Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 4h 31m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1047051714?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DBLLY958CDD7

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 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:06] Good evening. I called to order this January 14th, 2025 Loudoun County School Board meeting. At this time, we will read our disclosures and I will start. As a member of 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.

[00:00:35] 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 effective, of which I am included.

[00:00:53] 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 an 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.

[00:01:23] 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. Thank you. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:01:56] 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 for any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:02:13] 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.

[00:02:31] These subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may be affected, of which my spouse, my minor children, my sister-in-law, and 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.

[00:02:50] Thank you, Vice-Chair Donohue. Mr. Streffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Laban 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.

[00:03:12] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

[00:03:28] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Mr. Streffy. Ms. LaBelle. 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 an item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits in any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive insurance, health insurance, and related benefits as an LCPS employee.

[00:03:59] 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.

[00:04:24] 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 include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:04:44] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest.

[00:05:01] This disclosure will be reflected in the public record of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. We'll move on to item three, approval of consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda? Seeing none.

[00:05:19] before we vote on the consent agenda, we have five proclamations to read. The first proclamation recognizes February 3rd through 7th, 2025 as National School Counseling Week, which will be read by Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas school counselors are employed in schools to help students reach their full potential, and whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their abilities, strengths, interests, and talents as these traits relate to career awareness and development and whereas school counselors help parents focus on

[00:05:54] ways to further the educational, personal, and social growth of their children and whereas school counselors work with teachers and other educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves and whereas school counselors seek to identify and utilize community resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive school counseling programs and help students become productive members of society, and whereas comprehensive developmental school counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success in school, and whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has further

[00:06:32] emphasized the essential role school counselors play in advocating and supporting student health and achievement. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims February 3rd through 7th, 2025, as National School Counseling Week in Loudoun County, Virginia.

[00:06:48] Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. It looks like I made a mistake, and instead of five proclamations, I did not sneak one in there. There's just only four. Sorry. The second proclamation will be recognized as January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be read by myself.

[00:07:09] Whereas Monday, January 27th, 2025, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. And whereas the Holocaust resulted in the systematic persecution and murder of 6 million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as millions of others targeted by the Nazi regime, including Romani people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ plus individuals, political dissidents, and others.

[00:07:45] And whereas on this anniversary, we emphasize the importance of Holocaust education in our schools to ensure that future generations understand the atrocities of the Holocaust and the importance of preventing such events from happening again.

[00:08:00] And whereas it is the duty of the schools to educate students about historical events, such as the Holocaust, to ensure that the lessons of history are learned and to inspire students to value diversity, empathy, and to recognize and reject anti-Semitism and hatred. And whereas Holocaust education helps students learn about the consequences of prejudice, racism, anti-Semitism, and intolerance, and fosters a commitment to human rights and dignity for all

[00:08:35] people. And whereas anti-Semitic attacks are an assault on the humanity of all people, and we should take the time to remember the millions of men, women, and children who were killed simply because of their beliefs and their heritage and honor the survivors of the Holocaust. And now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Loudoun County School Board, do hereby proclaim January 27, 2025, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day throughout our school division, and we urge

[00:09:14] all students, staff, and community members to honor the memories of those killed during the Holocaust and to engage in educational activities that promote anti-hate and affirming value for people of Jewish ancestry. The third proclamation recognizes the week of January 20th through the 24th, 2025 as No Name Calling Week in all public schools within our district, which will be read by Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. Whereas every student has the right to feel safe, respected,

[00:09:52] and valued in their learning environment, and whereas name-calling, bullying, and other forms of verbal harassment can have lasting negative effects on students' emotional well-being, academic success, and overall sense of belonging, and whereas one out of every five students report being bullied, kindness and inclusivity practices will lessen that statistic. And whereas students are called unpleasant names that focus on their identity and in some cases for things that they have no control over and whereas fostering a culture of kindness inclusivity and empathy is

[00:10:26] essential for building strong supportive school communities and whereas no name calling week provides an opportunity for students teachers staff and families to engage in meaningful dialogue and activities that promote respect and understanding and be it further resolved that all Loudoun County Public Schools will actively engage in the collective responsibility to teach and affirm no name-calling. And now, therefore, we, the Loudoun County School Board, do hereby proclaim January 20th to January 24th of 2025, No Name Calling Week in all public schools within

[00:11:01] the division. During this week, we encourage all students, staff, and community members to refrain from name-calling and hurtful language, participate in activities that celebrate kindness, acceptance, inclusion, and diversity. Reflect on the power of words and the impact they have on others.

[00:11:22] Commit to fostering a positive and inclusive school environment year-round. Let us work together to ensure that every member of our school community feels supported, respected, and empowered. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Our final proclamation proclaims February as Career and Technical Education Month, which will be read by Ms. Carrie LaBelle.

[00:11:44] Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas economic and technological changes in society are rapidly reflected in the nature of today's workplace, thereby placing new responsibility on Virginia's education system, and whereas career and technical education provides the Commonwealth students with a career pathway for post-secondary education and workplace readiness in a global economy, and whereas career and technical education gives students experience in practical, meaningful applications of basic skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics,

[00:12:21] which promotes deeper learning and improves the quality of their education, and whereas career and technical education is the foundation of a strong, well-educated workforce, which fosters productivity in industry and contributes to Virginia's leadership in the international marketplace.

[00:12:41] And whereas career and technical education offers lifelong learning opportunities that provide individuals with more career choices, expanding earning potential and greater job satisfaction. And whereas the cooperative and ever-increasing efforts between career and technical educators administrators and representatives of business and industry stimulate the growth of the Commonwealth's economy by preparing students for careers in high demand, high wage, and highly technologically skilled areas.

[00:13:16] And whereas the national theme of Career and Technical Education Month, Celebrate Today, Own Tomorrow, demonstrates the crucial role that career and technical education place in readying Virginia students for successful careers. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims February 2025 as Career and Technical Education Month in Loudoun County, Virginia. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. I will now entertain a motion to approve the

[00:13:51] consent agenda. Yes, Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve tonight's consent agenda. I have a motion by Vice Chair Donohue. Do I have a second second i saw miss labelle had her hand up first miss labelle i second the motion thank you miss labelle we have a it's been properly moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda at this time we'll take a vote to approve the consent agenda clerk will you please open the vote board

[00:14:23] members will you please record your vote clerk will you please close and display the vote that motion passes unanimously with Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Let's move on to the advisory committee update 4.01, the gifted education advisory committee update presented by

[00:14:51] Wendy King, our gifted education supervisor.

[00:15:35] Good afternoon. On behalf of the gifted education advisory committee, I want to thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to give you an update today, and I am very pleased to have two GIAC members here this afternoon who are going to lead the presentation.

[00:15:52] Good afternoon. I'm Patty Peterson. I'm the co-chair of GIAC, and I just want to introduce you. Okay. I'm Jennifer Shea. I'm a gifted teacher at Brambleton Middle School and a GIAC member. All right. Well, as a gifted resource teacher and a parent of gifted learners, the work of the gifted committee is really important to me, and I really thank you for letting us address the board today.

[00:16:18] We're here to provide an update on the work of the Gifted Education Advisory Committee and share some details about LCPS gifted services. GX serves as a support group to review and make suggestions about gifted programming and to promote community awareness of the need for gifted education in our schools.

[00:16:40] School personnel, both teachers and administrators, community members and parents and family members serve on the committee. You'll note we have two wonderful quotes displayed from the NAGC, the National Association of Gifted Children, that state, number one, gifted and talented students need gifted education programs to challenge them and enable them to make continuous progress in their academic careers.

[00:17:12] On the other end of things, here in our county, we're very aware that we need to identify and serve both culturally and linguistically diverse students to enrich the fabric of gifted education and cultivate what is still an untapped national resource. Our team uses these quotes as the drive for our work, for what we do and what we try to do in here in our county. We want to support academic growth of all of our students and make sure that our programs are accessible to students

[00:17:45] from all backgrounds. Once again, I'm Jennifer Shea. I'm a resource teacher at Brambleton Middle school, a parent of six between 13 and 20, two identified gifted, and one identified gifted special education, so I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. The mission of LCPS gifted education is to identify students who need increased academic challenge above what is offered in the core curriculum compared to others of the same age, experience, and environment,

[00:18:22] and to provide them with appropriately differentiated learning experiences to meet their academic and social emotional needs. To ensure that our gifted learners thrive and reach their full potential, it's crucial that we implement educational programs tailored to their unique needs.

[00:18:43] According to the Davidson Institute, which supports parents with resources for their students as well as professionals, gifted education programs should encompass enrichment, acceleration and advanced curriculum.

[00:18:59] In LCPS, our gifted program integrates these essential components and more. Enrichment and extension opportunities are those that go beyond the core curriculum. Acceleration moves students through the curriculum at a faster pace and/or introduces them to coursework at a younger or earlier age.

[00:19:21] The advanced curriculum challenges students to explore topics of study in more depth than complexity. opportunities provide intellectual stimulation nurture students interests and tap into students creativity LCPS gifted programs and services address each of these components we've also included the additional component of talent development or front-loading which is a research-based educational best practice in which students catching up here are exposed to in practice new or essential skills that will support their future learning

[00:20:00] Experts in the field of gifted education point to the practice of front-loading as a promising strategy for shrinking the excellent gaps between our diverse communities and a way of developing their full talent.

[00:20:17] Now we are going to turn our attention to the work of the Gifted Education Advisory Committee. GEAC meetings give members and participants opportunities to work in small groups to discuss issues related to gifted education and make recommendations about LCPS gifted services.

[00:20:34] work is grounded in best practices and gifted education to stay abreast of the current research and best practices in the field the committee invites experts within the LCPS and outside experts to share their expertise at the meetings here are some of the topics that the committee has addressed or will address this school year an overview of the gifted programs and services alignment of the vision and mission introduction to LCPS special programs gifted learners and perfectionism, social-emotional development, and productive struggle.

[00:21:06] We'd like to share some of the highlights of our LCPS gifted program. We're continuing our efforts to increase access to gifted services for high-ability learners from historically underrepresented groups. We are expanding professional learning opportunities for gifted education for all administrators, teachers, and other LCPS staff.

[00:21:30] We've had a strong effort this year of collaboration with other LCPS offices to expand the reach of gifted services. We've hosted, or will host, Six Edge Family Academy meetings to provide families with tools to support their high-ability learners. And we've hosted a variety of guest speakers and experts in the gifted field to share their expertise with both families and staff. The advisory committee continues to advocate for the following actions to enhance gifted services. We continue to invest in gifted education by providing high-quality resources,

[00:22:11] adequate staffing and dedicated spaces for programs. Revisit staffing standards for gifted resource teachers and enhance the elementary gifted schedule to ensure teachers have manageable workloads. Support the growth and implementation of special programs that offer rigorous pathways for students.

[00:22:29] Foster collaboration with other division committees, for example, SEAC and MSAAC and LCPS departments to align goals and initiatives. Offer professional learning opportunities on best practices in gifted education for school counselors and designate one counselor in each middle and high school to focus on supporting gifted learners and expand outreach and awareness of gifted services for families through webinars, book studies, and other communication strategies.

[00:22:57] We mentioned the Edge Family Academies already, and we'd like to share a little bit more about them. LCPS Gifted Education started the Edge Family Academy to provide families of Edge students.

[00:23:14] These are students from our diverse populations with information and resources to help support their high-ability learners on an advanced academic pathway. This program was initiated through support from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and the Loudoun Education Foundation.

[00:23:30] We are in the fifth year of this program, and so far this year, over 100 participants have attended Family Academy meetings. Each meeting begins with a family meal, followed by an informational meeting for parents and family members with a special guest speaker and engaging activities for the students and their siblings. And I'm going to add that I was allowed to present at one last spring and the family reaction was amazing. They were so appreciative and had lots of questions afterwards of furthering

[00:24:02] their resources. So it's a very valuable commodity that we're offering. Each year, the LCPS Gifted Education Office coordinates with the local audition and application process for the summer residential governor school program. These programs provide high school juniors and seniors with intensive educational experiences in visual and performing arts, humanities, medicine and health sciences, mathematics, science and technology, or through mentorships in marine science or engineering. Each summer, residential governor school focuses on one special area of interest.

[00:24:40] Students live on a college or university campus for up to four weeks each summer. During this time, students are involved in classroom and laboratory work, field studies, research, individual and group projects and performances, and seminars with noted scholars, visiting artists, and other professionals. The Gifted Education Office visits every Loudoun County public high school to share information about the program with students and to host a virtual information session with families.

[00:25:09] The team also works closely with high school counselors and students to support the application process and coordinates the local visual and performing arts audition process. Last summer, over 50 high school students represented Loudoun County Public Schools at the Governor's School Programs.

[00:25:29] Moving on to academic acceleration evaluations, according to the Bell and Blank Center for Academic Acceleration, it is one of the most effective and research-based interventions for the academic growth of students who are ready for advanced or faster-paced curriculum.

[00:25:46] There are over 20 different forms of academic acceleration, and as you can see, LCPS has many of these forms of acceleration in place, such as advanced placement classes, dual enrollment courses, IB programs, curriculum compacting, and either whole grade or subject-specific acceleration.

[00:26:07] The Gifted Education Office supports schools by conducting acceleration evaluations to make decisions about whole grade and single subject acceleration. And now I'm really proud because I was Jennifer Daniel's mentor when she joined the gifted program.

[00:26:27] Jennifer Daniel, the gifted resource teacher at Sterling Elementary School, from whom you'll hear later today, was selected for the highly competitive Javits Frazier Scholars Program for 2024 by the National Association for Gifted Children. This distinguished award recognizes passionate and innovative educators who serve culturally and linguistically diverse students.

[00:26:49] Ms. Daniel is one of the only 10 scholars honored from across the country. Javits Frazier Scholars are selected based on their dedication to advocating for and developing the talents of underrepresented students, which is exactly what we're trying to accomplish here in our county, and she's been extremely successful at Sterling Elementary.

[00:27:10] The scholars were recognized for this award at the 2024 National Association for Gifted Children National Conference in Seattle, Washington this past November. Three members of the LCPS Gifted Team have been nominated for the Shine Award.

[00:27:26] Alan Skubal, the gifted resource teacher at Cool Spring Elementary School, was recognized for going above and beyond in his role as a gifted resource teacher by advocating for high-ability students and making sure that they have opportunities for extension and enrichment.

[00:27:41] A Cool Springs parent mentioned that all students at the school adore Mr. Skubal and look forward to when he comes to visit their class. He is always looking for new and engaging activities. Cool Spring is lucky to have such an amazing teacher supporting and advocating for students.

[00:27:57] Bonnie Stiles, the gifted resource teacher at Sully Elementary School, was recognized for her flexibility in meeting the variety of demands placed on her in collaborating with staff to deliver rigorous instruction to students. A colleague shared that she is a very kind person and loves helping students as well as teachers on our staff.

[00:28:17] We are lucky to have had her at Sully for the past 11 years. Alana Amani, the gifted resource teacher at Lunsford Middle School, was recognized for being welcoming and inclusive in her work and showing that all kids are our kids. Congratulations to these outstanding members of the gifted education team.

[00:28:34] The LCPS gifted education team and the students have been hard at work this year. Bethany Waterfall, the gifted resource teacher at Hamilton and Waterford Elementary Schools, has been awarded the LEF grant to implement a sustainable homes project with her Fusion students.

[00:28:51] Stephanie Hanna, the gifted resource teacher at Blue Ridge Middle School, and her 6th and 7th grade Spectrum students conducted a mock archaeological dig, and her 8th grade Spectrum students are participating in the Future City competition in January. Three team members will be presenting their model city in Baltimore.

[00:29:09] This year's themed challenge was to design a floating city 100 years in the future and provide two innovative examples of how this floating city works and keeps its citizens healthy and safe. Congratulations to our gifted staff and their students. Again, many thanks for giving us the opportunity to be here today.

[00:29:31] Thank you so much. I love in this district that the gifted and talented doesn't work in a silo, that you guys have cross-communication with SEAC and MSAC and have presentations together. I think that's so important.

[00:29:48] And I want to thank you for better identifying students and doing more talent development. And I just have to put in my own plug someday down the line. I'd love for us to start looking at identifying the gifted in the hearts as well.

[00:30:04] And I'm looking forward to continuing to be your GEAC liaison. Board members, do you have any other questions? Yes, Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for the presentation and for everything that you do to support our students and staff here in the division.

[00:30:23] I had a couple of questions. I was curious if we keep track of the number of students who are participating in the gifted and talented programs, wherever they are, at whatever level.

[00:30:41] Yes, we do. We keep records in Phoenix, SIS, so that information is always available to us. And do you have a rough idea of what the percentage of, number of students overall or percentage of students is?

[00:30:58] We have well over 2,000 students in fourth and fifth grade in our fusion program and approximately 2,500 students in the spectrum program. You know, that goes up and down. And in terms of the percentages by school, it really ranges anywhere between 10% up to 18%.

[00:31:20] And that changes by year and by evaluation cycle. Okay. And you started to address one of my next questions, which was, what are the grades or ages that we, where the gifted services are available? Sure. Well, I will start with our programs with our identified gifted learners.

[00:31:43] So all of our third grade students are evaluated under our universal evaluation process. And services for those students who are identified begin in third grade, or excuse me, begin in fourth grade. So Fusion is our fourth and fifth grade program.

[00:31:59] We also have DCI, or Differentiated Classroom Instruction, which provides targeted enrichment in math and language arts. And then when students get to middle school, we have the Spectrum program. And so students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade participate, those students who were identified.

[00:32:18] But I always like everyone to keep in mind that our search program provides services for all students in K-3. So the gifted resource teachers are pushing into classrooms every other week to really work on activities that stretch students' thinking.

[00:32:34] And then we also have our ed students, and that is a program where gifted teachers and classroom teachers work together to identify our students from our special populations for additional enrichment opportunities throughout the week.

