opportunity to learn about careers in health care, and they had hands-on activities. [00:14:30] They engaged in CPR, they engaged in Stop the Bleed, they even got to get into an ambulance and press buttons. Beyond Loudoun County Public Schools, we're looking for opportunities to connect with our regional and surrounding counties and employers. [00:14:48] So one of the events that we're looking forward to, this is the third time that we're going to be participating, is instruction industry. This event will be held in partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools and Prince William County Public Schools on Tuesday, February 18th, and it's the third year that we're doing it, but the first year that's going to be in person. [00:15:04] This opportunity allows students to connect with more than 100 local industry professionals from in-demand career fields with a significant focus also on the trades and industry. We're looking to take several of our high schools and we're providing transportation support where is needed. All right. In November, with guidance from our CTE specialists, Arnaz Datavala and George Bishop, our CS supervisor, Nick Grazita, CTE teachers in 10 content areas came together for our first of four curriculum development days. [00:15:42] We were co-led with instructional facilitators and were supported by members of the Office of Special Education and Division of English Learners who have all committed to joining us at each of our remaining sessions this year. We are familiar with HAMSci, a few HAMSci happenings. [00:16:02] Students at Briarwoods and Tuscarora have been really busy in the class, in the lab, and at information nights sharing their why for participation in HAMSci and also the experience that they've had so far this year with other people, excuse me, other students who are interested in the application process. [00:16:24] Our HAMSci teachers have also been very busy along with our coordinator, Vandana Sharma. They have been engaged in animatage training and also planning our guest speaker series for the third and fourth quarter. [00:16:43] And it's only December. We have so much more to look forward to. So these are just a few of the events that are coming up. If there's anything there that catches your attention, you'd like more information or want to join us, please let us know. Thank you, Jen. [00:17:01] Just a few additional updates we want to bring to the board's attention. We are a new division, and I want to commend the board and Dr. Spence for creating this division and putting me at the helm of it. We are now fully staffed. We just hired our access coordinator and brought him on board four or five weeks ago. [00:17:18] In this new division, we've been able to increase program alignment for each of our 60-plus courses. That's unique that we did not have as an opportunity, meaning that every single one of our 60-plus CT courses has either a specialist, a supervisor, or a coordinator that has direct alignment and direct support for that instructional and curriculum need. [00:17:38] We're really excited with that partnership. It also extends to our MATA programs as well. I just want to call out some LCPS partnerships in the last five plus months. We have a very strong partnership with HRTD on our teacher cadet program. We've been meeting with them trying to reduce barriers for all students to enter the teaching and education field. [00:17:57] I also want to give a shout out since they gave me one a few weeks ago to SEAC. Very strong partnership with our SEAC community. They are on our CTAC and I am on their advisory council and we've been having a lot of conversations around supporting special populations and special education in all of our programs. [00:18:15] Also, we're making some strides to include our English Language Learner's Office and including them in our CTAC moving forward. And again, looking for more opportunities to include all students in our programming. CT is also, I think, a unique animal in the sense that we have equipment, we have maintenance, we have safety initiatives. [00:18:32] And I just wanna give a shout out to Facilities Communications and DDI for all the work that they do. We have so much beyond curriculum instruction that we have to manage and maintain. And without those two groups, we wouldn't be able to carry on the great work that we do and for the work that we're about to do in terms of expanding CTE across the county. [00:18:50] I just want to give a few additional updates. CTE is also not just regionally. It's state, local, national initiatives. And a lot of the work that we do is we want to make sure that we are adept in the changes that are coming nationally in terms of workforce development and career development. And so along those same lines, I want to give a shout out to Arnaz Datavala, who's just got accepted into the ACTE, Association for Career and Technical Education Leadership Fellowship Program. [00:19:17] This is a really prestigious opportunity, and I think her involvement is going to bring back a wealth of knowledge for our programs and our community. All right, got to share a few of our bright spots. I want to talk a little about opportunities for growth. Some opportunities for growth are program expansion throughout the county, which I'm going to talk about in my last slide. [00:19:39] We're looking for opportunities, which is aligned to the superintendent's post-entry plan for how do we consider access and opportunities to our programs throughout Loudoun County, regardless of your zip code. We're also looking for additional funding and support for the following initiatives. [00:19:55] Industry credentials are a major focus moving forward for the new state accreditation model, the 3D model. As Jen shared, we're doing a really nice job in terms of students getting credentials, but we have work to do in terms of making sure that those credentials are high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand. [00:20:14] We're also looking at updating equipment in existing labs. We're working on a refresh cycle for our middle schools and high schools. We started that this summer. And again, a lot of the work that we're doing is we're working on reviewing and supporting the new accreditation 3E model, which includes credentials, CTE, and very likely work-based learning. [00:20:35] Middle school and career investigation possibilities, re-envisioning those pathways, is going to be an area of focus for us in the spring. We're going to be leveraging middle school teachers, school counselors, and principals on how we can better prepare our middle school students to be more informed for our high school pathways. [00:20:52] Lastly, probably one that I'm most excited about is work-based learning resource teacher support for schools. The Workforce Summit would not have been a success without Christina Lee, our coordinator for work-based learning, but having just one individual in central office to manage the amount of opportunities for our students across the county is just an area that we have to focus on. [00:21:17] And in previous systems, in previous research, we have sometimes upwards of one work-based learning resource teacher per high school, and that's going to be an area that we look for scaling up and expanding in the future. May I jump in real quick? So I wanted to pull on Dr. Greb's second to last bullet of exploring CTE for middle and career investigations. [00:21:39] I'm part of the STEM outreach and diversity committee for my organization, which is a huge aerospace and defense company. And part of the data that we have is that we really need to reach students in the kindergarten through fifth grade age group to really engage them into STEM and career and technical type topics in order to see the rewards coming out of college, right? [00:22:08] I was one of three women that graduated a class of over 200 or 300 students from mechanical engineering. Those numbers continue to drop, right? Women in engineering continues to drop. We had a spike a few years ago, but now it's dropping again. And so really focusing on K through 5 and engaging K through 5, Showing them that science and technical fields can be fun and then perpetuating and enforcing and supporting that through middle and high school, I think is a really important aspect for the board to consider. [00:22:42] By high school, they kind of already have an idea of what they want or what they don't want. And so, you know, really getting them when they're young, I think is an important focus to add. Thank you, Lisa. Future considerations. [00:22:59] I just want to talk about some work that we're doing now and we're considering for the future. As a result of the feedback received from CTAC, considerations are being made related to the following items. I think this is also very much aligned to some early research we've done from our workforce summit in terms of the feedback and post-it notes and analysis of those findings. We want to evaluate current and existing practices and courses to ensure they are aligned with the superintendent's post-entry plan. That work has already started, but it's ongoing we want to identify barriers to access in courses and programs by various student groups [00:23:34] so we want to begin looking at our nine special populations as indicated by Perkins we also want to invest in staff support to streamline and support schools with curriculum instruction credentials and work-based learning so not everything is about expanding programs it's about making sure that the programs we do have are strong and sustainable so we want to make sure that we're not only investing in expanding, but we can maintain future expansion efforts and quality of programming. [00:24:01] We also want to increase workforce preparedness regardless of access to ECTE. I shared in a previous presentation that programs are important. Nothing can replace a teacher in the classroom, but we can't have an automotive program in every single high school. So what other opportunities do we have to increase students workforce preparedness? [00:24:20] There's things like internships, apprenticeships, dual enrollment, and there's some really unique programming beyond just facilities and programs within a brick and mortar building bless you and then lastly that really opens up to the work that we've been doing since i got here on day one with niels levin and the rest of my team is coming up with a five-year plan process this is something that i really believe strongly in my next slide just kind of teases out how we're going about that if you attended our workforce summit we had this included in our workbook but it's very important i think that as a community, we develop a lens and a framework for how we're going to expand. [00:24:59] We could discuss right now, we want to put aircraft maintenance in School X, but without a plan, we're really going to have some issues with making sure the programs are accessible to all. So some examples that I want to point out in the figure is if you look at the career clusters column, we have no career cluster representation in energy or ag or law of public safety corrections and security. So one of the things we're looking at first is how do we bring those programs and those clusters to LCPS? Another lens to look at five-year plan expansion is if we look at [00:25:36] business management and administration cluster. That program is pretty much everywhere with the exception of Eastern Loudoun. So one of the things that we need to focus on is do we prioritize having every single career cluster in LCPS? Do we focus on brand new innovative programs? [00:25:54] or do we focus on making sure that all of our students have some access to the exact same amount of program regardless of what high school we're in we don't have that answer today but that's how we're going about this five-year plan expansion so that we can think about something that's very sustainable and long term so our hope is that we work on this throughout the year and we come back to the board with some ideas for our five-year plan expansion on that note i'd like to open it up for Q&A. Thank you, Dr. Krebs. I'll just start real quick and then I'll ask the board [00:26:29] members. The links, there were some links on slide eight of credentials that were attempted and earned that aren't working anymore, but when they were, I noticed that there were some credentials where only half the students attempted made it. Is that some of the items that you'll be looking at in the future? Absolutely. I think just two weeks ago as a We started pulling down last year's data, started looking at across the county by school, and we're going to look at by student group. [00:26:59] A lot of that data also is just how we're recording that. Sometimes the teachers aren't recording it. So I think one is increasing participation, looking at pass rates, but also just our practices for recording the credentials. One example is cosmetology. [00:27:15] We did not report cosmetology. I know for a fact that our students passed that PSI exam. We just didn't report it in a previous year. So that's something we're absolutely looking at. Great question. Board members, any other questions? Mrs. Griffiths. [00:27:32] Thank you, Madam Chair. I had mentioned a possible new program. By the way, I love the presentation. I see you have a lot of the programs at the schools that are in green, I guess. [00:27:48] I had mentioned, I guess it would be the CAST folks from AOL. to do twice-a-year inspections. You and I, I think, talked about it just briefly on email, but it would have to be worked out with transportation. [00:28:08] But the idea of that is the kids in that program would inspect playgrounds, the overall runnings of the school, you know, HVAC units, chillers, plumbing, and also take note of any renovations that are needed so that's something to add to your plate right that's something else that I was hoping we can look at and it's not the you know we're gonna I'm gonna keep bringing it up because I just think it was such a great idea I was talking to somebody [00:28:43] that works with those kids over there and it would be great for them to go twice a year and do these inspections under someone that works for LCPS. They could work with staff and come up with solutions on how to fix things and renovate the schools. So I'm just putting it out there again that I really like that idea, and if that's something we can possibly do, I'd love to have more discussions about it. Thank you. Yes, thank you. I think we would love to have a follow-up conversation. I think there's some on-ramps to those types of things and working closely with facilities. But I think any exposure for students for authentic projects, we're on board to have [00:29:23] additional discussions on. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, Vice Chair Struffy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for the presentation, for being here. Just want to say thank you. I love the focus. I'll call out a few things that I noticed in the presentation. One is the focus on the CTE curriculum plus professional development. I think that's going to be so important as you map about kind of that five-year plan, and think about the direction and the vision for CTE, I think that that really being the focus is gonna be important. [00:29:53] Also, middle school CTE and career investigations, K through five, very much appreciate the comments there. I think it's super important that we engage people earlier in this process to really understand these pathways, whether they're alternative pathways or not, and this thread around workforce preparedness, regardless of CTE, and just trying to really understand what are the life skills of this next generation that are gonna be needed? [00:30:19] Because we say that this generation is, they're digital natives, right? And so there are a certain amount of life skills now that we didn't have to have, you know, growing up. And so what are those life skills? And how do we begin to approach that conversation? Whether that's CTE, whether, you know, whatever that is, AI. [00:30:39] And then this focus on access and connecting that to a five-year plan I think is really important to me. And so access plus the relevance of the programming and how we think about what's relevant or what industry is really requiring for these types of pathways. [00:30:58] So that brings me to two questions. One is, how do our business partners plug into how we look at curriculum, our offerings, industry credentials, and ultimately kind of shape the vision of CTE? So the reason I ask that question is I know that we have business partners. [00:31:15] I know they're connected. We have CTAC. But I look at higher education and how higher education is really connected and plugged into workforce development agencies. And so folks that are working at workforce development agencies are also, you know, on the boards of our community colleges and everything is kind of hooked together, right? [00:31:36] And then the funding comes through the state. I'm looking at that and just wondering about K through 12, right? And how can we plug into that same kind of triangle between the Commonwealth, workforce development agencies, and higher education, how we can, as a public school division, be a part of where folks talk about industry and workforce development. [00:32:01] Thank you for the suggestions and the question. Jen and I have been talking. I think CTEC is a really strong avenue that looks countywide. Really, we look at CTEC to look at program expansion. What are we doing countywide? what's happening regionally, one of the things that Jen and I have talked about is a missed opportunity around program advisory councils. So in previous school systems, we had program advisory councils for each one of our programs. And that's where you would have 10 to 20 business partners that they're not advising on program expansion. All they're doing is they're meeting with you quarterly to review your curriculum, to review your credentials, to let you know of the [00:32:38] updates that are happening in industry. So one of the directions we're heading is really trying to start to kick off some program advisory councils moving forward on those program advisory councils you would have a large representation of employers but you would also have your community college or four-year accrediting institutions your non-profits your ibw24 some of those folks i think that's the immediate next step just to make sure their voice is more connected to the curriculum instruction because our c-tech right now as i mentioned is more county-wide programmatic they're not getting into the individual lessons and employability skills of our curriculum so I [00:33:13] think that's probably the quickest route to that moving forward and the last question if I may is the work-based learning teacher support can you tell me more about that specific role just maybe help me understand that role sure so we do have some co-op teachers right now but it varies by school and it's really more aligned to some marketing programs and some manufacturing programs I think in the model that we're looking to propose is that we would have a dedicated individual at every single high school. [00:33:41] We would probably work towards that, maybe have some regional folks, maybe east, west, east, west, central. That person would be really dedicated to building employer participation in hiring our students in their local community. [00:33:57] Right now, we really only have one individual, Christina Lee, and to have her have the expectation that she's supposed to drum up businesses for our 83,000 students It's just not the direction that we're going. So in previous school systems, I would have 30 work-based learning coordinators, one to two per high school. [00:34:16] That may not be the best option for Loudoun. Maybe we have a regional model, but Dulles alone has 700 businesses, 700 distinct businesses at Dulles Airport. We need multiple people that are hitting up these employers and these businesses to get them aligned to our students and to be that bridge. [00:34:34] So these work-based learning resource teachers would know the students better to have those conversations to help them be paired with their employer and then to assess them on the job site. It's one thing to get a student into an internship. It's another to make sure that they're successful. So that's the hope that we're going to bring forward. We do have some budget requests around that, and this is probably a small plug to make sure those budget requests go through. But I think that would be for us to really hit those employability skills and all those things that you brought up, I do think that that's the key to some of this work, personally. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yes, Ms. Chandler. [00:35:13] Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, team, for this presentation. I find I'm most interested in the graphic with the current programs offered. This may be a conversation for another time, but I would love to learn more about how each of these clusters sort of located, found their location and and got placed in each of the different schools access is something that I'm very interested in and more than anything I hope that students have the ability to find the right pathway for themselves and have access to it [00:35:47] which is something that we have talked about this fall with that in in mind I'm also curious as you were mentioning about the school business partnerships and how there are some opportunities to expand. Is that an area where we could leverage these conversations to find out what sort of skills our business partnerships would like to see in graduates? [00:36:12] Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of reports already out there too that talk to the top 10 skills, World Economic Forum, World Economic Review. I think the summit teased some of those skills out. We do have some of that data that's more regionally. A lot of them are looking for just time management, showing up to work on time, communication, you know, the six Cs. [00:36:32] I think to Jen's point, we're looking for opportunities, and some of those are there, infusing more of those opportunities directly into the curriculum, regardless of CT pathway, regardless of internship. But I think we can continue through the CTAC and our PACs, trying to push upon them by industry. [00:36:49] What are those employability skills? I don't even think they're soft skills. I think they're life skills. I think they're employability skills. So I think we can continue working on that. thank you any other questions thank you Dr. Grubbs for your hard work and thank you all for coming and your presentation looking forward to seeing more progress and in the future okay with that [00:37:18] we will move on to 5.02 no we're not sorry five well 5.01 work session um department of business and financial services annual comprehensive financial report and school activity funds annual financial report presented by miss sharon willoughby our chief financial officer thank you [00:37:51] i am here to present our annual financial review you will find in board docs a number of attachments there are financial reports there and numerous account accounting auditing letters and reports as well and i will walk you through all the attachments this review is for the fiscal year that ended on June 30th, 2024. The annual financial review focuses on three key areas. [00:38:22] The first area is the annual comprehensive financial report, which we refer to as the ACFER. The ACFER includes our district-wide funds, which comprise the operating slash general fund, our special revenue funds, proprietary funds, and fiduciary funds. We follow generally accepted accounting principles, which is a set of accounting rules and procedures used to standardize financial reporting practices, ensuring fairness and accuracy, and financial reporting. Our second group is our school activity funds. These funds are managed at the individual school level with each school maintaining a separate bank account to oversee its financial activity. And the third [00:39:02] grouping is our charter schools. As you know, we have two charter schools with each managing its funds independently through their respective boards and principals. However, the school board retains oversight responsibility for these funds. Performing the audit this year, we had Cherry Beckart that performed the audit for our annual comprehensive financial report, and then Robinson Farmer Cox Associates performed the audit for the other two sections, our school activity funds and our charters. [00:39:32] As you can see, I'm very happy to report that we had a clean audit across all three areas where all information was presented fairly in all material respects. Focusing on the annual comprehensive financial report, the ACFR is an annual publication that consolidates all of our financial data for fiscal year 24. It includes financial statements such as the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statements for all funds, along with notes, analysis, disclosures, and statistical information. LCPS operates as a component unit of Loudoun [00:40:12] County, meaning our financial data is incorporated into the county's ACFR. We adhere to the accounting standards established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, also known as GASB. And our financial statements are audited by the independent auditors following generally accepted government auditing standards. Included in the ACFR is the Independent Auditors Report that also stated that our financial statements were presented fairly. A separate attachment in BoardDocs was the audit executive summary that outlined the results of the audit. They did note that while we still had the unmodified [00:40:49] opinion, which is the same as a clean audit. We had one journal entry to make in the grant fund that impacted the balance sheet only to properly categorize unearned revenue. This has been corrected and the financial statements are presented fairly. Specifically for the operating fund, or also known as the general fund, I'll draw your attention to the fund balance. This