Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 54m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1058397421?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-16. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] - Good evening, everyone. We are gonna go ahead and get started. I'd just like to say welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. My name is Erin Kunkel and I serve as the current chair of MSAC.

[00:00:20] Tonight's meeting is, our theme for the evening is keeping our joy. We're going to be hearing from some LCPS administration officials providing us some really important and timely information that we hope that you all will take back to your schools and share with your schools, your network, and even in your community, because this can benefit everyone in some way, shape, or form.

[00:00:47] So to get us started, we're going to start, if I could get you all to sign in,

[00:00:56] I checked the QR code does work.

[00:01:57] Okay, so I'll go back and give everybody

[00:02:18] just one more minute to scan the QR code.

[00:02:36] So again, welcome, thank you all for joining us. We are very happy and so glad that you're here and joining us this evening. Before we get into the announcements, I just want to say that tonight's discussion and topic, I know that it's going to be, it can be a little heavy.

[00:02:56] It can possibly, for some of you, anyone, it could probably be a little bit triggering. So please be mindful of your mental health and your emotional well-being. If you need to step out and step away, you don't even have to make an excuse. Just please, you know, excuse yourself, take care of yourself.

[00:03:13] Having you healthy, happy, and whole is more important to us than you sitting in the room as part of this conversation and feeling any type of stressors of that nature. Secondly, again, I'd just like to stress that we want you to share this information with your community.

[00:03:30] We believe that it is relevant and it is important to get that information out. We try to think of ways to kind of create a cozy and welcoming environment. I'd like to thank Jack Frost for the freezing temperatures. It lends to it.

[00:03:46] You know, I'm a little sad that he gave us this and not snow on top of it. You know, we could have done with not the freezing temperatures. But in the back, we have hot chocolate. The teapot is going. It's not quite hot yet, but it should be in a couple minutes. And we have Dunkin' Donuts.

[00:04:02] So we're feeding your sweet tooth and hoping you just, you know, feel comfortable, relaxed, and just present with us as we go through the evening. For announcements, in the next coming weeks, we will be sending out a round of emails.

[00:04:21] I promise I will not bam you with 20,000 emails, but I've got quite a few teed up and ready to send. We will, you will be getting emails and the announcements for MSAC Executive Board elections. We're going to try to hold a couple of virtual listening sessions, if you will, where you can hop on and you can hear about the different roles and ask your questions, but if there is a particular role that you are interested in running for, obviously we'll give you the information to reach out to myself or Truphelia or anyone else so you can ask your questions

[00:04:55] about how the role works and what the expectations are and their experiences in that role we will also start making our announcement for the MSAC annual equity and awards we are very excited to do this again this year we will also put out the nomination forms so when those things go out we ask that you send those out to your schools and please if you know any student educator staff member anyone that has worked hard and is always in the work to further equity in our schools and in our community we ask that you nominate them so we can

[00:05:32] lift them up and acknowledge the hard work that they do last but certainly not least I'm very excited to share that in April we are going to have a student takeover so all the adults all the adult MSAC members we're gonna move you one table back and our goal is to fill these front tables and the chairs with students and we are going to let our student MSAC delegates take over and lead the meeting with their choice in topics their choice in conversation guided we will provide them any support that they need any guidance that they

[00:06:10] have and so we really want to make this a special moment for our students and we are going to work really hard because we have two and a half about two months to really broadcast this we want to get it out and encourage affinity groups student led groups to come and join us in this meeting so they can share and talk about what's important and what's on top for them in their schools and as they go about their education so I'm really excited about what's coming in the next couple of months we shifted our meeting schedule to the right and next month we'll catch back up and we were going to be doing our focus on AI in schools and

[00:06:48] discussing like how AI works and it can benefit you and your education and things because we want to shed some of that stigma that it's cheating and you can't use it properly. You know, we want to make sure that we inform parents and, you know, students of its, you know, applicable uses and how it can be a help, but also remind everyone, you know, how to protect your child's data and your data while you're on the internet and you're using these websites and accessing these things as well.

[00:07:16] So we're going to kind of go through tonight, and then we're going to pick back up with our schedule for the remainder of the year. And so next up, we're going to go over the November meeting minutes. We do not have meeting minutes for January because we had our Better Together event, and I would like to yet again say thank you all for your support.

[00:07:38] Thank you for coming out. We filled this room and I would just like to brag on MSAC for a little bit that we did make Dr. Spence's good news around the district, not once, but twice. We made it for our Better Together event, which we are so grateful that we get to share that with the community.

[00:07:56] And also we made it along with the student equity ambassadors, our MSAC student delegates, they had a training session with Mr. Trey Baker and it was phenomenal. There were hundreds of students in here writing and sharing their thoughts and engaging with each other and having a good conversation.

[00:08:16] So I'm very proud of the work and I'm happy that we made the good news around the district twice. So, yay us! So now, if you would scan that QR code, that is for November's meeting minutes.

[00:08:32] And you can take a look at them and then we are going to open the floor for a motion to vote to approve the meeting minutes.

[00:09:19] okay um do i have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from november so moved yes do i have a second second thank you um all in favor raise your hands say aye okay those against okay the motion is passed we will get those meeting minutes added to the website and also emailed out to you um again if i didn't email them in the first place i apologize um get those emailed out to you as well

[00:09:55] so you can have those for your schools um and your communities as well um we have quite a few guest speakers tonight um before we get started um i just want to take a moment to thank dr rashid for joining us as she always does it's always wonderful to have her in the room and to have her support of msac i'm going to turn it over to our guest speakers but i do want you to know that we do have interpretation services available so if you're in need of interpretation services Please know that the interpreter is here to provide that.

[00:10:30] Oh, she's right there. Okay.

[00:10:35] Before we get started with our presentation about supporting our LCPS families, I was going to invite Dr. Bergen to come up.

[00:11:28] He's our new chief of staff, and I think he wanted to just introduce himself and say a few words to you all. Well, thank you for that warm reception.

[00:11:47] I do appreciate it. I would like to just bring a couple greetings on behalf of Dr. Spence, our superintendent, and my good friend of 25 years. My name is Mark Bergen. I am most recently superintendent in Bedford County, Virginia.

[00:12:04] And prior to that was the chief of staff in Virginia Beach for six years. I've also been a deputy superintendent and a director. But most importantly for tonight, I was a teacher and a principal in Title I schools for about two decades. And I see on the agenda tonight that we are keeping our joy, and we have an activity about writing our stories. So, you know, perfect. This is my joy. My joy is the belief that all children

[00:12:38] can and will learn when we believe in them. So as a classroom teacher in elementary school for eight years, I was always the room, I was always the teacher that said, give me whatever you got.

[00:12:53] I love to be the inclusive classroom for students who had special needs, whether identified or not legally, you know, just had special needs. I welcome them into my classroom to work with all of those children and had the same high expectations of every child in the room, period.