[00:32:51] My second grader loves search, so I knew that is a service also. And then the other question I had was, I was curious if you have noticed any, if there are any noticeable significant drop-offs or increases as the students get older with the number of students who are taking advantage of the services.

[00:33:14] We do see a drop-off when students get to sixth grade. What happens is sometimes parents want their child to make the transition to sixth grade, get their feet on the ground, have that resource period. And then by the end of sixth grade or seventh grade, they're ready to jump back in.

[00:33:32] And then also, too, there are sometimes at the eighth grade level, there may be some competition with other opportunities that are available at the school for electives. So they may choose to opt out in eighth grade. So those are where we see the main fluctuations.

[00:33:48] It's very helpful. Thank you. Yes, Ms. LaBelle, and then Mr. Estraffi. Thank you for your presentation. I appreciate that. As a, excuse me, as a diagnostic, as educational diagnostician, what are the requirements for being considered gifted?

[00:34:13] I mean, do you do testing? What is the IQ cutoff minimum? Anything like that? We do look at multiple indicators.

[00:34:30] So we look at a student portfolio that is collected alongside the gifted teacher at the school level. We look at MAP testing, the most recent MAP scores. We look at the scores on the cognitive abilities test as well. So we look at those three things together to identify students for services. Okay, thank you very much.

[00:34:46] You're welcome. Yes, Mr. Streffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for the presentation and for all you do. I was looking at the recommendations, and most of them were very straightforward for me, made a lot of sense. I was very interested and intrigued by the recommendation for professional learning on best practices in gifted education for school counselors, and just wanted to get your perspective on that and where you see kind of that potential impact of focusing in on that.

[00:35:16] Specifically for middle and high school, anecdotally, it makes a lot of sense for me, especially as we look at schools that have high populations of gifted learners who are also English language learners. And I'm just thinking about all the different scenarios where this could apply. Just wanted to get your perspective on that. And then the last recommendation around efforts to expand communication awareness to families and what you had envisioned were some opportunities to do that more effectively.

[00:35:47] So every now and then we do hear from parents that students get to high school and they've had all of this support along the way, especially with Spectrum. They get to see their Spectrum gifted teacher every other day. And then when they get to high school, they don't have that same interaction with one person to kind of give them some advice, you know, and some support.

[00:36:12] And so we have thought maybe if we could have one person at the high school, or more than one, that maybe has some background in gifted education, who would be there to support students, particularly in terms of course selection, and maybe just some issues that they may face.

[00:36:35] You know, we know that gifted learners are kids, and so they have challenges just like all other kids but there are some challenges that we do see among our gifted populations such as you know managing expectations that they place on themselves or from the outside world because we know we place high demands on our students it could be finding other kids that have similar interests so we were just thinking it would be nice to have that one or two school counselors that have that background in gifted education could be there as a resource for our gifted

[00:37:10] learners. And the other thing was you asked about communication to families. Well, we were thinking that obviously the Gifted Advisory Committee is a great place for us to communicate with families, so that's why we make sure that we give them updates on the gifted programs throughout the year, and we invite experts not only from the outside who have a great deal of knowledge on gifted education, but people right here in Loudoun County who have expertise that could share to help benefit our gifted learners and other high ability learners as well doesn't have to be the

[00:37:45] students who are identified gifted learners but we also make sure that for example we are getting ready or we are just now opening up our spring eligibility cycle so we have sent an email to all families to let them know that the cycle is open and where they can go for more information we've also created webinars about gifted programs and the gifted evaluation process so that they can go write to our website and find that information. And then we also would like to start some book studies, maybe as kind of an offshoot of the gifted advisory committee. So that's something

[00:38:21] that we're looking at as well, just so parents can truly understand their gifted and high ability learners. And then I have to say our family academy has been a wonderful way for us to share information with families. Thank you. Board members, any other questions? I know we've talked about this before um are there and i don't know this probably isn't a special education question but there are when we go through the eligibility process i'm not aware that we are also looking

[00:38:59] for gifted at that particular time as well i mean there's where all your cognitive studies are and you're you're and so i'm just wondering if there is any space any time to look if you're looking at your scores and you're looking at big standard deviations between scores why aren't we looking okay well that's probably twice exceptional do we have any process that we're looking at that at all I do want to emphasize that we do have our special ed colleagues join us in our committees

[00:39:34] as part of the gifted evaluation process so we feel like that might be a way to connect and make to make those connections, but we are certainly open to figuring out how the gifted resource teachers can be more involved in the special ed process as well. So I know we've talked about that in the past, and I'm certainly welcome to figuring out how we can do that in a more systematic way.

[00:40:03] Thank you very much. All right, we'll move on to our next. Thank you for coming, and thank you for presentation. All right well before we move on I have we have one more disclosure to be read. Mrs. Griffiths would you please read your disclosure statement? Thank you Madam Chair.

[00:40:25] 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 indoor 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 while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected of which I am included I am and will participate fairly objectively and in the public's interest

[00:41:01] 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 and now we will move on to item 5.01 the FY26 superintendent's estimate of needs presented by Dr. Aaron Spence. And I remind y'all this is our second Sion presentation from our superintendent Dr. Spence to the school board and I'm thankful that we've had many more opportunities and discussions over this past year to help shape this budget with the current board's priorities and we will have quite a few more work sessions

[00:41:40] throughout January that will allow us to dig deeper into all aspects of the budget by department. So I want to remind board members that this is a high-level presentation. And because we're just putting our eyes on the budget, there are not typically questions. So if you have questions about the budget, specific programs or initiatives related to a department, write them down and send them to Dr. Bergen and Ms. Willoughby.

[00:42:05] However, if you have general questions about the overall budget process philosophy and the general information that Dr. Spence will present, I think we could go ahead and ask those later this evening. So, with that, Dr. Spence, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board, and good evening to all of you and to our Loudoun County community, family, staff, students, and community members.

[00:42:29] I'm excited to share with you tonight the superintendent's estimate of needs, also known as the SEON, which is considered the kickoff to our customary budget season. It's truly a culmination, though, as was noted by the Chair, of months of discussion and collaboration between our budget team, the division and school leadership and staff, and our school board.

[00:42:49] Over the next month, our board is going to be engaging in a conversation about this proposed budget with administration and with the community, and we look forward to supporting this process as we work towards submitting the final budget for the 2025-26 school year to the Board of Supervisors for their consideration.

[00:43:05] So Virginia Code 22.1-92 states that it shall be the duty of each division superintendent to prepare with the approval of the school board and submit to the governing body or bodies appropriating funds for the school division the estimate of the amount of money deemed to be needed during the next fiscal year for the support of the public schools of the school division.

[00:43:24] This is the SEON. Developing the SEON is a multi-step process encompassing several months. A comprehensive analysis is conducted of each department's budget based on historical trends and pricing to identify needed changes and ensure continuity of operations. Departments submit prioritized budget requests based on identified needs and feedback from their areas and schools.

[00:43:46] New department requests, stakeholder priorities, and schoolwork priorities are then considered for inclusion in the SEON based on revenue projections for the upcoming year. When analysis is complete, there are really two ways to develop the SEON. We've discussed these before. The first way is to prepare a true estimate of needs irrespective of funding constraints.

[00:44:07] The second way is to develop a budget that tries to balance the resources and supports needed to move forward with our 1LCPS strategic plan objectives with what is anticipated to be available funding from the federal, state, and local level. The CION that I am presenting to you tonight is generally based on the second method.

[00:44:24] When you budget this way, inevitably there will be unmet needs, and I will discuss those later in the presentation. The fiscal year 26 SION is focused on investing today and in the future and is aligned with the 1LCPS 2027 Strategic Plan for Excellence as well as the superintendent's post-entry plan.

[00:44:43] School board priorities and the unique needs of our schools and educational community have been considered for inclusion and balance based on revenue projections for the upcoming year. The various funds that make up our budget are listed on this slide to provide a comprehensive all-funds view of the entire budget.

[00:45:00] My presentation this evening, however, will focus only on the operating fund, which you see here in blue, and the other funds will be presented during upcoming budget work sessions, noting that the board has already considered the Capital Improvement Projects Fund and the Capital Asset Preservation Program Fund.

[00:45:16] As you will see tonight, the vast majority of this operating fund is related to salaries and benefits for our employees. This proposed operating budget includes 13,463.5 FTEs, and the estimate of needs for the fiscal year 26 operating fund is approximately $1.95 billion, and REPT presents a $131.7 million, or 7.2% increase.

[00:45:41] On this slide, you will see projected revenues as well as proposed expenditures for the operating fund, Specifically, the Sion projects an increase in state revenues of $8.4 million and a county request of $123.4 million. Expenditures are categorized into personnel operating and capital expenditures with $118.8 million of additional personnel costs, including compensation and benefits as part of our ongoing retention and recruitment initiatives.

[00:46:11] This encompasses the majority of the fiscal year 26 budget increase. Operating accounts increased by $15.3 million with a decrease in capital outlay accounts. So board members, if you will recall, we over-projected the number of students for this year's current budget.

[00:46:29] To address this, we have re-leveled the enrollment calculation process. LCPS's enrollment projection based on the new process is 81,629 students. This projection is 1,409 students less than last year's projection.

[00:46:46] Although our budgeted enrollment projection is significantly lower than last year, in terms of our actual student count, what this means is that LCPS will see an increase of 372 students from this year's actual student count. In other words, LCPS is continuing to grow, albeit at a slower rate.

[00:47:07] Some often ask why the school budget continues to increase when student enrollment has slowed. And as a reminder, about 90% of the increase in expenditures for fiscal year 26 are in personnel costs. So just to give an example of that, for LCPS, providing a basic annual step increase alone costs roughly $26 million.

[00:47:24] If employees then receive cost of living adjustments, our operating budget will increase even with no new positions or programs. In addition, there are typically increases in benefits costs as well as health care, which becomes more expensive. And there are other fixed costs that grow despite level or declining enrollment.

[00:47:42] These are things like fuel and utility costs that we do not control. This concept is important to understand as we go through this budget as it directly relates to LCPS for fiscal year 26. In addition to those costs, the needs of our students continue to evolve and the number of students requiring more resources is outpacing division growth.

[00:48:02] For example, our English learner population is projected to increase by 2.8% and our special education population by 5.2%. These students require additional supports in addition to our staffing standards. For example, 40 new specialized programs are included in this SEAN.

[00:48:19] As a result, 282.6 additional teachers, teacher assistants, and other positions providing these specialized supports are included and represent 75% of the total new positions added in the SEAN. So with that as the opening context, what follows is a very exciting SEAN for the 2025-26 school year that proposes necessary investments for today and for the future.

[00:48:43] As we've said, building the budget is a comprehensive process, and this slide depicts the current fiscal year 25 budget, also referred to as our base budget or the starting point. You see the FTEs representing the current 13,060.1 FTEs, and the line chart on the right, which establishes the base budget at $1.82 billion.

[00:49:05] The next several slides will walk you through how we arrived at the fiscal year 26 SEON and provide information on the $131.8 million increase. So the first set of changes in building the budget is calculating changes in staffing per the currently adopting staffing standards based on the overall division-wide enrollment.

[00:49:24] With a reduction in enrollment of 1,409 from this year's budget enrollment, we see the resulting reduction of 79.84 FTEs. Also captured here is the decrease in the base salaries from turnover. This turnover generally occurs each year and is from employees retiring at the top end of the salary scales and then budgeting that for new hires at the lower end of the salary scale.

[00:49:49] Combined, this equates to a $24.2 million decrease, and you can see the change in FTEs and then the small movement of the budget downward from the base budget. The fiscal year 26 Seon is now on the chart depicted by the orange dotted line. Next, we capture year-over-year changes in operational costs that are driven by inflation, enrollment FTEs, or other factors.

[00:50:11] And across the school operating fund, we have an increase of $5.6 million. And so then you'll see the line chart slightly move up. As you saw earlier, our student body continues to change with students who require additional resources continuing to outpace division growth.

[00:50:29] Additional staffing per the staffing standards for SPED and EL programs, as well as new programs, require an additional 282.6 FTEs at an overall cost of $23.2 million. Again, you see the FTEs change and the movement of the fiscal year 2016 on dotted line that is now above the base budget, noting that this is before any additional compensation has been addressed.

[00:50:55] So in this next slide, we will look at our recommended compensation increases. The annual step increase, cost of living adjustment, health premium increase, and other compensation items total $99.1 million, and that represents about 75% of the total budget increase.

[00:51:11] Not surprisingly, we now see a considerable increase in our line chart, pushing the fiscal year 26 seon further above the base budget i will get into the details around these increases later in the presentation the last set of investments are in school board priorities in things such as an after school pilot program safety and security measures and the recovery school amongst other things these investments combined require 173.6 ftes with a cost of 28.1 million dollars and this continues to push the fiscal year 2016 on dotted line upwards and again we will

[00:51:46] touch on these in more detail later as well. So combined all of those recommended changes bring us to the fiscal year 2016 on with a total FTE count of 13,463.5 and a budget of approximately 1.96 billion. As I mentioned earlier this Sion is focused on investing today and in the future and there are three core investment categories aligned with the 1LCPS strategic plan that have been identified and these include investing in our empowered students our exemplary staff and our enriched school system i will be providing a summary of these investments

[00:52:23] and more detailed presentations to the school board on each of these categories will occur in the upcoming budget work sessions so starting in the spring of 2024 the school board had the opportunity to provide feedback on developing the budget during multiple work sessions and school board meetings as a result priorities were identified that when combined with the 1lcps strategic plan and the superintendent's post-entry plan provided the blueprint for building this estimate of needs. I am happy to report that all identified priorities have some level of investment

[00:52:54] in the SION. Our first investment category is investing in empowered students. The fiscal year 26 SION is focused on providing students with additional learning paths, offerings, and access to opportunities. A few examples of school board supported investments include expanding the dual Language Emergent Program into second grade, resources for the Access Academy and the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies, and expanding the Welcome Center for our English learner students.

[00:53:27] This SEAN also includes resources to launch the Recovery School to create a learning environment where students may receive an excellent education while also gaining support while in recovery from a substance use disorder. There are several investments in school board priorities addressing student support and well-being examples are an after-school pilot program student behavior resources and additional athletic trainers and school health clinic staff there are other needs addressed in this proposed budget as well and these can be found throughout the budget book again more detail will be provided in upcoming investing and empower students presentations

[00:54:03] of the total 13 463.5 positions in the school operating fund 94.2 percent are working in the schools or directly with school staff and students. For this year, we introduced a new grouping of our positions that identifies school-facing positions. These are employees who may not be assigned to a school, but who routinely work in the schools. As you can see here, examples of school-facing positions include instructional facilitators, technical security technicians, and special education supervisors. So I want to be clear that this SEON keeps additional staffing resources

[00:54:41] focused on schools and on students. Of the total increase of FTEs in this SEAN, 94.6% or 355.86 FTEs are school-based or school-facing positions. The remaining 20.5 new positions in this SEAN are non-school-based or school-facing, and they're listed here for easy reference. For example, listed here are DDI or Department of Digital Innovation positions to support the new ERP system. These positions are replacing positions formerly funded by the county as we've made the transition to

[00:55:18] uncoupling our ERP system from the counties. They also include maintenance positions and other key positions to support programs. So every year that I've been in education I've heard conversations about whether or not school divisions are appropriately staffed at the school and at the administrative level. I think being clear about this matters because I have stated and continue to state my intention to ensure that staffing in LCPS remains focused on students with that I do think it is important to note here that of the non-school-based staffing those who are supervisors

[00:55:55] and above make up a very small percentage of our overall FTEs historically the percentage of LCPS staff who are non-school-based administrators has been below 1.5 percent you may recall last year that number was at 1.4 percent and for fiscal year 26 that number stands at 1.3 percent and then listed here are just some of the key responsibilities for that administrative staff. The 1LCPS 2027 strategic plan for excellence identifies LCPS teachers, administrators, and staff as the most important factor in helping our students after their parents. This CIAN proposes significant

[00:56:34] investments in salaries and benefits for LCPS employees. The proposed operating budget provides us with the resources needed to run the school division every day and also allows us to offer a competitive salary and benefits package to our employees our ability to offer attractive salaries and benefits packages bolsters our ability to recruit and retain an exemplary workforce and i'm proud that this budget not only includes step increases in top of scale payments but also a four percent cost of living adjustment for the universal and auxiliary salary scales and an average four percent strategic teacher scale adjustment as the board likely understands health costs continue to

[00:57:13] rise and so to enhance the financial stability of the health self-insurance fund the fiscal year 2016 also includes a combination of cost reduction measures and revenue enhancements including a 12 health premium increase for employees and also for lcps the employer and thursday's investment in our exemplary staff presentation you will hear more about these investments and benefit changes so you've seen this graphic before the dollar bill graphic on this slide represents the entire operating fund budget and it's just a reminder that with 90 percent of the school operating fund

[00:57:50] invested in our most important asset our staff it does not take much to make an impact on the budget as stated earlier for example an annual step increase alone costs about 26 million and for each of the recommended four percent cost of living adjustments that cost for one percent is 14 million dollars so we needed to take this reality into account when working to present this estimate of needs which is again also based on the school board's direction to weight funding slightly more towards compensation. This guidance was very helpful in creating our budget blueprint

[00:58:22] and of the 131.8 million dollar increase 60 percent is invested solely in compensation. So the third category of investment covers investments in our school system. Investments to support safety and security as recommended by the blue ribbon panel. Investments to support our continued rollout of a new ERP system, and inflationary costs for daily operations are all included in this SEON.

[00:58:51] And in Thursday's investment in our Enriched School Division presentation, you will hear more about each of these specifically. So those are our needs. And now that I have shared what LCPS needs, let's also talk about the funding needed to support the SEON.