information can be found on page 26 of our ACFR. Our fund balance for this year totaled $63 million [00:41:24] and is spread across these five different categories the first category of 39.8 million is for contractual obligations these are encumbrances and contracts that are carried forward for undelivered or orders excuse me and these are these encumbrances will roll from June 30 of 2024 into the new fiscal year next we have 12 million dollars for our subsequent year appropriation so approved during the FY24 budget process to support the FY25 budget we identified 12 million dollars to carry over next we have the unassigned fund balance of 9.2 [00:42:02] million this is the amount that will be returned to loudon county and so you may recall during the year as we also went through our spend down we were targeting roughly about 10 million dollars to achieve some consistency and working with the county and so we were just barely under that target of 9.2 next we have 1.1 million dollars of prepaid items these are for payments that are made prior to July 1st but are for a service or activity that takes place after July 1st. The most common example would be a training or a conference that occurs in July but you [00:42:40] register in advance and so you may register for that activity in June. And lastly we have $914,000 of fund balance that's attributed to our inventory. Moving on to our school activity funds. Our school activity fund financial reports are provided by our external auditing firm of Robinson Farmer Cox and includes the actual financial report. All of these items are included in board docs. The financial report shows each individual school's activity fund. You'll also note that the independent auditor's report also noted that the statements were presented fairly. [00:43:20] The governance letter from the auditors noted that there were no significant audit matters. There were some recommended opportunities for strengthening internal controls and some operating efficiencies at some of our schools, with the most common occurrences being timely deposit of funds and also how expenditures were posted. [00:43:40] I'm very excited, though, to share the graph that's on this slide, which shows the percentage of schools that have zero findings. And we can see the clear work that the schools have done in really trying to improve their processes and follow our policies and procedures, and that we are at 83% of our schools with zero findings. [00:44:02] We continue to work with our schools with training and support, and we strive to one day reach 100%. Moving to our charter schools and starting with Hillsborough Charter, the robinson farmer cox associates auditors met with both charter schools as well as our staff and business financial services to review the findings and recommendations that are presented here the independent auditors report noted that the financial statements were presented fairly their governor's governance letter did identify a couple of significant audit matters that are [00:44:40] listed here related to how amounts paid by lcps were recorded on their books recording amounts properly and then also reversing prior year accruals at year end were the areas that were identified for improvement. [00:44:56] And then in terms of the management memo, they recommended the opportunity to strengthen their internal controls as it related to posting of revenue. Again though, I will remind that they did receive an unmodified clean audit opinion. [00:45:13] Middleburg Charter, their financial report also stated that their statements were presented fairly. The auditor's governance letter identified that they had one material misstatement regarding an expenditure which has since been corrected and that there is no management memo included in board docs as they did not receive any recommendations from the external auditors. [00:45:37] So again, they had a clean audit. We continue to support both charter schools and the management of their funds throughout the year. Finally, LCPS has a solid record of producing sound financial statements and clean audits. [00:45:55] We are recognized by GFOA as well as ASBO, and you can see we have a streak of 15 years being recognized for excellence in financial reporting by both of these organizations. We will submit the FY24 ACFER for award consideration, and I feel confident that we will continue our streak to 16 years. [00:46:17] Our participation in both of these prestigious programs demonstrates our commitment to financial transparency and our commitment to fiscal and financial integrity. These programs are the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and their attainment represents a significant accomplishment by government and its management. [00:46:39] I am very proud of our amazing accounting team, led by our accounting director, Lisa Wilkins, who is here today as well. Producing the ACFER is a major endeavor each year, and their work is very much appreciated. I also want to extend thanks to the financial technicians, the account managers, and the principals throughout the school system for helping ensure that we have the best school system financial operation. [00:47:06] And that concludes my presentation, and I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you, Ms. Mullaby. I know when we talked before, how many years do we have a particular auditor? So with Robinson Farmer Cox, we engage with them directly, so we have a contract between LCPS and them, and we are in the fourth renewal, which expires on April 30th, 2025. [00:47:40] So our last solicitation was back in April of 2015 and had a contract for five years. So again, we are in our fourth renewal of that contract with the expectation of when we run out of renewal, should we continue to extend all the way through, that we would go back out for another solicitation. [00:47:57] With Cherry Beckart, the county covers and engages with them to do not only the county's audit, but also LCPS's audit. From what we found in reaching out with the county, the county has been using Cherry Beckart since FY12, or fiscal year 2020-12. [00:48:20] I don't know if they've had any solicitations in between them. I know that they have been using them since 2012. I will also share one of the reasons why we haven't engaged getting our own separate audit is this is a very expensive endeavor. [00:48:39] The county pays over $300,000 for the audit for both of our organizations, and so we think it's a deal just to let them continue to do that for us. Totally understood. I just, sometimes I know that it's sometimes a good thing to change auditors to bring a fresh perspective and reduce risk for over-familiarity. [00:49:01] And so I guess what I'm hearing, it's really, it's $300,000 is an expensive audit. And we want to continue with the county, even though it starts, it doesn't appear that they've changed since 2012. But then we have this other, what is it, Heather Cox? Cox Robinson? [00:49:22] Robinson Farmer Cox. It's a mouthful. okay and then we will be re-looking at that okay great uh board members yes ms shirnoff thank you madam chair you stole my first question that was my question too no it's good um we're on the same page uh i wanted to ask about the school activity funds i was very encouraged to see the increase in less than 10 years i mean almost quadrupled so that's very exciting um what kinds of things would you attribute that increase to what kinds of things internally have we done and how are we pursuing that last little 17% to get to that 100%? Because that's quite an achievement. [00:50:03] I appreciate the question. Over the years, we have the philosophy of high expectations and high support. And so over the years, we've introduced what we call our audit matrix, where we actually have accountability measures, and it's progressive. So if you have, for example, one relatively low risk audit finding, then we require you to attend training. If it's something that's more, then maybe you and the principal need to attend training and create a corrective action plan, and it increases from there. With that accountability, though, we've also really [00:50:39] strengthened our training and our internal review team. And so they go out throughout the year and they review the books periodically to just make sure everyone's on the same page. We also have monthly what we call fast forums, which are trainings for the financial techs as well as for the principals, so that we are answering questions. [00:51:01] We're really making sure that we are supporting them as much as possible. And I really think it's from those efforts, that combined effort of, again, the high expectations, but also with the high support, that we have seen that change and that improvement. Any other questions, board members? [00:51:22] Seeing none, thank you so much, Ms. Willoughby. We will move on to item 5.02, Department of Academics, College and Career Readiness, presented by Heather Ross, Supervisor of School Counseling Services, and Jeff Roundsley, Director of Teaching and Learning. [00:51:54] Good afternoon, Chair Mansfield, Vice Chair Estrafi, School Board Members, and Dr. Spence. [00:52:12] My name is Heather Ross, School Counseling Supervisor for Loudoun County Public Schools, and tonight I'm joined with Jeff Roundsley, Director of Teaching and Learning for K-12. We are thrilled to be speaking with you today about the integration of Course Planner, an interactive tool, a part of SchoolLynx, our new college and career readiness platform. [00:52:34] And we just want to highlight how central Course Planner is to some of the important work that's happening in LCPS, including the one LCPS strategic plan. This aligns with 1.2 about providing multiple accessible pathways to success through diverse programming, hopefully making those more aware for students. [00:52:53] And 4.3, about expanding opportunities for trust-building dialogue and data sharing to inform division-wide decisions. We see that both in terms of sharing information with parents, but also allowing us to collect in a more transparent way the course offerings and the interests that our students have. [00:53:09] It also aligns closely with Dr. Spence's post-entry plan around college and career readiness platform, and hopefully giving students and families a better opportunity in view of the many pathways and opportunities that exist in LCPS. [00:53:24] - Next slide, please. Before we introduce Course Planner as a tool, we'd like to take a moment to celebrate the success we experienced with the implementation of School Links, our new college and career readiness platform. In the beginning of the 23-24 school year, School Links replaced Naviance, our historical college and career readiness platform. [00:53:47] Our goal was to see an increase in student and family engagement in the platform, and we did. We are happy to report 90% of kindergarten through fifth grade students and 94% of sixth grade through 12th grade students utilize the platform to complete lessons on self-exploration and college and career readiness. Additionally, we saw an increase in guardian engagement in the platform with 38% of guardians in elementary and 23 of guardians in secondary schools engaging in the platform. Student usage of the secondary level increased significantly. [00:54:23] At the middle school level student engagement increased at least by 89 percent and at most 30,000 percent with an average of 8,900 percent. At the high school level student engagement increased at least 196 percent and at most 927 percent for an average of 388 percent as compared to our historical platform. We are thrilled to watch student and family engagement increase in the the college and career readiness platform and hope to continue to grow engagement this school year. We plan to continue to grow engagement by continuing to provide multiple opportunities for parents and guardians [00:55:01] to learn more about the School Links platform through informative communication, school-based family sessions, as well as webinars and in-person sessions provided by the Office of School Counseling Services. Additionally, School Counseling Services is committed to providing robust professional development for our school counselors at each LCPS site to continue to build confidence and trust in the school links platform additionally we'd like to celebrate some other components in the school links platform as students explore in kindergarten through 12th grade their college and [00:55:38] career in the college and career readiness I'm sorry that next slide so let me start over sorry school links platform supports college and career readiness exploration for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. And students explore activities and assessments and inventories on the School Links platform to self-discover their interests, skills, and values. And the depth of the self-discovery helps support students' post-secondary plans and helps foster goal setting for the future. One exciting feature of the School Links platform [00:56:15] is the Dynamic College Application Manager. This opens for all 12th grade students each August and helps support students families and staff through the complicated process of higher education applications the college application manager not only helps streamline the process but supports students in keeping track of their results scholarship offers and much more for the class of 2024 school counselors process a little over 33 000 college applications students also self reported their intentions of enrollment on their senior survey roughly 89 of the class of 2024 declare their intentions of enrolling in a four-year or two-year college and are able to [00:56:55] identify which colleges and universities our LCPS students are commonly attending. Additionally, students who report workforce and military declarations can share more detailed information with us if they wish, such as a company name or a branch name to help support our understanding of where our alumni are attending. These analytics help support LCPS alumni but also help provide valuable information for our staff as they support the future generation of students entering the workforce and achieving their post-secondary aspirations, possibly in post-secondary institutions [00:57:34] or in the military as well. So on the next slide, the implementation of Course Planner has really been a collaboration between the Office of School Counseling and the Department of Teaching and Learning. And on the one hand, you see a lot of feedback from our administrators and students about the need for a platform like a course planner. [00:57:55] On the left is a quote from an LCPS principal talking about how could we make this process more personalized for students? Could we have a program or a platform that knows students' course histories and really lays out for them where the graduation requirements for that student might exist? [00:58:10] Currently, our program of studies is housed in a Google site, which has a lot of information but can feel very overwhelming to parents or families or students as they start to navigate through that. So this is a way that is much more streamlined and personalized for the individual student and we'll give you a demonstration of that in just a second. [00:58:28] LCPS students have also commented on the need for something like this. First, that first quote really expresses around a need for some student voice in this process and capturing where students best see themselves in their course progressions through the years. And also just more clarity. [00:58:43] Students have asked for more clarity on what's available, what the prerequisites are, really what's out there in LCPS. And you just saw the statistics from SchoolLinks that this has been a highly successful rollout. Lots of families and students use it on a regular basis. CoursePlanner is an add-on to the SchoolLinks platform, and so it really makes sense to combine these two projects together, the need for more personalized, focused academic advising, and also in a platform that students and families are comfortable with accessing and are already doing so at very high numbers. [00:59:16] Next slide, please. The work of school counselors do to support college and career readiness directly aligns with the LCPS core value of individualized success in which all unique strengths, skills, and passions should be celebrated, encouraging diverse pathways that support readiness after graduation. [00:59:34] Exploration of the wide range of course pathways and offerings allows for students to make valuable connections between their current skills, values, and interests, and post-secondary goals. The decision they make in today's classroom can help them achieve their post-secondary goals in the future. Course Planner is an interactive tool designed to engage LCPS students, families, and staff in the academic course planning process. [00:59:56] Students will begin to plan for on-time graduation as well as make their course selections for each academic school year right in Course Planner. This tool is visible for parents and guardians in real time so families can stay connected with the choices the students are making. [01:00:13] Students currently in grades five and six will be planning for the next academic school year, while students in grades seven through eleven will not only be planning for the next academic school year, but also on-time graduation. In seventh grade, students will have access to all high school courses to align with their interests and goals and explore what's possible in high school. [01:00:34] And in eighth grade, students will begin to see the courses that are offered directly at their feeder high school to ensure the course request reflects the offerings of their planned school of attendance. In the first year of the course planner implementation, LCPS special programs are visible to students who are currently enrolled in the special program. [01:00:55] Students being admitted into special programs for the first time will work with their school counselor to ensure their course plans reflect the special program progression. So we're going to take you into Course Planner and give you a little overview of what students might see when they log into Course Planner. [01:01:15] So I'm going to kind of talk through some of the features that are available. And here we go. Okay, so this is a demo of a live student in LCPS. And you'll see that when a student enters in, one thing we want to highlight at the top is that rather than being set up by each individual program, as we currently are in our program of studies, this is set up through graduation requirements. [01:01:42] So the school counseling and our content supervisors have worked closely to make sure that each one of these aligns with graduation requirements and that students have the most up-to-date sequences and course information available to help them. So we're going to go first into math. [01:01:57] And one of the things that we've been working on is really trying to define what sequences look like for students. So this student took pre-algebra in eighth grade. In ninth grade, they're going to take Algebra 1, and you'll see along the way that in each one of these courses, that you see the many courses that are available to students, working with counselors and working with their teachers. They'll have access to geometry as maybe the next item in that sequence, moving on to Algebra 2, and then maybe a pre-calculus in 12th grade, and you'll see when that happens, when a student has fulfilled their graduation requirement, that bar at the top turns from red to green, indicating that that student's graduation path fulfills all the requirements [01:02:35] that they'll need. If we look at science here in this eighth grade the student took physical science honors and then in ninth grade elected to take research biology honors and maybe loved that experience so much that in 10th grade they decided they were going to sign up for AP biology dual enrollment and here again real-time indication of requirements are met this shows that you don't that student did not meet the prerequisite for that course that they need to enroll in chemistry or research chemistry first before they would be able to enroll in that AP biology class. [01:03:09] And so the student is able to go in and make an adjustment to that to better meet the graduation requirements. Now, there is nothing that keeps a student from enrolling in that. It won't prevent them from it, but it does flag that that's an issue. This is a view of the summary screen. [01:03:25] And so you'll see that anything that's white means the student has fulfilled those graduation requirements. that red bar indicates that something is not right and the student is not meeting graduation requirements. Here it's because in world languages, they have not met the requirements for three years or two and two years of a language. [01:03:41] And so by enrolling in French three, that student's bar now turns from red to green. And if you go back to the summary screen, you'll see that that is now white, indicating that that student does meet the requirements. Here you'll see in physics that that student, again, is missing a prerequisite for algebra two. [01:03:59] And just to emphasize, it does not prevent a student from enrolling in a course where they don't meet the prerequisite, but it does flag that as an area for discussion among counselors, parents, families, to make sure the student is in the right place. So that's a look at some of the main features that students will see as they course plan. [01:04:15] And again, those have all been vetted and kind of fleshed out by our content supervisors, our directors of school counseling, our school counseling teams to make sure that all of that does line up with graduation requirements and the sequences that we would like to see students take their courses in LCPS. As you can see, Course Planner has many tools available to students and families to help support a streamlined approach to academic course planning. Students can view or select courses from one screen. They click on any requirement to add or remove courses and see supplemental plans such as a special program requirement or an advanced or standard diploma [01:04:53] possibly. A very exciting feature allows students and families to make comments in the academic course plan itself and chat with counselors to support transparency surrounding the process. In real time, families can stay informed with their student course planning and view changes made by their student or possibly their school counselor. [01:05:15] Once students and families have received their course plan, they will submit their plan to their counselor, and that plan, once submitted, the school counselor will meet with the student individually. We're not losing that personalized connection with students. we still very much want to keep that intact but this really allows for a tool for all transparency to each stakeholder the course planner tool will provide students with school counselors teachers families and school leaders with many benefits it will absolutely allow students and families to make academic course planning decisions that align with their goals and explorations from [01:05:52] the school links platform and really highlight their post-secondary goals and aspirations. With the aid of course planners, students and families are empowered to make informed course selections utilizing the built-in program of studies, which as you saw was pretty impressive, no longer having to navigate between different screens. You can see the prerequisite, co-requisite, and much more. Additional tools such as the graduation plan grid and the review of the students' individualized goals help support a comprehensive approach and ensuring students and [01:06:26] families are able to make informed decisions together. Graduation requirements can be difficult to understand, but with course planner, graduation requirements are built right into the student's course selections, as you saw in the demo. And in real time, students and families can make important decisions. Students and families are also encouraged to review and work with students to complete the School Links course planner, including, or I'm sorry, the School link self-discovery and really tying the two together to make sure the career interest inventories where we're finding out what career interest am I interested in, what cluster [01:07:05] am I relating to based off of our self-assessments, and aligning those to our course choices, not only for the next academic school year, but looking two, four, six years out. Course Planner is a wonderful tool to help increase transparency and engagement. [01:07:23] Course Planner will be available for students in grades 5 through 6 beginning on January 6th and for students in grades 7 through 11 on the 13th. During the month of January, students will begin exploring the Course Planner tool through lessons provided by their school counselors and begin making course selections right into Course Planner and immediately those are viewable to the parent and guardian. [01:07:52] Communication will be sent out at the district level and school level to ensure families are informed and aware of when course planning events are taking place and to ensure that they can log in appropriately since this is a newer platform. While students explore course offerings and begin to make selections during the month of January through February, teacher recommendations will be viewable in parent view and in student view. [01:08:17] So if students want to make changes based off of the teacher recommendations, they absolutely can. And that will be viewable to both students and families during that time. At the end of February, students will submit their course plan between February and March. [01:08:33] They will review their course plan with their school counselor, again, not losing that personal touch during their individual academic advising session. And as school counselors meet with students and collaborate with families, they will begin to approve academic plans right away in Course Planner. On April 1st, all student course plans will be finalized and sent to our student information system. [01:08:54] so school administrators can then start beginning to build their schedule for the next school year. Course Planner will close at that time, so no additional changes will be made. However, students and families, if they require changes, can contact their school counselor, and those changes could be made on the student information system side. [01:09:17] We know course planning is most successful when students and families and school staff are connected. Course Planner is a wonderful tool to help support that information sharing and collaboration between school and home communication to families will begin this week and continue until the end of February in December a blackboard message will be introducing course planner then during the week of the 6th of January and the 13th families will begin to receive communication from the district as well as their school to ensure that they know when the students their their child will be going [01:09:52] in to have those individualized or those classroom lessons with the school counselor then they can begin logging in right away. On January 26th, communication will describe how students and families can view the teacher recommendation and student view and parent view. And then between February 24th and 28th, school-based communication will remind students that their plans are due. [01:10:16] School Counseling Services, in collaboration with School Links, will also hold a virtual family session on January 15th. We invite families of 5th and 6th grade students to join us at 6 o'clock and families of 7th through 11th grade students to join us at 7 o'clock. [01:10:32] We will be reviewing the course planner tool and much more depth while also focusing on the view of the parent and guardian. And we understand that evening times are busy for families, so all sessions will be recorded and posted on the School Counseling Services website. [01:10:48] And then a follow-up communication with the recording will also be provided in a district-wide communication. We want to thank you for your time this evening as we share our excitement about the integration of Course Planner. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. [01:11:08] Thank you very much. I have a couple questions real quick. The first one is how it applies to special education like applied studies, as well as if you have to take half a year of algebra in one year and the second half in the other. [01:11:23] The third, the other item is I see that you have world languages there And there is, you know, the law that says that if you take it once and your IEP team decides that you can take computer science, then you can use computer science as your second and third year of a world language. [01:11:45] How is that contemplated in this school thing? That's a great question. I think Jeff and I can collaboratively answer that. So as we know, we will never be replaced by course planners. [01:12:02] school counselors are extremely still important to the process so those some of the nuances of particular waivers or certain accommodations to graduation requirements will still require human connection and so we feel that this tool will help support that collaboration between families students administrators teachers school counselors to ensure graduation requirements will still be met. School counselors can also go on the back end of the planning tool to help mitigate [01:12:37] any of the confusion for families and adjust if needed. One of the big, oh I'm sorry. So do they get to chat immediately with people or do they have to wait for an appointment to get with a counselor? So it would, it's a comment feature so it would come up similarly to a message that the the counselor would then respond to. [01:12:58] - And we've been, one of the messages we've shared with our school principals and others over and over again is that this is course planning. It's not course scheduling. So what happens in course planner is not the official record that still resides in our student information system with transcripts and all of that information. [01:13:15] This is meant to give a big view. And then again, teams may need to go in and refine and change things and all of that will still happen in the way it always has. And then would be reflected in Course Planner later when these two systems, our student information system and Course Planner, are integrated with each other and there's a feed back and forth. [01:13:34] So a student may not be able to do that in Course Planner at the moment, but working with teams, it will be eventually reflected in Course Planner. So if they're not able to do it now, then aren't they able to apply to colleges and things with this too? So how is that going to work with that if it's showing that they don't have enough world language, per se? [01:13:53] So that would be, that's that distinction between course planning and course scheduling. So those changes that have happened would be reflected in the transcript and the student transcripts, and that's the information that would go over to a college. This is really a way for students to see the broad picture of what's available to them in LCPS, but still the official transcripts, the official records, the official grades, all of that still resides in our student information system. [01:14:19] Thank you. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. I absolutely love this idea. Did you say it's not individualized yet? Because once it is, I mean, this is tremendous. It would work in conjunction with ParentVue. [01:14:38] But I do want to mention, you know, on slide three, I'm a trailside mother. And are they not using it? I mean, I have to tell you, I was not aware of this as a trailside mother. And I think they're the lowest scored, along with Simpson and Harmony. [01:14:59] Can you tell me why that is, please? Thank you. That just means they were doing a fabulous job with Naviance prior to that. So this is really in comparison to our old, our historical platform. Our historical platform we had for roughly 20 years. [01:15:14] And so we did see, the reason why we looked for a new platform is because we did see some student and family engagement kind of trail off towards the end. It just wasn't as interactive as we needed it to be for students. So, but Trailside did still grow by 89% of engagement. So just when you look at that chart, it looks kind of misleading because one of our middle schools was over 30,000 percent in growth. So Trailside had 89 percent and then we had, you know, 200 percent, but when [01:15:50] you're looking at a chart with 30,000 in. If you get this individualized, I think it's a fantastic idea. Thank you very much for your presentation. Any other questions? Yes, Ms. Chernoff and then Dr. Rashid. Thank you so much for this presentation. I know we've kind of teased this in curriculum instruction a bit so i've been very excited to hear this at 5 32 i got an email in my personal email about course planner so i don't know if you plan that but well done i just got a notification so um that was pretty smooth um i am a parent of a fifth grader and a seventh grader so i'm really [01:16:29] excited to sort of get this off the ground and i will say like i actually there has been great communication from our school that this is coming and to kind of start thinking about it from the counseling perspective I really am very much admiring the efforts to collaborate with families I think that that's something that is going to come up and I just have one question and I think you may have touched on this when you talked about it being a course planning and not a course scheduling so maybe my question sort of lies in that difference my question is in the past or now do parents get the final send off of this like the sign off or is it that students could go all the [01:17:06] way through this process, even with best efforts to engage a family, and they could submit it without parental approval? That's a great question. So ultimately, we do need every student in a scheduled course, and we make a significant amount of efforts to ensure that we are collaborating with families. When school counselors, if school counselors have not seen the family log into the platform they will continue to reach out but it is essential that every student has the schedule for the next year so ultimately yes we would [01:17:46] provide a schedule for a student even if we didn't have the parental sign-off just as we would in years past that practice hasn't changed okay but yes there is copies in parent view and we will send home paper copies if needed We'll do phone calls and emails, and we really do try to ensure that every family is connected. [01:18:07] And it feels like the outreach plan here is really fantastic in terms of making sure that families are engaged. So I'm not doubting that. I just didn't know if at the end of the day, if there's not that parental approval, you do move forward without it. Okay. Dr. Rasheed. [01:18:24] Thank you, and awesome presentation. I love the demo, too. This gives a little bit of responsibility for the students when they utilize this. You might have mentioned this earlier, probably in the presentation, but do CTE classes also go in there despite, even if they're not in their feeder school? [01:18:44] At what grade level? Can I ask? At either. At any grade level. So at 7th grade, in 7th grade, students will see all courses in LCPS that we offer. The reason why we want to do that is to ensure that students have voice and choice over their interest and relate it back to their skills and potentially their cluster. [01:19:06] that their career cluster that they're interested in um however in eighth grade that will change a bit in eighth grade they're really planning for the next academic school year for so whatever courses are offered at their feeder high school will be reflected in their plan offerings and the intention there too is not just for student interest but also for those of us here at the central office and our content teams to be able to collect some data around where student interest lies if we see large numbers of students interested in a computer science course that might not be offered at all of our classes that gives us some time to make [01:19:42] sure we have proper credentialing resources curriculum so that if there is a course that shows a lot of potential for expansion and growth that we're able to roll that out and make sure that we have access to that at more schools in the future. Ms. Chandler. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you so much for the presentation and this has been very engaging. I will say as the parent of a senior. We have had a great experience with School Links. I asked her if she liked it. [01:20:12] She didn't say yes, but I think that's process as opposed to anything else. But it has been very engaging and it's been fascinating for us as parents to be able to see the data behind what colleges are looking for and how our student aligns with that and it's just very easy to use and I'm excited for parents to have this resource I'm really looking forward to the course planner when I think about it in terms of reflecting on the past year I think it's a great opportunities for families not to be surprised and to have the ability [01:20:49] to see that progress over time and to ensure that students are on the right path is going to be uniquely helpful so thank you for sharing this information with us thank you miss Chandler I think we have a comment from our student school board representative, Mr. Segner. Thank you. So wonderful presentation. I thought it was amazing. The course planner, absolutely amazing idea. I really like it as a student. I think that really helps. My question is how would this work for students that go to the academies of Loudoun? [01:21:21] Well, that's a great question. So again, I think we have, this is an area where we have some room for growth in terms of how we manage special programs and how that happens in this platform. So this is a first-year implementation. [01:21:36] We know there's other room for how we represent some of those special pathways that are available for students. But basically, at the Academies of Loudoun, if you are already enrolled in the Academies of Loudoun, it will function in the same way. You'll have access to the Academies courses, and you can add those courses in. So if you've already been admitted, if you're in a second year of a MATA pathway, you'd be able to add those courses in. [01:21:57] If you're new to the Academies of Loudoun, Ms. Ross was mentioning that that would be a conversation with your counselor, and your counselor will help you get those classes enrolled onto your schedule. Any other questions? Yes, Vice Chair Strachey. Thank you very much. [01:22:13] I just have a question. So I don't have a child yet in those age ranges and so forth. For myself and maybe others in the public in a similar situation, just so you can confirm, the system, it allows me, if my child is a ninth grader, it allows me to project all the way through senior year, right, so we can see the path that they're exploring. And then the comments are live, real-time parents or caregivers can actually see the history of that back and forth with the counselor. Okay. Can parents also comment? [01:22:51] Yes. Students and parents and guardians can also comment right into the platform. And by real-time it will still follow our email expectations of, you know, 24 to 48 hours response just because our Our school counselors have a caseload at the high school level of 1 to 250, so there is a possibility of 250 comments having to be responded to. [01:23:16] That's the thing about technology, huh? It makes it easier. And then the last comment I'll make is just imagining the conversations that we've enabled between parents, guardians, and their children or our students and just thinking about just being able to visualize the different paths and selecting and changing it before they actually go ahead and submit. [01:23:41] And those conversations being easier in families, I think, is incredible. And so just piggybacking off a few of the other comments around making sure that families understand how to best use this tool, especially families that, you know, some of our technology platforms might be a little bit more difficult for them in general. [01:24:02] Just having that be top of mind is important. Thank you. - Any other questions? - Yes, Mrs. Griffis. - I think I'm excited about it because I used to work in student information services so I used to, when I was in school, so I used to check all the time to see what classes were being offered to see if I can add something, if it met a prerequisite or just anything interesting, any class that popped up that I can add to my schedule. [01:24:38] So I think that's probably why I'm so excited about this program. Now, you said that you're going to get it individualized. It's not individualized right now, correct? If you could just correct that for me. Thank you. I would say it is personalized to the students. [01:24:56] So it is matched up with their records in the student information system. So it'll know what classes that student is taking. It'll project out what a sequence might look like for that student, keeping in mind that there are lots of options. So there is a sequence, but there are lots of choices that kids have. [01:25:11] And that's something that we want to highlight as well, that it's not just one path, but there's lots of options along the way that a student could choose from. Any other questions? Seeing no more questions, thank you so much. And board members, we have 35 minutes. [01:25:28] So I would like to continue with an information item. We can start with item 14.01. Oh, man, I totally forgot. I was like, y'all are, yeah. [01:25:45] wow this is the cold is really affecting my head um okay so never mind we will go into recess [02:00:24] the board is now in recess well good evening everyone y'all got real quiet real fast that was pretty impressive thank you um the board is now coming out of recess and we will now continue with item eight which is the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem tonight the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance will be led by the fourth and fifth grade choir of mill run elementary school christina kang leads the chorus this marks the third consecutive year mill run has [02:00:59] provided choir opportunities for its students and it looks like we should be continuing for many more years all right well everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance and the national [02:01:11] anthem okay we'll see if my voice can make it for through the night um we will continue with [02:05:22] item uh nine student staff recognitions with 9.01 uh one lcps spotlight college and career readiness at loudon county high school presented by dr michelle luttrell principal dan croil counselor counselor matt arms counselor beth kosakow counselor uh priya c i'll just continue [02:05:51] you want. I'm sorry it's going to be a long night. Welcome and come and do your presentation. Good evening Dr. Spence, Chair Mansfield, esteemed members of the school board and Corbin. I'm Dr. [02:06:25] Luttrell, proud principal at Loudoun County High School. It is a privilege to be here this evening to share and celebrate the incredible work being done at Loudoun County High School. We are especially excited to highlight the outstanding efforts of our school counseling team who are leading the way in preparing our students for college and career success. [02:06:45] Their dedication to expanding pathways and creating opportunities ensures that every student is equipped to thrive beyond the classroom. We look forward to sharing their impactful work with you this evening. This evening we'll focus on how we are empowering students to thrive in an ever-changing world, directly supporting Goal 1 of the 1LCPS 2027 Strategic Plan for Excellence. [02:07:11] Through Aligned Action 1.2, we are expanding opportunities from multiple accessible pathways to success with diverse programming that prepares students as critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators, creators, and contributors. This work ensures every student has the tools and opportunities to achieve college and career readiness, paving the way for their future success. [02:07:34] This evening we are thrilled to have a dedicated team here to share that impactful work happening around college and career readiness at Loudoun County High School. Joining me are Dan Croyle, Beth Kosakow, and Langston West, members of our exceptional school counseling team who work tirelessly to support and empower our students, and three outstanding student leaders, Priya, a junior, and Delaney and Samantha, both seniors, who will share their experiences and perspectives on how these programs are shaping their futures. [02:08:10] This time, I will turn the presentation over to Mr. Croyle. He is the Director of School Counseling at Loudoun County High School. Thank you for having us this evening. [02:08:31] When we do the college and career programs, any evening programs we do at Loudoun County High School, if the counseling department is responsible, we always start with a game called what is. And I'm going to see if I can advance this just one, not two. Well, it didn't actually work. So what I would do is I would give a number and then ask the audience, usually parents of 100, 125 parents, I would sit and stare at them and wait for an answer. [02:08:54] So the first one is, what is 1,510? And the answer to that is a number of transcripts that we've sent just at our school through Thanksgiving. The second one is to highlight the schoolings opportunities or the program that we use is 101. [02:09:10] So what is 101 is the number of students just at Loudoun County High School that have registered for a visit when JMU came to a school event. So we had 101 kids, which is great. Last year we had 59. So using School Links, using Mr. West in the Career Center, writing past, working with the teachers, we have almost doubled just the visits to James Madison this year. [02:09:36] That is pretty impressive. As a matter of fact, there were so many students that wanted to go there that were going to come back in the spring. Generically speaking, at Loudoun County High School, We have, this is our, the students who graduate, this is the direction they go. 68% of the students enroll in a four-year college directly out of Loudoun County High School, 22 a two-year, 2% military, and then you can see the rest. [02:10:02] We have worked really hard with our students, and we focused on military, we focused on career, we're not just focusing directly on a four-year college. As a matter of fact, so far this year, we have two of our students have already accepted appointments at military academies. [02:10:20] And one of us has a letter of intent. And we're expecting a fourth sometime soon, which is phenomenal. Mr. West works with a program called the Yes Program. And that is working with 15 students who aren't going the path of college. And he has a retired teacher that comes in. [02:10:38] So from Target, he's manager at Target, comes in and works with the students, works on resume and skill building, et cetera. This is, again, college and career readiness. This is our path that we normally take with students, the ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade paths. [02:10:57] And you can see that it's the long-term goals, foundation building. We just take it all the way through their senior year. As we support students, we go do a lot of classroom lessons, discuss goals every year, especially that 9th grade year, have Academies of Loudoun come visit our school. [02:11:15] As a matter of fact, over the last two days, we had over 100 students listen to Mr. Joe Livesey speak at our school to talk about the opportunities at Academies of Loudoun, especially the MATTER programs for our 11th and 12th graders. We've partnered and used the school links in the course planning program with certain teachers, including special ed, ELL, and our personal finance staff. [02:11:37] I'm going to now turn it over to Ms. Coscow, who will take you through the next part of the presentation. Good evening. I'm Beth Coscow. I'm one of the school counselors at Loudoun County. So in addition to some of those modes of delivery that Mr. Croyle was just discussing, we also have some events that we specifically have for our students. [02:11:56] So the summer, right before students come into their senior year, we help them get on School Links and connect up their Common App with the School Links account just to get them started with their application process. We also have the college visits that Mr. Coyle mentioned that Langston West is instrumental in setting up. [02:12:13] We also, the last few years, have set up a tour for our students to go to Northern Virginia Community College, which has been really helpful in sort of bridging the gap for those students who are doing that two-year pathway but maybe don't necessarily feel comfortable, so we bring them over to the campus. They feel a little bit more comfortable, so it's a little bit easier for them to make that next step after they graduate. [02:12:33] One of the things that's really unique to County is we have a drumline that we use to celebrate our student-athletes typically. But last year, we started using that to celebrate our seniors as well. So we had all of our seniors go throughout the school building wearing their college sweatshirt or wearing something that designates kind of what their next step was going to be, while our drumline led those students around the building just so we could celebrate everyone's next step. [02:13:00] In addition, we also do evening events throughout the year. so we try to reach out to families and students to share information. So now kind of moving on to how we've been utilizing SchoolLinks. So when we made this presentation, we had 89% of our students onboarded. [02:13:18] That's sort of that first initial step of getting onto the SchoolLinks platform. I just checked before we came over here. We're now up to 91%, so we're working on getting that last group of students in there. The great thing about the onboarding is it sort of forces students to do this personality assessment, first thing that they're going on there so it gets them starting to think about their career steps already just by getting onto the platform we when we made this we had 55 percent of seniors had submitted college applications we're now up to 57 percent and then mr. West who sets up our college visits we have [02:13:55] had over 43 colleges come and visit our school and with that we've had over a thousand students register for those visits and that chart up there shows just the increase from last year to this year and if I did my math right it's about an 80% increase just from those lists of colleges and the number of students signing up for visits so kind of getting into a course planner we haven't used it yet we're getting ready to roll it out in January but just sort of thinking ahead how we think it's going to be beneficial for us the the picture up there which isn't super easy to see but it lays out across the four years of high school all the different courses that students are going to be [02:14:35] taking so it's a great snapshot to see across the board what students gonna be taking and then also looking by each grade level you can sort of help students understand the balance of their course load so making sure that they have a good combination of the rigorous classes that are best for them it also helps when we're planning for some of those specialized programs that the academies allowed and making sure we're getting in all the graduation requirements in the required amount of time we also anticipate it's going to be helping increase communication between us as counselors, families, and students so everybody can kind of see and we're all on the same page. Everybody can go into that SchoolLinks [02:15:14] platform and access that information. And the information that's typically in the program of studies is now also easily accessible through the SchoolLinks platform. So rather than having to search through that program of studies, students will be able to click on a little icon and it'll automatically pull up that course description so they can get a little bit more information about that course. Now I'm going to hand it over to our students to share a little bit about their perspectives. Good evening my name is Priya Chaudhary and I'm an 11th grader [02:15:52] at Loudoun County High School. So in my during my sophomore year I utilized the game of life and I learned that it increases the awareness on how different career and post-secondary options impact income and expenses. I also explore different college majors and how different majors have different returns of investments, and I like the interactive format as it was [02:16:22] more engaging. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Delaney Hornick, and I am a senior at Loudoun County High School, and I'm going to be going over how SchoolLinks has helped me with my college process. So I'm just going to go over some likes about SchoolLinks. It was very easy for me to navigate, especially with teacher recommendation letters. All my teachers had to do was put in their recommendation letters into School Lake's app, and then it automatically sent off to my colleges, which was much easier than using the Common app. And then it also updated [02:16:59] my progress report so I could manually put in what colleges I have been accepted to, and just the overall process it's helped me a lot and then over and then there's no dislikes for me and then my college list I entered all my test scores so it automatically to generate like what schools would be best for my fit based on like my safety my targets and my reaches and then the financial aid calculator tool also helps me a lot because it narrowed down what exactly the cost of my tuition would be based on what schools I want to apply to and [02:17:38] scholarships and student loans and then the career assessments also helped me narrow down exactly what major I want to pursue because it would generate out like what jobs I wanted to do later on for that specific major and then just throughout my high school experience I have done AP psychology and teacher cadet and those have helped me explore just my pathway into my career choices so thank you so much good evening my name is Samantha Tinta I'm a senior at [02:18:14] Atlantic County High School. I wanted to talk about the most important college resources that I've encountered throughout high school which is campus and school links. Through campus we take we go on college tours I have been throughout my time in high school I've been to JMU, Mary Washington, George Mason and UVA and through these college tours I have had opportunities to ask many questions to admissions officers and students on the campus and it's also helped me to develop my leadership skills as a sophomore I took on the [02:18:51] campus ambassador role and in this role I attend meetings with ambassadors from other schools across the county to discuss ideas to implement into classrooms and I also act as a mentor to about 25 other underclassmen since I'm the only senior in our campus class and peers seek advice from me my friends come to me for college advice because I'm in campus and I know I'm pretty knowledgeable about the college process guest speakers we've had the chance to [02:19:27] talk to the MATA admissions counselor when I was applying to MATA my 10th grade year it was great to talk to him and get to know what they were actually looking for in that process and I also got to learn about the writing center lady at my school she's helped me all throughout my four years of high school with essay help and in campus we're all also constantly like using school links and going over lessons with them so we've gone through financial aid videos under activities and learning hub tabs on school links there's a financial aid [02:20:07] section with videos that are really helpful. It helped me and my family and also I got to take a learning style quiz and this helped me to really define my learning style because I honestly thought I was a visual learner. I got number, my number one was auditory learner and college information and application status. It helps me to look into information about colleges and relate their details and stuff. And like as Delaney said, it's super easy for teachers to [02:20:45] submit recommendation letters on there. It also has career resources. I've been knowing I want to become a lawyer someday since elementary school, but taking career cluster quizzes in campus through school links has really helped me to define that choice. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. I'm sorry I had to get out and my call. I welcome that opportunity. [02:21:22] um board members do you have any questions yes ms sure enough i don't have a question but more of a comment um love to see my lchs friends here tonight and it just sort of last week i got to speak at the teacher cadet program and that was it was just really it's really exciting to see all of you young people so tapped into your future and so many options and then tonight we had our presentation on course planner so we're getting kind of that handoff and i just feel like this sort of brought it all together. So it's nice to see it in action that you guys are ready to tackle the new system. It sounds like it will be a help to you. I hope it will. And definitely keep [02:22:02] us in the loop with how those things go. But thank you for being here and for sharing your stories and for your expertise. And we wish you all the very, very best. Any other questions, board members? Thank you so much for being here and for your presentation. We will continue on [02:22:31] with item 9.02. Mrs. Renee Dawson, Director of Family and Community Engagement, was awarded the prestigious President's Volunteer Service Award presented by Ms. Natalie Allen, our Chief Communications and Community Engagement Officer. [02:23:08] There we go. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. Tonight, I am happy to recognize Ms. Renee Dawson. If you want to come up. On November 2, 2024, Ms. Dawson, Director of Family and Community Engagement, was awarded the prestigious President's Volunteer Service Award, or PVSA. [02:23:29] The PVSA, founded in 2003 by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, is a civilian honor awarded by the President of the United States. Tonight, Mrs. Dawson is joined by her husband Eric Dawson and her son Jonathan, in addition to several of her LCPS guests. [02:23:47] This national award program recognizes exceptional volunteers whose dedication makes a lasting impact on their communities. It celebrates volunteers who inspire others through their service, fostering a culture of giving and civic responsibility. [02:24:06] With 25 years of service and education, Mrs. Dawson has made significant contributions to the division through roles as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Her commitment to innovation and community partnership has empowered students and families alike. In her role as Director of Family and Community Engagement, Mrs. Dawson works tirelessly with stakeholders to create vibrant, inclusive, educational experiences and to cultivate partnerships that uplift students, support families, and strengthen the LCPS community. [02:24:36] It is truly a privilege to work with her. According to a letter signed by President Joe Biden, the American story has been strengthened by those who combine an optimism about what can be done with the resilience to turn vision into reality. I can say that Renee embodies this ideal. [02:24:53] As the primary liaison to community partners, Mrs. Dawson plays a crucial role in connecting the School Business Partnership Executive Council and LCPS students, schools, and staff. She has organized impactful division-wide events, such as the Together in Remembrance Memorial Day event and the First Responders event. [02:25:10] During the PVSA ceremony, honorees and guests engaged in acts of service, like packing items for people experiencing homelessness and first responders. These collaborative efforts underscored the importance of compassion, generosity, and the progress that can emerge from embracing giving back. [02:25:27] Mrs. Dawson's work is a testament to her belief in the capacity of each individual to make a positive impact. We are so lucky to have her here in LCPS. Congratulations, Renee. We love you and we're so proud of you. Can we come down for a quick picture? Thank you. [02:26:57] All right, next we will continue on with item 10, a student school board representative comment. [02:27:33] Our student school board representative for tonight is Corbin Segna. Corbin is a senior at Tuscarora High School, where he proudly serves as the SCA president and the student representative to the school board. As the president of DECA, he has made a name for himself, placing among the top in state competitions. [02:27:54] He also takes on the role of a Tuskegee terror leader, and I had to ask what that was, bringing energy and spirit to the student section at sports events. Corbin's dedication to his school and community is evident in his involvement with the National Honor Society and Key Club. [02:28:12] Outside of school, Corbin runs a thriving sneaker and clothing business, which he started in 2020. On top of managing his business, he balances two part-time jobs. When he's not working or leading, you can find him at the gym or hanging out with friends. [02:28:28] Corbin plans to major in financial technology in college, but for now, he's enjoying every moment of his senior year. Corbin it is all you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I hope everyone is doing great tonight. Good evening. My name is Corbin Senya and I'm honored to represent Tuscarora High School tonight. When I came to Tuscarora as a freshman I was eager to be involved and make the most of my high school experience. Over the years I've been fortunate enough to take on roles as SEA president, DECA president, a leader of Tuscarora and a member of various other clubs and activities. These opportunities have allowed me to grow as a leader and represent our amazing school community. This [02:29:06] year, Tuscarora High School has continued to achieve excellence in academics, athletics, performing arts, and extracurricular activities. Our students and faculty have worked countless hours and incredibly hard to make 2024 a standout year, and I'm excited to show y'all a few of the highlights. First, our performing arts department continues to shine. Tuscarora Theater placed second in the VHSL Theater's Super Regional One Act Festival with their presentation of At the Bottom of Lake Musila and raised over $800 for a school in Gallows County, Virginia, affected by Hurricane Helene. [02:29:41] Additionally, the theater program received 19 Cappy nominations for Anastasia the Musical and won six awards, including Best Lead in Female Role, Best Supporting in Male Role, and Best Costumes. Our marching Huskies also had an incredible season, earning first place in six showcases and finishing second in the VMBC Two-Way State Championship. [02:30:02] Their hard work and dedication is a testament to the excellence we strive for at Tuscarora. In athletics, our Huskies had another phenomenal year, as always. Our football team made it to the VHSL state semifinals in Richmond, capping off a strong 11-2 season. The baseball team became region 4C champions and also reached the state semifinals. [02:30:21] Our boys' soccer team took home the Dulles District regular season title, and our girls' soccer team became Dulles District regional champions and the tournament champions. Across all sports, our student-athletes brought home numerous individual honors, district titles, and regional championships. [02:30:37] Outside the classroom, Tuscarora students continue to show rise, meaning respect, integrity, service, and excellence, which is our school motto. Our key club has raised over $1,000 for a muscular dystrophy fundraiser and organized a food drive that provided over 800 meals to families in need. [02:30:54] Our DECA program saw a 40% increase in membership this year and earned a chapter of the month for November, reflecting the growing interest in preparing students for careers in business, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Our very own SCA officer, Natalie Tokolsky, created a five-by-six canvas that is displayed here at the admin building today. [02:31:13] The title is A Gift to Myself, Present, Past, and Future. She explains it in the following way. This painting conveys the value of education and reaching our childhood aspirations. As a graduate hands a diploma to her younger self, she foreshadows her future aspirations, which can now be a reality. [02:31:29] Lastly, I'd like to highlight our HAMSci program, which offers hands-on experiences in the health and medical sciences field. One student, Sanvi Rajanala, shared how much she enjoyed transferring to Tuscarora to be a part of our program, saying, the teachers are really helpful and everyone is so nice, and I've always dreamed of being a doctor. [02:31:45] And because of this program, it's helping me make that dream a reality. Sanvi also expressed that HamSci should expand to other schools in LCPS, adding that she 100% recommends HamSci to be a program across the county. Tuscarora High School's success comes from the dedication of our students, staff, and community. [02:32:03] I'd like to thank my wonderful principal, Pamela Croft. Thank you for being here, and my even wonderful SCA sponsor, Ms. Crawford. I really appreciate the both of y'all coming out to watch this wonderful moment today. I'd like to thank for their guidance and supports, and it's an honor to share these accomplishments with you tonight. [02:32:19] And I'm proud to be a part of the Husky family as we continue to rise. Good evening, and thank you, everybody. Thank you, Mr. Segna, for your comments and for being here. [02:32:39] And we'll now move on to item 11, the superintendent's report. Actually, I'm going to hold right there. Ms. Donoghue, would you mind going ahead and reading your disclosure? And then after that, I'm going to hand it over to Vice Chair Streffi for a couple while my voice rests for a little bit. [02:33:02] Of course. 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 employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance, and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees. [02:33:19] 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 minor children, my sister-in-law, and I am included. [02:33:44] 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 We'll move on to item 11.01 superintendents report. Dr. Spence the floor is yours. Thank you, Vice Chair Straffi and members of the board It's my pleasure to share some good news from around the school division I begin this evening by announcing that Dr. Mark Bergen will be LCPS's next chief of staff and we appreciate the boards accepting our recommendation for that appointment Dr. Bergen is here this evening. He has a distinguished career as an educator and administrator. [02:34:24] He began his career as an elementary school teacher, first in Indiana and then in Albemarle County, Virginia. He has served as principal for schools in Prince William, Spotsylvania, and Augusta counties. He's also served as the chief of staff in Virginia Beach City Public Schools and deputy superintendent in North Carolina. [02:34:41] Most recently, he served as the superintendent of Bedford County Public Schools. Dr. Bergen has a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in English Literature, a master's degree in elementary education from Butler University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. [02:34:56] We welcome Dr. Bergen to his new role. Congratulations. All right. We also want to offer congratulations to Ashley Wood, a fifth-grade teacher at Hovatter Elementary, for receiving the Virginia Society for Technology and Education Teacher of the Year Award. [02:35:17] This award is given to a teacher who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership and implementing technology to improve education. Ms. Wood was selected from a pool of nominations submitted by VISTA members from around Virginia. In her nomination of Ms. Wood, Hovatter Principal Lori Mercer wrote, Ashley's love for learning is contagious. [02:35:36] Congratulations to Ms. Wood on this award. Next, we're happy to share that Bellin Woodard, a ninth grader at Loudoun County High School, recently had the incredible opportunity to interview Ruby Bridges, a civil rights icon and author. [02:35:53] Together, they discussed Ruby's story, I Am Ruby Bridges, which captures her experience integrating William France Elementary School in 1960. Bellen interviewed Ms. Bridges as part of Scholastic's Story Voice video series, which provides an online platform for these kinds of author events. The discussion was viewed by over 50,000 school children around our country. Next, LCPS has launched a food recovery program. [02:36:20] Through this program, school staff and school volunteers collect surplus nutritious food from school cafeterias and redistribute it to local food banks and shelters, helping to fight hunger and reduce food waste. It's an essential practice for supporting food security and promoting sustainability by diverting food from landfills. Let's watch this brief video featuring Belmont [02:36:40] Station Elementary School and their food recovery program. [02:37:53] Just another great example of the many ways that LCPS continues to work to support our entire Loudoun County community. And with that, Madam Chair and Mr. Vice Chair will conclude my report. Thank you very much, Dr. Spence. [02:38:27] We'll move on to item 12.01, public comment. Thank you for engaging the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system. Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted. Based on the number of speakers in the agenda this evening, all speakers have been allotted one minute each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. All audience members shall maintain civility, decorum, and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times. Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the [02:39:04] podium, or during a break. Violations of civility, decorum, and respect include shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting, obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa, interrupting speakers, attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, and other meeting attendees. [02:39:25] Speakers should refrain from vulgarity and obscenities, defamation, profanity, and other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students and/or individual division employees during public comment. As a reminder, School Board Policy 2520 states, "Speakers may not target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official the school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board per LCPS policy 2520 members [02:40:05] of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting during public comment for safety reasons, or the public comment period ending for the evening. [02:40:34] Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of materials under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais the public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through lcps tv on comcast channel 18 and verizon files channel 43 the live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website we look forward to hearing your comments we'll now start with our virtual public comment and our first speaker is [02:41:05] catherine moran grateful for your support i am deeply grateful for your support thank you for your commitment to inclusive playgrounds as they are more than a play space. They are where children of all abilities learn to grow together, fostering empathy, understanding, and true inclusion from the earliest years. These connections set the foundation for the kind of community we want to build, one [02:41:42] that involves and values everyone. The Transition Center is equally transformative. It will provide a bridge for students with disabilities, offering vital skills to help them step confidently into adulthood. For families like mine, this is not a luxury. It's a necessity that gives our students the tools they need to thrive. Thank you for your support as it ensures Loudoun County continues leading in inclusive education and opportunities. Thank you for the impact this will have on future [02:42:12] generations. Thank you. Next speaker is Laura Lebowitz. School board. As an LCPS parent, I wanted to speak to the importance and necessity of adding an additional athletic trainer to each high school in order to meet public safety needs. I have two children who participated in sports at John Champ High School. Currently, there is a single athletic trainer who is responsible not only for multiple sports each season, but for all after-school activities at each school. These [02:42:51] trainers provide critical support not only during games and competitions, but the trainer often is expected to see as many as 30 children after school before practices start. And in that short time, she needs to assess, diagnose, treat, tape, wrap, stretch, and educate each student. [02:43:09] She often also communicates afterwards with parents. Before you consider that maybe half children participate, again, after school, this trainer is responsible for every child who's at the school for any type of after school activity. And this includes physical and mental health needs that arise. Thank you. The next speaker is Emily Brandon. I am also here to advocate for the placement of two athletic trainers at each high school. As a current athletic administrator and a former coach of many years in Loudoun County Public Schools, this is very important. Every day [02:43:47] our student-athletes push their limits to represent our schools with pride, but with this dedication comes risk. Injuries happen whether on the football field, basketball court, or track, and timely professional care is not just helpful, it's essential. Currently, one trainer simply cannot manage the demands of multiple teams, games, and practices occurring simultaneously in different places. Students are left waiting for care, risking further injury, or receiving delayed treatment. By providing two trainers at each high school, we ensure all athletes have immediate access to expert care. This means safer environments, faster recovery, and fewer long-term consequences. Investing in this is investing in our students' health and success. [02:44:25] Let's lead with safety and responsibility because no student athlete should compete without the care that they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Brenda Bankson. We're elected to support DEIA and SEL. I'm hopeful that school renaming is based on research, not revisionist or racist history. We need a cultural conversation about humanity and technology. Brain rot is real. [02:45:01] Deterioration of a person's intellect from overconsumption of online material considered trivial or unchallenging. The word of the year. Book bans deny free speech and free thought. Bans are anti-democratic and anti-evidence. [02:45:20] Knowledge is power. Is it so scary to just let kids read? Keep DEIA and SEL. Cancel racism, brain rot. and book bans. Thank you. [02:45:37] Thank you. The next speaker is Rithvik Amaragani. [02:45:51] The public speaker is unmuted. [02:46:17] Mr. Smith, do you want to give the speaker another minute? [02:46:34] We do not hear any audio coming from this public speaker. Okay. Moving on, we'll now move on to our in-person speakers. The first speaker is Anne Mulhall, followed by Zoe Koons. I'm here this evening to speak in opposition to the school renaming project. [02:47:07] Although I am very much aware of the intent of the project, which is to right a wrong, I believe that in renaming the schools, you're just erasing the past. You're not educating about the history of slavery in this country, and you can use the names of those schools as a springboard to do that. [02:47:26] If you erase the schools, the history's deleted. Nobody's going to learn anything from the injustice, and there's no opportunity for the students and the teachers to then discuss it. So rather than spend $1.2 million, and I think that's a gross underestimate of the cost, I would suggest that each year the school division use this as an opportunity to have lessons in the schools, to have those particular schools that have been designated have a permanent display in their entrance hallway. [02:48:05] Thank you. Okay. Next speaker is Zoe Koontz, followed by Edick Alleman. Hello, everybody. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. [02:48:21] My name is Zoe Koontz, and I am a sixth grader at Eagle Age Middle School and a former Hillside Hawk. I'm here tonight to urge the school board to approve the budget, which includes funding for 12 inclusive playgrounds next year. These playgrounds are for all children, including those with physical, sensory, and other disabilities. [02:48:38] By investing in these new playgrounds, the board will be making a long-term investment in the well-being and development of our community. The Hillside community has a playground that is very outdated and lacking the necessary equipment to meet the needs of a student body. In my sixth year at Hillside, I always wanted an updated playground. [02:48:55] Even though I am no longer there, I am so happy that my three younger siblings get to experience a new playground. Thank you for listening to our community and supporting our request. Thank you. The next speaker is Edith Alaman, followed by Olga Ikskoy. And I'll just, before the speaker starts, In accordance with policy 2520E, the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments. [02:49:22] One minute for the speaker, one minute for the translator. Thank you. [02:49:46] Vamos incluir en el presupuesto escolar actividades como deportes, artes y programas que impulsen el crecimiento acadรฉmico que les permiten desarrollar habilidades esenciales. Thank you. Hello, I'm the interpreter for Loudoun County Public Schools for Spanish. [02:50:03] Hello, good evening, school board representatives. My name is Eric Alemรกn, leader of the New Virginia majority and a mother of two children in Sterling Schools. We are here as parents to ask for your support in providing our children with free after-school programs. [02:50:21] We believe the children are the future of the nation, and we need to include in the school budget activities such as sports, arts, and other programs that promote their academic growth and allow them to develop essential skills. Thank you. [02:50:37] Thank you. The next speaker is Olga Ikskoy, followed by Bilkis Gutierrez. In accordance with policy 2520E, The next speaker is also being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments, one minute for the speaker, and one minute for the translator. [02:51:18] igualitarias para todos los niรฑos. Necesitamos programas gratuitos despuรฉs de la escuela que le permitan enfocarse en actividades productivas como deportes, creatividad y educaciรณn. Estos programas no solo brindan habilidades esenciales desde pequeรฑos, sino that also offer tranquility to families like mine, knowing that our children are learning and growing in a safe environment. [02:51:56] I ask for the inclusion of these programs. Excuse me, thank you. You're one minute, and then your translator gets one minute. Thank you. Okay, good evening. [02:52:13] My name is Olga. I'm a parent and member of New Virginia Majority. My children attend Frances Hazel Reed School in Leesburg, and I'm here to advocate for equal opportunities for all children. We need free and after-school programs that allow them to focus on productive activities such as sports, creativity, and education. [02:52:33] These programs not only provide essential skills for a young age, but also offer peace of mind to families like mine. knowing that our children are learning and growing in a safe environment. I request that these programs be guaranteed to be included in the school budget at no cost to working families in order to ensure the educational development of our children for a better future. [02:52:59] Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker will be Belkis Gutierrez, followed by Maritza Alvarez, in accordance with Policy 2520E. The next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments, One minute for the speaker and one minute for the translator. [02:53:49] hijos. Ellos enfrentan desafรญos emocionales y conductales en crecimiento y muchas veces sus habilidades no se desarrollan por falta de oportunidades. Solicitamos como autoridades escolares prioricen la mejora del sistema de recreaciรณn y actividades extracurriculares gratis despuรฉs de la escuela. Esto no solo fortalece su rendimiento acadรฉmico, sino [02:54:17] Hello, my name is Belkis. [02:54:33] I am a member of the new Virginia majority and mother and resident of Sterling. As parents, we always look out for the well-being of our children and strive to provide them with the best opportunities. We have gathered as a community to identify what is lacking in schools, and most of us agree, on the need for free programs that help the comprehensive development of our children. [02:54:54] They face emotional and behavioral challenges as they grow, and many times their skills do not develop due to lack of opportunities. We request that as school authorities you prioritize the improvement of the free recreation system and extracurricular activities after school. [02:55:12] This will not only strengthen their academic performance, but will also provide them with safe environment that will keep them away from problems such as drugs and will allow them to focus on their education and personal development. It is time to work together to provide students with quality education and opportunities and make them citizens prepared to serve and contribute for this nation. [02:55:34] Thank you. The next speaker is Maritza Alvarez, followed by Eric Canelas. In accordance with Policy 2520E, the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments, one minute for the speaker, and one minute for the translator. Good evening, everybody. [02:55:52] My name is Maritza. I'm Maritza, mother of family and a member of the New York City of Virginia. My children study in Sterling schools, and as a mother, I'm worried about drugs that affect the concentration and the development of our young people. [02:56:12] The Condado of London needs to improve and advance in educational programs that benefit our children, especially in comparison with other condados. It's time to work together to create equitable opportunities, improve educational spaces and support extracurriculars that include sports, arts, and academic efforts. [02:56:39] Although these programs exist, they are limited and costly. We need to guarantee free access because it should be a priority in the educational policies, ensuring that all children have the opportunity. [02:56:55] Hello, my name is Maritza. I'm a mother and member of the New Virginia Majority. My children attend school in Sterling, and as a mother, I'm concerned about the issues such as drugs affect the concentration and development of our youth. Loudoun County needs to improve and advance educational programs that benefit our children, especially compared to other counties. It is time to work together to create equitable opportunities, improve educational spaces, and support extracurricular programs that include sports, arts, and academic reinforcement. Although these [02:57:33] programs exist, they are limited and expensive. We need to guarantee free access because it should be a priority in educational policies ensuring that all children have the same opportunity for development and success. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Eric Canelas, followed by Mildred Perez, in accordance with policy 2520E. The next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments, one minute for the speaker, and one minute for the translator. Hola, buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Eric. Soy un miembro of Virginia, resident of Sterling. [02:58:12] As a father of family with two children in the school of Rowling Ridge, I want to express my concern to you as school authorities. In our community we face many challenges to give our children opportunities that promote their development in a creative environment and learning environment. For this, we ask that we open spaces of extracurriculars free after school, like sports and arts arts, among others. [02:58:35] These programs will not only promote an inclusive education and enriquecedora, sino que tambiรฉn ofrecerรกn un espacio seguro donde los estudiantes puedan crecer sanamente, desarrollar sus habilidades y mantenerse enfocados en un propรณsito positivo. Esto es clave para prevenir problemas como el uso de drogas y formar jรณvenes preparados y motivados a llegar a la high school. [02:58:54] Hagamos de la educaciรณn un verdadero motor de oportunidades para todos los estudiantes y importar su origen, idioma, gรฉnero, color, y mรกs importante, su clase social. Muchas gracias. Tambiรฉn tengo los reportes. Thank you. [02:59:15] reports on the programs that we need. Gracias. You'll want to send it to the back. To the back. Good evening. My name is Eric. I am a member of the New Virginia Majority and a resident of Sterling. As a parent with two children at Rolling Ridge Elementary School, I want to express my concern to you as school authorities. In our community, we face many challenges in providing our children with opportunities that foster their development in creative and learning environments. [02:59:47] Therefore, we request that space be open for free extracurricular programs after school, such as sports and artistic activities, amongst other. These programs will not only promote an inclusive and enriching education, but will also offer a safe space where students can grow, develop their skills, and stay focused on a positive purpose. [03:00:08] This is key to preventing issues such as drugs, use later on, and to forming prepared and motivated young people when they reach high school. Let us make education a true engine for opportunities for all students, regardless of the origin, language, gender, or color. [03:00:27] Thank you very much. Thank you. The next speaker is Mildred Perez, followed by Jose Irquizo. Hola, buenas noches. And before you start, I'm so sorry. In accordance with policy 2520E, the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted two minutes for their comments, one minute for the speaker, and one minute for the translator. Thank you. [03:01:12] En programas extracurriculares adicional a esto, los costos son muy altos en este condado. No hemos podido darle esa oportunidad. Pedimos como el resto esos programas extracurriculares que sean gratis de libre acceso. Nuestros hijos, que le permitan a nuestros hijos desarrollar habilidades en espacios creativos, deportivos y educativos. [03:01:34] Es fundamental garantizar a los estudiantes que tengan las mismas oportunidades de crecimiento y aprendizaje, independientemente de los recursos de sus familias. Muchas gracias. Hello, my name is Mildred. [03:01:50] I am the leader of the New Virginia Majority, a mother and resident of Leesburg. My daughter attends Catoctin Elementary School. As working-class families, we face constant challenges in meeting our basic needs, which limit our ability to provide our children with additional opportunities. [03:02:08] For example, although I would like to enroll my daughter in a sport or extracurricular program, The current costs in the county are very high, and we have not been able to provide her with that opportunity. Therefore, we ask our school authorities to include in the school budget free extracurricular programs for all schools in the county. [03:02:29] These programs will allow our children to develop skills in creative, athletic, and educational spaces. is essential to ensure that all students have the same opportunity for growth, learning, and regardless of the family's resources. Thank you very much. [03:02:45] - Thank you. The next speaker is Jose Urquizo, followed by Jordan Nugare. - Good evening, everyone. My name is Jose Urquizo. I've been a resident of London County for the last 30 years. [03:03:01] I have kids in the system, and I'm also a London County alumni. Graduated from part of '97. I lived in Sterling for this length. I'm here to advocate for the after-school programs. I run a small nonprofit. [03:03:18] They focus on free after-school programs in Sterling Park. And I have seen firsthand how much that helps, not only to the kids, to the families, but the administrative stuff in schools because it promotes good grades, good behavior. [03:03:33] Otherwise, they cannot get into these programs like mine. So I'm just here to help out and see what we need to do to get this funding for these programs because I believe it's a great opportunity to change things and improve community. [03:03:50] Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Jordan Nugere, followed by Emily Jackson. Good evening. My name is Jordan Nugere. [03:04:06] I'm a parent and athletic trainer here at LCPS. I sent each of you guys an email about a video of a high school volleyball player who suffered sudden cardiac arrest, thankfully survived because they had a medical professional present and on site to recognize and respond immediately. Unfortunately, we could see this type of scenario play out anywhere at our high schools. [03:04:26] Just this fall at Lowne Valley High School, you could find the athletic trainer providing medical care and coverage at football practice, while volleyball, field hockey, cheer, and cross-country all had practices going on spread across campus. If a cross-country runner went down with sudden cardiac arrest, that one athletic trainer may be busy attending to a football player at a totally different location. [03:04:47] My dad, Andre Nugray, former superintendent of Stafford County Public Schools, used to always say to me, Kids are our parents' most prized possession. We are trusted with taking care of them each day as if they're one of our own. That video I sent you guys is a constant reminder that you never know when a life or death situation could occur. [03:05:03] We need to be prepared to act immediately and correctly. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Emily Jackson, followed by Jennifer DiDonato. Jennifer DiDonato, followed by Anna DiDonato. [03:05:29] Hello, I'm Jennifer DiDonato, parent, SEAC member, and Hillside PTO. Thank you. [03:05:45] Thank you for listening to the parents, to the students and the teachers that raised the issue about the lack of inclusive playgrounds. Thank you for not only just listening, but researching, asking the good questions. You heard about the problems, you asked the right questions to confirm it, and then you requested and found a way to solve the problem. [03:06:06] This board has shown what it means to be a public servant. Thank you to LCPS for answering the questions, compiling more and more information requests during this process, presenting some potential solutions, and reworking the budget to present options to solve the need. [03:06:23] I appreciate so deeply everything you have done to get us to where we are today. I ask you to vote yes on a budget that includes inclusive playgrounds for Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools by 2028. Thank you. [03:06:39] - Thank you. Ms. Anna DiDonato followed by Joey DiDonato. - Hi, my name is Anna DiDonato. I'm in second grade at Hillside Elementary. [03:06:57] I wanted to come and thank the school board for supporting me and my friends by providing inclusive playgrounds for Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools. Soon I will be able to play with all my friends on the playground. [03:07:18] No one will be left out. You've taught me that my voice is powerful. You've shown me that you are here to help us, the students in LCPS, by listening to us and helping us. [03:07:38] Thank you so much, and please vote yes on a budget that includes inclusive playgrounds for Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools. Thank you. [03:07:54] Next is, please hold your applause as hard as it is. Next is Joey DiDonato, followed by Alex Bennett. Hi, my name is Joey DiDonato. I am in fifth grade at Hillside Elementary. [03:08:12] Thank you for supporting inclusive playgrounds at Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools. This will help all students be able to play together during recess. Thank you for listening to me and my friends when we told you about needing inclusive playgrounds. [03:08:35] Please vote yes on a budget that has inclusive playgrounds for Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Alex Bennett, followed by John Brewer. [03:08:55] Thank you. My name is Alex Bennett. I'm a teacher and an LEA member, and I thought my first speech in front of you shouldn't be negative and should be positive, so I want to talk about my experience dealing with Ms. Lauren Chernoff, a dedicated school member who has truly made a difference in our community and my life professionally. [03:09:19] What I found out about Ms. Chernoff is that in an era marked by tribalism, Lauren's ability to work across the aisle has been refreshing. Her efforts have not only brought about positive changes, but have fostered a sense of unity and collaboration among board members and community. [03:09:35] Lauren is pragmatic, honest, and always open to sharing her opinions, regardless of their popularity, which is commendable trade. She represents what's good about local government, and although I do not always agree with her decision-making, she is always willing to listen to her constituents. [03:09:50] Lauren embodies the value of transparency, collaboration, and dedication. She's a true asset to our community, and I'm grateful for her service. Her commitment to improving our schools and supporting educators like me is truly commendable. Thank you. The next speaker is John Brewer, followed by Sophie Webb. [03:10:12] Good evening. As Loudoun County's longest tenured principal and the principal at Dominion High School, a school that has more students attending it on special permission than any other in the division, I come to ask you to support changes on behalf of my colleagues, not just myself, to Policy 8155. [03:10:36] This policy, of course, was adopted in 1970, and when I became principal at Dominion, it did not include any language about special permission. That came along in 2010. Over the past 14 years, several unintended consequences of this process have affected the quality of educational experiences for many of our students, including some schools being overcrowded because of the deadlines that are very late in the process. [03:11:03] Your changes tonight include moving those deadlines forward and reducing the threshold for over-enrolled schools. The drain on resources at schools that are losing students to special permission is a tangible challenge and congestion at the receiving schools, not just inconvenient, but dangerous. [03:11:21] Thank you. The next speaker is Sophie Webb, followed by Haley Smith. Hi, my name is Sophie Webb, and I'm a student athlete and a student helper who works closely with our school's athletic trainer. [03:11:39] Every day after school, over 1,000 students at LCPS High School depend on a single athletic trainer for medical care. I've seen lines quickly form outside the athletic training room for injury and concussion evaluations, treatment, taping, rehab, and return-to-play decisions. [03:11:55] While managing current injuries, athletic trainers must also support multiple teams across a large campus. Often leaving treatments unfinished to run between venues, one person simply cannot be everywhere. And this past spring, with 27 days of overlapping competitions, the limitations of having just one athletic trainer made it nearly impossible to provide adequate care and underscoring the urgent need for additional support. [03:12:19] I've watched our athletic trainer handle emergencies, sometimes with only seconds to act for life-threatening situations like sudden cardiac arrest. Every moment matters. The goal is to respond in under three minutes, but that's nearly impossible when they're on the opposite side of campus or managing another emergency. As someone who sees the daily challenges, I... [03:12:36] Thank you. Next speaker is Haley Smith, followed by Stephen Meyer. Good evening. My name is Haley Smith. [03:12:51] I'm an athletic administrator from Tuscarora High School. I come before you, as others have, to stress the importance of having a second athletic trainer at all schools, not just some. At a site as vast as Tuscarora High School, our athletics facilities are spread out across our campus, which causes great strain if we only have one athletic trainer on site. [03:13:11] I can recall one instance where we had a broken elbow at baseball while a sprained ankle occurred on the turf field followed by an injury to the face occurring at softball. Even with that amount of action, we at Tuscarora are not unique. In fact, at the high school level in LCPS, there were 27 days with multiple competitions occurring across multiple venues at the same time, and yet there was just one certified athletic trainer covering and caring for the home and away athletes a majority of the time. As time has shown us, LCPS is only growing and new sports are going to be added. We need to make sure that we are taking care of our athletes by making sure they're receiving equitable treatment and access to certified athletic trainers. Thank you. Thank you. [03:13:49] The next speaker is Stephen Meyer, followed by Aaron Dunbar. Kudos to the school board for your efforts to ensure that we have inclusive playgrounds in a timely fashion. It's a big win. [03:14:05] Not only will students with disabilities have appropriate playground equipment and be able to play with their non-disabled peers, but the latter will be given a unique chance to learn empathy and understanding and the ability to make new types of friends by playing with their peers with disabilities. Please keep this in the budget. I also want to thank Dr. Spence, Tedra Richardson, Dr. Carter, Jenna Arndt and her staff and the school board, especially Carrie LaBelle, for your efforts to put a new transition center for students with IEPs in the proposed budget. [03:14:38] it's a foundational support that will provide huge successes for so many. I urge you to keep that in the budget as well. Thank you. The next speaker is Erin Dunbar followed by Emily Brandon. [03:15:02] In May when Ms. LaBelle suggested that LCPS stop funding buses for Loudoun students to attend TJ, she was told this wouldn't be equitable. Dr. Rashid addressed this again at the November 12th meeting during the transportation update and at the subsequent meeting we learned that LCPS also pays Fairfax nearly $8 million in tuition. Loudoun families are struggling with bus shortages, teacher shortages for special education, and lunchroom staff shortages due to budget cuts, yet LCPS allocates nearly $8 million for tuition and over $2 million for transportation so students from Loudoun can attend a Fairfax County school. What isn't equitable is Loudoun taxpayers having to pay over $10 million of their tax money annually just so 400 Loudoun students can attend a school [03:15:39] in Fairfax. The equitable solution will be that students attend one of the many special programs offered in our county, or parents can foot the bill for TJ, or move to Fairfax County so their kids can attend their tuition free. To me, this is a clear misuse of funds, and I highly encourage the board to phase out this agreement. Thank you. The next speaker is Emily Brandon, followed by [03:16:02] Raymond Farrell. Raymond Farrell, followed by Chris Countryman. [03:16:32] Good evening, Ray Farrell, Round Hill, Virginia. Please don't change the name of Mercer Middle School. To the average citizen, it's obvious what's going on here. The Loudon Race bullies have taken down the statues and street names, and now they're looking under every rock and in the shadows for more imagined offenses. Unfortunately, they've chosen Mercer Middle School for their next meal. The name is no connection to racism and is not named for anyone in particular. This is just a big nothing burger served up on a platter for us to choke on just in time for the holidays. We must stop pretending that these race bullies are credible. They distract us from what is good. They deplete [03:17:11] precious taxpayer resources. They physically confront and harass conservative school board members who disagree with them, and they foment hate and division in our community. Please end the virtue signaling, and don't waste our money on this farce. In closing, I want to congratulate President Donald J. Trump and the American people for this amazing presidential victory. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Chris Countryman, followed by Sandy Sullivan. [03:17:42] Good evening. I always enjoy sharing updates with you, but tonight it takes it to a whole new level. Last week, the exclusive bargaining agent election ran from December 2nd to December 6th. [03:17:58] The election results showed overwhelming support for LEA representation. LEA received 90.61% of the votes from non-certified employees and 95.95% of the votes from certified employees. I'm looking forward to strengthening our partnership with the board, the superintendent, and administration to drive positive change for LCPS employees. [03:18:25] This is a significant win for Loudoun County Public Schools. This will not only help us attract and retain quality teachers and support staff, but it will ultimately benefit our students and in the end strengthen the school division. Thank you. [03:18:40] Thank you. The next speaker is Sandy Sullivan followed by Corey Brunet. No more Loudon. It's time. No more listing how many years, months, weeks, days. Good evening. I'm Sandy Sullivan, a third grade teacher, a director on the on the board of the Loudon Education and a broad run resident. [03:19:07] Now we can celebrate the hard work of educators, leaders, and elected officials who believed in and worked toward gaining collective bargaining for LCPS educators. Certified employees and classified employees, Loudoun Education Association members and non-LEA members resoundedly voted for Loudoun Education Association to be their bargaining agent. [03:19:30] We just await the certification of the election in the coming days. Now your educators will be a formal part of decision-making in LCPS, all to better student learning environments and educator working conditions. Let's celebrate this critical and long-coming success, and let's get to work. [03:19:47] Thank you. The next speaker is Corey Brunet, followed by Tracy Snyder. Good evening. My name is Corey Brunet, and I'm an English learner teacher at Broad Run High School. I invite you to ask LCPS staff what the turnover rate is at each school in the county and be specific as to job families, custodians, office staff, counselors, teachers, administrators, teacher assistants, and cafeteria workers. We have schools with over 50% turnover. This is bad for [03:20:22] our students and should be a priority. This is also bad for a school's community because parents and students expect their educators to be there from one year to the next. Once you have identified the schools with the worst turnover, start asking the uncomfortable but necessary question, why? Why do some schools have very high retention rates year after year and others do not? [03:20:44] And then ask the next uncomfortable but necessary question, what is LCPS doing about it? Why does LCPS leave schools with high turnover rates alone instead of intervening? LCPS will never outperform its educators. Thank you. The next speaker is Tracy Snyder followed by Denver Singleton. [03:21:06] Good evening, I'm Tracy Snyder, a parent to Loudoun County High School students. I'm here to support the appeal for two athletic trainers at each of the high schools. For the past six years, I've proudly supported my two student-athletes at Loudoun County. [03:21:24] I have come to deeply appreciate the dedication and hard work of our athletic trainer. However, when I learned the scope of their responsibilities, I was astounded. One trainer is responsible for the well-being of over 1,100 students. It's simply unreasonable to expect a single person to provide adequate care for so many. [03:21:40] In the fall, a trainer is tasked with covering up eight venues at the same time. This number doubles in the spring. This level of demand places both the trainer and our children in an untenable situation. My children both play football, and that often takes precedence, but it's disheartening to know that other athletes are left without the attention they deserve. [03:21:59] This is not acceptable. I believe many parents are unaware of how over-stripped athletic trainers are. While no one can guarantee safety, it's the responsibility of the school system to provide consistent, equitable resources for all students. Thank you. The next speaker is Denver Singleton, followed by Chase Adams. [03:22:20] Good evening. My name is Denver Singleton. I'm a senior at Riverside High School. I play three different sports, one each of the seasons, and I'm here to talk about why we should have two athletic trainers in every single school. To start off, you've heard many reasons of why there's lots of stress on these trainers and how there's so many things running around for them to do, but I want to tell you how it will help everyone else in the school. [03:22:41] First off, athletes, not only will they be helped physically, but also when it comes to school. I personally have suffered three concussions in the last year. My athletic trainer helped me get through those concussions and make it so I could go back into my school day every morning, learning in the best way possible. Also, concussions aside, students often focus more on their athletic side of school than the actual learning part. [03:23:03] They focus on these things all day, and it can sometimes hold them back during the school day. Having two athletic trainers can help make sure that every student is talked to and seen and learns all these things. As well, I'm an older brother, and I want my younger siblings to be able to play sports and have fun without being worried about their own mental and physical health every single day. [03:23:19] Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Chase Adams, followed by Carrie Adams. So we've recorded it. I hope that's okay. [03:23:42] You okay, bud? Do you want to come closer? All right, we're just going to play. Chase Adams, I am in first grade at Little River Elementary. [03:23:59] My school does not have a playground that I could use my wheelchair on, so I can't play with my friends at recess. [03:24:17] I want to say thank you for speeding up the plan to get my school a new playground sooner. I can't wait to play with my friends on the playground every day. [03:24:36] Thank you. We have to hold the applause. I know it's really hard. You guys can't. We have to hold the applause. [03:24:52] Thank you. Carrie Adams followed by Shahnaz Khan. So that was my son Chase, who I've been talking to all about all year. I wanted to bring him here tonight to show you my why. Chase is my why for pretty much everything that's happened in the past six years. I'm going to cry. [03:25:08] My entire life trajectory changed from his diagnosis day when I was 20 weeks pregnant. Like so many parents with kiddos like mine, our lives have come with a lot of extra obstacles that we face head on. Constant battles to get our kids' basic needs met or treatments they require. And it's hard work, but as you can see, they're worth every bit of the fight. [03:25:25] So I want to sincerely thank all of you for hearing our cries for inclusion and accessibility for our kiddos, for making these swift changes to acknowledge a fault in our school's inclusion. Chase deserves to play every day like his able-bodied classmates and never be left behind and I'm so grateful to you all for recognizing this and taking the appropriate actions to expedite this disparity that exists in their play spaces. [03:25:46] Your actions with this plan will have lifelong impacts on these kiddos and I thank you for your persistence and attention in making it happen. Please vote yes on this budget. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next speaker is Shahnaz Khan followed by Liz Crotty. [03:26:10] Good evening. I wanted to begin by sincerely thanking you all for your time, dedication, and commitment to supporting our students with disabilities. I truly appreciate all the effort and multiple work sessions that went into creating the current CIP budget. [03:26:26] I am truly grateful for your commitment to funding inclusive playgrounds and accelerating their implementation so every child can play and grow with their peers, for prioritizing independent living labs in our middle and high schools, which will help our students build essential life skills and for your efforts to establish a transition center under special programs giving students the tools they need to develop valuable skills and make meaningful contributions to the community. These initiatives were desperately needed and your work is truly appreciated. I am excited to continue this collaboration and look forward to making our [03:27:03] vision for the transition center a reality. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Liz Crotty followed by Daniel Meyer. Good evening, Chair Mansfield, Vice Chair Struffy, and fellow members of the board. SEAC would like to express our most sincere and profuse thanks for all for your care and concern for our students with disabilities. Throughout this process, we have been so heartened by your determination to make Loudoun County a place of inclusion and opportunity for all students. [03:27:43] We are very mindful that these are huge efforts and that they would not be possible without the countless hours that have been and will be spent by staff to make our dreams a reality. We look forward with great excitement and anticipation to our continued partnership to create the Transition Center and to see our students experience the delights and growth that will result from inclusive playgrounds. [03:28:07] Thank you all for truly making a difference today. Thank you. The next speaker is Daniel Meyer, followed by Vashis Surampali. Vashis Surampali, followed by Tom Ketchum. [03:28:30] Tom Ketchum. Good evening, I'm Tom Ketchum. [03:28:48] 19 months ago, we had a public comment come to SEAC regarding the lack of inclusive features in our playgrounds. That evening, I met with Liz Crotty, the chairperson of SEAC, and we began a project to go out and research and develop a set of recommendations around inclusive playgrounds. [03:29:07] Over these last 19 months, I really have to commend the staff, the administration, and the school board for the unbelievable cooperation and hard work that everyone has put into this project. [03:29:23] It will pay dividends for years to come, not only for my own children, but for children that have yet to even be born into this county. I have great admiration for what LCPS is doing. I think we are not only leading our commonwealth, we are leading our nation in this regard. [03:29:40] So I just simply want to say thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this evening. Thank you all for coming out today and providing your public comment. Board members at this time will take a short recess and reconvene. 805. [03:33:54] 0. 01. [03:39:53] The first one is Finance and Operations Committee contract award for modulars. Vice Chair Streffi, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the contract award of IFB 24-535 Light Ridge High School and Potomac Falls High School modulars to S-Works Construction Corporation in the amount of $1,935,905.96 and authorizes the Chair of the School Board to sign the final contract documents upon presentation. [03:40:29] I have a motion by Vice Chair Streffi. Do I have a second? Second. I think that was Ms. Donoghue, a second by Ms. Donoghue. Vice Chair Struffy, would you like to first speak to your motion? Yes, Madam Chair. This item was brought to the Finance and Operations Committee in our last meeting last week. [03:40:49] And this motion passed to send to the full board. And it aims to address the high school seat shortages in both Dulles South and Eastern Loudoun. And staff has recommended the placement of modular classrooms at Lightridge High School and Potomac Falls High School. [03:41:09] And I will defer to Mr. Pasquarelli for any additional context. [03:41:27] No additional comments. I'll take any questions you may have. Board members, are there any questions or any more discussion? Okay. Guess not. Seeing no discussion, we'll go ahead and vote on the motion. [03:41:46] Clerk, please open the vote. [03:41:56] Board members, will you please record your vote? Clerk, would you please close and display your vote? And that motion passes 8 to 1 with Mrs. Griffiths in opposition. [03:42:17] We'll move on to 13.02, Department of Support Services, Superintendent's Recommended Fiscal Year 2026 and 2031, Capital Improvement Program and Capital Asset Preservation Program Budgets presented, I guess, by Mr. Kevin Lewis. [03:42:36] But first, I'd like to entertain a motion. Do I have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we have two recommended actions for this item. Do we want to put it in discussion? [03:42:58] Mr. Lewis, you want to provide more information first, please? Thank you, Chair Mansfield. The first motion is essentially recording the actions or the conversations that we've had in the past. And so we're recommending it recommends adoption of the superintendent's recommended CIP as has been amended over the past couple of weeks at the November, October 22nd, November 12th, November 19th and December 2nd meeting. [03:43:27] So what that means is you're voting on the changes we've made up into the green sheet that you have there. The second motion is if you were to make any adjustments tonight, it just adds word as amended. All right, I'll entertain a base motion. [03:43:52] Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the superintendent's recommended FY2026 through FY2031 Capital Improvement Program and Capital Asset Preservation Program, including the capital facility planning guidelines as presented on October 22nd, 2024, and subsequently updated on November 12th, 2024, November 19th, 2024, and December 2nd, 2024, and submit the same to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors for the review in action. [03:44:19] I have a motion by Vice Chair Struffy. Do I have a second? I second. Okay, I missed that. Dr. Rasheed, was that you? All right, that was fast. It's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. [03:44:38] Thank you, Madam Chair. Now, per your updates, I'm just trying to understand here what exactly was changed from the previous. Can you just clarify that for me? And then I just wanted to mention something. [03:44:53] Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for that question. So the green sheet that was handed out, and you looked at it the last time, the only difference between the green sheet that you have tonight and the one you had at the last meeting was we went back and added the second column, which is the page number reference, if you were looking for that reference in the CIP, and also the fourth column, which was the school board priority column. [03:45:16] Other than that, the numbers have all stayed the same. If you then go under the columns that are surrounded by year one, you see that the FY26 recommended CIP needs base. So that was the original CIP, the superintendent's CIP, that was superintendent's recommended CIP. [03:45:36] At the November 12th meeting, which is the next column over, you see that it was shaded in brown. You'll see there that the changes that were made in the critical systems renewals, the property and land acquisition, and you'll see those are shaded in that same color as you go down the press boxes and softball and baseball fields and then the walking tracks. [03:45:58] So those changes were made at the November 12 meeting. At the December 2nd meeting, we made the same columns. And you see that's shaded in a little bit darker green. So the changes that were made based on our conversation, which includes the funding of the playgrounds, are highlighted in that darker green. [03:46:14] So you can see the playgrounds, school bus, and the school nutrition equipment, they were reduced to provide the extra funding for the playgrounds. So that is, and what we do, and you see at the bottom, both of those columns were a zero budget, zero difference. [03:46:30] So we've accomplished our goal by having the CIP meet the preliminary conversations and guidance we've been given by the county. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. So as far as priorities, am I looking, I mean, it looks like page numbers. [03:46:51] From your presentation, recovery school was like number two. So is it still high up on priority? So if you look at the green sheet, on the far left-hand column, you see line number 41, which coincides with page number 49, and you read across there, and you'll see that the school board priority scored 80 points. [03:47:17] And so that's the priority thing, and then I think the highest number was 90, so that did put it in second place as far as the school board's priority exercise that we did that helped us develop the CIP that you see today. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. [03:47:33] Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I mean, as far as what you've provided, and I thank you for that, I was going by also your presentation, slide 16. I feel like we were putting stickers on a poster board. [03:47:51] I didn't feel like, you know, we were really looking, really giving a good look to all the priorities. And when I say that, I mean renovations of the school, of our school should be number one. Honestly, I was never for the recovery school or bathroom renovations or conversions. [03:48:07] I'm probably the only one on this board that is against the recovery school and bathroom renovations. But not only should money go to renovations, but a transition center is also needed. Transition center should be number two on the priorities list, and playgrounds should not be number five. [03:48:24] I know you will say it's the will of the board, but I personally did not vote for this particular order of importance that you have listed from slide 16 and your presentation um and in fact i've been consistently bringing up schools and much needed renovations as you know um i had mentioned guilford and sully before but now i have another issue with one of my schools where they need bleachers um you know we need to discuss how much that would cost but um i i feel like you know with with sanders corner that school is over almost 30 years old and they have a safety hazard so I'm just trying to figure [03:49:03] out where that would fit in here because I think that renovations are of the utmost importance I'm not against playgrounds or anything like that I just wanted renovations number one so if you can let me know let everyone know you know if it's the utmost importance to you as far is renovations of the schools and replacing and items that need to be replaced and maintenance can we discuss that quickly so if i'm understanding your request i guess the one thing i'll say is [03:49:41] that over time what we have done is the superintendent's recommended cip came to this board in in october as a recommendation for the plans and projects that we believe were of the priority order and so we do believe we have a good plan in place we have a plan for renovations and replacement that you'll see that on line 44 and you'll see that we're starting that in FY26 and then we have 11 million dollars more coming in FY29 and so those projects as we've talked about a number of times a significant capital project takes a number of years of planning so we do believe that we are addressing that those renewals at this point there are no dollars if [03:50:20] you look at line 41 and 42 there are no dollars in the first six years for the recovery school or for the restroom conversions. And so at this point, we believe we've done our very best to capture the information that the board has provided us and we have a plan here. [03:50:38] And if board members want to make changes to that, we're prepared to have that conversation. But right now we do believe it addresses those priorities as best we possibly can with the funds that are available. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Mrs. Griffiths, do you have a motion? [03:50:53] My motion would be to reorder the importance of some of these items. You know, I was, again, referring to slide 16 from your presentation, where it had independent living labs first, recovery school, school renovation was number three. [03:51:14] And to be honest, I'm still not understanding the point system. I know we put stickers on a board, but I'm not totally there with the point system. and then you know as far as playgrounds that everybody has been asking for they dropped to 45 points so that's it's kind of low on the list so I'm just trying to understand you know as far as the budget's concerned what is going to what is going to get taken care of first that that's I guess my question to you so the items that are on the green sheet that are listed in FY 26 are [03:51:53] the projects that will be funded in this coming fiscal year. And then the others from FY27 through FY31 will be done in successive years. But remember that the board has the opportunity to revisit those numbers each year. So next year you will be focused on FY27, where this year you're focused on FY26. The information on slide 16, and I have that open here from the last presentation, was one that we've seen and the purpose of that slide was to capture feedback we got from this board so you all gave that information and from that document and from that information we built [03:52:31] what you see on the green sheet so changing the order on the priority list if that were the board's choice doesn't really change the green sheet or the project list or the cost for that for this year yes mrs griffith thank you madam i have one ask um you know you have high up on the list here energy conservation and efficiency projects maybe moving that money out but keeping everything else that is my motion if I need to make a motion on that I can do that but I think what you have here on the green sheet at the top is fine but I'd like to move the energy and conservation [03:53:09] and efficiency projects out that's it looks to me to be 12 million okay so you would like to make a motion to get rid of the 12 million dollars for the energy conservation efficiency projects madam chair hold on yes just ask a clarifying question is that to remove that from the capital improvement plan or is it to move it to another part of the capital improvement plan i'm not understanding move it lower because we just said like the point system here doesn't really matter [03:53:45] as far as the the actual projects that are here so i i don't know that for lack of a better word fixating on the priority of those points is going to be helpful at this point i mean if you want to move 12 million dollars out you're going to try and put it somewhere else fine but that's what they and and we can vote on that my understanding um so and then you might want to add it somewhere [03:54:21] else I mean that's the other and could I just add a little bit of additional context just a reminder from the beginning of this conversation when we started so the number that you see at the bottom which is the total recommendation the 129 million 760 thousand dollars which is the sum of each of these projects is based on what we anticipate to be available based on county guidance for capital projects and so when we were making adjustments to you know for example from November 12th to [03:54:56] December 2nd those adjustments were made within that number so you know kind of always trying to get to the same bottom line and that's why I'm asking this question so if we with 12 million dollars if you want to move it are you saying that you would want to see the bottom line reduced to 117 or would are you interested in moving that to another project and if if it's another project if you just offer clarity on that I think that would be the substance of the motion? I would like to move it to another project. I mean, as far as playgrounds go, I think [03:55:34] we were proposing three a year. If you moved it to playgrounds, I mean, you'd certainly have the money there. You could certainly move it around to other areas besides that as well. Just taking a quick look, I feel like it could go to so many other areas and not to energy and conservation efficiency projects i'm not sure why it's a priority why it's up there there's so many other priorities that we have some mrs griffiths if you would just go ahead and make a motion for that 12 [03:56:08] million dollars to do some you know take it out of an energy and or and and figure other place out while you're figuring that out i'm going to allow miss shirnoff to did you want to speak i just wanted to claire ask a question um in regards to what miss griffiths is discussing the priorities was an exercise for you all to take feedback from us about things we might want you all to consider and figure out within the budget. And several of those high priority items don't even have money allotted to them this year due to state funding and other things. So I think it's important that we refocus on the recommended FY26 column and really look at which items are assigned. [03:56:48] And then the order of items 1 to 52, it's just a working order of different categories, not priorities. It's just a list, if you will, of the different areas across sustainment, new capacity, and improvement. [03:57:07] If you could just clarify that for us, I think that might be helpful. I can, I guess in terms of clarification, I can agree with everything you said. I think you explained it very well. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Does that help, Ms. Griffiths? It does. I think there are so many other areas that $12 million could go. [03:57:27] We need to re-evaluate that column. Vice Chair Streffi. On the note around energy conservation efficiency projects, I remember multiple times having discussed this in work sessions, Mr. Lewis, and maybe you can just kind of summarize. [03:57:47] We went through graphs and talked about the gains in terms of efficiencies and cost savings related to those efforts. Maybe if there's a way you can kind of summarize why this is in here and just kind of bring us back to the topics that we already discussed. Yes, and thank you, Mr. Ostreffi. [03:58:05] I appreciate the question. And so one of the things we did is, as I wanted to share too with the board, the only thing that's new tonight in the CIP presentation is the list of questions, the running Q&A questions, and questions from the December 2nd work session begin with number 22, and I think that's on page 12 of 18. [03:58:26] But specific to these questions about the energy conservation programs were both asked by Mrs. Griffith and Chair Mansfield at the last meeting, and so those are captured on questions number 26 and 27, beginning on page 14. [03:58:44] And so we've tried to take an opportunity, because we know there were a lot of questions, and there was some confusion about what these projects are, why they're important. And so we wanted to share that, you know, this is a multiple-year project, and so we have many projects listed under that. [03:59:00] They include many things of replacement of certain components and infrastructure. Those also get mixed in with our other replacement projects, so part of the CAV and part of the other CIP where we're replacing things at the end of the life. But we have an opportunity to not only replace the components or these systems, but replace them with energy conserving equipment or things that are better for the environment. [03:59:24] So we get two bangs for that one buck. They include things like LED lighting systems. And, you know, it amazes me. Just yesterday I was stopped in the hallway by a staff member that talked about how impactful the LED lighting changeouts in our schools and in other buildings are and how they change the environment and the interior environment where our students are learning, our teachers are teaching, and so those are very impactful from the environmental part, from just the space that these folks are in, in addition to the fact that they save a great deal [03:59:58] of energy. In this same category, we have the solar panels that are a significant part of this plan, but not the whole part of the energy conservation line item in the budget, and I do, And I know we've talked about it several times, the 2020 resolution for climate action that the previous board did. [04:00:21] But I just wanted to point out that one of those tenets was that the commitment to safety, well-being, and future success of all children in our community demands a high priority of reducing our carbon footprint through decisions regarding the capital improvement, energy use, transportation, and other things under the board's control. [04:00:39] So we took that, staff took that language out of that as a mandate to create a program to manage our systems and provide energy conservation projects, reducing our carbon footprint, reducing our demand for energy, reducing the cost that we spend for that. [04:00:57] So there's been a number of questions about have we been able to identify how much savings we would actually get from that. And Ms. Chandler, you asked me that specifically as well. And so, you know, one of the things is in that question, the answer to that question you see there, where the solar panels, we have 21 schools right now that are either already installed and contributing power to the grid or power to our school, or they're in the process of being installed in this next 12 months. [04:01:24] We've invested $17 million in