[00:13:11] And as a Title I principal, most recently in Dale City Elementary School, which is in Prince William County, a school of about pretty close to 100% Hispanic and poor with one of the highest achieving schools in Prince William County. Not because of my work, but because of our work, because the teachers, the staff, and I believed in our students, and they had tremendous success, as all children will, as your children will.

[00:13:37] So thank you for your commitment to being here tonight, for your service, not only to your own family, but to our school division and to this group. And I look forward, as a newcomer to Loudoun County, learning more about our work and what I can do to support this work. So thank you for having me here tonight. I appreciate it.

[00:14:09] Hi everyone. I'm Natalie Allen. I'm the chief communications and community engagement officer in Loudoun County Public Schools and I'm so happy to be here with you all tonight. We were asked by Dr. Ellis Williams and Ms. Kunkel to join you and talk about how we support our families in Loudoun County Public Schools and specifically about immigration resources that we're offering. And so before we get started with that presentation, I just wanted to introduce my colleagues over here who have some wonderful resources for you and I'll go ahead and start with miss Renee Dawson good evening everyone it's so wonderful to be here tonight and I see lots of familiar faces this is my first time being here at MSAC and I'm

[00:14:45] incredibly excited to be here I am the director for family and community engagement for Loudoun County and prior to coming to the central office I was a middle school principal and a high school principal or a high school assistant principal, and a world language teacher.

[00:15:04] Good evening, everyone. Buenas noches. My name is Sarah Ocampo, and I am the supervisor for the EL Family and Community Engagement Office. In my previous life, I was a world language teacher as well, Spanish, at the middle school and high school, and I finished my teaching career teaching English learners at the elementary school. I then transitioned to be a stay-at-home mom, but while I was doing that, I became an interpreter and fell in love with working with families. So it is truly a joy to be in the role that I'm at and I will tell you a little bit more about our programs in a moment so thank you. Good evening everyone I'm Jen Evans I'm the director of student

[00:15:43] mental health services here at Loudoun County Public Schools and in my previous life I and still am a therapist I'm a substance abuse and mental health therapist by trade but I came to LCPS to do more prevention and intervention and really building the programs we have here. I'm also a mom. I have three kids, a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old, and a 5-year-old. So I am in this for the long haul and really excited to talk to you about our mental health services. And we have a little one

[00:16:11] approaching. You can come sit in my seat if you want. There we go. Well, first and foremost, before we get started really with our presentation, we wanted to talk about what our tenets are when we talk about how we support our families as a school division first we lead with empathy compassion and understanding we want to make sure that every single family every single student feels like they belong in LCPS and regardless of

[00:16:47] what's going on in the world it is our goal and our mission to make sure every single student and family feels that way so we want to ensure your families you know feel safe and like they can come to school and that schools are resources for them and we understand that some families might feel fear or might feel fear about asking for help or receiving referrals etc but we're here to tell you that we're here for you and we hope that you engage with our family liaisons which are at every single school because that's what they're there for they're a resource for families and you can reach out to them anytime with any questions with any concerns with any help that you might need and we want you

[00:17:26] know that we're going to continue to check on our families and to continue to offer a regular outreach and again the family and community engagement office the EL face office our mental health services team that's what we do every day and we'll continue to do that. With that I just wanted to mention that on January 23rd Dr. Spence our superintendent sent out a letter that wanted to reaffirm how important it is that our schools are safe spaces for every student and every single family and within that letter he provided family immigration resources which are now available on our website so if you missed

[00:18:04] that letter and missed that link we wanted to make sure that you knew that it was available on our website so if you go to our LCPS website and click on or in search family immigration resources it'll come right up it's also on our family and community engagement page and what you'll find there are are multiple resources for families and from the community that you all can use in the case that you need assistance related to this topic. And I'm going to turn it over to Renee, and I'll stand up here and be the clicker for you all. Or if you want to click and talk, that's fine too. You're

[00:18:43] going to stand? Okay. Renee is going to stand. That makes sense to me. All right. Okay, I'm going to have to lower this a little bit. Can you all see me? Can you hear me? Okay, perfect. Well, it was wonderful when I saw the topic for tonight's discussion, which is keeping our joy. If you know anything about me, I am constantly full of joy, and it's because I love what I do.

[00:19:13] I love connecting with families and students and schools. It really is what fills my cup. And so the division of family and community engagement is one that is incredibly important, And it was really inspired by our superintendent, who at the beginning when he first came into Loudoun County, he had a lot of listening sessions.

[00:19:36] He gathered a lot of data to kind of see where we were as a division. And once he gathered all that information, one of the things that he recognized is that we really needed to center family and community engagement under one umbrella so that our families could easily access resources.

[00:19:53] They had one place that they could go to to make sure that they could get all of their needs met and that we were being intentional as a division about the way in which we support our families and we engage our communities. And so that's where the division of family and community engagement came from.

[00:20:09] I won't read all of this to you, but all of these words really are things that are really important and central to what family and community engagement it is all about. it's about connecting and creating strong partnerships with families and educators local businesses faith-based groups community organizations and other collaborators and we do this through a lot of different mechanisms whether it's outreach or events we are working on building out a volunteer program we're offering school-based supports and I'll tell you a little bit about what those are in a moment but our goal really is to empower families to be active stewards

[00:20:49] of their child's education and we really want to create this collaborative and supportive learning environment so that our ultimate goal is that shared goal is that we want every student to be successful and that's what family the division of family and community engagement is all about and what's really nice is our EL face team we call each other we do a face-to-face get it

[00:21:14] Supporting our families, one of the things that we do in the Division of Family and Community Engagement, and you'll also hear that with ELFACE, is providing resources to families and referrals.

[00:21:29] And I'll talk a little bit about referrals in a moment, and that happens a lot through our family liaisons that are in all of our schools. One of the things that we like to do is to give our families resources and tools for the toolbox in terms of how do you navigate parent view?

[00:21:47] What are the things that you need to do? We want to make sure that we lift up to our families that you want to make sure that your emergency contact information is up to date. We tell that to all of our families. And I will tell you, having been an administrator, it's so important.

[00:22:03] That is where we go to make sure that our families have all of that information in case of emergency. So we just kind of try to give those pieces of information to the families to make sure that information is up to date. Also within that parent view in our student information system we have directory information.

[00:22:24] And so that directory information if you have a student that is in band or things like that or if they're in any kind of extracurricular activity and you want to keep that information private you can opt out of that information being shared. And so we do kind of share that information out, just little tidbits of information for our families.

[00:22:43] And these are the different ways or some ways in which we support. Now the snapshot of our FACE programs, one of the things that we're incredibly excited about is we gathered a lot of information from families. The student surveys or the family surveys that went out.