[00:59:13] LCPS operating fund revenues come from three main categories, federal and other revenue streams, state funding, and the local county transfer. The CION projects no change in LCPS's federal or other revenue streams in the operating fund. An example of specific revenue sources in the operating fund is Medicaid reimbursements for certain special education services. The budget carryover is the designated current year projected surplus funds that will carry over to the following budget year. Historically, this has been $12 million and remains at that amount for fiscal

[00:59:48] year 26. And then the other category includes charges and fees such as facility rentals charges AP testing fees and other program charges like adult education and driver's education. The second category is state funding and the SEAN includes a net increase of 8.4 million dollars based on the governor's proposed budget. The General Assembly of course may make changes to the budget that could impact LCPS funding and expenditures but at this time the SEAN is based solely on the governor's proposed budget and any state changes will be brought forward to the school board for consideration

[01:00:22] as needed as well as communicated to the board of supervisors. Now the reason we are in such a strong position today as a school division and why we are able to continue making meaningful progress towards our goals is due in large part to the hard work and dedication of our award-winning budget and finance team but also I want to extend my deep gratitude to the school board and our partners on the board of supervisors. We are incredibly fortunate to have a school board and board of supervisors and community that not only prioritize education but have consistently demonstrated the commitment and ability to fund our schools at a level that supports our students'

[01:00:58] success. It's important to acknowledge that the supervisors play a crucial role each year along with the school board in closing the gap in education funding at the local level and every year you and they rise to the challenge answering the call for greater investment in our schools. This continued support has been invaluable to our efforts and for that we are grateful. But we should also note that the responsibility should not fall solely on the local government. As we all know, the state of Virginia has a constitutional obligation to fund public education, yet as highlighted in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report that is noted in LCPS's

[01:01:35] legislative agenda, Virginia's per-student funding for K-12 education lags behind not only on the national average, but also behind the regional average and the funding levels of three of Virginia's five neighboring states. While investments in education do continue to improve in Virginia, on average, school divisions in these other states receive more per student than we do here, which translates to significant lost funding every year for LCPS. We do appreciate the General Assembly's continued interest in developing responses to the JLARC report and encourage our LCPS community and school board to continue advocating at the state level for appropriate

[01:02:11] education funding. Because despite these gaps in state funding, our priorities remain the same. So much of what we have budgeted for is around employee compensation as well as expanding opportunities for our students aligned with again our post-entry plan and our strategic plan and with discussions of the school board at their budget workshop about what's important to them and to the constituents they serve. So with that regarding state funding there are over 30 state revenue streams and four examples are provided here. The largest funding streams are basic aid

[01:02:46] and sales tax funding. Basic aid essentially is the state share of public education based on student enrollment and the standards of quality. Other funding streams are more aligned with specific functions such as English learner support, the mentor teacher program, and SOL algebra readiness funds to provide just a few examples. The governor's proposed budget amendments to the second year of the biennium budget include funding to support a three percent average pancreas and funding to support English learner students and these budget amendments are offset by reductions in basic aid

[01:03:22] and other revenue streams. As the General Assembly now works on the budget as noted we will continue to monitor the state budget and its impact on LCPS. The last funding category is the local county transfer which requests 123.4 million to fully fund our estimate of needs. LCPS does not have a revenue sharing agreement with the Board of Supervisors but the funding formula that has generally been used is depicted on this slide. The formula begins with new local tax funding from property and personal property taxes. Next, any increases for county and school debt services

[01:04:00] and capital projects are deducted. Next, a deduction for the county's affordable housing fund is made to keep that fund at a prescribed amount along with a deduction for the county revenue stabilization fund. This results in an amount of new net local tax funding that would then be split 60 percent to LCPS and 40 percent to the county. Regarding the 60-40 split, it's worth noting that historically the county has not funded LCPS based on their initial funding split threshold. As this line chart depicts, through fiscal year 23, this funding split was set at 66

[01:04:38] percent shown by the orange line. Each year except for fiscal year 17, the actual share of the local tax funding was below 66 percent. In fiscal year 24, the county established a new threshold of 60 and once again you can see that in fiscal year 24 and 25 LCPS did not receive 60% of the local tax funding. Additionally the superintendent's estimate needs request for county funding has not been met aside from fiscal year 24. In fiscal year 24 there were issues with the state calculation tool that created a state revenue shortfall of 13 million dollars and the board of supervisors

[01:05:13] stepped up and appropriate additional funding to fill the state gap. All that said just to provide historical context. And that said, in December, the county administrator transmitted a letter providing budget funding guidance of $100.4 million based on an equalized homeowner's rate of .845, maintaining the general personal property tax rate at 4.15, and reducing the vehicle personal property tax rate to 3.48. The Sion funding request is $23 million above county budget guidance. One factor that is worth noting is that a final state-approved budget may

[01:05:52] provide additional funding to LCPS, and if this were to occur, we would recommend LCPS request any unencumbered state funding be recognized to offset county funding similar to what occurred during the fiscal year 25 budget process. The state's budget timeline is depicted here outlining the steps it takes to adopt the state budget. The General Assembly convened last week and is in the process now of delivering deliberating on the governor's proposed budget our hope is that the state follows this timeline and does adopt a final budget by may which of course makes our ability to reconcile

[01:06:28] our budget and work with the board of supervisors easier prior to the next school year as initially shared the cion was developed to balance needs as much as possible with projected resources versus developing a full needs-based budget recognizing that i do want to highlight a few priorities that are delayed to future years. These are requests from board members, staff, and other stakeholders that remain important but cannot be funded with projected revenues. Earlier, I referred to these as unmet needs. We might also think of them as delayed investments. Some examples of delayed

[01:07:02] investments include additional teachers and teacher assistance for special education and English learner students and their programs beyond those already in the SEON, additional blue ribbon panel safety and security recommendations beyond those in the SEON and additional supports for students such as a larger after-school pilot program or expanded tutoring services beyond those in the SEON. I appreciate your attention and your consideration of this overview of the fiscal year 26 SEON so I just want to quickly recap and review the next steps. We obviously have shared a

[01:07:39] great deal of high level information with you but here are some of the key takeaways captured here. Eligible full-time employees will receive an average 6.5% pay increase. The fiscal year 26 budget increase is $131.8 million or 72.72% above the fiscal year 25 budget.

[01:08:02] The county transfer request is $123.4 million or 9.7% above the fiscal year 25 county transfer. And again, the state budget deliberation is ongoing and we will promptly provide any updates. LCPS's cost per pupil is $23,757, which is an increase of 9% driven from the important investments I've outlined this evening.

[01:08:27] And finally, this SEAN has 94.2% of positions dedicated to working directly with the schools. So again, we know this is a lot of information. We thank you for taking the time to learn more about our budget process. That said, we know you will have questions. The procedure for asking those questions is listed here.

[01:08:48] If you have questions, you should email them to Sharon Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer. I would ask you to copy our Chief of Staff, Dr. Bergen, and Ms. Willoughby will then reach out to the appropriate department to answer those, and those will be provided in an ongoing list of budget questions.

[01:09:06] Time-intensive questions or costing requests will be brought to the school board as they have in the past to determine whether there is consensus to proceed with that work. The school board budget work sessions for our budget process are listed on this slide, concluding with the school board adoption on February the 4th.

[01:09:26] A reminder that that February the 4th date is driven by the county's budget adoption process. The county administrator will then kick off the county's public budget process when he presents the county's proposed budget to the board of supervisors on February 12th. It is expected that shortly after that, the school board will present its fiscal year 26 adopted budget to the board of supervisors.

[01:09:47] Typically, the school board and LCPS staff will also attend one additional Board of Supervisors budget work session in the March to April time frame. So, despite the funding challenges and delayed investments I outlined earlier, but also because of the investment of our community, our school board, and our Board of Supervisors, LCPS continues to thrive.

[01:10:11] And I do think it's important to acknowledge the return on investment. So here are just a few of the many LCPS accomplishments made possible by the investments in our students and our staff and our school division. The LCPS graduating class of 2024 included 66,758 seniors.

[01:10:31] Nearly 74% of those graduates reported that they will attend a four-year college, while almost 15% will attend a two-year school. And more than $64 million in scholarships were awarded to LCPS graduates this year. You know that two LCPS high schools are officially authorized as International Baccalaureate World Schools, offering the IB program diploma during the 2024-25 school year.

[01:10:58] LCPS was among 1,335 schools nationwide to receive the 2024 EverFi Empowered Seal, indicating that LCPS is in the top 10% of school districts in the United States and Canada for its commitment to a whole child education. For the 13th consecutive year, LCPS earned the 2024 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Energy.

[01:11:27] LCPS is the only school system that has 13 years as a sustained excellence partner. All 17 LCPS middle schools have been designated as schools to watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. In addition, five LCPS middle schools are amongst 23 schools nationwide that received the Schools of Distinction Award from the Association of Middle-Level Education.

[01:11:50] Twelve LCPS schools have been awarded the Purple Star Recognition for demonstrating military-friendly practices and a commitment to our military-connected students and families. Niche ranked Waxpool Elementary as Virginia's best elementary school. Goshen Post was ranked the third-best elementary school in Virginia, and in addition to these two, twelve other LCPS elementary schools made the top 100 list.

[01:12:13] Four LCPS students represented the division at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world's largest pre-college STEM competition in May 2024 in Los Angeles. In addition, two Loudoun County Public School students were named 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars.

[01:12:30] These students were amongst the only 161 students from around the country selected for this honor. We established the first cohort of 150 students for the Health and Medical Sciences Academy at Briarwoods and Tuscarora High Schools. And LCPS partnered, as you remember, with Amazon Web Services to launch a Think Big space at J.L. Simpson Middle School in December of 2023.

[01:12:53] And during this school year, students and educators from around the county and around the region have utilized this space to explore innovative and imaginative ideas through interactive hands-on technical education and cloud computing training. And these are, of course, just a small sampling of the many returns on the community's investment in this school division.

[01:13:15] with so much to celebrate we look forward to going through the important process with you and we look forward to collaborating on how we best serve our students staff and families in Loudoun County Public Schools as we move forward as I hope you can see we are more committed than ever to providing the best possible experience to meet the needs of our LCPS community and we are grateful to the school board and to the staff parents and citizens of Loudoun County for their ongoing investments in those efforts. Madam Chair, that concludes the report. Thank you,

[01:13:49] Superintendent Spence. I think we have about 15 more minutes. I was thinking we could probably go ahead and do playgrounds for information item before we go to dinner. Is that okay with y'all?

[01:14:05] Alright, so we will move on to item 14.01 Finance and Operations Committee, Revision of Policy 6320, Playgrounds presented by Arben Estreffi, Chair, Finance of Operations Committee Thank you, Madam Chair. We have Policy 6320, Playgrounds, is before the school board as a part of the LCPS policy review cycle Staff reviewed the policy and incorporated changes based on current practices as well as comments through the public review process.

[01:14:43] The policy now specifically states that all playgrounds replaced with LCPS managed funding will be inclusive playgrounds. Staff reviewed all feedback from the community as well as MSAC, SEAC, and LEAF committee members. As you'll see in the attachments, several community comments were related to the provision of age 2 to 5 playgrounds, which are now being addressed through the CIP as approved on December 10th.

[01:15:07] CIAC provided five recommendations related to Policy 6320 during the review process, nearly all of which were incorporated by staff into the draft that's before us today. Changes made in response to CIAC's feedback include adding a broader reference to age 2 to 5 playgrounds, improving language related to accessibility, and defining the specific elements of inclusive playgrounds, as well as clarifying playground inspection cycles.

[01:15:32] The only CIEC item not incorporated in the policy that we have in front of us is the request to add a sentence identifying a 10-year review cycle for replacements. LCPS inspects playgrounds comprehensively each year and considers replacements when needed in urgent cases.

[01:15:50] And the replacement cycle has been identified in the CIP process as well. So I'll allow board members to ask any questions and direct staff to potentially answer them.

[01:16:07] Thank you, Mr. Straffi. Board members, do you have any questions? Yes, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. In reviewing the feedback today, I noticed in the general feedback a question discussing why the language is included for the 1990 ADA standards.

[01:16:31] And I was wondering if you could give us some context as to why it's specific to the 1990 standards when there have been additional standards and if a more recent version or other language might be more appropriate thank you mr. Chandler so the name of the act is actually the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and it has been amended so we'd be happy to change the

[01:17:04] language to include as amended to make sure we cover all those those changes since 1990 thank you and so i guess that could not come back for um go straight to um consent if we have to change wording we're gonna have to go ahead and vote on that if thank you madam chair i think if there's um a general consensus of board members to go ahead and have staff make that edit and you could

[01:17:43] bring that back as consent board members is this something that you'd want to come back to consent if they make those changes yes one miss labelle that's unanimous she's teaching um okay so that will go up to consent um with that changed wording please all right and now

[01:18:15] we have about 10 minutes do you think we can go through i think we would skip to we could skip to 1403. Legislative Audit and Policy Committee, Revision of Policy 2420, Meaning Procedures, presented by Ms. Chandler, Chair of Legislative Audit and Policy Committee.

[01:18:40] Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to bring forward tonight updated language around Policy 2420. All of the changes are brought forward to bring us into compliance with recent changes to the Virginia State Code, and I'd be happy to ask Ms. Allen if she has anything further to add.

[01:19:10] I do not. Ms. Allen or Mr. Allen? Ms. Allen. Both works, but I don't have anything to add. Nor do I. Thank you. Madam Chair?

[01:19:27] Yes, Dr. Spence. It is just worth noting, if you look at the addition, that is state code language, which is recognizing that if you have a person with a disability or who is a caregiver who needs to use remote participation, that you count them as physically present, and so your remote participation rules would not apply.

[01:19:48] And I think that's just inclusion language that is in state code now. So that's the substantive change. So can I ask what kind of documentation would have to be provided to make sure that it qualifies for disability?

[01:20:07] Mr. Allen? Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't see that that level of specificity is contemplated in the code, but we can certainly look into that to operationalize that if that's the board's will.

[01:20:24] Board members, any other questions? Yes, Ms. Chernoff. Not really a question, but I just wanted to add that during this process of this policy coming up, we did sort of take a little sidebar that I wanted the public to know about, which was discussing the recording and live streaming of our meetings.

[01:20:44] think there was some interest definitely from at least the three of us on the committee to sort of explore the logistics and the staffing and the just I guess logistics of what that all takes and there was interest for us to maybe talk about having more of our committee meetings live streamed and not or video recorded but in the end based off of what the budget implication would be for that additional staffing equipment and just all the logistics of having to have meetings in certain rooms the committee decided to sort of table that for now but I did want to make it make it known that we we had considered maybe pushing

[01:21:22] that into policy if we thought that that was possible and that we did explore trying to make meetings more accessible and look at that data if people are interested in that conversation. Thank you Ms. Chernoff. Any other questions? No.

[01:21:37] Would we want to put this on consent? Mrs. Griffiths would you like to put this on consent okay that will not go on consent um and i think let's see what's our next one why don't we go ahead i think we can go ahead and stop it here because i think that there's some other things that will take a little bit longer than 10 minutes um so with that we will go the board will go to

[01:22:17] recess for dinner and we will reconvene at 6 30. thank you all right good evening the board is

[02:01:02] coming out of recess at this time and we will be continuing with item eight the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem the pledge of allegiance and national anthem will be performed this evening by the eagle ridge middle school chamber orchestra the eagle ridge middle school chamber orchestra led by finn madigan is an audition only ensemble comprising performers from all grade levels our performers are avid musicians who participate in other ensembles such as Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestras and American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras

[02:01:42] and have achieved county-wide and regional recognition in placement and auditions. Would everybody please rise and stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

[02:04:13] Thank you very much. We will continue with the agenda item 9, student staff recognitions. One LCPS Spotlight, Elementary Gifted Education, Rosalie Carter, and Sterling Elementary Schools.

[02:04:29] Presented by Rosalie Carter Elementary School, Uzma Azkari, Principal, Carla Paulson, Gifted Resource Teacher, Teresa Connell, Gifted Resource Teacher, and Students. Sterling Elementary School, Jennifer Maris, Jennifer Maris Short, Principal, Jennifer Daniel, Gifted Resource Teacher, and Students.

[02:05:23] Good evening. My name is Isma Skari and I am the principal at Rosalie Carter and I'm here with Jennifer Short, principal at Sterling Elementary. Tonight's presentation is aligned with goal one of the LCPS strategic plan to support all students in gifted education. We intend to provide a brief overview of the gifted programs at both schools and our gifted teachers and students will share how our programs are unique and provide depth to support extended learning, critical thinking, and provide students with opportunities to take ownership of their learning.

[02:05:59] Next slide, please. The gifted program at the elementary level is structured where there's exposure for all students, K through 3, with our search program. Students have opportunities to be enriched even further than the regular instructional day. And as the teachers are seeing the little glimmers of potential, they may move them into EDGE programs, specifically our students who may be in our underrepresented populations.

[02:06:23] From there, our students have opportunities to work through the protocol to determine whether or not they are eligible for gifted services, and if so, they may be eligible as a DCI student focusing in one area, reading or math, or they may be overall gifted where they would come out of their classroom for a period of time each week for Fusion services.

[02:06:49] At this time, our RLC team of gifted educators, no pun intended, Carla Paulson and Terry Connell, They do bring a wealth of experience with combined 20 years at RLC, providing extended learning through LCPS Fusion, DCI, Search, and Edge-centered programs.

[02:07:07] Their collective knowledge fosters a collaborative environment that supports consistency and drives continuous growth at our RLC-specific programs. They're dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all gifted learners, several duly identified, by adapting and evolving the curriculum to challenge any students with extended learning and critical thinking opportunities.

[02:07:28] I invite Ms. Paulson and Ms. McConnell to share a few aspects of their program. Next slide, please, and then one more, please. Excellent, thank you.

[02:07:43] - Good evening. We appreciate the opportunity to share how RLC's gifted program provides experiences that enable all students to access the level and kind of thinking required to successfully engage with challenging instructional tasks and supports teachers with resources and programs that encourage rigorous learning within their classrooms.

[02:08:03] Next slide, please. To effectively engage students during our search, edge, DCI, and fusion lessons, we tailor activities that provide tiered challenges with the appropriate cognitive demand and support necessary to meet the diverse needs of our student population.