those things with a simple payback of 17 years. So what does that mean? That means that we've spent $17 million to install these panels, and they will pay for themselves in half the amount of time that they're there. [04:01:40] So they are generating enough electricity to pay for the installation costs in half of their life. They're expected to last 30 to 35 years, but they'll be paid for in 17 years. So from year 17 on, that's free power we're getting that we're not paying for. [04:01:55] As another perspective, that allows us to pay the electrical bill for 10 of our elementary schools. If you want to put that in context, so we're not going to be paying for energy use out of 10 of our schools. So we're seeing an immediate feedback, immediate cost savings, in addition to the reduction of our carbon footprint and the reduction of our energy use. [04:02:17] Reminding the board that this county is in a huge deficit for power with all of our data systems and all that. You know, all the power companies are struggling to be able to find a way to provide that generation, and we're contributing to that. I think I don't have it right in front of me, six or eight megawatts of power to do that. [04:02:33] Also add that every time the cost of a kilowatt of power goes up, our savings go up because we're not paying for that because we're generating ourselves and we're not buying that off the line. I mentioned already the LED lighting retrofits. [04:02:49] We've done those at 32 schools. They have a payback of 32 years, which will pay for themselves in that same amount of time. And then we did add reference to ground source heat pumps. We've had those in three schools. Sometimes they're referred to as geothermal systems. We have them in three. [04:03:05] We have six more underway. They are expected to have a 60-year life cycle. And during that period of time, those nine wells will save us $140 million. So we're seeing that immediate impact over the years from 1993 until today. [04:03:21] We've saved $125.8 million. A little bit of reference there, it cost us $117 million to build Watson Mountain. So our energy programs have saved enough money to build a middle school in that 30-year period. And so trying to give a little bit of context to that, the bottom line is we built what we believe is a robust program to manage and maintain our facilities. [04:03:43] We have 100 beautiful schools that have great learning environments to show for that investment over time. We made it better by establishing sustainable, energy-efficient and environmental considerations. We're saving dollars and we're saving power. [04:04:00] we're reducing our carbon footprint and we're following clear direction given by the board to do all those things on there so and lastly I'll just say we're we're showing our students and our staff we're setting an example for that as far as environmental leadership and environmental literacy and so for all those things we believe it's a very important program and these projects are the ones that help us get there and continue to make those strides in our savings thank you for that opportunity thank you mr. Lewis yeah thank you madam chair um you know I've heard uh you [04:04:39] mentioned the led lights and um I don't know if you have specific costs on what we've spent on the led lights if it's listed uh anywhere where I can find it um and also how much have you spent to date on solar panels um is it a mandate that we lower our carbon footprint Yes, ma'am. [04:05:02] We believe it is. The resolution that the board in 2020 took was a mandate for us to make efforts to reduce that carbon footprint. So we believe from a staff perspective, we've been guided by the board, albeit the previous board, to do that. The numbers you just asked about are in the answer to 27, where we spent $17 million on the solar panels at 21 schools, and we spent $14 million on the lighting retrofits. [04:05:28] And that's on page 16. i guess um i understand where you're going with that with the energy conservation but i think 12 million can go to better areas as far as as i mentioned renovations and that sort of thing the transition center even money can go towards that 12 million can go towards that i just think our money the money could be spent in better areas than energy conservation at this [04:06:04] time so if I need to make a motion I will do that. Now's the time to make that motion. I'd like to make a motion to move the energy and conservation and efficiency projects of 12 million out of the CIP budget reducing reducing the budget by 12 million. You want to reduce the entire budget by 12 million? Well I want to reduce that section I want to reduce 12 million. And you're not going to [04:06:39] replace it anywhere well i think reducing it taking it out because it was already accounted for we can put it somewhere else correct tonight as the board adopts the cip then those projects would be set and so this is your opportunity to identify where they go okay so um i already mentioned renovations but also um you know it could go towards playgrounds it could go towards a transition center um i see you don't have um anything listed for the transition center yet [04:07:10] it's blank um so it can certainly go there mrs griffiths i'm going to need specific uh amounts and where you want to go with those amounts well i would have to i would have to split the 12 billion um you know i don't know you know what it would cost to add more playgrounds um and then putting the rest uh for the transition center mr griffith may there is five million dollars planned [04:07:46] for the transition center in FY27 and we don't believe there would be an opportunity to spend dollars in the FY26 on the transition center as we are still looking for a site. All right I guess I was thinking maybe hold it for the transition center but as of right now whatever renovations need to be done on our schools and you know add it to the playgrounds I mean it's not gonna I don't know what the exact cost is fully off the top of my head to add all the the playgrounds that are needed but it could be added there as well i just think that um on this list seeing energy and [04:08:25] conservation um i think our constituents would rather see the money go somewhere else and and not to energy projects mrs griffiths again i'm going to have to ask that you give me like so we have 12 million dollars out of the energy and i need you really to like like and now's the time to make the amendment to go and say i want this amount of money in playgrounds i want this amount amount of money for renovations that's kind of what I'm asking you to do okay so if I were to split the the 12 million okay so you put what four million towards the playgrounds right you put four [04:09:03] million towards CTE programs or CTE renovations you could put four million towards the fine arts department um and one more yeah i think that all right so all right so mrs griffith's motion is to take 12 million out of the energy conservation and then put 4 million into the playgrounds [04:09:34] put 4 million into the cte renovations and 4 million into the what was the other one fine arts the fine arts thank you okay i have a motion by mrs griffiths do i have a second second i have a second by Ms. Donahue. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing no discussion, we'll go ahead and [04:10:04] take a vote on Mrs. Griffith's amendment to take $12 million out of energy, and then you guys heard the rest, right? Okay. Clerk, will you please open the vote? Board members, would you [04:10:25] please record your vote? [04:10:50] Clerk, would you please close and display the vote? That amendment does not pass one to eight with Dr. Deans, Ms. Chandler, Ms. Mansfield, Mr. Shrefi, Ms. Donahue, Ms. Sharnoff, Dr. Rashid, and Ms. LaBelle in opposition. So we'll go back to the base motion. Is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we'll go ahead and vote. Would you please? Yeah, so we're voting [04:11:24] on the initial base motion. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, would you please go ahead and vote. Clerk, would you please close and display the vote. And that motion passes 8 to 1 with Mrs. Griffiths in opposition. Okay, so we will now go to, I'm lost. Okay, item 13. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. 13.03, Human Resources and Talent Development Committee, revisions to [04:12:03] Policy 7301, licensed staff. Mrs. Griffiths, do you have a motion? I do. I'd like to speak to it um per policy 7301 it's a short policy that requires proper certifications issued to issued by the board of education to teach our to teach in our schools miss boland um in case you want to add anything to it um make a motion to put this forward i'm happy to add some additional [04:12:38] context um if if the board will recall we brought back uh this this policy 7301 licensed staff as an action item this evening to allow the SEAC committee an opportunity to provide feedback. There was one item that I do have further information if the board is interested, and that was in regards to the request to possibly define the word temporary in speaking about temporary employees. And just for additional information, it's centered mostly [04:13:16] around this definition and the need to get qualified trained and licensed teachers in the classrooms of the highest needs for students temporary teaching assignments are defined in the virginia code as a temporarily employed teacher as used in this section means one who is employed to substitute for a contracted teacher for a temporary period of time the contracted teacher's absence or one who is employed to fill a teacher vacancy for a period of time but for no longer than 90 teaching days in such vacancy unless otherwise approved by the [04:13:55] superintendent of public instruction or on a case-by-case basis during the school year and just for the board's awareness since the 2020-21 school year VDOE has waived the 90-day clause to the teacher shortage due to the teacher shortage and the impact of the pandemic on the supply of qualified teachers. VDOE has yet to communicate anything further about reinstating this original length and as such HRTD does not recommend defining temporary in the policy since [04:14:29] Virginia code already defines a temporary employee. Additionally for awareness LCPS has also created and supported alternative pathways to licensure through its college partnerships, teacher-cadet program partnerships with contracted agencies and the new tuition assistance initiatives. [04:14:52] These methods have helped alleviate the lack of qualified candidates by building deeper supply pools for hiring managers and departments. Our current fill rate for this has been hovering around 99% for all licensed positions across the division which is the highest average rate post-pandemic and therefore we do not recommend any additional changes to what we brought forth. Thank you Ms. [04:15:20] Boland. Ms. Griffiths do you have a motion? I do. I'd like to make a motion to put forward policy number 7301 licensed staff. I have a motion by Mrs. Griffiths. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Ms. Chernoff. The motion has been properly moved and seconded. Do we have, since we've already spoken to the motion, is there any other discussion through board? I was wondering, is there any way we can just put that code that you said, Mrs. Boland, in there just as [04:15:54] a reference, or would that make us, I mean, just as a reference at the end? So we can absolutely reference the code, cross-reference it, if we don't already. You might, I don't. We do. We do already cross-referenced that code. Problem solved. Okay. Board members, any other discussion? No. Okay. Seeing no more discussion, we'll move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, will you please record your vote? [04:16:30] Clerk, would you please close and display the vote? And that motion passes unanimously. And we will now move item onto item 13. 04, Student Services Committee. Ms. Donahue, do you have a motion? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do. [04:16:50] Tonight on the agenda are proposed revisions to Policy 8155, School Assignment, and it includes a number of proposed changes to the special permission process. I move that the, I want to make a motion for the board to approve the revisions, but I also would like to make an amendment. [04:17:16] So I'm not sure what the proper order is to do that. Well, you need to make your motion first, then we need to second it, then we have discussion. Then you can amend it, and we might be fighting for the amendment. And then, just kidding. And I move for the board to approve the proposed revisions to policy 8155. [04:17:38] Okay, I have a motion by Ms. Donahue. Do I have a second? I have a second by Vice Chair Streffi. It's been properly moved and seconded. Ms. Donahue, would you like to speak to the motion and provide some discussion? Yes, in that I would like to propose an amendment. [04:17:54] Thank you, Madam Chair. I propose to amend the proposed revisions as follows. I'm looking at the red line version of 8155, and I propose that we delete lines 244 to 263, which I suggest are repetitive of the preceding lines from 220 through 242, So that's my first proposal. [04:18:27] I would also suggest that we move lines 265 to 268 up to line 242 so that they immediately follow VHSL restrictions, period. Yes. [04:18:44] So lines 265 to 268, I propose, should be moved to line 242 where they would immediately follow the end of the sentence that ends among other VHSL restrictions. [04:19:00] And I don't know if this has to be part of a proposed amendment, but on lines 232 to 233, it says in the proposal link to exceptions under VHSL. And I would like it to be a link, a hyperlink, rather than saying link to exceptions. [04:19:22] So I don't know if that needs to be part of an amendment or not. At the very least, I am proposing that we delete lines 244 to 263 and then move lines what are currently 265 to 268 of the red line up to 242. [04:19:41] Okay, could you repeat that first part again? Delete, delete lines 244 through 263. Okay, all right, and then? And move lines 265 to 268 up to 242 to immediately follow the sentence that currently ends among other VHSL restrictions, period. [04:20:18] Okay. I have a motion by Ms. Donahue. Do I have a second? I have a second by Vice Chair Struffy. Is there any discussion? [04:20:35] Yes, Dr. Rashid. Just looking for some context of why the movement of, why the deletion of the three, if you could just tell me, Ms. Donahue, the 365 deletion and then moving it up that one paragraph or that one area. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that question, Dr. Rashid. [04:20:52] So my suggestion to delete lines 244 through 263 is because they are repetitive of the language above. So in the current proposal, lines 220 through 225 already state that if special permission is granted, is likely to result in 365 days of ineligibility under VHSL, which is currently also repeated at [04:21:22] lines 244 through 247. The following subparagraph, lines 249 through 258, discusses exemptions and exceptions and waivers, such as enrolling as a first-time ninth grader and waivers under the VHSL transfer rule which again are addressed above at lines 227 through 242 and as for moving up lines 265 to 268 I just didn't think it needed to be its own separate subparagraph if we delete [04:22:01] all of the preceding three subparagraphs. So we're not deleting any just because it's repetitive is the only issue, right? Okay, just want to make sure. Yes, Ms. Chernoff. No amendments, just a question. [04:22:24] I would just like to ask Mr. Dolson and staff and Mr. Allen, Division Council, if that gives them any heartburn in terms of any of that information not necessarily being repetitive, since this is the first time we're looking at it. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. I tend to agree with Ms. Donahue's proposed amendment. It is repetitive. It's enumerated already. It's explained. [04:22:55] And the references, I do see them being a little repetitive. For clarity's sake, sometimes it's good to have repetition, but I agree with this, Donahue's thinking that the language is very repetitive in both those sections. [04:23:12] I appreciate that. Mr. Allen, any heartburn? Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. I tend to agree if it's the board's will to delete that repetition, it doesn't give me heartburn. Thank you, that's all. Okay, so it's been first and seconded, and we're discussing it, so I would like to have some discussion. [04:23:33] First, I'd like to thank Ms. Donahue, Chair Donahue for Student Services Community, in taking the risk and deciding it's important to work on the student assignment policy. I'd also like to thank Mr. Dolson, who did so much work in gathering input to craft something that made more sense. Quite frankly, it's not common sense to have an appeal process for over-enrolled schools, nor does it make sense to have a school board special permission appeal hearing happening in September. How in the world could principals ever figure out staffing? The student services did, committee did take the time to really work together with staff to make the student assignment policy [04:24:11] better and more efficient in regards to timelines. And I think we'll need to bring this back in late spring or early summer to see what we did, what did and did not work. And that said, I still have questions about VHSL and I would still like to continue that work on VHSL and make it its own policy and I want to pass the student permission policy so that staff can make the student assignment policy so that staff can make the timeline and other efficiency changes however I would like to amend the amendment by taking out VHSL language starting with line 220 starting [04:24:49] with subsequent and ending with permission on line 268 and request that the Student Services Committee start with that language to create a new policy for VHSL. I know that right now the regulation provides some additional information on how to request VHSL waiver, but if my amendment is passed, I think we should request staff to please review the regulation language. [04:25:16] Any other thoughts? That's my motion. Do I have a second? I have a second by Vice Chair Streffi. Any discussion? Yes, Ms. Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I absolutely concur with the suggestion that it will be important for the Student Services Committee to look at this policy again next year, and we have discussed that in committee so that we can, as you said, look at what worked, what maybe didn't work, what other changes might need to be made to make it a more efficient process, [04:25:53] and I consider that a priority for the coming year. I also, despite having spent many hours discussing VHSL with many people who deal with it daily, still find it very confusing. [04:26:11] And while I can't say that I'm excited to spend a lot more time wrestling with it, I do think it's important to get to a better place of understanding. And I'm certainly open to considering whether a separate standalone policy would be appropriate. [04:26:27] That being said, I would not be inclined to support the proposed amendment, largely because, as we have seen, I believe as all of us have seen on the special permission appeals panels, sometimes there seems to be some confusion among the requesting parents on the difference between special permission approval and a VHSL waiver and what their obligations are. [04:26:57] And I support leaving the language in the policy at this time so that we are doing another step to make it as clear as we can to parents what the differences are and what their obligations are if they pursue special permission transfers. [04:27:19] Any other discussion? Yes, Ms. Chan. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe my question is probably best directed to Mr. Allen. But I am very supportive of the idea of having a separate VHSL policy. I think in terms of clarity, it might offer us a level of distinction that hasn't existed there before. [04:27:42] But if we remove the language from the policy tonight, send it into student services to work on over the next few months, Does this leave us open to any misunderstandings or issues if there are potential appeals or requests for any actions along these lines? [04:28:09] Thank you, Ms. Chandler. I appreciate that question. If I correctly understand Chair Mansfield's proposed amendment to amendment, it would leave language in lines 214 to 218 that ramifications may include, but are not limited to changes in future year capacity that precludes renewal of the request for special permission and certain athletic or VHSL participation restrictions. [04:28:41] So that would put families on notice that there are ramifications such that they could ask questions to get clarity around what those ramifications may be. And it still leaves intact the VHSL restrictions. [04:28:57] My understanding that is that VHSL for transfers within a school division or intra school division, those are left to the school board. So the school board would still have purview I guess that would be addressing in policy the process and administration would work out that the policy or practice rather would follow in that regard. [04:29:23] So it doesn't give me a great concern, but I would recommend that the Student Services Committee, if that's the board's will tonight move relatively quickly on a new policy for VHSL eligibility, just to provide greater clarity to families in that regard. [04:29:41] Thank you. Any other? Yes, Ms. Chernoff and then Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm certainly open to the discussion around VHSL. I think it has become sort of the focal point of a much larger policy, so I'm definitely open to that conversation. [04:30:01] My fear is, although Mr. Allen says we would technically be okay, my fear is we are leaving a gap here, and my biggest priority out of my experience through this is that the more communication with parents and understanding is better and maybe as a result of revising this policy, people are paying more attention and would be inclined to read some of these things that outline what VHSL requires at this time. [04:30:28] I also, and Ms. Boland, I apologize for putting you on the spot, but this sort of reminds me of the situation with some of our HRTD policies where we have one policy and we break it into two, or we have a policy that we're combining, but you bring both of those to us together at the same time as to avoid that gap and that's kind of the process that I'm thinking about and would like to follow in this instance so I would like that conversation to continue in committee but based off of that practice and not wanting a gap and wanting more clarity in the moment on this policy I will not be supporting the amendment to the [04:31:05] amendment, but I'm going to support the first amendment to the base motion. I think I got that right. Ms. LaBelle. I know in working together with both Chair Mansfield and Ms. Donahue that we spent a lot of time going through all the VHSL regulations, and I appreciate everything that Ms. Donahue has done in trying to clarify how this whole process would work. I agree that we [04:31:36] need to separate VHSL from this policy particularly. But I feel like if we take that particular part out tonight, it's going to leave a big hole in the policy. And I suspect it would probably be better to leave it in the base motion and work on it over the next few months and make any revisions and at that point we will have seen how it plays out in this year's special [04:32:12] permissions requests and we'll have a better idea of how to put it together so that it is clear and distinct from special permissions. Thank you. Vice Chair Strafi. Thank you Madam Chair. I agree with what some of the other board members also said and Ms. LaBelle as well that for me it's also a Point of process. I think, you know, I would support this being separated out into a separate policy as well But as a matter of process, I think I don't want to do too much more to this [04:32:52] iteration of the policy As it stands now, especially I think there's in terms of the process I would if we make even more substantive changes to this I would want to Potentially in a normal situation send it back for additional comments from the public if we really rewrite, you know, rewrite portions of this or, you know, remove out, separate out the policies. [04:33:14] And then would like to see both, to Ms. Chernoff's point, both at the same time. So that being said, I also want to reiterate, because I don't know if I mentioned it when this was an information item, but reiterate how appreciative I am of all of the work that was put into this. [04:33:31] And I think Chair Mansfield mentioned a lot of the reasons and the benefits of why this is going to have an immediate impact, although this is going to remain an iterative process. But I just want to add also the impact to families as well, going back to the special permissions hearings and just thinking that we can really remove a lot of the pain that families go through in that hearing process up front and reset the expectations and allow them to go through this process much easier. [04:34:06] And so I really appreciate all of the work that was put in. Ms. Labelle. One thing that I would like to point out, the reason we're talking about this tonight with such a sense of urgency is the timeline. [04:34:23] We need to get this passed before January 1st because that's when special permissions will open if we pass this. So this needs to be considered tonight, I think put through as is, and then we will work on the VHSL afterwards because then that gives us more time and more opportunity to examine it closely and watch for clarification. [04:34:52] And as I said before, how VHSL is going to be impacting our special permissions this year. Okay, I see the writing on the wall. I withdraw my, oh, yes, Dr. Deans. [04:35:08] My comment was simply that if we remove the VHSL piece with the cases that we've had in recent times, it's going to appear to be that we are trying to manipulate the policy. [04:35:25] So I think we need to leave VHSL alone until a later time so that it would, the perception would be that we are working with the families legitimately. [04:35:42] Okay, again, I see the writing on the wall. I withdraw my amendment to the amendment, or the amendment to the, is that what it was? Amendment to the amendment? Okay, so we'll go with Ms. Donahue's amendment to delete, gosh, you're going to have to remind me, 244 through 263, and move 265 through 268 to somewhere. [04:36:13] To line 242 of the red line. to immediately follow restrictions okay thank you all right let's go ahead and vote oh and replace do we need to replace a link right didn't you say something about replace with a hyperlink i did i wasn't i wasn't sure um thought it might be helpful to have some staff if that needs to be part of just link that reference to what you're referring to yes so we don't need to [04:36:48] address that in the amendment we just need to it i would consider it like a typo or it's just a administrative piece that we just need to put the actual link in versus having that there's that phrase there okay thank you yeah I believe if you vote we can do it as a scrivener's change okay let's go ahead and vote this is on Ms. [04:37:15] Donahue's amendment I have retracted mine okay clerks please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes unanimously um and then let's go i guess now we have to vote on the base amendment the base motion all right as amended thank you ms donny uh as amended by ms donahue's amendment [04:37:48] okay clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display the vote and that motion passes unanimously yay okay we will now move to another one 13.05 department of teaching learning agreement between fcps lcps and thomas jefferson high school for science and technology mr slevin do you want to say a little bit about it before i ask for a motion thank you chair mansfield last week there was a discussion [04:38:27] related to the transportation cost in red and the table in the contract this illustrates the cost per pupil the intent of the chart is to illustrate the cost per pupil with transportation excluded as that is not part of the contract thank you okay uh i will now entertain a motion yes madam chair i move that the london county school board approves the cooperative agreement concerning the operation control of thomas jefferson high school for science and technology for school year 2025-2026 and that the board chair signed the tuition agreement i have a motion by vice chair [04:39:03] straffi do i have a second a second i have a second by dr asheed it's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I have a little bit. So the special education tuition rate went from 19,292 in FY22 to 26,675 in FY23, and I don't have what it changed to in FY24. [04:39:30] Our gen ed tuition per people went from FY23, $16,200 to now it is $21,873 in FY25. It looks like we have increased our students to $413. [04:39:48] And I think that in the future, the board really needs to have a real look at the amount of students going to TJ and the amount of taxpayer money that we are sending to Fairfax. So seeing, yes, would you like some discussion? [04:40:04] Go ahead, Ms. Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Following up on your comments, which I agree with, I also wanted to add, I still have concerns about the cost of transportation of sending our students to TJ. Obviously, that is not part of this agreement, so it's not ripe for discussion right now. [04:40:22] But I do think that that is a conversation that needs to be had in the coming months. A while back, Chris Kroll, who was on the school board, put together, has staff put together a plan of capping and decreasing. [04:40:43] And so sometime we might want to look at that as a board. Yes, Dr. Deans. One of the things we might consider related to TJ is that we are moving toward the recovery school, which is going to be regional. [04:41:02] and their students will have to be transported there. So to get rid of our transportation costs to take the kids to TJ would sort of counter our need to have them send their recovery kids here. [04:41:23] So I think it might be a conversation for the future, but not for now. Yes, Ms. LaBelle. In response to Dr. Deans, my understanding is we are not going to have over 400 students at the recovery school right now so it's not going to be a lot of a big balance at this point in time maybe sometime in the future but I think that we need to look at what it's costing us to send these students to TJ and what [04:41:58] can be offered to them here as well and that needs a deep dive. I agree on the note of the deep dive. I think we need a deep dive on the opportunities that are available for students here in Loudoun County. I think that's a separate discussion, and it's a very worthwhile one. I think one that we're having in many forms right now, but I don't agree with my colleagues around comparing. I don't agree, you know, with comparing the opportunity that many of our community members [04:42:34] and constituents see as a great opportunity for their children with other areas or opportunities where we may be lacking or we have areas of growth. I think we need to focus on all of them. [04:42:50] We need to focus on if there are students and communities that are taking advantage of sending their children to TJ and they see that as an opportunity for them and we should facilitate those opportunities. [04:43:08] We should create more opportunities for those families within the county as well. And we should do the same thing for supporting our most vulnerable students. And across the board, I think that that's kind of the way I see this kind of topic of equity is to create more of these opportunities across all the different groups and areas of our students and meeting their needs, whether that's students who need to be challenged, who are looking for rigorous opportunities in specific areas, or if, you know, other types of students. [04:43:41] So I don't want to go on and on, but I think for me, I see moving away from our agreement with TJ and not affording this opportunity to those families, or especially families that wouldn't have the opportunity or the access to TJ If we were to remove transportation, for example, those families do exist, I believe. [04:44:08] Removing that opportunity for them without having the same or similar opportunities here in the county would be a little bit too aggressive for me. Thank you, Vice Chair Struffy. Ms. Chandler. [04:44:25] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm always up for a fulsome discussion. I think there's a lot that we certainly have to discuss here. But when I look at what we're being asked to do tonight, we approved this renewal on May 28th. [04:44:40] And this vote really is just the finalizing of that commitment that we've already made. So I think it would be appropriate for us to focus in on what we're asked to do tonight and to continue to have this conversation long term. Thank you, Ms. Chandler, Dr. Rasheed, and then Dr. Deans. [04:44:57] Thank you, Chair. I mean I stand by what I said I think it was last month that we have all these programs that are developing and I'm okay with you know approving what we're talking about tonight but again it needs to be thought about we have bus transportation issues out west and not to mention other areas in Loudoun County but we're creating all these programs and as chair of special programs we you know we're really proud about that we want to always develop opportunities for students here in Loudoun County but you know there are issues that I'm concerned with I mean I know there's a tuition rate I know there's something that we're [04:45:34] paying and again eventually I'd like to phase out of that so that our students here at Loudoun County can then take advantage of the programs here in Loudoun County because then what is the purpose of HAMPSI, IB, MATA, all of these academies of Loudoun I mean was supposed to be I mean you know one of those schools that were, you know, to kind of counter TJ in some way or form. But again, when I hear things like about transportation and stuff, it just hurts me because our own students here at [04:46:10] Loudoun County are getting a little hurt. Thank you. Dr. Deans, and then we'll end with Ms. Labelle. My thoughts are that with the current emails that are coming through about the Academies of Loudoun, they believe reducing the rigor of the programs there, that they're going to be as many [04:46:39] parents or more wanting their kids to go to TJ because they feel like the AOL has been reduced in standards or in status by using a lottery system to select the kids so I think that's going to make TJ even more important to those parents who are looking for a higher rigor a higher level of education for their students just a thought. Ms. LaBelle. Thank you Madam Chair I support [04:47:19] sending the students that have already been approved to TJ this year we promised them they've been planning on it and they need to go. I think that we need to have our discussion and we need to compare what we offer here in Loudoun with what's available through TJ and make some decisions. [04:47:38] I think that a lot of people misunderstand or misunderstood what we did when we talked about MATA. We weren't lowering standards. We were just saying that the PSAT scores weren't really being needed to be considered for anything that wasn't dual enrollment and we said that to be more equitable instead of taking all the time to do interviews and all the other things maybe they just needed to go on lottery so I think there's a large understanding there about what we actually [04:48:12] did they are blowing it up to include all of AOL when it isn't all of AOL that's going on lottery I think that it will be hard for people from Loudoun to say, oh, we're not going to TJ anymore. [04:48:31] I can hear that noise coming down the road. But I think if we do it in small steps, small steps, like these kids are grandfathered in that are going there now. They'll go there for all those years, and then we'll start taking, you know, little bits out and changing it over gently. [04:48:53] that might help i'm sure there'll still be parents that are very upset but we're looking at budget this is taxpayer money and it's a lot of money so we need to think about this thank you okay uh any more discussion okay so let's move forward with the vote clerk please open the vote board [04:49:21] members please oh yeah we're finalizing the contract for tj clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes with Miss Mansfield abstaining and we will go on to gosh we haven't even got to information items okay item 14 information items 14.01 finance and operations committee revision of policy 6120 wellness presented by Arben Estraffi chair of finance and operations [04:50:00] committee thank you madam chair board members we have policy 6120 wellness this revision is required to align with USDA, VSBA, and LCPS practice and responsibilities. Our wellness policy is designed to promote a healthy school environment by encouraging nutritious food options, physical activity, and social-emotional wellness, and the policy encourages active participation of students, parents, and community stakeholders to ensure everyone's involvement in the process. You'll notice in the policy the most [04:50:35] substantive updates wording related to fundraisers involving sale of food and beverages and then there are a lot of restating of some of the items related to eliminating stress use of tobacco products and alcohol consumption and yeah we'll just open up for questions. Board members do you have any questions? [04:51:08] yes Ms. Chernoff thank you Madam Chair I did go back and listen to the F&O meetings where this was discussed and I just had a question about the part of the policy that is confusing to me is the part where it lists out all the goals of the programs that felt a little operational to me because it feels like that's something we do on on a regulational side of things where we would list out the program goals and then we try to find programs that align [04:51:43] to those goals so I would just ask for some clarity in terms of and mr. Allen you and I've actually spoken already so I just if you could provide some context for that as far as the Virginia code goes and particularly the national school breakfast and/or lunch program and why the policy requires certain goals and if it requires a certain laundry list of goals or if it is just more it could be more general goals just thinking about tightening things up potentially and putting things into regulation to operationalize them certainly thank you for the question it's sure [04:52:19] enough for legal applicable legal guidance here and mandates we it's my understanding we as a school division are recipients of funding for the national school lunch program and or school breakfast program, and so under the Child Nutrition and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, Reauthorization Act of 2004, also known as WIC or WIC, as well as the Healthy Hungry Free Kids Act of 2010, which is the acronym is HHFKA, that requires [04:52:57] recipients of federal funding for those two lunch and or school breakfast programs to develop a wellness policy. So this policy comports with that federal law. Specifically, those legal authorities require that each LEA or school division have policies, the wellness policy, be placed at the local level, and they need to specifically address at a minimum specific goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities [04:53:36] that promote student wellness. And then school divisions are required to review and consider evidence-based strategies in determining these goals. And so that's what kind of guides this policy and its structure, and to the extent that social and emotional wellness programs exist within the school division, that's set forth and section F or line 121 through 124 and the subsequent section or part of section F. [04:54:11] So that's kind of the background there. In terms of your question as to whether there is a mandate to delineate the specific social wellness program goals that are set forth on lines 125 through 151, That is up to the board to put that level of detail in this policy. [04:54:37] However, at a minimum, pursuant to the applicable and governing federal law, LCPS is required, or the school board rather, is required to put in its policy, you know, those specific goals that promote student wellness. I don't know if Dr. Ellis or Ms. Willoughby has further thoughts on this. [04:54:58] Thank you, Mr. Allen. I guess I'm just trying to, I've never really seen that in a policy before where program goals are specifically listed out. So I was just thinking about potentially seeing if it might make more sense to put that in the regulation and then add the word goals potentially in the section 141 to 145 so that we would still have the goals surrounding those different characteristics to just reiterate. [04:55:29] It just seems like a lot of that is repetitive, and I'm thinking about how can we be accountable? How do we measure these things? How do we make sure that a program has those outcomes? To me, it just raises more questions than answers, but it's just something I'm noodling on right now, and if I have an amendment, I'll socialize it, but thank you for your answers. [04:55:48] Any other questions? Yes, Ms. Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions related to some of the language in Section J about assessments. So there is a line in here about improvements to enhance safety and ease of students walking or biking to school, which triggered, for me, wondering about where we are with crossing guards and if we have sufficient crossing guards, and if not, what we're doing to try and remedy that. [04:56:28] My memory from previous conversations is that crossing guards are provided to us by the sheriff's office so we may not have any control over how many we have or how quickly we can add more if more are needed but that was one question I had was any information about status of crossing guards in our division and my second question was about the last sentence in that same paragraph school division shall explore the availability of federal safe routes to school funds um is that something that lcps has or is pursuing and if so can can we get some information about [04:57:08] that um i think that's a oh gosh who was the person oh mr lewis is the good one is the one to to talk about yeah he's the one who would be good to talk to thank you chair mansfield i'll i'll do my best i'll admit i wasn't completely prepared for that question so i can't answer that the sheriff's department does manage the crossing guards and they have provided all the crossing guard locations that they can provide personnel for at this time. We do have a few things or a few locations that we would prefer to have [04:57:45] some if more more folks would come available. It has proven to be a very difficult position to fill. They recruit on a regular basis but it's not a simple job. It requires a good bit of training and there's a lot of obviously a lot of safety involved and so those folks have to be trained and certified by the sheriff's department I know that my folks in transportation work with them all all the time and it's a very good relationship and I think they provide everything that they possibly can I'm sorry I forgot any other safe routes to school project yes so the safe routes to school program we are actually [04:58:22] performing our last safe routes to school project right now and it's out in the countryside area and that program has been taken over by the county staff and the Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure because they're more suited to do projects that are off-site essentially we we manage our projects that are on LCPS campuses but when it comes to pathways that are outside of the campus that it's more suited for the county who has the authority to come in and do those projects so though I don't I don't know the status of that right now, but they are actively engaged in trying to identify places where [04:58:58] additional sidewalks or trails or access could be provided. And we had a presentation this past year, I'm not sure exactly when, probably early in the summer and spring with the joint committee where the county staff went over all the projects that they are considering for those programs. [04:59:18] Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Any other? Yes, Chair, if I could ask one follow-up. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Regarding your statement that LCSO manages our crossing guard program, is that exclusive, or would there be an option for us to reach out to any of the town police departments to see if they could support us with providing crossing guards? And if we can't, if there is some prohibition on us pursuing inquiries like that, what is that authority [04:59:55] under is it by school board policy is it an operational decision for the superintendent where does that come from so I may need some help from mr. Allen but I believe it's in the code of Virginia where anyone that's in the public right-of-way that directs traffic has to be certified and trained by local law enforcement I'm not sure how involved the other police departments are but I think we're gonna have the same pool of folks to to look for for volunteers to fill those spots I say volunteers but they are paid positions so So I can look into that to see how involved they are. [05:00:31] But at this point, I don't know. If you have some awareness of a location that you are in need of a crossing guard, please, we're happy to have that conversation. Any other? Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. [05:00:48] Thank you, Madam Chair. This policy, 6120, came through finance and operations. And I have already expressed that a nutrition policy should be separate from wellness. Federal code was not provided through the USDA that requires or mandates social and emotional wellness in a nutrition wellness policy. [05:01:09] I'm still looking for that code. Without the requirements or the mandates, I think we should be separating this policy. And I know it's an information item tonight, but I would motion to split this policy, nutrition separate from wellness. [05:01:27] I do believe it needs to be separated. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. Any other discussion? Seeing none, we will move on to item 14.02, Specialized Programs and Centers Committee, Review of Policy 5150, Adult Education, presented by Dr. Samara Brasheed. [05:01:49] Thank you, Chair. Policy 5150, Adult Education, is up for its five-year review, and this was presented in Specialized Programs and Centers Committee earlier this month. and this was reviewed in the red line copy you'll see that one of the changes was not much but towards the end of 5150 I believe the nursing program was eliminated the text about that and then when it came to the amount of credits to required to for an adult to get a high school diploma went from 10 to 6 and the other two were grammatical but I will turn it over to [05:02:29] Mr. Slevin in case I missed something. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. That was a great summary, so I'm available to answer any questions along with Dr. Rasheed. Yes, Mrs. Dunhu. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Rasheed or Mr. Slevin, whoever's more appropriate, why was the nursing program eliminated? So the practical nursing program was sunset at, I believe, in FY24. I would ask Dr. [05:03:07] to confirm if I'm correct so the policy is catching up to current current programs so why was it sunset it was there insufficient interest or too expensive other obstacles thanks for the question miss Donahue the program was sunset it after multiple conversations with the previous board regarding enrollment concerns testing concerns in terms of percentage of students passing the NCLEX exam as well as phasing it from a [05:03:47] program at the academies of a lot of Loudoun to an adult education program we then had concerns from the State Board of Nursing regarding the enrollment challenges finding staffing and we put a plan in place to ensure that all students enrolled at the time were able to get through the program and complete the NCLEX, and then we phased out the program. Any other discussion? Okay, seeing no more discussion. [05:04:28] Oh, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you clarify for me, for adult education, I did go to North Star this week. Is North Star the only location for the adult education, 18 to 21, or are we providing adult education at all of our high schools? Can you clarify that for me there are a number of night classes in the sterling area i believe at parkview high school [05:04:59] high school was that parkview high school but they're they're and heritage high school at night at night so basically um we don't have adult education um during the day or in our regular high schools just in north star aside from parkview is that what you're saying correct thank you any other discussion um does anybody have any appetite to put this on i don't know consent [05:05:34] on the January 14th. Thumbs up, Ms. LaBelle. Okay. That will go on consent for the next, for, what is it, January 14th. Okay. We will now move on to item 15, closed session. [05:05:59] Vice Chair Streffi, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia for the following discussion and consideration of the performance and discipline of a specific public officer as authorized by 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia. [05:06:31] I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a second by Ms. LaBelle. It's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please. Okay. That motion passes [05:07:02] unanimously the board is now in closed session the board is now coming out of closed session [05:51:14] vice chair streffi do you have a motion yes madam chair i move that the closed meeting be adjourned that the laden county school board reconvene its public meeting and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting do i have a second i have a second by miss labelle uh it's been properly moved and seconded is there any discussion no discussion all right seeing none we will go ahead and vote clerk please open the vote [05:51:45] board members please record your vote it's to um close the meeting adjourn the meeting adjourn the closed meeting and that motion passes unanimously um vice chair streffi do you have another motion to certify the closed meeting yes madam chair i move that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of the public meeting whereas the Loudoun County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the [05:52:21] provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the loudon county school board i have a motion by vice chair streffi do i have a [05:52:57] second second i have a second um it has now been by miss shernoff it's now been uh thank you properly moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing none we will go ahead and take a vote clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display the vote and that motion passes unanimously board members do you have any comments and for your [05:53:33] committee reports do you guys want to go ahead and do that no okay okay all right so new business i have new business um we discussed uh putting the recovery school on the cap and the sip a cap i guess um and so i'd like to bring this back as an information i'm ready to formally vote to approve the program proposal for the recovery school. We voted on it as a part of our legislative program. [05:54:09] We got a bill passed to start seed money. It was also found to be a priority for our capital budget, but we have not formally voted to approve the program. So I would like to bring it to information on January 14th. That's my new business. Anybody else? Okay. Seeing that there's no more new business, the December 10th, 2024, Loudoun County School Board meeting is now adjourned. [05:54:42] Please drive safely home. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com