[00:23:00] We reached out to principals to find out what things that they might need. But we decided that it was important that we create a family academy. And I will tell you that we did a soft launch this year for the first one, was in January.

[00:23:16] And this was really about how to navigate all of the different course offerings that students have. And so we worked with our student services team, our counseling team, and we worked with our CTE team, which is Career and Technical Education.

[00:23:33] And we offered this amazing session on how to navigate scheduling. i'm going to tell you when you have to look at all the things for scheduling it's a lot and so we kind of did a really nice step and that is on our website and i'll tell you a little bit more about that but we are really trying to build out this family academy that is responsive to what parents are asking us for and so you'll see different sessions that are available for families to sign up it's a webinar we offer two sessions at 12 o'clock and a six o'clock and you log into a webex link and you can go on there and find out what information you want to have and i will also say

[00:24:12] that if you miss those sessions if you're like i can't do a 12 o'clock i can't do a six o'clock the webinars that that information is online and i'll show you where you can get to that so you can always access it if you miss one of those great sessions we have one coming up next week and that is on growth mindset so if you're interested in that you can go to our face website and fam and you'll see all of that information there and I'll tell you how to get there in a minute under the umbrella of the division of family and community engagement we also offer multilingual services so any of our

[00:24:47] interpreters that you have that is handled through the division of family and community engagement we want to make sure that information we share with our families is accessible and so we have multilingual services that we provide the family liaisons that we talked about we have a family liaison that is in every one of our schools some are full-time some are part-time and what they do is they are a resource and they can connect families if you need if you're food insecure you need to find a place to go to get food if you need health care they can direct you to some of our providers and so our family

[00:25:27] liaisons really are that connector in the schools and having been in a school and having worked very closely with our family liaisons they are a tool and a resource for all of our families and you can find that information also on the FACE website. FACE and school-based school-based family resources we'll talk about that in a second but what we've tried to do on our FACE website is we realized from our families there was a lot of information that was coming at them and so we wanted to consolidate it into buckets. So when you go to our

[00:26:03] website you will be able to see those buckets and then you'll say oh I want to know a little bit about teaching and learning or courses. Where do I go? Well there's one that is student pathways and that's where you would go and it would take you directly to the site that has all of the information you would want to know. This is an ongoing process so if there are things that you think need to fall under these different buckets that's where you can reach out to us and say oh I'd really like to be able to access this where can I find that and if our parents say we want to have that we'll

[00:26:36] add it in but we will put it where it's appropriate place appropriately placed and that is the one what that I really want to focus in on on the next so this is very small but this is our website and it paints a picture of all the things that we're doing and if you see at the top you won't see it on here because it's so small, but it says welcome. We're glad you're here. And we are excited about you going to visit the website. And under that website, you're going to see four focus areas

[00:27:10] for the work that we do. One of them is student center programs and school supports. If you click that link, it'll give you a list of items. And under that list of items, you're going to see things like special programs so that you don't have to go and type in the search engine to find a special program you can click right there it'll take you to the special programs area you can look and see what all the courses are that are offered teaching and learning it'll kind of it'll click you can click on that it'll take you to where those resources are in terms of scheduling for teaching and learning the family focused engagement and resources this is the one

[00:27:48] really want to lift up to you all because under this is where we have a list of resources that will take you to mental health services it will take you if you are a military family it will take you to a place that has resources for our military connected families if you are a family and you have a student that is receiving services for special education you click on that it'll take you directly to that site we have our family immigration resources right there so if you click on that link it'll take you directly to those resources so we wanted to put anything that our families would want to know under specific

[00:28:27] buckets and that's one that has a lot of really good resources and we're still expanding so as I shared if there are things that you think we need to include we'll do that community connected partnerships a lot of the work that we do particularly with our family liaisons is working with nonprofits we We have to connect with our various nonprofits to make sure that we have a centralized place for our families that we can send them to or refer them to if they need assistance, whether that be food or medical care or any of those things.

[00:29:02] And then the next one is accessible pathways and LCPS system navigation. So you click on that one and you're going to see lots of different resources there. And I will say outreach services, when you go to the family focused, I want to skip back to that one, you're going to see school-based resources and that school-based resources also has our outreach services.

[00:29:25] So that is everything from our multilingual services to our family liaisons, what they do and our community schools. So we really wanted to try to provide a centralized location for that. student success talks that we've been doing those are listed there so you can click on that Family Academy and as I mentioned earlier if you want to go back and look at what the first Family Academy session was all about click on that link that big picture right there that says Family Academy it will take you to a webinar or a recording of what we did on that day and there's also the

[00:30:02] registration where you can sign up if you want to sign up for future sessions And then face-to-face, we've got our EL face listed there, and of course, at every school, we're incredibly excited that at every school and also on our Division of Family and Community Engagement page, we have Loudon Feeds.

[00:30:21] And that really is this conglomeration of all of our nonprofits that support our food insecure families. So this is just a snapshot of what family and community engagement is all about. our work is centered in supporting students and connecting families.

[00:30:40] So with that, that is the website, if you want to write that down so you guys can go. And if you go into Google search, it's actually really easy. If you go into the search bar and you just type in LCPS face, the first thing that pops up is our website.

[00:30:57] So it's easy to navigate, and our hope is that it is a tremendous resource for families. So if you need anything else on that website or you think something else might be beneficial, please let us know. And how can you do that? When you go on that website, there is a contact us button. If you click on that, please email us. And it gives us like the different topics.

[00:31:19] So if you click on that, it gives us the topics and then we will immediately reach out to you. What I found since doing the family, the family academy and the other outreach things that we've done, what has been really nice is our families have been using Let's Talk. They have been reaching out some of them just want an email response and some people want a phone call so we do both so thank you and now I'm going to turn it over to the other face all right so once again I'm Sarah Ocampo and this is Sophia she is the next EL face supervisor in training she wanted a

[00:31:56] first-hand experience as to how to do a presentation hi I have the pleasure of supervising this wonderful team of multicultural and multilingual staff. We have two or one Spanish-speaking facilitator, one Arabic-speaking facilitator.

[00:32:13] Rahima speaks five languages, Pashto, Dari, Urdu, English, of course, and Emin Young speaks Korean. And we were intentionally selecting our staff to represent our English learner families and our top three languages and cultures.

[00:32:31] and we are able to provide programming in the language of choice for our families. Our mission is in alignment with the LCPS mission, which is to empower our English learner students to make meaningful contributions to the world. And we do that by building partnerships and a sense of belonging with our families.

[00:32:47] As an English learner myself, I was born in Peru and I went through the public school system not understanding a lick of English. My mother did not understand English as well, so this work is very personal to me and I want to make sure our families feel supported and welcomed. Do you agree, Sophia? Yeah.