[02:08:21] This is of utmost importance because gifted strategies benefit all students and even those learners identified as gifted display asynchronous development with areas of both strength and need. We also provide structures for learning such as metacognition which is a critical step between knowing on a superficial level and developing true understanding.

[02:08:40] Implementing ongoing self-reflection tools like thinking maps, our search thinking keys, and a five C's progress tracker enables this thinking about thinking and results in academic rigor and student ownership. In addition, we foster a positive learning environment that integrates the five C's of deeper learning with social-emotional learning, executive functioning skills, and authentic hands-on experiences. Supporting our classroom teachers as they work with gifted learners takes many forms. We regularly consult with teachers about students who may not be eligible for gifted services but demonstrate

[02:09:18] potential based on ability and achievement testing and formal observations, and classroom pre-assessment. These students may be provided differentiated instruction through a flexible group in their area of strength. We also offer professional development on topics such as the distinguishing characteristics and needs of gifted children with diverse factors and problem-based learning, as well as invite teachers to utilize our gifted resource library that covers a variety of academic and social-emotional development topics.

[02:09:48] We attend grade level meetings to keep informed of curriculum updates and ensure lesson alignment. For example, one focus of our school improvement plan is vocabulary development, so we incorporate HMH vocabulary strategies into our lessons and serve as coordinators of the Word Masters Challenge, a program that encourages advanced vocabulary and verbal reasoning.

[02:10:11] In addition, Schoology courses are created at all grade levels for students who are interested in home extension activities or further enrichment within their classroom. Last but not least, we visit the ECSE class several times throughout the year to introduce our youngest learners to a modified search curriculum.

[02:10:30] We want to thank you for your support of our gifted education program and all you do to ensure that our students thrive as gifted learners. Next slide please. Good evening again.

[02:10:45] I would like to introduce to you Mrs. Jennifer Daniel. She is our gifted education teacher and she is just a bright spot in our day at our very special school. She is a model of creativity, she's a model of innovation, just as she expects from her students, and she's also a Javits Frazier scholar due to her work with our underrepresented populations.

[02:11:05] Mrs. Daniel? Good evening. Thank you for inviting us an opportunity to share today about our gifted program at Sterling. I'm thrilled to kind of highlight a couple things that we do. As I'm sure you're all aware, our school's a Title I school, and our gifted program serves historically underrepresented populations in gifted education.

[02:11:29] One of the things that I'm most proud of is how collaboratively our school works together to ensure that our students are seen, get rigor, and opportunities. I connect with our classroom teachers by attending weekly team planning meetings, and we are very intentional about discussing how to extend and enrich students' learning.

[02:11:51] We also look at data to pinpoint which students are demonstrating that they need higher levels of instruction, and I meet with those students weekly. It is flexible and fluid grouping, and that changes weekly depending on what classroom teachers are seeing in the classroom.

[02:12:08] Having the gifted teacher being housed in just one school has really been a great thing because that allows me to work with all of the students, not just those who are identified for the program. My principal and I work closely together to really dig through student data, as well as a mixture of observations that I collect while in the classroom in search lessons, as well as standardized testing information.

[02:12:33] And we look at all of this data to handpick edge groups for our school. And throughout my time here at Sterling, this has served our school really well, as most recently just this year, all of our third grade edge students from last year were identified for the gifted program. And so I had to re-examine my data to create new groups for this coming school year. So this is a good indicator that we're seeing potential and we're able to give our students the extra exposure and boost they may need to make it into the program. One of the challenges that I faced when coming to Sterling was funding needed to purchase the resources that I felt best served

[02:13:10] our population. Most of our students and many of them are English language learners and I see that they learn best when being provided an activity that does not solely rely on language to show what they know. So hands-on critical thinking games, specifically those with spatial reasoning skills, work really well for our students, and so I sought various opportunities to secure those supplies through various different grant writings. I've done DonorsChoose, LEA grants, and Alpha Delta Kappa grants, and through those efforts we've built a substantial inventory of supplies at Sterling, and those help keep our

[02:13:45] students actively engaged with these activities. At this point, you're going to have the opportunity to hear from students at each of the schools here. Next slide, please.

[02:14:14] Hello, I'm Jackson Lawrence, a fifth grader at Rosalie Carter Elementary School. Thank you for having me speak this evening about my gifted program experiences, which have been incredible and memorable. They have helped me improve my collaboration and communication skills, as well as my creative and critical thinking. I'm naturally an introvert, so through the years of search, DCI, and fusion, I've become more comfortable working with and communicating with others. For example, during our innovation block, my team applied the scamper technique to make improvements to an ordinary item and put it to other uses. We brainstormed ideas, then used our various strengths to design a poster and make

[02:14:51] an oral presentation. I've also been challenged to think outside the box during DCI language arts. I completed one project called Crazy Captions, with the goal of creating the craziest captions imaginable for random pictures. It was like a playground where your brain could go crazy with creativity.

[02:15:08] I've also discovered a connection between my ability to play two orchestral instruments from a young age and my ability to excel in math. DCI math provides opportunities to develop my critical thinking at a deeper level. One challenging activity was division secret number.

[02:15:24] Based on clues, we searched for a mystery number that when divided by two had a remainder of one and so on until you got to nine with a remainder of eight. It really kept my interest and with perseverance, I solved the problem. The solution was 362,879, but you'll have to figure out the strategy on your own.

[02:15:42] Thank you again for the amazing opportunity to speak with you tonight. Good evening. I'm Radish Mandapaka, a fifth grader attending Rosalie Carter Elementary.

[02:16:03] I'd like to share how the gifted program has helped me grow as a collaborator, communicator, creator, and critical thinker. Many of our future leadership and innovation activities focus on collaboration and communication.

[02:16:21] In the metaphorical tower challenge, for example, I really struggled because we weren't allowed to talk. From this experience I learned the value of both verbal and non-verbal communication as well as hidden assumptions that leaders may have in real life challenges.

[02:16:40] I also participated in an activity related to the Apollo 13 incident called Houston without a problem. The object of the challenge was for one team to transmit the design to another team that they would then duplicate.

[02:16:56] This made me realize that group members can take roles based on their strengths and interests and that everybody should be encouraged to assume responsibility for their share of collaborative work. Aside from fusion in DCI language arts, I've enjoyed developing my love of creative writing.

[02:17:19] During our poetry study, we wrote poems in a variety of styles. Then the students organized a poetry contest with judging criteria based on technical and artistic elements. The award I earned was for using figurative language that creates rich sensory appeal.

[02:17:41] In DCI math, I like the hands-on equations activity because we learned the strategies for solving algebraic problems and methods for evaluating our work. The check strategy is so helpful because I tend to worry about getting wrong answers.

[02:17:59] Now I know that if I get an incorrect solution, it's just an opportunity for me to learn from the mistake. Speaking with you guys has been an amazing experience. Thank you for having me. Next slide, please.

[02:18:21] Hi, I'm Sofia Guerra, a fifth grader at Sterling Elementary. I have been part of the fusion program for the past two years. Prior to that, I was in an EDGE group with Mrs. Daniel. Hi, I'm Brandon Manu, also a fifth grader at Stirling Elementary.

[02:18:43] I've also been in the fusion program for the past two years. And before being in fusion, I loved the activities we did in search. Sophia and I are very excited to share with you some of the learning opportunities we've had in fusion for the past two years.

[02:18:59] So the first question we ask our students to respond to is to share with us some of the opportunities that they've had that they feel have stretched their thinking the most. That's a hard question because there's a lot I can share.

[02:19:17] I really enjoyed the school-wide magazine we have been doing the past two years. We have to choose a topic that we are excited about and research it. We learned about plagiarism and citing our sources. We had to synthesize all of the information we gathered and create a final version that had to fall within a strict timeline for our publication date.

[02:19:36] We learned how to use a computer program called Canva to make our final written piece polished and visually pleasing to our readers. I think this stretched my thinking because I had to learn how to budget my time, write a piece that would engage an audience, and use a brand new program to create a finished product.

[02:19:55] It made me love writing more and have an idea of what it might be like to be a writer in the real world. I also think the math enrichment that Mrs. Daniel does with us each week stretches my thinking too. We do extension activities that go along with what we're learning in class and apply it to new situations at a deeper level.

[02:20:13] I really like when we get to do hands-on activities in math that bring math to life like Daniel's Diner. I agree with Sophia. For the past two years, we have done various Daniel's diners, which make what we're learning in math applicable to the real world.

[02:20:32] For example, most recently, we've learned decimal computation. Teachers at our school would fill out a customizable order form for trail mix. We would have to look at the order form and then compute a total amount based on the price of the item. We would then give them a bill based on our calculations.

[02:20:48] Don't worry, they don't give us real money, only Daniel dollars. the other max extension challenges that sophia mentioned are tricky but we keep persevering and working our way through it another thing that sticks out in my mind is something we did last year called a passion project we had to think of an idea we were deeply interested we had to think of something we were deeply interested in with the hopes that it educates others about an important issue that with the hopes that it encourages others to take action and create change i had to really think about what was going on in the world around me what i cared about and how to convince other people to want to help solve this problem. I think I really grew and stretched my thinking,

[02:21:28] especially empathy towards others, not just with my own passion project, but as well as listening to my classmates. So the next question that was posed to the students was, can you share some of your favorite activities that you've done in Fusion the past two years? Randon and I already talked about Daniel's Diner, which we both agree is a favorite of ours. Right now, I really like the board games that we're making. Our theme in Fusion this year is innovation. For this project, we did research on board games that already exist. We played the board games and used our critical

[02:22:04] thinking skills to take note about the pros and cons of the games, themes that existed, and what about the games made it fun or not fun. We thought about how we might innovate them to create our own board games. We got to choose whether we wanted to make one ourselves or collaborate with others. We have spent the past few weeks planning our own board games. We have created a sketch of our board game to include directions, playing pieces, things like that.

[02:22:32] Now we are in the production stage where we are making everything. I am excited to see other people play my game and to get feedback on it. I am also really excited to see the games that other people made. It's been really fun. Another cool activity that we have done is our leadership models with last year's theme of leadership. We had to research traits and habits and mindsets of leaders. And we also had to research different leaders, but for the leadership bottles, we got to pick any leader we wanted. We would have to research that leader in things

[02:23:12] like when they were born, where they lived, the leadership traits we think they showed, major life events, and interesting facts. We would then put all this information into a script. We would have to program the script into something called Makey Makey, which is an invention kit, which allows us to turn everyday items into touch pads. We would then create a physical cop. We would then create our leadership bottles, which were a physical model of our leader.

[02:23:39] We would then connect alligator clips to different parts of the bottles. Whenever, whenever someone touched the parts of the bottle where the alligator clips were, it sent a signal to a computer where it had all our recordings of the different information of the important information about our leader we got to share we got to share a little bit ship bottles with different classes at our school it was very fun thank you to all of our students who shared tonight next slide please

[02:24:11] I wanted to offer if you had any questions for us for our students well I love that thank you so much for coming and presenting and I'll have to tell you my son's a video game programming major and there is and there is something called a game design major just saying so y'all did really well we really appreciate you guys coming and presenting for us board members do you have

[02:24:45] any other questions comments no i yeah we all enjoyed it thank you that we will move on to item

[02:25:18] 10 the school student school board representative comment our student tonight is noah peyken who is a senior at independence high school he's been part of the student council association for two years and serves as the president of the sca and president of the jewish student union noah runs track and cross-country, and loves playing soccer in his free time. Noah has a strong interest in politics, which began with him interning for State Senator Suha Subramaniam over the summer. He continued his political interest by becoming a United States Senate page, where he was sponsored

[02:25:57] by Senator Mark Warner and lived on Capitol Hill for five months. Noah works part-time at the Air Space Museum at the Udvar-Hazy Center where he explains science topics to a wide variety of visitors. Noah is honored to be Indy's student representative to the school board and plans to serve the board and the community well. Welcome Noah and the floor is yours. Good evening Chair Mansfield and members of the board Dr. Spence and guests. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and enjoyed our exciting snow week. Thank you Chair Mansfield for the introduction and the

[02:26:33] chance to speak with you this evening. Our principal, Mr. Gabriel, often says school should be a place where students want to be and not have to go. I truly feel that independence lives up to these ideals with their key characteristics, impact, honor, and strength. Even with a relatively short history, independence is already making a lasting impact on our community. A student council association is at the heart of this success, showing appreciation for teachers, creating fun and engaging spirit days and finding new ways to unite students. In addition, we strive to develop innovative ways to serve. We are currently planning Tigers Thrift Day, where students have the

[02:27:10] opportunity to donate old clothing, then Tigers can thrift their students' clothing and the leftovers are donated. Independence's greatest strength lies in our diverse and talented student body. With organizations like the Black Student Union and the Muslim Student Union, every student has a space to be heard and valued. Independent students excel in various activities. Beyond 14 state athletic titles for a school only six years old. We are also proud of our outstanding two-time state champion band, a deck of competitors at ICDC, an international competition, and a cappy winning theater department. Everyone can see Hadestown this spring. Our hard-working students

[02:27:46] strike the right balance between their academics and fun activities. We sold out of our Indy Live talent show showcasing some of the best talent Indy has to offer, and there's a lot. Students passionately dedicated their week to going all out for spirit days and straightening their ties and dresses for a night to remember with the theme Tiger Tunes for Hoka. While independence has so much to offer its student body, a personal suggestion I would offer the board is expanding unique career-oriented classes like real estate marketing to other schools. As a current participant in this class, I'm on track to take the reader's license exam by the end of the course. The course not only prepares students for a career in real estate, but also provides invaluable financial

[02:28:26] literacy. Offering such classes county-wide would enable students to graduate with certifications, skills, and real-world knowledge that set them apart in college and the job market. Additionally, I urge the board to consider implementing the Global Leaders Program across Loudoun County schools. This unique initiative, already successful in Fairfax County, engages seniors in addressing one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, such as ending poverty or combating hunger.

[02:28:51] Through hands-on projects, students can develop leadership skills, tackle pressing global issues, and contribute meaningful solutions within their communities. By adapting the program to fit our unique needs, we would create a powerful framework for fellows fostering collaboration, innovation, and community impact.

[02:29:07] As someone who had the honor of serving as a U.S. Senate page, I've seen firsthand how investing in leadership development can open doors to work experience and community building. By offering classes like real estate marketing and programs like Global Leaders, Loudoun County would be living up to its mission statement, empowering all students to make a meaningful contribution to the world.

[02:29:25] Overall, thank you for considering my suggestions, and as I end, I want to thank the school board for having me and the teachers for their work. As Nelson Mandela once said, education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. Thank you. Thank you so much, Noah, for being here and for your comments.

[02:29:49] We will now move on to item 11, the superintendent support, presented by Dr. Aaron Spence, our superintendent. Dr. Spence. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. It is, as always, my pleasure to share some good news from around the school division. Beginning with this, we want to recognize Brian Klippel, who's here this evening.

[02:30:08] Mr. Klippel has been named Executive Principal for Elementary Schools. He joined LCPS in 2015 as a teacher at Rosalie Carter. He advanced to dean at that school and then moved to Goshen Post Elementary School, where he first served as an assistant principal and then most recently as the principal.

[02:30:24] Previously, he was an elementary school teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools and Pocono Mountain School District in Pennsylvania. Mr. Klippel takes on his new role beginning February 3rd. We're pleased you accepted that recommendation this evening, and we welcome and congratulate you as you come to this new position.

[02:30:40] Congratulations. LCPS's newest elementary school and only primary school, Henrietta Lacks Elementary School, was dedicated on Tuesday, December 17th. As a part of that dedication, students of the school presented information about the school's namesake, and members of the Henrietta Lacks family were in attendance to celebrate the new school.

[02:31:03] Henrietta Lacks Elementary is the school home for nearly 900 kindergarten through grade two students. The school shares a campus with Hovatter Elementary, which houses students in grades three through five. During the dedication, the school's oldest students, second graders, provided tours of the school during the dedication. On New Year's Day, 76 members of the Riverside Marching Rams participated in London's New Year's Day parade and festival, impressing their crowd with their energetic rendition of Uptown Funk. In addition to their parade performance, the Rams also shared

[02:31:38] their talents in a special concert at St. John's Smith Square. During this event, the band premiered a commissioned piece by composer Vincent Apidot titled Across the Rolling River. This piece, a tribute to the school's alma mater song, also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Riverside High School. Participating in London's New Year's Day parade and festival is a significant achievement highlighting the dedication and talent of the Riverside High School Marching Rams and their director William Smith so congratulations on that achievement. We also want to congratulate the December Shine Award winner Renee Pettit a school nurse at Simpson Middle School. Miss Pettit was

[02:32:16] nominated by a Simpson parent who expressed gratitude to Miss Pettit for supporting her daughter who is coping with a significant health concern. The parent wrote that Nurse Pettit supports the student every day not only physically but emotionally as well as she copes with this new normal. She's such an encouragement to her, and we are grateful for Nurse Pettit and her consistent dedication, love, knowledge, and support to our daughter and family. SHINE, which stands for Spotlighting Heroes in Education, is a joint LCPS and Loudon Education Foundation initiative to recognize staff members who go above and beyond in support of LCPS students and the community.

[02:32:52] A reminder that members of the LCPS community, including other staff members, students, and parents are invited to nominate LCPS staff who shine. Prior to winter break, several of our schools shared that their students and staff participated in activities to support their surrounding communities. So on the next few slides, I'll share a few that we just learned about.

[02:33:11] The career and technical education students at Blue Ridge Middle School have contributed for the seventh consecutive year to a service-based learning project that supports local veterans organizations. Across all three grades, students collaborated to prepare Show Some More Support, a special fundraiser for Heroes Homes, a local non-profit that helps injured veterans attain home ownership.

[02:33:34] In different classes, students researched safe s'more roasting techniques and procedures for fire safety. They packaged s'more essentials, advertised the sale of those s'mores, and finally managed the finances from the sales. These kits, which were sold at the Loudoun Valley High School freshman and junior varsity football games against Woodgrove on November the 4th, raised $560, and over the years, this initiative has raised more than $2,500 for veteran organizations.