[00:33:03] Thank you. Our office is under the Division of English Learners, and that is primarily because of funding. We are grant-funded through Title III funds, which support the education and the family engagement of English learner families. And so since 2019, we have established these mostly five programs, almost six programs, and I will walk you through each one of them.

[00:33:26] The first one is a brief orientation into the school system. As you know, when you're new to a country, you would appreciate perhaps a brief orientation into how the school system works. In some cultures, you go straight to the principal for immediate needs, and we have to remind our families that our principals, you're welcome to contact them, but usually you contact the teacher first, and those types of, I guess, protocols.

[00:33:54] So we provide a brief orientation to our families. We offer it in Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu. We do it in person at the historic Douglas High School, and we chose that location because that's where families get screened at the Welcome Center. So they come into the Welcome Center, they get screened to see if they qualify to receive English learner services, and then they return for a brief orientation with us.

[00:34:17] This is held once a month, and we also give them a toolkit with information about the school system, who to contact at their school. it's meant to be a period of transition between their time at the Welcome Center and before they get to their schools. We also have the Family Room. This is our virtual webinar series, and we choose a variety of topics based on family's feedback. So we have talked about ParentVUE, Academies of Loudoun, Gifted Education, and other programs that we would love to encourage more EL participation.

[00:34:52] We do it bilingually at 6 p.m. in English and Spanish and at 7 in English and Arabic. and this is also held once a month at the end of the month. At the request of our school administrators or teachers, we also hold family feedback circles. This is an opportunity for a select number of families between eight and ten to come to the school building and provide their feedback. This is done in collaboration with our school-based administration. Depending on their school improvement plans or the goals that they want to achieve that year, they invite the families, They ask a series of questions with us.

[00:35:28] We facilitate the opportunity with the families, and we can also do it in multiple languages. It's a great opportunity for community building, and when we are finished collecting the data, we meet with the school administrator, we discuss next steps, and then we invite the families back.

[00:35:44] So it's almost like a full circle of feedback. In the same way, we also collect feedback from our EL students. We gather small groups of students, we ask them about their experiences, and then we share this feedback with the teachers so that they can improve their instructional practices, practices, strategies, and help them increase their sense of belonging as well.

[00:36:09] The Parents as Educational Partners, this has been, I guess, the oldest program that we've offered. PEPP existed before the EL face office existed. It is a curriculum-based program that is taught by a teacher or a counselor, someone at the school site, and they cover 10 units, starting with the U.S. school system, school personnel, procedures, and it is truly meant for brand new families that are not familiar with the school system.

[00:36:35] And so we do provide a little stipend for our instructors. We do give them formal training, and we visit them and make sure that we're keeping the high standards so that families are receiving the best information possible. And then once a year, we do this huge resource fair.

[00:36:51] I believe MSAC came in November. You had a representative there for us, and we had over 100 families coming, over 30 organizations that support our immigrant and international families, and we also made it into a learning session so families could go and learn about a variety of topics like literacy resources, math strategies, social-emotional learning, and then they could visit the vendors as well.

[00:37:17] So this is done in collaboration with the Family Engagement Workgroup and the Head Start and Step Program. Lastly, we have the Family Reunification Program. This is a program that was, I guess, we learned from Fairfax County Public Schools. We had them come and trained my team and also a group of social workers that are bilingual, and it is intended to share, and I guess, share with families interpersonal skills after they've been separated for a period of time for a variety of reasons.

[00:37:48] And so we are looking to establish this sometime in the fall so that we can support families as they come together again. And sometimes those dynamics can be stressful, learning how to navigate step families, have siblings. And so we're excited to collaborate with our social worker team, and that's Mrs. Evans' team as well.

[00:38:09] And that is our contact information. You can visit our website. It's similar to Ms. Dawson's website, except it's ELFACE. And you'll see our schedule of family room programs. You'll also see our schedule for the Welcome Family Workshop and some pictures from our previous programming.

[00:38:26] Yeah. Thank you so much. Can you say thank you? Thank you. Hi again, everybody. I am so excited to talk about student mental health services.

[00:38:43] How much time do we have? No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to try to summarize it and give you a high level. Oh, yes, sorry, Renee to me. So in our Office of Student Mental Health Services includes school counseling services, which every student in this room should know who their school counselor is.

[00:39:00] I'm hoping with a head nod that they will shake. Yes, okay. Student assistance services, which encompasses substance use prevention and intervention, attendance, and restorative practices. We also have psychological services as well.

[00:39:17] So that's our school psychologists, suicide prevention programming sources of strength I'm looking for an acknowledgement from any students that know what that is okay yes as well as our crisis intervention so when something traumatic happens we have staff that are trained that go to the school and help students process whatever feelings they may have and also send resources home to families in addition we have student support services which really should be school social workers that is where we We have all of our social workers and the services they provide for families in collaboration with our family liaisons, but they also support the peer program, which is in every single

[00:39:57] high school. So that's a program that has students who are trained in helping skills. So sometimes students don't want to talk to the adults in the building. We see that a lot. Sometimes they don't want to talk to us as parents. So it's sometimes a good fit to pair them up with a peer who's been trained in helping skills, whether that's just how to navigate peer conflict, how to address academic stress.

[00:40:18] They are students who are there willing to help. They also go to the middle school and the elementary school with campaigns focused on substance use prevention, mental health, bullying, lots of different topics we push out to them. The really exciting thing is that all of our LCPS schools have unified mental health teams. A lot of school divisions don't have that. A lot of of school divisions have a counseling team and maybe a school social worker that covers five schools. We have a designated team of counselors, depending on the size of the school. We have a social worker at every single school. We have a school psychologist that's covering approximately

[00:40:56] two schools. Right now there's a nationwide shortage of school psychologists, so we are down some, so they're being stretched, as well as school student assistance specialists, and we're probably the only school division that has a student assistant specialist assigned to every secondary school and I see looks like what's that that's a very vague term for what they do because of stigma years ago they were called the substance abuse prevention specialists so we got a lot of resistance from parents who would we would call them and say we'd like to support your student with our services not only do they have the expertise in assessing and treating

[00:41:33] substance use disorder but they also can do a lot of prevention work and there they have mental health expertise as well so they do presentations sixth seventh eighth ninth grade on substance use trends they also do services like groups and individual along with the other unified mental health team members they also do the crisis response with the team as well so there's a lot of people as my message is there's a lot of people in the school building for families to reach out to and a lot of parents first ask me like where do i start which person it doesn't matter some people will say the school counselor can be the primary care physician and

[00:42:09] that's kind of the analogy we use but if you go to the website you'll have access to the slide deck there's a whole list of all the unified mental health teams at every single school right so if you go to their each school's website you'll see school counseling and you'll see unified mental health team so you'll see all the faces all the people you just start with one um whoever you feel drawn to reach out to them tell them what's going on they'll discuss it with the team and they'll find someone to support you and your child and we've really tried to make the unified mental health teams on every school page look the same with all of the same community resources that was

[00:42:48] a challenge but we were getting there we also have our student mental health services page which i I will get to where we have a ton of resources similar to FACE and they are linked now so that we are sharing the same information.

[00:43:06] So if you were to pull out your QR code you'll be able to get to the student mental health services page and it is lcps.org/smhs so very user friendly. But what you'll see is not only community resources but crisis response resources.

[00:43:25] How do you talk to your child if they've experienced trauma? They've lost someone. There was a natural disaster that they witnessed, or a friend got injured, or they lost a friend. These are ways that parents can navigate those conversations. The crisis mental health resources, that takes you directly to laws, to teen dating violence sexual assault services, to 911, to Loudoun County Mental Health.

[00:43:51] So a CR2 is another resource if you have a child that's suicidal and you want them assessed after hours. The mental health and community resources, that's where you can find providers. And I will spotlight a couple other new resources that we have, new partnerships we've pushed out over the last year to help families navigate that, because if anyone in this room has tried to find a mental health provider, it's exhausting, it's discouraging.

[00:44:19] six-month waits they aren't taking new clients they don't accept insurance so that's not just allowed an issue that's a nationwide issue so we're trying to figure out ways to help families who are trying to locate those services but as you can see there's a lot of different topics there that you can explore I will spotlight we were talking about the EL Resource Fair every year we do a mental health and wellness conference we just had that on the 25th of January had over 400. I'm seeing some folks that were there. Over 400 people came out. So many different topics. It's such a valuable event and so many community partners. We had over 100 resource tables set up

[00:44:58] for folks to come and peruse and gather that information. So each year we're trying to improve it. So if you have any feedback from me, just please send it along. This is my information directly. We are working to set up our Let's Talk because there's so many topics within student mental health services, we have to figure out the buttons, right? That's a challenge. What are the most commonly asked questions and how do we divide them between the leadership team? So there's also the SMHS leadership team and that's the 11 supervisors and coordinators that I have on my

[00:45:35] team to support the unified mental health teams and the programs. I did want to spotlight, I just added a slide while I was sitting there. I don't think I can, but Care Solace, you'll see that on the community and mental health resources page on the website. Care Solace is the navigation tool that helps families find providers. So there's two ways that we can use it. If you go to caresolace.org slash Loudon, it'll bring you to a dashboard. You want to pull it up? Okay, thank you. So we've partnered with them to help you find resources.

[00:46:15] So what you would do is either a school staff member could do a warm handoff, which is we put your name, your phone number, your email into a system with your permission. They then will call you or text you or email you and help you find someone.

[00:46:34] We don't have to put in a lot of information because that's for you to do as a parent. But you put in your child's name, what the issue might be, what insurance you have, whether you want in person, whether you want virtual, whether you need individual, whether you need an assessment, whether you need substance use treatment, you name it, and they'll find someone within five to ten days.

[00:46:53] And what we see on our end, if we've done the warm handoff, is, this is a terrible analogy, but it helps people understand, we see referral made, I align it to like the Domino's pizza, like when you see the pizza's cooking, right, you know, and then you know it's out for delivery.

[00:47:10] Well, you can see when the first contact has been made with a therapist. You don't know who that therapist is, but that gives us then the green light to contact the parent and say, we saw you had an appointment. Is it okay if we work with that therapist to support your child? And you don't have to do that, but that's always a really good supportive way for us to be aligned with them to make sure that what you're doing at home, what we're doing at school, what they're doing in their office is all aligned working to support the child.

[00:47:40] So the other thing that they do is they follow up with you and say, are you happy with the provider because just finding a provider is not the only challenge. It's making sure there's a good fit. So I always encourage parents to interview the providers first. Make sure they have the skill set and if anyone needs help with that I'd be glad. I've actually told people not to go to certain therapists based on what I've heard that their skill set is based on what the child needs.

[00:48:06] You want to hear certain terms. You want to hear treatment planning. You want to hear family is a Part of it, there is no provider out there who if they say they'll just work with the child and the child alone is effective, right? It's a systems issue. The family has to be part of therapy and you want a treatment plan because there's a lot of things that if you just talk about it, we're not going to see any improvement and they'll be in therapy for years and they'll just be taking your money.

[00:48:30] So I like to put that out there because it's the reality unfortunately, but I am always resource if you're ever trying to find someone and you have a niche that you need to fill I can find people I've been in the field for 25 years and I can get you someone right or care solos can help you do that the other resources parent guidance which we have recently pushed out this year which is free parent coaching so how many of you knew that you could get parent coaching for free so all you need to do is sign up on that website and what they do is they check in when you with with you weekly you can ask them how do I talk about bullying

[00:49:08] how do i talk to them about vaping how do i just form communication with my child because they're a teenager there's so many different topics that they can help you with and there's also a ton of resources and webinars on different topics that you can search like body image issues school refusal so it's a wealth of information in multiple languages that i would encourage you to seek out. Again, there's my contact information. Again, we're just a team, not only my team, but

[00:49:45] this team here, really trying to create a safe, supportive, inclusive environment for our students and our families. And we're constantly looking for ways to improve what we offer in the school, but also to build the partnerships in the community. For instance, Care Solace, parent guidance bringing in services to our students that um that we don't offer so again i think we're

[00:50:27] going to open it up for questions and i'm going to go sit back down thank you we certainly do them at the schools and you can reach out to me and say sarah can you come over and we can do a planning meeting i would love for your administrator to be part of the planning meeting so that it's all tied together but we can certainly make that happen we can go to any school of course a parent

[00:51:04] delegate from potomac elementary school i'll give a little bit of feedback and then i do have a question for we're a very diverse school and to give feedback to multilingual services i would say it's one of the most amazing experiences that's happened at the elementary school level for parent engagement in particular we have uh for all almost all of the after school programs or not after school the the activities that happen the math night the the parent activities uh we have an Arabic translator, a Farsi translator, and Spanish translator. And even when we don't need the translation for some of the families, it's always a very welcoming and heartwarming experience to

[00:51:44] have them there and to feel that these services are being offered as part of a kind of reach out to the community as well, not just for language services, but also for engagement services, engagement purposes. For the mental health, a couple of years ago, there was a workshop that was done here for I think the title was race identity and and mental health and I think in the environment that we're navigating these days I think would be very important for that kind of collaborative effort between issues related to minority communities immigrant communities uh race

[00:52:20] discrimination censorship and and the war on DEI and and all of that you know the the kind of let's call them sensitive or topics that we're navigating to be part of the reach out to the community instead of waiting for the community to navigate some of these fears and anxieties on micro level and at home and in the communities, but also on just a national level.