[02:34:03] This exercise is a great example of both project-based learning and service learning across grade levels and curriculum and for a good cause. Over 50 members of the Heritage Pride community gathered on Saturday, December the 14th to pack more than 350 bagged lunches for the Leesburg Homeless Shelter.

[02:34:22] Each lunch contained a sandwich, fruit chips, and a bottle of water. Alumni, students representing clubs and athletic teams, coaches, administrators, teachers, parents, and guardians, and other community members participated. All of the food and supplies were donated during a donation drive held during the previous two weeks of school.

[02:34:39] Beyond the bag lunches, a sizable amount of food was also provided for the food pantry at the shelter. This effort was spearheaded by Heritage staff members Clark Carr, Elizabeth Madigan, and Shannon Hunter, and we especially thank them and also all those who participated in support of the Leesburg community. Madison's Trust Elementary School hosted a Thanksgiving dinner fundraiser to support their broader community. This is the third time that Madison's Trust has hosted this dinner.

[02:35:07] Their staff prepared the dinner, which served approximately 400 people. The dinner included the preparation of 20 turkeys as well as stuffing and green beans, and Rockridge High School provided mashed potatoes, and there were pies donated by Costco. The event raised over $6,000 for Loud and Hunger, and the school also collected canned foods, which were donated as well. Those were some amazing examples of service in the local community by our students, and we're very proud of them. And then finally this evening, the seventh annual Mental Health and Wellness Fair, 1LCPS United for Wellness, will be held on Saturday, January the 25th at Watson Mountain

[02:35:45] Middle School. This event will provide families and community members with strategies to support student mental health, academic, and social engagement and overall wellness. More than 40 school mental health professionals and community partners will share tips and guidance for promoting mental health and wellness. The event will also feature a resource fair with over 90 local businesses and non-profits offering services to support families and students. Dr. Michelle peace who is a professor at virginia commonwealth university is scheduled to give the keynote address which will include a discussion of her research on the dangers of e-cigarettes

[02:36:20] plus there will be food trucks on hand always a crowd pleaser for the purchase of lunch and complimentary snacks courtesy of our school nutrition services so plan to attend see the website shown here for more details and madam chair that concludes my report thank you dr spence and with that that brings us to item 12 public comment thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from loudon county residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components

[02:36:56] of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers and the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted two minutes 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 the dignity of the school board at all times. Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break. Violations of civility and decorum and respect include shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays

[02:37:34] 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 otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees. Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, or other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students and or individual employees during public comment. As a reminder, School Board

[02:38:10] 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 per lcps policy 2520 members of the school board will not answer questions or

[02:38:47] respond directly to the public during 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 on 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 room during public comment for safety reasons, or the public comment period ending for the evening. Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the board

[02:39:24] room before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of the 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 1070 and Verizon Fios Channel 43.

[02:39:44] The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. We'll start with our virtual public comment and the first one is Heidi Vermette. I am the mother of two students at Hillsborough Charter Academy, as well as the mother of an alumna who would not have stayed in the Loudoun County public school system if she had not had the opportunity to attend Hillsborough.

[02:40:18] I am speaking today to urge that you consider that the students of HCA are fully members of the LCPS community. It is a strong and deep community that is furthered by its interactions on the playground.

[02:40:39] Unfortunately, our playground is very badly in need of update. Some of my son's friends are not as physically capable as he is, and the fact that the playground equipment is out of date and not inclusive can be a real challenge to their interacting on the playground.

[02:41:01] We would also like you to consider the matter of fencing. Our school is not fenced, and our student safety as LCPS students should be paramount. I urge that you consider allocating funds to update the playground for inclusivity and safety.

[02:41:23] Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brenda Bankson. The majestic marble lions, which graced the New York Public Library, the 1911 Top Cats first were named Aster and Lennox, but Mayor LaGuardia renamed them Patience and Fortitude in the 30s for qualities needed during the Depression. School names are not sacrosanct. History, which makes a school name unwelcoming to

[02:42:02] students, warrants renaming. In New York Times student interviews, Marissa says, by naming a school after someone who took part in racism, sexism, or slavery, it is as if the school supports and will normalize unacceptable actions. All students should learn without seeing memorabilia representing prejudice against them. It is the bare minimum for a school district to change a malicious name. Jessica says, naming schools after people who've done dreadful

[02:42:38] things sets them up as role models. After learning about negative things, I was never able to look at it in the same way. Whenever I stepped foot in it, I felt I was honoring them. I'd never want any students to feel that. Changing a school's name is a great way to welcome a more diverse student body, says Ileana. Of 100 LCPS schools, nine are suggested for renaming, with two in process.

[02:43:09] Years ago, local sites or aspirations were used more than people's names. Maybe we need patience, and fortitude to remind us that the decision to rename should be heavily informed by evidence of the impact of those school names on our students. Thank you. Thank you. And we will continue with in-person, starting with Mildred Perez, followed by Belkis Gutierrez. And I will

[02:43:45] say that in accordance with policy 2520 e the next speaker is being assistant by an interpreter and will be allotted four minutes for their comments two minutes for the speaker and two minutes for the translator good evening I'm with Loudoun County Public Schools as an interpreter unfortunately the the folks that were getting ready to speak of which I confirmed Belkas

[02:44:20] Gutierrez, Mildred Perez, and Eric Aleman have not arrived. I just want to let you know. Thank you, that's too bad. Okay, we'll move on to Jesse Thorpe, and then followed by Maureen Mutu. Good evening, my name is Jesse Thorpe. I'm the proud parent of two Hillsborough Charter Academy scholars.

[02:44:55] Hillsborough Charter Academy is an amazing school that is recognized locally throughout the Commonwealth nationally and even internationally for its excellence. And it's one of the crown jewels of LCPS. HCA is one of eight elementary schools in the district with fewer than 250 students. Recently, you made a decision to replace or update the playgrounds at those other schools in addition to added security fencing. So it's clear that your decision is not based on the number of students in each school. We were told that your decision, excuse me, we were told that

[02:45:33] the life expectancy of each new playground is approximately 12 to 15 years. HCA's playground was actually installed at the school's cost in the 20th century. Each year our playground, like all LCPS playgrounds, is inspected by LCPS and safety concerns are reported back to us. Our children deserve a new, safe, and inclusive playground exactly as much as the children who attend every other elementary school in the district hca draws children from throughout loudon county in fact our

[02:46:09] scholars come from the precincts which are represented by seven of the nine current school board members are our families as important to you as every other household you represent i feel certain that we are but your decisions need to match your intentions the board of supervisors recently chose to return 10 million dollars to the school board surely some of that can be allocated to provide hca with a new playground and security fencing thanks for your consideration

[02:46:37] thank you maureen mutu followed by sophia miura hi good evening my name is maureen mutu and i am the parent of a kindergartner and a second grader at hillsborough charter academy in the catoctin district one of the highest performing and most awarded elementary schools in the county i am a full-time farmer in loudon and my family has lived and farmed in loudon county since the 1960s and we've been strong supporters of the Loudoun County Public Schools. I'm incredibly concerned that our 144 students are not being treated equally to all other LCPS students and as a reminder although we are a charter

[02:47:15] school, Hillsborough is a Loudoun County Public School. Our students represent seven of the nine districts in which you are elected to serve. The school board's recent decision to upgrade 60 elementary school playgrounds but not deny Hillsborough the same funding when our playground is over 20 years old is quite simply just unfair.

[02:47:33] We are also being told that the security fencing that is being added to the other 60 elementary campuses will not be installed at the charter schools. I think my children deserve the same safe, accessible, upgraded campus as every other student in the county. Don't you? There are eight schools with under 250 students in Loudoun, and all but the two charter schools are receiving the fencing and the new playgrounds.

[02:47:53] Clearly this is not a decision based on student population then. Additionally, the Board of Supervisors returned $10 million to the school board, so clearly this decision can't solely be based on funding either. So we're wondering, what is this decision based on? I feel lucky to have my children at such a unique, innovative, excelling elementary school, but we need the help of the board to continue Hillsborough Charter's success. I urge you to add Hillsborough Charter to the current Playground and Fencing Improvement Project. I strongly believe we need small local schools like Hillsborough to succeed to continue to meet the needs of all the constituencies in a diverse county as Loudoun. Thank you for your time and

[02:48:28] consideration. Thank you. Sophia Meur followed by Wendy McKenna.

[02:48:46] No, Sophia. Okay, Wendy McKenna followed by Chris Countryman. Scholars at Hillsborough Charter Academy come from your district. HCA is open to the entire county. We currently have scholars from seven of your districts. I am here to ask that you include the charter schools in the plans for safe and inclusive playgrounds and campus security fencing. I am thankful that the Loudoun County School Board has voted to make charter schools an option.

[02:49:27] My children, along with many other Loudoun County scholars, have benefited from this choice that you have made. I hope that you will also choose to include them in decisions that are made for safety. The safety of the scholars at the charter schools is just as important as the other 60 schools.

[02:49:45] It only takes one incident. Do you want to be held accountable for that by not including us? Thank you. Thank you. Chris Kutcherman, followed by Corey Brunet. Good evening. Over the first several months of the school year, I've shared with you the good news of the collective bargaining process each step of the way. While the last three years have felt like the hard part, 2025 will require just as much time and effort to make sure we get this

[02:50:24] right. Up till now, we've had to focus on jumping through hoops and checking boxes to be able to bargain our contracts. But now we get to do the fun part. The part where we get to make the real difference, the chance to work cooperatively to drive positive change that will impact employees in their daily lives. I hope you all had a wonderful break. That time allows us to recharge.

[02:50:47] I fully support Dr. Spence's decision to give staff employees additional paid time off. Employees have worked hard, and that's a great way to say thank you. But what does it say when you give some employees extra days off with pay while you deny basic holiday pay altogether from others. I assure you it's not a message that they're valued. We must work together to have the difficult conversations not just around collective bargaining but also have the difficult discussions outside of collective bargaining. We have to drive change related to morale. We have

[02:51:22] to drive change that re-empowers educators to do their jobs in ways that make sense and truly serve the students. We must work together to allow employees to not only have to only have to work one full-time job to support their family. We must work together at a granular level to find solutions to the challenges facing education districts and workers around the country. We must work together to ensure that all employees are valued and stay in the profession.

[02:51:52] We will work with you to get the funding for the budget with the Board of Supervisors. I invite you to work with us. Come to the state capitol January 31st. We're going to meet with our legislators to advocate for public education. So it's time. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. I look forward to those difficult conversations. Thank you. Corey Brunet followed by Susan Cox. Good evening. My name is Corey Brunet and I'm an English learner teacher at Broad Run High School. As you dive into the budget season, I implore you to make every decision

[02:52:30] with student learning conditions in mind. Students of every age learn more and more deeply in a classroom that feels inviting and safe and with a teacher who is genuinely caring and engaging. And student learning conditions aren't limited to the classroom. We start to set them up for success when they are picked up at the bus stop by a professional who safely delivers them to their school every morning. Every day they enter a school that is maintained by a building engineer.

[02:53:02] Building engineers are to a building what the admin assistant is to the office. They are the most important person in the building and can fix almost anything. The building students enter is also guaranteed to be clean and bright by our professional custodial staff. Once students are at school, many eat breakfast served to them by our professional nutrition services staff.

[02:53:25] I can tell you from first-hand experience that hungry students are distracted and distracting. Never underestimate the value of our nutrition services staff. Every school has counselors, administrators, and a nurse to support the students.

[02:53:42] Every office has office staff who ensure the day runs as smoothly as possible. Some teachers have educational support professionals to help them with students with special needs. All of these people are part of the design of successful student learning conditions and deserve your focus as you work through the budget.

[02:54:01] I remind you that successful student learning conditions are successful educator working conditions. LCPS will never outperform its educators. Thank you. Susan Cox. Hello.

[02:54:19] I'm here to put it on the record again that I, along with many others, say no to renaming. I implore you to listen to the majority of the community and stop these divisive efforts. Focus on literacy and safety. Focus on preventing drug abuses, bullying, sexual assaults. I researched if the name of a school can cause PTSD.

[02:54:37] The answer I got was no. The name of a school doesn't cause PTSD in children, but some experiences at the school can. Experiences such as school shootings, fires, floods, car crashes, abuse, both physical, psychologically, and sexual.

[02:54:54] I'd like to add overdoses to that list. People are flawed, and if you judge people from the past with today's standards and then pay people to find and focus on their flaws, you will negate their contributions and accomplishment. This sets a horrible, disruptive precedent.

[02:55:11] Remember the names of said person was for their accomplishments to the community, not their flaws. Stop with this twisted sense of virtue signaling. One of the top renaming choices is not even from Loudoun, and if you focus on the flaws, do you really want to name an elementary school after a teen mom who then gets pregnant by a different man who is much older?

[02:55:32] When you put so much time and effort on renaming, you take away from the pressing issues. Stop deflecting. Get to the real issues and back to education. Renaming won't help declining literacy rates or stop PTSD from sexual assaults on school's ground.

[02:55:49] Let's learn from history. Be forgiving and tolerant. Teach the students to be strong, resourceful, responsible, and resilient. Americans who love their country and the freedom it offers be not outraged by the names But by the failure to prevent bullying sexual assaults and learning loss. Thank you. Thank you Thank you all for coming out today and providing your public comment Normally we would take a recess, but it wasn't very long tonight

[02:56:29] So I think we should just go ahead and continue on is that okay board members. Yeah, okay All right. We will start off with item 13, action items. 13.01, Finance and Operations Committee, revision of Policy 6120, Wellness, presented by Arben Estreffi, Chair of F&O. Vice Chair Estreffi, do you have a motion? It's Mr. Estreffi now, Chair Mansfield. I'm sorry, Mr. Estreffi.

[02:57:03] Respect for our new Vice Chair. I'm sorry, Vice Chair Donahue. I'll start off with a motion. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the revision of Policy 6120, Wellness. I have a motion by Mr. Estreffi.

[02:57:19] Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Vice Chair Donahue. It's been properly moved and seconded. Mr. Estreffi, would you like to speak to your motion? I'll just be very brief, and I'll defer to questions and staff.

[02:57:38] But this policy 6120 was brought out of committee as an information item in our last meeting. There was discussion, and you'll notice in the red line comments, there was a series of comments. I'll just leave it with that and just turn it over to the board for additional discussion.

[02:57:57] Board members, any discussion? Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually have an amendment to offer for the policy, so I will go ahead and make that motion.

[02:58:12] I move that lines 1 on the red line version, lines 125 through 140 and lines 146 through 151 be moved to policy 6120's accompanied regulation so that they can be operationalized.

[02:58:28] And I further move that section F that begins on line 121 be revised to read as follows. Section F, social and emotional wellness. a comprehensive approach to social and emotional health of students as defined by the Virginia Department of Education standard for counseling programs supports student learning and creates a safe inclusive school culture and climate. LCPS supports the implementation of a comprehensive social emotional wellness approach in which students learn to establish positive relationships, recognize and manage emotions, identify risk of harm to self and others, support factors and develop healthy coping strategies. LCPS's social

[02:59:05] and emotional wellness program goals and strategies to assess social and emotional wellness are further set forth and operationalized in the accompanying regulation 6120. And this is also in board docs if people want to read along. Sorry, I should have said that. Well, not totally. You changed it a little bit. I do have one question. Is there any way you have social slash emotional wellness can we do and oh we do we have a second sorry for a second second i have a second by miss

[02:59:43] donahue thank you um okay so the motion has been properly moved and seconded for sure and awesome motion so i guess now is there any discussion do you want to speak to your motion first absolutely um and i did uh thank you chair mansfield for pointing it out i did change um from what was on board docs after speaking with uh chair mansfield about this further and and several other board members. It felt like originally I had taken this to line 166, but it felt like line 152 and 166 really weren't program goals, which was sort of the focus of my amendment. We want to keep

[03:00:22] those strategies to assess social and emotional wellness, and I appreciate her feedback on that, and therefore changed that amendment. So my amendment really focuses, and I mentioned this last time, but in reading through this, it just sort of struck me that our program goals would be in a policy, and for me goals really seem like things that should be measured and evaluated on a regular basis, and since policies are evaluated not as often as regulations are, it felt like these goals should be something that we should be able to look at constantly and should be operationalized through regulation. I think that that would be a better way for us just organizationally to be able

[03:01:01] to look at each and every one of these and make sure that we are ensuring that our classrooms and our programs have these things for our students so it's really just an effort to kind of streamline that that process in speaking with division council about that and with staff it didn't seem that there were any concerns I don't know if mr. Allen wants to chime in but surrounding counties also follow that sort of same process Fairfax and others having the goals in the regulation so that they can be more frequently evaluated happy to answer questions if anyone has any board members do you have any other questions yes mrs. griffiths

[03:01:41] thank you madam chair um regarding 6120 um i've expressed that nutrition starts at the beginning of the policy um and it should be separated from the wellness um i personally would like to see a policy for nutrition separate um from everything else if possible um i was asking about federal code and that was not provided through the USDA so I'd like to I maybe I need to make an amendment as well would we be able to separate it and make a

[03:02:17] nutrition policy as well so that would be my amendment if possible but if we need to vote on Lauren's amendment first that that's fine I just wanted to give my thoughts thank you so much so mrs. Griffiths your motion is to take out nutrition and have a separate wellness policy correct okay so uh mr allen is this germane to the um motion that's on the floor and would you like to speak to the federal code and things like

[03:02:54] that thank you chairman so um if i understand correctly mrs griffiths is making an amendment to seeking to make an amendment to miss chernoff's amendment with respect to um the wellness policy Given that it's like Mrs. Griffith's proposed amendment is kind of a foundational or broader amendment, I think it could be considered germane, and I'm happy to address that now to your earlier question.