[00:52:49] Hi Renee. For the face and the family engagement. I know when it comes to some minority community issues, such as issues related to anti-Arab bias, Islamophobia, racism, discrimination.

[00:53:05] Some of these big topics have been kind of put on the shoulders of the DEIA department in the past couple of years. And I know there was talk about kind of rearranging where parents would seek out resources and support when there are issues related to the school's inability to handle discrimination or issues related to censorship, bias, and racism.

[00:53:30] Is there talk about the FACE office or the FACE being more engaged in that, or is it still part of the DEI infrastructure? I was just going to chime in that I can't answer whether it's going to be shifted, but I think it's all of our offices that would be appropriate contacts because I receive restorative practices.

[00:53:58] And not only do we offer circles, but we offer conferences. We've presented here and done what a mock restorative conference looks like and how do we address harm that's been done with the students together, with the families together, so that they recognize the impact it has had.

[00:54:16] The challenge is getting people to agree to participate in that. We try to ensure that no additional harm will be done by doing pre-screenings prior to the conference, but it's a non-traditional way to address situations where harm has been done, and it really increases the accountability.

[00:54:34] Some students are saying things they don't know what they're even saying and the harm that it's done to that other student. And so when they hear that from a person that they hurt, it has a different impact than traditional discipline would where we're sending them in out of school, right?

[00:54:52] And then they never have to face one another. There's not a learning opportunity. So I think RP could be part of that if there is an issue. So I would ask your administration or any school that is feeling like it's not being addressed. Have we considered restorative practices and referred for a conference?

[00:55:09] Would that just be student-to-student cases or situations where it's staff or administration or teachers that are part of the problem? Yes. So if there's a staff member that's harmed a student, we can do a conference as well. And we would include parents if they want to participate as support persons for the student as well as the staff member.

[00:55:30] So we have lots of options to explore there, but if it's not something that's being presented by the administration, you can advocate for that. And there might be a reason why it's not, or maybe there was a pre-conference and nobody wanted to participate, or there was an acknowledgement of harm doing.

[00:55:46] We never wanna put someone in a situation where they're gonna be harmed further. So that's something that any parent can advocate for. - And I will also say that we have been engaged with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Office.

[00:56:04] So we have been in meetings together, we have conversations, there's lots of planning and collaboration. I think that this topic, really there is a through line through all of our work, and so collaboration is really what we do across the board.

[00:56:19] So whether we're in the front, or we're in the support and kind of working alongside, we're always involved and engaged. - And just to echo that, Creating equitable, inclusive, accessible schools and departments is all of our job.

[00:56:37] And so I think as an administration, our superintendent, we uplift that. And I echo what Jen and Renee have said, that ultimately, while, you know, yes, DEIA houses a lot of that work, I think we are continually working to be more and more collaborative and ensure that it's every single person's job to make sure that our schools are equitable, inclusive, and accessible for students and families.

[00:57:05] I just want to highlight that Mr. Hayden, your principal, is one of the best human beings I've ever interacted with, and he's not afraid to use resources and to reach out to central office when he needs the support. We talked to him about the ambassador program, the language coffees for families, so if you're interested in doing something like that at your school, I'm sure I can put my hands on fire, He'll say absolutely yes, and we can collaborate to support that.

[00:57:30] No, and we do. And I presented last April here to just talk about the example of having the Arabic and Farsi and the Spanish parent coffee groups, which have been instrumental in really kind of galvanizing a lot of family engagement that we didn't have before.

[00:57:47] Because in a lot of communities, it's family engagement in the school is really you come when your child is in trouble. So you need to get that call. So it's not very common for us to be just showing up at the school and being part of the everyday kind of experience of our children in school.

[00:58:04] So, yeah, absolutely. We have it good at Potomac. Could you hit the microphone? It might be a broad question, but in light of the current, I'm trying to be as, I guess, say it as delicately as I can, but in light of the current political climate, with a lot of families being silenced,

[00:58:43] maybe not even feeling empowered to come to these meetings. How are our programs shifting to meet the needs of that population? I mean, we are here because we feel empowered and we show up, but currently a lot of people don't feel like they can even show up to bring the children to school.

[00:59:10] how is the administration, DIA, which we know it's suffering a lot of consequences now and under attack, like what kind of shifts are there in programming to really reach out to those that seem even more in the shadows?

[00:59:31] So to that point, if we're seeing families who have maybe previously been engaged, not as engaged, we do have family liaisons at every single school who that's, you know, part of their job is to make sure that we're engaging families and make sure that every single family who is in need has the resources that they need.

[00:59:52] And so that's one of the tasks that we have kind of set to our family liaisons in, of course, collaboration with the administration, the principals and assistant principals at every school because, to your point, We know that some families are fearful.

[01:00:09] They feel scared to come to school when maybe that wouldn't have been the case before. We know that that's true. We've heard from some of them. We've heard from advocates who represent some of those families that that's true. So we know it's incumbent upon us to make sure that they know we're still here for them, that we have resources for them, and that we are here to support their child and their family.

[01:00:31] I would just add from my office's perspective, I oversee attendance, which we closely monitor for chronic absenteeism, but it's essential for us to monitor whether it's excused or unexcused absences. We need to get to the root cause of the absence. So our school counselors are reaching out, our social workers are reaching out, attendance officers are reaching out, not from a legal perspective, which can be intimidating, but from a more compassionate lens, like what can we do, what's going on, how can we support you, I'm giving them some extra grace, doing some things remotely for a period of time.

[01:01:07] But I'm really working to collaborate with our community partners. I'm placing some of the events, whether it's a substance use prevention event with a community partner, but in the community versus the school building, just to see if we have more success with people coming out to the community centers versus coming to the school building.

[01:01:26] But I sense that there's fear of going to a lot of locations. So we're strategically doing outreach on a regular basis, whether that's reaching out to the parent, emailing the students, trying to find out what's going on, and making sure they know we're a resource.

[01:01:43] And making sure we're elevating our virtual options for these kinds of things as well, I think has been really important. And I just want to note, just based on your question, I think it's important for folks to know that immigration status is not something that the school division can legally collect.

[01:02:01] And so it's not something that we collect information on. So I just want to make sure folks are aware of that as well. I want to say thank you for asking or raising that issue because it's so deep-rooted.

[01:02:22] And we know that immigration status is not something you can give. But the families that are impacted by it, they don't know that. And they don't have the confidence in your word or any word at this point. And in my earlier career, I was a school counselor in training.

[01:02:39] And I used to work in the Coolmore District. And I know that at that time there were other issues there. But no amount of systemic training, outreach, was as impactful as the work the family liaison did in the communities.

[01:02:55] So just something to bring up that this is a time where the family liaison who has contacted these families, who knows the children and the parents personally, plays a big role. And so maybe that's something to think about.

[01:03:11] I appreciate that very much and we'll take that back to so Renee oversees the family liaisons that I know that she'll I mean that they'll really appreciate hearing that as well because their work to your point is extremely impactful and to give a plug for them they're actually being highlighted at our next school board well not next school board meeting but the first March meeting because I do think that folks we want to make sure all families understand and know that that resource is available to them at their school so we're trying to push that out even more.

[01:03:42] So I appreciate that. And I wonder, home visits are often things that we do as unified mental health team members, but I wonder if we need to partner with a family liaison who might already have that trust to do it together and do it jointly. Yes.

[01:03:58] So thank you for that recommendation. Hello. I'm speaking on behalf of the community of immigrants. And more specifically, how can LCPS assist the current immigration fears that impact the families and the students?

[01:04:19] And question number two is, can ICE be allowed inside the schools and take away the students? So we have protocols in place when any law enforcement comes to a school building.

[01:04:36] And ultimately, principals and administrators have been trained on how to respond and react. when that happens so all that to say i can't really expand too much more on what happens at the school but that principals have been trained to respond if any law enforcement shows up at the school what i can also say is that as a school division we are not able to give out student information without proper warrants and those kinds of things proper documentation and so

[01:05:15] we would be working with the administration and family and of course with our legal department in any case that law enforcement showed up at a school. - As far as students who are fearful and struggling with the current climate, we are providing services already to those students.

[01:05:36] There are so many trusted adults in the building. That could be a teacher, that could be their school counselor, that could be any of the folks I've mentioned who they can speak to. it's a safe place for them to speak to the issues and feelings that are arising.

[01:05:55] - Hi, I am the Rolling Ridge delegate and I'm embarrassed to say this is my first meeting this year but I've cleared my conflict so I plan to be here more. Rolling Ridge is a very diverse school as well in Sterling Park and I wanted to follow, I have one thing that I wanted to ask but I did wanna follow up on the attendance to know if we have any data to support this.

[01:06:20] Have we seen any trends? We have seen attendance declines in Sterling and in Leesburg. And so is there a plan to find kind of the root cause? Yes, so our outreach is in place. We are reaching out to families or students who have missed school.

[01:06:37] And we have processes in place already to follow when students are becoming disengaged. Okay. Yeah. Are you allowed to tell us if any of that is related to federal immigration? I don't have that level of detail.

[01:06:54] We see attendance spikes throughout the school year. I just know that recently we've seen some dips with attendance over the last two weeks within our Sterling and Leesburg and even in Percival when I last looked last week. - 'Cause I will say from personal experience with family members in our community, they did decide not to send their students because of these issues.

[01:07:16] So I think I'd be interested, and I'm sure other people in this room would be interested to know if there are any data points. But my other question is, I know we don't collect immigration status, but we do collect country of birth, and that is a requirement.

[01:07:34] I just registered my son for next year, and when I was going through, it asked for country of birth. My son was born in Ecuador, and so then it followed up with an additional question saying, how much time have they been in the U.S. school system?

[01:07:50] That was optional, but the country of birth was not. so in a way we're not asking immigration status but that does collect data that can be collected I appreciate that feedback I don't need that I'm sure I don't um it's it's actually for the recording map because I we can hear you as a teacher I don't ever need a microphone um I actually had a student just now ask me if if schools are responsible for kids from school bus school to the house or the door so if we can suspend kids for fighting at a bus stop how are

[01:08:28] they protected from ICE at a bus stop? How is that fair? That's a question that we've gotten a lot and we ultimately have like our I can say our bus drivers have been trained and that our administrators have been trained in protocols related to what you're talking about. Unfortunately I can't expand more than that because it's part of safety plans and those kinds of things. I wish i could say more but um there is training related to if any law enforcement shows up at a bus stop

[01:09:05] at the school outside of the school those kinds of things my next question is we um we have all these services for kids but we don't think about what they're going to do when they graduate high school has there been any thought to giving them over some uh help getting the next level of services whether it's connecting them with with even nova and i know we have pathways but we don't really do anything for kids it feels like once they're going out of the school system because we protect them and we give them lots of resources when they're with us but their next level being based upon their status and other things they need to know what their availability is because

[01:09:44] a lot of these parents don't know what's available for them so we struggle with trying to bridge that gap for the next level of education. Absolutely. I feel like you've done a lot with families about We offer information on post-graduation plans, career pathways.

[01:10:02] We partner with the Academies of Loudoun, NOVA. We do our best to provide webinars and information for families. I am currently attending a cohort to support immigrant and refugee youth with post-secondary plans.

[01:10:18] So I'm currently in the cohort. I have yet to discuss with my colleagues, but that is an area of support, Definitely, especially for immigrant and refugee youth, which would be in my field. It's in the works. I will just add to that that all of our students go through that career planning piece, and so they meet with their counselors.

[01:10:40] They have conversations. Course planner is fantastic, and it really kind of gives them a plan. They can go through and input information about what their areas of interest are. So we do have things in place for all of our students for post-secondary, whether they want to go to college, career, or military readiness.

[01:10:59] All of our high schools have career center assistants that meet with students that give them opportunities, whether it's connecting with business or industry partners. So there's a lot of resources that are at the high schools that are available to all of our students.

[01:11:14] And that goes for students who don't have, who are not, their status is an issue, is where I'm trying to go with that, is even though they cannot, they feel that they cannot, Because I hear that fear for a lot of kids going into high school. When they're at high school, they're like, well, I don't know what I can do after high school. So there is that support at the high school, and they just haven't gotten it yet.

[01:11:32] And I'm going to also say that it is my first time here. And I'm a delegate for Riverbend Middle School. And Loudon Feeds.

[01:11:49] Never knew about it. I don't have children in school anymore, so I'm a grandma. So I wanted to let you guys know about an organization that I'm with. It's a 501c3. It's called Lasagna Love. Thank you. Thank you. Someone has heard of lasagna love. So what we do is we make lasagnas, homemade lasagnas, and we deliver them to people that request them online. No questions asked whatsoever. So with what's happening right now within our community, federal workers, and the children, my concern, and I'm going to give you guys some information, my concern is

[01:12:25] how are the children that are staying home now are being fed? How are they being fed? So this is what I grapple with when I'm having my dinner. How about these children? Honey, what are we going to do? What can I, I want to help. How can I help these children? You know, and I'm not going to cry, but it hurts so much that these children are suffering because of what's going on, you know, and their fear, their fear. My mother, my father, what's going to happen to me? Are we doing a know

[01:13:01] your rights campaign at all within the Loudoun County, whatever, the Loudoun County Board of supervisors, the Loudoun County public school system, is there something that know your rights that these parents can come to to fill out the forms for their children?

[01:13:20] Thank you. And I've got some information for you guys. Thank you for that. I would tell anyone who was wondering about resources and the kinds of things that you're talking about to visit our immigration resources page.