[03:03:29] So the wellness policy requirement is established by the Child Nutrition and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC or WIC. And it's also strengthened by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which is an acronym, HHFKA.

[03:03:51] So that sets forth that schools receiving federal funding and that participate in the National School Lunch Program and or School Breakfast Program need to develop a wellness program. So that's fundamentally tied to nutrition programs.

[03:04:06] So that's why LCPS and other school divisions have their wellness policies that are tied to nutrition. So specific goals under federal law, at minimum, policies are required to include the specific goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness.

[03:04:30] And so that's why this proposed policy, 6120, addresses not only nutrition but other wellness goals as well. Okay, so there's a motion on the floor by Mrs. Griffiths.

[03:04:45] Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Ms. Chernoff. Is there any other discussion? So from what I hear is that it needs to be connected through what I just heard from Mr. Allen.

[03:05:05] Is that correct, Mr. Allen? That's correct. With the caveat, that's why it logically flows that under those federal legal authority, that wellness policies include those goals that are broader than just nutrition.

[03:05:26] Okay, so we have a motion on the floor. We have a second. Any more discussion from school board members before we? I'm sorry. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths has a question for Mr. Allen. Thank you, Madam Chair. When we went through this and finance and operations, I had asked for a federal code through the USDA where nutrition would be combined with wellness.

[03:05:52] Do you have the federal code through the USDA, Wes, by any chance? Yeah, so it's 42 U.S.C. 1758B, Section 9A sets forth the local school wellness policy. And that's what sets forth that the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 establishes local school wellness policies for all schools.

[03:06:16] So it's not necessarily under USDA, but that's the federal code that kind of sets forth and addresses this. I think I was asking for USDA because that would be the nutrition piece. If you don't mind sending me that code and the policy when you get a chance.

[03:06:35] Thank you. I guess we can continue with Lauren's amendment. thank you. So Mrs. Griffiths, so you're rescinding your motion? I would like to, well, to be honest, I would like to take a look at what Wes has, because I was asking for that information, but I can rescind, and we can continue with Lawrence. Thank you. Okay, Mrs. Yes, Dr. Rashid.

[03:07:00] I just had a question on Ms. Chernoff's amendment, just for clarification. So item F for social and emotional wellness. Can I discuss, can I ask a question on that? Okay, so let's just be sure that the motion has been rescinded and so now we are going back to Ms. Chernoff's amendment. So yes, we are going to continue that discussion. So yes, please. Okay, just for, just if Ms. Chernoff can clarify. So item F, you want to move or if you, or you want to, you want to move it down at the bottom or you want to eliminate it because it's addressed in another policy? If I could just ask

[03:07:37] for that information madam chair thank you um for the question dr rasheed absolutely and so if you look at the policy on line 121 section f in the red line version that now if we if we move lines 125 um to 140 and then lines 146 and 151 then we will take item three and join it with

[03:08:06] section F. That's where I get the item three is what? Yeah, so item three, which is currently line 141 through 145 will be combined with lines 121 and 124. Okay, so you're not eliminating? Not taking anything out, just moving the goals to be operationalized so that they can be evaluated more closely.

[03:08:22] Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Discussion? Yes, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I wanted to just take a second and thank Ms. Chernoff for talking through this amendment with me today. I really like the idea of operationalizing this process because I think I mean one of the things that I've learned over the course of this year is that it does our policies can go a long time without being

[03:09:00] updated and these are things that are important enough that really reviewing and continuing to work on them annually seems important to me. So thank you and And I'm just going to add to the discussion. The reason why I requested Ms. Chernoff re-look at 152 to 166 was because I wanted to be sure in our policy that we will conduct team assessments and evaluations on students who are in crisis, that we would follow suicide screening protocols.

[03:09:34] I wanted to be sure that that was in our policy and that we would have to have our eyes on that before anything was changed. So, I just wanted to let you know that's why I was wanting to keep that in the policy as opposed to in a regulation.

[03:09:53] Any other questions? Okay, so we will go ahead and take that vote. Clerk, please open the vote.

[03:10:11] Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close. Oh, not yet. Yes, ma'am. Yes, Ms. LeBell. Excuse me.

[03:10:27] I was escorting our visitor to the restroom. What are we voting on? I was out of the room because I was helping again. Is it the whole thing?

[03:10:43] Is it a motion? Your amendment. Okay, thank you. That's what I needed to do. Okay, clerk, now please close and display the vote.

[03:11:03] And that motion passes with 7-2 with Ms. Griffiths and Dr. Deans opposed. And now we will vote on the base motion as amended. So clerk, please open the vote.

[03:11:23] Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. And that motion passes 8 to 1 with Mrs. Griffiths in opposition.

[03:11:38] Thank you, everyone. And we will move on to item 14, our information items. We already did 14.01. And I think we are now on 14.02.

[03:11:54] Legislative Audit and Policy Committee. I think that's the right one. Version of 1040, Equal Opportunity for Equitable, Safe, and Inclusive Environment, presented by Ms. Chandler, who's the chair of the Legislative Audit and Policy Committee.

[03:12:12] Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. This evening, I am delighted to introduce an updated version of Policy 1040, Equal Opportunity for Equitable, Safe, and Inclusive Environment. The policy was brought forward for update because of changes to the Virginia code.

[03:12:29] Staff suggested some changes, as did SEAC, as you can see in the red line, but many of the changes brought forward came directly from the MSAC recommendations. As we all know, MSAC is an organization of parents and community members who advocate for the rights of minority students.

[03:12:45] We also know that Virginia's laws reinforced parents' fundamental rights to make decisions with regard to their children's upbringing and care. These parents are telling us exactly what their children need to be successful. They are giving voice to what they need from us to improve the education of their children.

[03:13:03] Now it's our responsibility to empower their voices and ensure that all students have access to quality education. This policy puts parents at the head of the table in charge of their children's lives, shows a deep respect for the individual, and ensures everyone has a chance to succeed.

[03:13:20] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Are there any questions? Yes, Ms. Chernoff. I just wanted to thank Ms. Chandler for mentioning MSAC. And one of the things that was amended at our last meeting was to operationalize a regulation, not to harp on regulations here tonight, but it is a theme of mine.

[03:13:45] And since Dr. Spence is our superintendent, I was just wondering if you would be willing to speak to how a new regulation is created, what kind of collaboration you anticipate that will happen, What were some of the MSEC comments that led us to feel that that would be necessary?

[03:14:05] Yes, ma'am. So generally speaking, regulations are developed after a policy has been adopted. Those regulations are reflective of the conversations that happen with the school board and committee during that policy conversation. So when that, I mean, the meat of these discussions tend to happen in committee, And the staff that's in committee then is sort of listening and trying to get the will of the committee in terms of what it is that, you know, here's concerns that we think we want to see a policy work this way, right?

[03:14:35] And then we will draft a regulation, and we will promulgate that regulation that gets posted on the division's website along with the other policies, and then we operationalize that. In terms of how do we, you know, what else do we look at?

[03:14:51] We look at the feedback that's provided to the policy, right? And so, for example, in this case with the MSAC feedback, and as was mentioned, there's just some things in there, and I mean, you asked for specifics, so I can, you're going to, yeah.

[03:15:09] But there were just, yeah, there were some things in there that seemed like they would be very hard to codify in policy, but that we might be able to work, you know, meet with MSAC and talk about some of what's in there and discuss how we might capture some of that in a regulation in a way that makes it more flexible for us.

[03:15:30] There were some things about measurement that really belong more squarely in regulation and are more operational in nature than policy. So like you'll annually measure or you'll do, you know, and sort of like you were talking about with the previous amendment, right? Like moving measurement out of a policy that gets reviewed every five years and into an ongoing regulation that requires that sort of measurement on an ongoing basis.

[03:15:54] And there were just a number of things in terms of really expectations for students that are operational expectations and not necessarily things that would be codified in policy. So we look forward to working with MSAC to talk about those and identify where those can be more regulatory in nature.

[03:16:15] And I think the amendments to the policy capture a lot of what MSAC was looking at in terms of their feedback and then leave space to do a little bit more of that work on the regulation side. Thank you. And then because it is a new regulation to this policy, would it be appropriate then once it's been reviewed for us as a school board to be able to also review it and ask questions and make sure that the intention of the policy has been achieved in that regulation?

[03:16:40] Yes. And not just the school board, but any member of the public, right? Just as all of the board's policies are posted, all of our regulations are posted, and any member of the public who sees those who has questions or concerns can reach out directly to administration or to you as their constituent board member and talk about that.

[03:17:01] And then, of course, if then the discussion is that something needs to change, that can either happen just by conversation with administration or through direction of the board. I appreciate that context. Thank you. any other discussion yes miss Griffiths thank you madam chair just to go over this policy first off the clean copy does not have line numbers on it is that the the final copy I have more questions but uh more thoughts well anyway the clean copy needs line numbers I did want to point out that

[03:17:39] we already have the human rights act that protects our students I think we need to protect all students in. These classes are already protected under Virginia Code. Can you verify that, Wes? Thank you, Ms. Griffiths. I just want to be clear. I understand. Could you repeat the question?

[03:17:58] Well, under the Human Rights Act and Virginia Code, all these classes are protected. I believe it is our duty as school board to not single out groups in the following list from the red line copy, lines 18 to 21, ethnic, immigration status, gender expression, socio-economic, military status.

[03:18:20] LCPS also has other policies that continue to protect our students. I'm not sure why this information has to be inserted into the policy. Can you verify that for me, that we have other policies that do protect our students? Thank you, Ms. Griffiths.

[03:18:35] So to clarify, the Virginia Human Rights Act, or it's codified in Virginia Code 2.2-3900B1 and B2, that sets forth the protected classes. My understanding is that the list that is set forth in the proposed policy 1040 revisions is more expansive and that was the will of the A&P committee.

[03:19:00] So I just wanted to provide that clarification. And yes, you're correct that there are policies, school board policies that do provide protections for students elsewhere, but this is 1040 and the title of that is comprehensively what provides equitable treatment for students.

[03:19:26] So it would seem that if it's the board's will that it properly addresses all of these protected classes in this policy, that would be reasonable. - Just looking at the policy, I think it's not well written, It needs a lot of work.

[03:19:46] I'd like it to go back to the committee for more changes, but I'd also like to make an amendment to remove lines 18 and 21. It should read as follows. The school board affirms a commitment to this principle for all persons, which would mean not singling out specific groups.

[03:20:04] With that being said, line 29 should be removed, referencing the above. So I do want to make an amendment to this policy. I would like to put that out there. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths, can you, so would you like, well, first of all.

[03:20:26] I can repeat it. Hold on. This is only an information item, so we don't really need any motions at this time. Well, those are my thoughts then. Okay. Okay. Anybody else have any more discussion regarding this information item?

[03:20:53] Okay. We will move on to item, yes, Dr. Rashid. Chairman, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sorry about that. If I could, I would like to make a motion to revisit action item 1301, if possible.

[03:21:14] It is the 6120 wellness. I know we voted on it, but I'd like to, let me know if I could speak to my motion. Mr. Allen, would you like to remind the board and us how to do this procedurally?

[03:21:29] Because I think it's a two-thirds vote. Yes, Madam Chair, that's correct. I just want to make sure. Have you completed information item 13, 14.02? Yes, we have. Okay.

[03:21:45] Yes, to revisit or rescind a board action, you would need a two-thirds vote to do so. So if that's a motion on the floor, you can take that, entertain that motion if it has a second at this time. Okay, Dr. Rasheed has a motion on the floor to rescind board action on 13.01.

[03:22:05] Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Mrs. Griffiths. Do we have discussion on this? No, no discussion. So we just go to vote, and it's two-thirds majority, and then we can open it up and discuss it then.

[03:22:24] Is that correct, Mr. Allen? - That's correct. - Okay, so. - Do you want me to, do you want me to, I can give you context. - But it doesn't matter, you just have to decide if you want, you will rescind it or not, is that correct? - Okay. - She wants to know why. - Should I speak to my motion?

[03:22:41] - Right, it's not debatable. - Not debatable meaning that Dr. Rasheed can't say why she introduced it? Or not debatable that we can't talk about it? - Correct, a debate discussion.

[03:22:56] - Okay, so Dr. Rasheed can state why she introduced it? She can state briefly, but there cannot be further discussion or elaboration on it. There you go. I just will be very short, and just with 1301, if I would like to make an amendment in adding recommendation number two from SEAC in the red line copy with the term medically aware in quotations.

[03:23:30] That's all, please.

[03:23:45] Okay, let's just go ahead and first decide if we're going to rescind it first. Okay. We're not supposed to be able to debate, but okay, go ahead. I apologize, Madam Chair.

[03:24:01] I was just hoping for a clarification that Mr. Allen, if Dr. Rasheed's motion is successful, does that undo our previous vote or merely allow us to discuss her question or concern? Thank you, Vice Chair.

[03:24:18] That would allow you to get it back on the floor for further discussion and to lock in a vote if you choose to amend it. But it would not, if there is a two-thirds vote in support of Dr. Rasheed's current motion, that would not disturb our previous vote.

[03:24:44] If it's rescinding, then it would necessarily disturb it, but you could vote to reaffirm what you had already voted on earlier tonight. So, effectively, any proposed motion to amend what you've already voted on, you could decline and then vote on the motion again and reaffirm that, what you've already voted on.

[03:25:11] Thank you, Mr. Allen. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, there's a motion on the floor and it's been seconded by Mrs. Griffiths. It's a two-thirds majority.

[03:25:34] Clerk, would you please open the vote? Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display your vote.

[03:25:53] That motion passes unanimously. Okay, so Dr. Rasheed, would you please speak to your motion? I believe that with Ms. Chernoff's amendments, it's totally fine.

[03:26:11] I just wanted to add a recommendation to, in the red line copy of CX, recommendations to that policy. So I remember this conversation from committee about medically aware. Who was in that committee from cabinet that could help us with that?

[03:26:32] Ms. Willoughby, could you help us with the reason why the committee did not choose to stay medically aware? So recognizing we discussed this back in November, and so I'm trying to jog my memory.

[03:26:49] I believe we had concerns regarding the broad nature of that term and what the true implication could be. While SEAC called out food allergies and sensitivities, I believe we had identified some other examples that could fall under medically aware.

[03:27:07] that gave us pause to include it in this wellness policy instead we had discussed at committee and that we still plan on looking at our other school nutrition policies to see if there would be a more appropriate place for this type of a reference but that we did not support it falling into the wellness policy. Vice Chair Estreffi was that your I mean Mr. Estreffi is that your recollection yes madam chair that's my recollection as well I think no the

[03:27:42] intention is is definitely noted so I don't agree with don't disagree with the intention of why it was it was recommended I just think there might be a more appropriate way to kind of apply this and I think it's a it's a good action item for staff to look at how this would be operationalized but I I don't know that the utility of this in the policy and if it actually will accomplish anything in the policy.

[03:28:14] So, yeah, I think that's why we came out of committee with not having taken that recommendation. Superintendent Spence. I think, too, and again, I sort of remember this briefly.

[03:28:33] If you read the structure of it, and I just want to make sure this is the right place, It's the grade-level appropriate medically aware and culturally responsive educational materials being provided. That's the context for that, Dr. Rasheed, correct? And I think the concern is that if you see who's providing it based on the way that the policy is structured, it's that LCPS will provide that.

[03:28:57] And generally, that could be challenging to provide medically aware materials because, in general, we're educators. although we do have some medical staff, that is overly broad and concerning for us from that lens.

[03:29:21] Yes. Ms. LaBelle. I think you have a wonderful point that saying, because it's LCPS that is making this statement, that we shouldn't be very, very specific here.

[03:29:37] But I will remind people that we are very specific when we write policies in student services. that are specific to student needs and student wellness. And perhaps it could be cross-referenced with some of those policies that we have written.

[03:29:57] That might be a way to cover what Dr. Rasheed is trying to include. Because we have a lot of cross-references at the bottom, include some of the things that we do in student services with medical needs, allergies, so forth, dietary problems, So on and so forth.

[03:30:24] Yes, Mrs. Grievous. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think medically aware for special needs, they have teachers that may be more aware of their issues. And I think that because we voted for it unanimously, I think that the teachers in special ed or whoever is with these students should take note of any medically, any medical issues as far as nutrition or, you know, anything

[03:30:59] to that effect. So I think that this policy and voting unanimously is actually putting that there for them to be aware, more aware of what their students might have a reaction to or in foods and that sort of thing. So I think that's why medically aware was asked to be put in the policy to begin with just to make sure and i mean we can we can ask again and see if that's the reason why but i think we want it in the policy just so teachers that are working with special ed students can make sure their students are taken care of during meal times and nutrition and that sort of thing thank

[03:31:37] you so that paragraph would be 27 would be lcps will teach model encourage and support nutrition education physical education to foster lifelong habits of mindful eating and physical activity for all students this shall establish linkages among health and physical education and school meal programs and related community services grade level appropriate medically aware and culturally responsive education materials will be provided that is what it would would be read as

[03:32:13] so I guess we haven't really you haven't really made an amendment to put that in there yet so is there any more well we should probably go i don't think so i've lost my train of thought at this point so did we we haven't made that amendment quite yet correct yes mishronov would it be okay if we reaffirm the decision we made earlier before dr rasheed makes her amendment since we rescinded

[03:32:50] it with our vote mr allen there there's no motion so whichever motion is made first i believe the board can take you need to affirm the earlier decision because we are back to the base policy as redlined without my amendment correct that's correct based on the board's vote to send yes go ahead and make that motion do you want to make that motion sure do i have to read the whole thing again no just saying that we want to reaffirm okay i move that we reaffirm the earlier

[03:33:25] decision with the schernoff amendment i second it's been properly moved and seconded and we can go ahead and and is there any discussion now would be the time for that amendment yes thank you yes vice chair Donahue thank you madam chair I I think you started to answer the question I was going to ask which was if we vote now on Ms. Chernoff's motion does that end this discussion with regard to the issue that Dr. Rashid raised okay thank you chair Mansfield thank you I'd like

[03:34:05] to make an amendment and my amendment is on the red line copy for CX recommendation for recommendation number two at line 34 add medically aware after grade level appropriate so that the entire sentence will now read grade level appropriate medically aware and culturally responsive education materials will be provided. Okay I have a motion an amendment on the floor Or do I have a second?

[03:34:34] Second. I have a second by Vice Chair Donohue. It's been probably moved and seconded. Now, is there any more discussion? Yes, Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize.

[03:34:50] I have a lot of questions. Dr. Rasheed, does your amendment encompass CX recommendation number one of adding unknown food allergies or sensitivities into line 26? Thank you.

[03:35:16] Any other discussion? Okay, we will go ahead and take the vote on Dr. Rasheed's amendment. Clerk, please open the vote.

[03:35:31] Board members, please state your vote. I mean, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. And that motion passes five to four with Dr. Deans, Chair Mansfield, Mr. Streffi, and Ms. Chernoff in opposition.

[03:35:55] And that vote passes. So we will now incorporate it into the base motion, which was to the first one. right is there any discussion no okay clerk please open a vote board members please record your vote

[03:36:21] clerk please close and display the vote and that motion passes eight to one with mrs griffiths in opposition okay now we are going to move back to item 14.03 meeting procedures we did that one okay 14.04 legislative audit and policy committee revision of policy 2450 board amendments presented

[03:36:53] by April Chandler, Chair, LA&P. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, Policy 2450 Board Minutes is brought back due to change in the Virginia Code. Our discussion and committee really focused on capturing our practice as it stands now while adding some more clarity regarding expectations we also had an amendment brought forth that includes making note of when the

[03:37:31] superintendent or the superintendent's designee's attendance is required at a meeting so with that we really were seeking to offer more clarity thank you thank you miss chandler any other board discussion seeing none um is this something we would like to put on consent

[03:37:59] dr deans would you like to put this on consent okay so we'll go ahead and put that on consent for the next uh board meeting um and then we have the next one is 14.05 department of teaching learning certification requirements for new five-year head of school preschool head start Preschool Grant presented by Charisse Rosario, Director of the English Learners. Ms. Rosario.

[03:38:34] Thank you, Chair Mansfield. I'll be taking this information item. Okay. Mr. Slevin. Thank you. The LCPS Head Start Preschool Program recently received the Notice of Award for a new five-year Head Start Preschool Grant that runs from December 2024 through November 2029. There are two conditions based on this award that require the Policy Council and the Governing Body, the LCPS board to certify within 75 days of the start of the grant which would make it due by february 13th one condition relates to a health and safety health and safety and requires the headstart

[03:39:10] preschool staff conduct a screening of the health and safety of each classroom or center our coordinator conducted the health and safety checklist in all sites and we meet to meet this condition the policy council and the school board will sign the certification of health safety screening attesting to the fact that these screenings were completed within the 45 days start of the project period for the new grant. The second condition relates to program governance.

[03:39:38] This condition requires that the LCPS Head Start preschool staff to conduct a screening of the organization's governance and leadership capacity in collaboration with the policy council and the school board. The policy council chairperson met with the LCPS Head Start supervisor and the LCPS head start program manager on december 12 24 and completed the government's government's leadership and oversight capacity screener provided by the office of head start the policy council and the school board must sign the certification of governance and leadership capacity screening attesting to the fact that the screening was completed within 60 days of the head start of the project period for the new grant we are happy to report that we are in compliance for both of

[03:40:18] these processes this has been shared with the head start policy council and is in the process of being approved and will have been approved by this group prior to returning to the school board for action at the february 11th school board meeting and i'm happy to answer any questions if the board has any um questions school board members do you have any questions is this something that we could put on consent yes all about that consent as much as we can okay good job okay so

[03:40:51] that's going to be that's going to be um coming back for consent for the february meeting um okay moving on 14.06 department of student services recovery school special programs proposal presented by dr ellis uh dr ashley ellis chief academic officer tedra richardson assistant superintendent student services katherine clark director of academic programs jenna evans

[03:41:42] evans director of student mental health services good evening chair mansfield dr spence members of the board. This evening, I am joined by a cross-departmental team among academics to share detailed information regarding our Recovery School Special Programs proposal. With me this evening is Tedra Richardson, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, Jen Evans, Director of Student Mental Health Services, and Katie Clark, Director of Academic Programs. As I am sure you know or will remember when Ms. Richardson reviews the timeline, we have had multiple planning conversations regarding the recovery school and have received state and local support for the program, including conducting a recovery school roundtable and receiving grant funds to start the

[03:42:22] program. That being said, we think it's important for you to officially approve the program proposal as we continue planning and before you approve the FY26 operating budget. This evening, we will review the special program's process in general and the steps we've taken with the recovery school planning specifically as well as the next steps in the recovery school planning. So to get us started I will turn it over to Ms. Clark, Director of Academic Programs, to talk about special programs. Thank you Dr. Ellis and good evening. Loudoun County Public Schools supports special

[03:42:56] programs and academies that align with the LCPS strategic framework. Per policy 5115 these programs must be approved by the school board and follow specific processes for development, evaluation, and termination. The guiding principles ensure equitable access, age-appropriate programming, alignment with LCPS goals, and fiscal responsibility. Programs may be terminated if interest declines with consideration for current students. Please be advised that the recovery

[03:43:32] school team has finalized the LCPS proposal, which is now available in board docs for your review. I will now hand it over to Ms. Richardson, who will provide further details about the recovery school. Thank you, Mrs. Clark. Since the inception of the LCPS recovery school project, we've achieved significant milestones. From identifying the need for specialized recovery programming to developing a strategic framework. Each step has been focused on fostering student growth. Our key achievements

[03:44:05] from January 2024 to August 2025 include the recovery school bill being included in the General Assembly last January, which has provided LCPS with funding for this fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year of FY26, as well as the planned opening of our recovery school program at the North Star Building in August of 2025. The milestone that catapulted our work forward as a division was the Recovery School Roundtable held this past September. The roundtable brought

[03:44:41] together a diverse group of stakeholders, including educators, counselors, health care providers, and community members. This led to productive discussions. We focused on enhancing our LCPS Recovery School model and explored strategies for developing recovery support within the school system. These milestones lay a strong foundation for what's to come.

[03:45:12] Our LCPS Recovery School is designed to provide an alternative learning environment for students recovering from substance abuse disorders. Our goal is to re-engage students with their education and ensure that they have the tools to succeed both inside and outside of the classroom.

[03:45:31] Our purpose for our recovery school is to provide education and services for students recovering from substance use disorders. The school will create an alternative, supportive environment to aid their recovery while they work towards a high school diploma with the goal of eventual reintegration into a traditional school setting.

[03:45:55] And now I will hand it over to Mrs. Jennifer Evans, our Director of Student Mental Health Services. Thank you, Ms. Richardson, and good evening. I know you have heard me speak about the substance use trends in Loudoun County Public Schools, and the offenses are still on the rise, but I want to point out that the majority of our kids are not using substances.

[03:46:14] So if you look at the data that's on this slide, only 8.5% of youth between the ages of 12 to 17 have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. What that would mean for LCPS, though, is about 4,000 of our secondary students may have this need and may be diagnosed with substance use disorder, which is a medical disease.

[03:46:40] So I think that that's probably the most important thing, rather than looking at the violation data, because violation data doesn't speak to the need. Those are just the students who have been caught. We have many students we work with who have shared that they're using and they want support.

[03:46:58] So our student assistance team members have identified at least a handful of students who would be appropriate for this, who have had treatment, who are returning to school, but need a more supportive environment. So when a student comes back from residential treatment or intensive outpatient treatment, they're so vulnerable.

[03:47:16] And they have so many risk factors in returning to their home school. they have just figured out what their new norm is without substances and trying to navigate emotions when maybe you've been self-medicating, going back to your homeschool where you might get questions from your peers, you might be exposed to people you used to use with.

[03:47:36] All the people, places, and things are still there. And so being on the clinical side, working with kids who have substance use disorder, those are the things we hear. I'm terrified to go back. I'm not ready to go back. So this would provide them that opportunity to continue working on themselves and learn new refusal skills and figure out how to navigate when they are ready so each student would have an individualized support plan.

[03:48:00] Next slide. The development of the Recovery High School within LCPS supports the division's strategic goals focused on educational excellence and student well-being. More specifically, by providing students in recovery an alternative pathway to academic success, we are supporting them to achieve their maximum potential.

[03:48:21] This program also supports our work to create an inclusive learning environment that supports the physical and mental health of all of our students and strengthens the social-emotional skills they need to become balanced, resilient learners who are personally and socially responsible.

[03:48:39] All of the goals and objectives really reference what I mentioned earlier, which was how do we mitigate these risk factors. The first goal is the LCPS Recovery School, where it educates students in a safe and nurturing environment.

[03:48:54] What that will look like is a much smaller staff-to-student ratio and a community-supported service delivery model, which we don't have in all of our traditional high schools. Goal two, the LCPS Recovery School will ensure that all students in the program receive an academic curriculum that meets state standards to receive their high school diploma.

[03:49:16] We have this in all of our high schools, but this model would be a little bit more flexible to meet their needs. Goal three, the recovery school will provide the necessary help, such as counseling and access to resources that support and strengthen students' social-emotional health while in the program.

[03:49:33] All of our students have access to unified mental health teams in their high schools. What will be different is the recovery focus that will be provided and the community partners who will also be working with our students. In addition, the staff will receive training focused on substance use trends, trauma-informed practices, and effective multi-agency collaboration, because that's what this really needs in order to be the support that the students and the families need.

[03:50:01] Goal four, the recovery school will include and engage students and families throughout the program. The parents will have access to education related to substance use disorders, as well as the recovery process. They'll also have access to workshops. And goal five, the recovery school will provide students with the skills to abstain from using substances during and after completing the program.

[03:50:24] So in early recovery, they have just learned the basics, and it takes a long time. Recovery is a process for them to build those skills so that they can navigate the real world again. We can't eliminate all of those challenges that they will face, but in the school setting, we can create that nurturing environment to help them and foster the development of those skills.

[03:50:45] On this slide, the next slide, we will take a closer look at the recovery-focused service delivery model that will exist at the recovery school. In order to make this happen, we have to lean on the support of current partners and expand our partnerships to meet the needs.

[03:51:03] So we will have individual and group counseling, and those services would be delivered by our Department of Student Services, as well as Loudoun County Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Developmental Services, prevention and intervention staff. In addition, we have a partnership with Family One Mentor, and they have expressed an interest in partnering with us to provide the mentoring services for the students there, but also to support the transitions back to their homeschools when they're ready.

[03:51:29] Peer recovery specialists, these are individuals with lived life experience who will share their own story and help students develop and make the connections in the community. so we've partnered with Serenity House already to share information about what their services are in the community and we recently met with the Chris Atwood Foundation and they would like to find funding to support one full-time position at a recovery school. In addition we'll be doing random drug testing and breathalyzers and that would be hopefully supported by Loudoun County Mental Health and then the parent psychoeducation group we've met with the Williams Center for

[03:52:06] wellness and recovery, as well as insight into action therapy. The academic instruction and support will be in collaboration with our fabulous Department of Teaching and Learning and school leadership, and our academic and career planning would fall under the Department of Student Services. On the next slide, you'll see the staff that we are anticipating. We do have the funding en route currently to hire a program administrator, which would be equivalent to a principal. And then we will be looking for a unique position, which is a clinical program coordinator. This individual has to have a master's in social work, in counseling, or

[03:52:46] in psychology, and have a license and have the clinical experience to know what those partnerships should look like and know how to communicate with the providers in the community. We'll have our teachers. We'll have special education teachers, a student assistant specialist assigned just for this school as well as a social worker and additional behavioral assistance as well as a school counselor in the coming years. And again the staffing from our community partners will be essential. At this point I'm going to turn it back to Ms. Richardson to talk about where we

[03:53:19] are now. Thank you. Where are we now? Our project charter outlines the vision, mission, and objectives of the recovery school it emphasizes collaboration resource allocation and measurable outcomes some notable accomplishments to date lcps has completed the application process and received the grant award for fiscal year 25 we've identified the north star building as our serving location for the recovery school project manner project managers have been meeting with various stakeholders since

[03:53:54] November 2024 in small groups to further plan for our success. Program outreach efforts we are scheduled this month to meet with building principals to review the project charter and the additional aspects of the program. LCPS was also notified today that we will be able to participate in a community of practice led by the Virginia Department of Education for all school divisions across the commonwealth that are in the development process of creating recovery schools and that will start in february 2025 for community partnerships as mrs evans has noted we continue

[03:54:32] to actively plan with our community partners on peer mentoring and parent training our curriculum development is underway in preparation for august 2025 as for staffing recruiting and hiring qualified staff is ready to go and in preparation for the upcoming school year. Our enrollment process, we are creating a streamlined enrollment process for students and planning for their transition out of the program upon completion. These milestones are crucial for the success and launch of and operation of the recovery school, ensuring that all aspects of the project are carefully planned and executed.

[03:55:14] Next slide. As you can see, the cadence of our meetings while in the planning phase for the recovery school ranges from weekly touch points to monthly meetings with the entire project charter team. We have remained focused on the details, maintaining our pace, alignment, collaboration, and communication across all invested parties.

[03:55:36] Thanks to the dedication of our team and community support, we are progressing on schedule and are closer to launching the recovery school as planned. This slide, it outlines our projected operational costs, which indicate a focus on staff to provide high-quality instruction and services to our students.

[03:55:59] Staffing is supported through the funding from the General Assembly with $500,000 in FY25, $250,000 in FY26. Additionally, the recovery school will utilize some shared resources at the North Star location, including school counseling, school social work services, school psychological services, and student assistance services.

[03:56:24] And now I'll hand it back over to Mrs. Evans, the ultimate expert in all things recovery. She has some additional information to share. As much as I want to say the recovery school model was my idea, I can't take credit for it because they were founded in the 1970s And I wasn't here yet.

[03:56:43] I just need to say that. They appeared in the 1970s. It's not a new concept. They were meant to provide post-treatment services to students following leaving a substance use program. I know you've heard me speak about the challenges of finding treatment for juveniles and youth in this area, in Virginia in general.

[03:57:04] So we wanted to broaden that to students who are in an intensive outpatient program or working with a substance use specialist in the community. But they have started to show some emerging data that is promising. But first, I want to say that in 2020, there were 43 recovery schools in the 20 states in the United States.

[03:57:24] And in Virginia, the first is the Hope Academy, which is in Chesterfield, which we've all visited. But the data on the next slide shows some promise and a lot of support. The Association of Recovery Schools compared students who received substance use treatment and returned to traditional high schools versus students who received substance use treatment and went back to a recovery school, and they saw higher graduation rates, so 20 percentage points higher than those that did not attend a recovery school.

[03:57:58] Lower dropout rates, 10% dropout rate versus a 27% for those that did not attend a recovery school. Their absenteeism was lower over 90 days. They had five fewer absences than those that did not attend a recovery school.

[03:58:13] And 59% reported abstinence after six months. And then they did 12-month follow-up as well. They show a greater decline in alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use overall. So as you can see, there's a lot more data that needs to be collected.

[03:58:31] But I'm really, really hopeful that we can move forward with our proposal. So thank you. - Thank you team for all that information. Board members, I hope that it is evident how hard this team has been working on this proposal and plan over the past several months and how deeply we believe in being able to offer this program to our students who need it.

[03:58:54] As we wrap up, I did want to mention that you heard earlier this evening from Dr. Spence that he has included funding to support the recovery school in his FY26 estimate of needs. I think I speak for him and the rest of this team When I say that we would feel most comfortable and would be in alignment with policy 5.1.1.5 that Ms. Clark mentioned, if we could find a way for you to formally approve this recovery school proposal that's in board docs prior to taking action on the FY26 budget.

[03:59:23] Given the timeline and since there is no January 28th school board meeting, that potentially means, that most likely means that a suspension of the rules is probably needed. obviously that is completely the will of the board but i did want to draw your attention to that timeline and with that chair mansfield i will turn it back to you thank you dr ellis thank you everyone else i appreciate it um board members are there any um questions for the team well i see lots of questions look at all the questions okay all right so miss chandler and

[04:00:03] then we'll go with Dr. Deans and I know and I forgot Mrs. Griffiths over here and then we'll just go all the way down all right okay go ahead Ms. Chandler thank you madam chair and thank you to the team I'm so excited about this and I just have to say when I think back over the course of the year and especially to our visit at the Chesterfield Hope Academy I would say it feels to me as if it's not enough to acknowledge that a problem exists or to tell people that a problem exists, the way to solve a problem is to think outside the box, to look for the evidence-based best practice,

[04:00:43] and find a solution. And what I'm excited about is that we have a solution. And I can't say that I was sold when we went, but having the ability to hear directly from students who are in the program and to hear the students say, the thing that makes it possible for me to stay sober every day is that i'm here and if that's something that we can provide at lcps to help meet the needs of every student that is a student lcps we should do it um so with that um i would be happy to make a

[04:01:16] motion that oh no okay i'm excited yeah thank you that's all talk dr deans first because once you make that motion you're no talking okay dr. deans having been an administrator in a school that was set aside my question is on my concern is the the the connotation of all of those alternative

[04:01:53] programs been at the north star building that's my overarching concern my other concern is will it have parents to question the safety of their children being there for other reasons other than the recovery school on a daily basis. So I think that somehow if we can create perceptions that are different from those negative ones that I just verbalized, then

[04:02:32] yes, go for it. And I think we should go for it. I'm just saying, think in terms of how we can overcome that concern from the public, the perception from the public. Thank you, Dr. Deans.

[04:02:49] Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a lot of questions, so forgive me for that. Also, I want to thank Tedra for getting back to me on some questions I had last night. Regarding the costs. You had provided total cost for the FY26 budget, $4.48, so you had given me that originally, but then I had seen somewhere else, it was, I think it was, oh, in the document,

[04:03:19] it says total was $8.14, around $8.14 total cost, so that is a difference of around $400,000, so I was just curious about that. I just wanted to make sure all the costs were in line with how much this is going to cost.

[04:03:37] So if you could just let me know. I had other questions, but if you can just clarify that for me. Certainly, Dina. Thank you so much for asking that question. When we drafted our project charter, which was we began to draft that in November of 2024, right, so this past fall, we had not yet really started the budgeting process, really digging into the meat and potatoes of it, right, and sorting through the outstanding the largest outstanding factor for us at that time was were we going to incur any capital outlay

[04:04:10] cost. We were also still waiting at that point for the Virginia Department of Education to provide us additional guidance as well as the budget templates that LCPS needed to complete in order to submit to be awarded the grant. So the projections in the project charter are higher than the cost that you will see presented to you as we move through the FY26 budgeting process.

[04:04:42] So thank you for asking that question so we could provide that clarity. Thank you so much. Is this a regional school or other regions going to come in? I know you have, I thought I saw five students ready to start. So are you planning on bringing more in?

[04:04:59] But also, my understanding is, if they do well in the school, then they can leave and go back to their other school. So that brings down the enrollment. So I'm trying to understand if you are bringing kids in from other locations.

[04:05:15] Is this regional? And I had a couple more questions, but if you can answer that. Sure. So we originally, we have identified students that would be appropriate, but we aren't opening it until August. So it would be a fall launch. We want to have 15 to 20 students that are LCPS students with the first year.

[04:05:32] Second year, we will add five additional spaces for our region. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. I had seen March, starting in March, and then I saw August, so that also... We shifted. We pivoted. Yeah, that also threw me off.

[04:05:49] And as far as statistics in Loudoun County, you had mentioned, I guess, 8.5% are using, but most kids are not. So I guess my question is, how many kids are technically in rehab currently?

[04:06:11] That's hard to answer because we work with students who have violations, who don't have violations, and are voluntarily working with the student assistance specialists. But there are many students who we aren't even aware of that might be in treatment and the family hasn't shared that information or do they want to because of stigma and privacy reasons.

[04:06:31] So what data we do collect is the students we're serving and we can look at that. How many students are being served by a student assistant specialist, but that it might even narrow it further because one of our requirements for a student to be considered for this program is that they have to have some clean time and they have to have a provider.

[04:06:51] So then our numbers are going to even decrease more. So this is a small population of students who will fit the recovery school model. However, the students we're serving is much broader than that, but they wouldn't necessarily want to come to a recovery school.

[04:07:07] It is a voluntary placement, so the students and parents need to be on board, and they have to be part of the program. Parents need to participate, parents need to come to meetings, parents need to attend workshops, and some parents aren't involved. So we will have to look at each case individually, but it is a small group of students that I anticipate for LCPS high schools.

[04:07:31] And that leads me to my next question. This is the launch this fall. What is your anticipated enrollment? Like, what's a good number to have there? 30. Total of 30 to make it the inclusive, safe environment that we want to be.

[04:07:48] To keep it going, you need 30? After this first launch, you mean? Okay. Thank you. I think I'm good. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Griffiths. Ms. Vice-Chair O'Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Ellis, Ms. Richardson, and the team for putting together this presentation and for supporting all of these efforts and this proposal and this process. I think it's incredibly important for our community that we're putting resources into this opportunity.

[04:08:20] I have a few questions and I will thank Mrs. Griffiths because she already asked a few of the ones that I had on my list, which included whether we're anticipating either now or at some point in the future making our recovery school accessible to other students from other districts not in Loudoun County.

[04:08:43] I was curious if you could talk a little bit more about how enrollment will work, if it's going to be, I assume we're not doing it by lottery, but how, it may be premature to ask you exactly what the process is going to be, but if you could give us an overview.

[04:09:01] Absolutely. So our team has been working behind the scenes to develop an entrance process and an exit process. The student assistant specialist would be the primary referrer, but an administrator, a counselor, a family member, or a provider could suggest this to the student assistant specialist for a student.

[04:09:20] Once we identify that student, there is an assessment that will be done, and we'll collect all of the information, find out if they have a provider, if they've been to treatment or not. do they still need to do treatment, figure out where they are with that, figure out if the parent is on board. So there's a whole process to determine whether they're eligible. And again, it is a voluntary placement. We aren't going to determine when a student necessarily goes back without their parent's input, with their provider's input, and the student's input.

[04:09:51] Students may choose to stay there and graduate from there. Students may stay one marking period. Students may stay a half a year. It depends on the student and their recovery process. Thank you. You're welcome. And is the Hope Academy in Chesterfield currently the only recovery school in Virginia?

[04:10:10] Okay. You mentioned that there are other schools who are currently going through a similar process of developing, trying to stand up programs, similar programs. Are you aware of how many other schools are in that process and if any are near us?

[04:10:28] Sure. At this point, the only thing that I could say for sure is that Virginia Beach Public Schools, they're in the planning phase as well. They also received funding from the General Assembly for this year and next. I will be able to share more next month after we have our first community of practice as school divisions across the Commonwealth doing our planning year.

[04:10:51] The Virginia Department of Education is trying to set up that opportunity based on sort of where we are in our development process. So, of course, I believe Chesterfield is going to be sort of kicking it off for that community of practice. Then Loudon is second on deck with talking about where we are in our process.

[04:11:10] Virginia Beach is currently scheduled to be third to talk about challenges and successes. Really, we're all trying to learn and work through this together. certainly want to give kudos where kudos are needed. Mr. Savoy from the Hope Academy in Chesterfield has just been an amazing and invaluable resource. Just so responsive when I have questions like, hey, how did you figure this out and how did you figure that out?

[04:11:36] So I will be able to share other school divisions across the Commonwealth that join this community of practice and sort of give you a status update as to where they are in their development as well. Thank you. And following up on some of Mrs. Griffith's questions about the estimated cost of the program, I was curious, your slide on here that addressed the cost seemed to refer only to personnel. Are we anticipating additional non-personnel costs, supplies, special resources that will be needed for this kind of program as opposed to more traditional programs? And if so,

[04:12:15] any idea at this time what those costs would be? Certainly we have been working with our friends in operations as well as business and financial services for nutrition services because what we'd be looking at is a shift in some of those costs from our comprehensive high schools now to the North Star Building for our recovery school. So we will have to factor in transportation cost, food services cost. We'll also have to look at materials and supplies. We know we have curriculum resources. It's to be noted that, especially for those of you that were able to visit the

[04:12:51] Chesterfield program, they had more of a synchronous supported learning model. Ours is going to be live in person with general ed, special ed, behavior support, mental health support, all in the classroom setting. So we will, that's why the majority of the costs are dedicated to human resources because we already have the instructional resources to tap into that we can just simply follow the students from their comprehensive high schools over to the recovery school program thank you that's that's really good to know that's all the questions I had but I wanted to make a couple of brief

[04:13:30] comments one I wanted to follow up on what dr. Dean said about the stigma attached that is sometimes unfortunately attached to North Star in the fall at one of my office hours, I had a parent come in to talk to me and that parent was there. They have a high school student in LCPS who was enrolled in one of the programs at North Star and was there to tell me about what a positive impact the program has made on the student's life, but then the difficulty that the student sometimes has going back to the home school and and facing, you know, some

[04:14:07] bias from from the homeschool community because of going to the bad school and and I second completely what Dr. Dean said that we need to be cognizant of that and and figure out some proactive ways to combat that impression that is unfortunately appears to be out in the community you know but that being said I'm I'm a huge proponent of this program I I was inclined to support it before we went to to visit the Hope Academy I was really I felt it was quite a privilege to be able

[04:14:39] to be there and the stories that I heard were upsetting and inspiring and and gave me a lot of hope and excitement for what we can do to support our students in our community up here thank you who was next Ms. Chernoff and then Mr. Paikin I'll make it quick I promise I just want to thank you guys for your work I want to thank you for your proposal I especially wanted to thank you for the work in the proposal outlining how families are involved and how this really is a partnership between the

[04:15:18] student and the family and the school and all of those things coming together is really what will help make them successful and and really recover and so I was just really impressed with the detail of the FAQs and just just the detailed outlining of the plan and that you have already before you've even collaborated so I look forward to the updates you have my full support I think this really is like Miss Chandler said we're offering the answer to the question what are we going to do to support our students in crisis and we have an answer now and that's really really powerful so thank you thank you

[04:15:56] Mr. Piken well first off I want to say thank you I mean as a student myself I see peers around me you know who have substance abuse and I know how critical of an issue that is in our area and I'm really glad that's being you know know resolved or you know looked into but I was curious also like so I know you mentioned that there's a small teacher to student ratio what exactly is that teacher to student ratio if you look at the list of the staff we have six staff members two of which will be special ed we're looking for also one to be duly certified as an EL teacher and a content specialist as well so

[04:16:32] it'd be six teachers as well as the mental health staff to 25 to 30 students and then I was also just curious so I know there's not an average span because I know every student's a little bit different but is it longer? Do most students try to stay until graduation or is it a shorter period?

[04:16:51] We asked that question at the Hope Academy and the student, the one student we spoke to said that she wanted to graduate from there and that was her plan but I think it depends on the student and everything else that's going on in their family system and in their social environment as to whether or not they'll want to stay but we will encourage them to say and make sure that there's supports that go with them if they do choose to return.

[04:17:14] Absolutely. Thank you. And then, sorry, one last thing. I'm just curious. So does the recovery school function as an entire school? Like, does it do all the education, you know, history, English? So are the teachers all, because I know it's only six teachers, is it one teacher certified in all the general different educations?

[04:17:31] They would be duly endorsed to be able to teach multiple areas of content. That was all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. All right, Dr. Deans and then Dr. Shee, or I guess Mr. Estreffi. We're just talking today.

[04:17:46] Okay. We have a lot to say about this. Okay, go ahead, Dr. Deans. One thought that I had with them returning to their homeschools and their fears about returning to their homeschools, one idea may be to find a different high school for them to return to.

[04:18:07] That has been something that we've used. I was in a much smaller district, but I would assign them across town rather than in their home high school. Mr. Estreffy. So thank you.

[04:18:26] Thank you for all the reasons that were already mentioned. My question is more around what you mentioned, that this opportunity would be for a very small pool of students who are eligible or ready to be in a recovery school. And I'm curious, having a recovery school option, does that help folks on the ground in the schools, SASs and others, to get students to a point where they might want to consider and take the steps towards reaching a recovery school?

[04:18:59] You mentioned one of the barriers is they have to have a provider. And can you talk about what we could do at the school level to empower folks there? and then maybe either reduce the barriers to treatment or recovery or entrance into the recovery school?

[04:19:16] I love that question, and I think yes to all of it. I think it's a way to incentivize students to get treatment who have been resistant, right? And this could be a short-term goal. Let's get you in with therapy. Let's see if you can stay clean for a month and determine what our next steps are from there, and we can work with your provider to find out if there's another option and you don't want to be here in your home school.

[04:19:42] So I think most students don't just sign up for treatment. There's usually something that happens to push them to treatment, whether that's a consequence or friendships falling apart or a family discord that's happening. So we would need to help them take a look at that.

[04:19:57] What is your line in the sand? How do you know this is a problem? And if we are identified as a problem, what are you going to do about it? And how can I help you do that so you're not alone? So I think that that's a great opportunity for us to find the treatment, eliminate those barriers. There is treatment available, limited outpatient services.

[04:20:16] The inpatient treatment is a little bit more challenging, a lot more challenging, but that's the only thing they need in order to then get into the recovery school, along with the willingness to change and to be honest, and to have the support from the community and their family. Thank you.

[04:20:35] Working inpatient myself. You know, I'm going to have a plug for music therapy or creative arts therapist. And if we could find a grant of some sort or something to help that move along a little bit. Because Chesterfield also did have an art therapist, as well as a therapy dog.

[04:20:52] Just saying. So yes to a creative arts therapist, yes to a dog, and yes to a nutritionist. So we're going to try to find all of them. Yeah, that was the other one, was the nutritionist. Okay, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Mansfield.

[04:21:08] i'm a cat person but i i that's okay dogs will do dogs will do um with the timeline um with the timeline um i i was just uh i'd like to make a motion though chair mansfield and i don't know if i could speak to my motion go ahead with your motion i'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules i have a motion to suspend the rules do i have a second second i have many seconds to

[04:21:41] suspend the rules i will give it to vice chair donahue um okay there is no discussion as per usual with suspending the rules and it passes with a two-thirds vote two-thirds okay so clerk would you please open the vote huh clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote this is to suspend the rules clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes

[04:22:19] 8 to 1 with Mrs. Griffiths in opposition. Okay, now we can make another motion. Vice Chair, you good? Dr. Rasheed, do you want to do it? I just wanted to suspend the rules so that we can make this item 1406 into an action item.

[04:22:46] I think that it's an action item now. That vote has passed. Now we need to vote on whether or not to make the, we need to vote on the programming I think for the recovery school. Madam Chair. Yes, Vice Chair Donahue.

[04:23:02] I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the request to support the funding for the recovery school program in the superintendent's estimate of needs.

[04:23:22] What is the motion? If you look on the recommendations here, it says that the Loudoun County School Board approved the proposal for the LCPS recovery school and direct staff to continue planning and provide regular updates to the board through the special programs and centers committee that's the rephrase yes please thank you i move that the louden county school board approve the proposal for the lcps recovery school and direct staff to continue planning and provide regular updates to the board through the special programs and centers committee i have a motion do i have a second oh i have a second by mrs miss chandler

[04:24:02] over there the motion has been properly moved and seconded clerk would you please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display the vote and that motion passes eight to one with mrs griffiths in opposition thank you everyone for everything that you're doing and answering all of our questions all right we move on to item 15 board member comment and committee reports um before we start i just wanted to say that as chair i have the authority

[04:24:40] to assign board members to committees appoint the chairs and also the liaisons of the board to board advisory committees, and I've decided for consistency's sake that we're keeping everything the same. So with that, any, Dr., Ms. LaBelle, do you have any comments for the committees? Wait, Mr. Paikin, would you turn on her mic for her? Thank you. She can't reach it today.

[04:25:16] Sorry, sorry, sorry. You blew it. Yes, the last time the SBAD committee met was November 25th. At that point in time, we sent an action item forward for procedure for appeals for student behavior, student discipline.

[04:25:36] Upcoming, we have our new policy-- a lot of policy changes, I should say, not necessarily new-- on the weapons policy, and that is 8-2-35, and we will be having it later this month.

[04:25:52] I believe it's on the 30th, but check your calendars. And come if you'd like to. We are open to visitors. Lots of comments. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Laval. Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. The SPCC, or Specialized Programs and Centers Committee, did not meet because the regular meeting date fell both just after the winter break and during the several snow days.

[04:26:16] So meetings of our committee should resume in February. And the MSAC, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, will hold its Better Together Family Dinner and social event tomorrow at 6:00 PM. Check my social media, MSAC social media, or recent peach jar flyers for more information.

[04:26:34] It will be an uplifting evening to celebrate the joy of our community. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Rashid. Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. As continuing chair of the Curriculum and Instruction committee we are moving quickly to meet in January we are going to meet this Thursday at 3:30 p.m. which is not our normal time for meeting but we in order to maintain the timeline for the revisions the possible revisions to policy 50/30 in the grading policy we need to meet pretty quickly the agenda is already posted on board docs including the new redline version of 50/30

[04:27:11] post feedback and focus groups. So I would encourage people to look at that and if they want to attend the meeting I anticipate a great conversation as we move through those proposed changes. Exciting times. Thank you, Ms. Chernov. Mr. Streffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am once again excited to chair the Finance and Operations Committee as well as the Performance Monitoring Committee. F&O will meet on the 21st, Tuesday the 21st, so next week, and PMC will meet at some in early February so that said also the School Business Partnerships and School Business Partnership Executive Council will meet this Thursday as well

[04:27:49] nothing else from me. Thank You Mr. Streffi. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you Madam Chair. The Student Services Committee will be having a work session tomorrow evening at 5:00 p.m. to discuss a restraint and seclusion policy which the committee is looking at proposed revisions for that policy and we have just decided that special for the month of january only our monthly committee meeting will be on january 24th at 8 30 a.m bright and early right here yep someone agreed on your behalf madam chair

[04:28:25] we're gonna be here anyway that apparently is the only time that was available and um blame blame the budget season there's no evenings so um but i and i am very grateful to Ms. Richardson and to the staff for working out a time that the committee could possibly meet and to my fellow committee members because I do think it's important that we keep our committee work moving forward and also the Loudon Education Foundation is having their old Ox Rocks for teachers fundraiser on

[04:29:00] February 1st Saturday from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. so I encourage everyone to come by If you know anyone who might possibly be interested in sponsoring, helping sponsor the event, I would love to hear about that and or Daniel Nadler would love to hear about that.

[04:29:18] So that's all for me. Thank you. Dr. Deans. The equity committee has two subcommittees who have met, and we will be meeting the first Thursday in February for the reports of those two subcommittees and for the committee to vote on the recommendations of those two subcommittees.

[04:29:45] And that's February 6th at 530. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm excited to get back to work after our extended break. right it's a very exciting time of year for those of us who are interested in the General Assembly and it will be interesting to see how some of the suggestions that our school board has put forth are accepted at the General Assembly so we'll be watching that closely and of course I'll be headed to

[04:30:20] Head Start Policy Council in the morning thank you. Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you madam chair i'm happy to say i'm staying on as chair of hrtd committee i don't have an update today but um i did want everybody to know that um as far as comments go um that stonebridge high school earned three statewide honors at the virginia thespian festival this past weekend caroline marks high school theater teacher of the year lisa tartaglia assistant principal of the year Gwen Meehan Volunteer of the Year. These are prestigious honors that the community should

[04:30:58] celebrate and I want to thank Stonebridge Theater for your hard work. Thank you. All right. New business. Any new business? Seeing no new business. We have adjournment. So the January 14th, 2025 Loudoun County School Board meeting is now adjourned. Please drive safely home.

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