[01:13:37] There's a lot of varied information on there about just lots of different things that might be questions for families who are curious about those resources and so it might not be something through LCPS but we have you know partner organizations that have different seminars and resources and those kinds of things so I would say look there first thanks hello hi my name is Isabella I'm a parent of

[01:14:08] Loudoun County high schools okay my my next question is as a parent I know ice cannot come to the school with the proper papers like you refer in that yeah but the kids doesn't know that even when when we are explaining to them and home they still fear they still having the you know how we are we able to give it out the proper message to these students who are worried

[01:14:46] about our situation, if they come to the schools, like having the principal give them announcements to the students. I know the teachers are able to talk to them, all the counselors, but there are a lot of students.

[01:15:02] They can, you know, go all the time there and they have other assignments to do there, but they still worry. And as a parent, I'm very worried. Even my kids have the status, but they refer to their faces as Hispanic, obviously.

[01:15:23] So they even heard, they don't care. They're just going to see you as Hispanic. They're going to take you away. So how we can make them safe for them or feel them safe at the school and even on the school bus stop.

[01:15:44] Yeah, I would. My response to that is that all of our staff members that are unified mental health team members are present and they're aware of what's going on right now. So if they see a student who's distraught, they're going to pull that student and talk to that student. But my ask of the parents here is encourage them to go talk to one of the staff members.

[01:16:06] so they have someone in the school that they can rely on, that they can go to if they're upset. It's not just the counselors that are there. It could be anyone, even if it's just a check-in to say, hey, can you tell me what might happen? Can you talk to me about what's required and what documentation you keep on file here in the student information system?

[01:16:29] So I think my ask for the parents is tell them to go find someone, but also my expectation is that all of my staff for getting a pulse on students, and if someone is presenting differently, they seem down, they seem distraught, they might have their head down in class, or they're not coming, we need to be checking in with them, reaching out to the families.

[01:17:05] - I had a follow-up question for the Know Your Rights. I know we have great resources. I have a good working relationship with Just Neighbors and Legal Aid Justice Center. Is it possible to have them come into the schools and do the Know Your Rights, or is that against policy?

[01:17:22] - So, and I will go back and get more information, But my understanding is if we were to have them come into schools, that would be us offering legal advice, which is problematic. That said, we can offer, to your point, just neighbors, et cetera, as resources on our website so that folks can then see it as a resource and go to seminars, et cetera, in the community.

[01:17:45] So that's my understanding. But I will put a pin in that, go back and make sure I'm correct on that, and get it back to Ms. Kunkel if that answer is different. Or like what would be the kind of workaround, like if PTAs or us would want to go and do it off-site, would we be able to do that in the school building as far as recruitment?

[01:18:04] Like renting a facility, that kind of thing? Like if you were, yeah, I can, let me ask. Okay, thank you. You know, when in doubt, consult legal and just make sure that I'm correct. So I'll ask and I'll make sure to get back to Ms. Kunkel about that. Thank you. So I know that the family liaison at my school, she's only part-time.

[01:18:27] And so, you know, I know their value, and I know it sounds like a lot of the people in this room hear their value as well. So I was just wondering if there's any plans on expanding their role in the schools and giving them more time, because we need them.

[01:18:45] They're amazing. Say that one more time, please. Yeah, just, you know. Yeah, write that down. We would love for that to happen, and it's something that we will continue to advocate for in the budget.

[01:19:02] Obviously, there are many budget priorities that have to be considered, but it's something that we will advocate for, because even if it's not full-time at every school, because every school has different needs, But potentially taking a look at how, you know, those allocations are given and that kind of thing, I definitely think we'll advocate for expansion of hours and that kind of thing.

[01:19:27] So I appreciate the question, and we'll definitely make sure to take it back. excuse me again on behalf of the community of immigrants they had a suggestion if there could be like a gathering or a meeting at the schools where you could bring in the parents and the students and the teachers didn't specifically mention certain grade levels to help calm the students I appreciate appreciate that feedback is there a specific school or just in

[01:20:07] general you know every school potentially they're indicating in general okay thank you okay we're going to wrap up the questions but I know there there are tons of questions and there are a lot of unknowns and everything seems to change every 15 minutes these days but if you have more specific questions if you have more information or anything you'd like to share or you would like us to reach out for and get those answers for you or kind of get

[01:20:41] more detail or find out what we can do as an advisory committee and supporting our students and supporting our families, just email those to us and we will get those over to the proper people. I will harass and harangue them to get the answers. I'll be really nice about it, I swear. You won't have to. We'll be very responsive, I promise. And to get you the answers and to get to to get clarification where I can and where we where we can because I know that we need to get this information out to our communities and our families and so I want to thank you all for coming and sharing all of this with us we we needed

[01:21:19] to hear it and we wanted to have this information so we feel empowered as delegates in our schools and as parents as well to support our communities so thank you very much thank you so much for having us and you have all of our contact information that was up on the site so any questions any concerns anything that didn't get addressed tonight, or even if it comes up on your drive home, we're happy to answer questions for you.

[01:21:44] And I just want you to know from the top, from Dr. Spence down, like we're leaning into our humanity and every student, every family belongs here. Thank you. So we are going to shift our focus, if you will.

[01:22:05] And we, if you notice on the table, They're wonderful, colorful journals and really colorful pens. I'd like to thank my pen and notebook fairies for putting them out and helping us get set up tonight. Thank you, children.

[01:22:20] You're wonderful. But we are going to have a few minutes of a grounding activity because, you know, we've discussed a very heavy topic, but we still want to lean into our joy. And I have a message for that at the end of our meeting, but part of this message is I want us to focus on how we write our stories.

[01:22:46] So first and foremost, there is joy in our story. There is joy in your story. There is joy in your children's story. There is joy in your family's story. And as we navigate the world, whether it's at school, at work, in our communities, what we often encounter are narratives that are written about us.

[01:23:08] that are narratives that say who we are, what we are, what we are about, and sometimes those narratives, those stories, they may uplift us, and other times they attempt to drag us down, to weigh us down, and to define us in ways that do not reflect who we truly are. They don't reflect our values. They don't reflect our hopes, our dreams. They don't reflect what brings us joy, and if I'm honest, I have felt a lot of that for the last couple of weeks, that there's a million people that think they know who I am, what I'm about, what my family is about. They think they

[01:23:42] know my story, and it's very easy to get weighed down in that and believe what other people are saying about you rather than sticking to and staying strong in what you know. But here's the truth. We, me, you, we are the authors of our own stories, and we are the only ones with the ability, the freedom, and the power to define ourselves in a way that is true to who we are. So what we're going to do is we're going to take a few moments to reflect and in those wonderful little journals just start to write your story. It can be a couple of sentences. If you don't want to write sentences

[01:24:20] and you feel like drawing something, write your story. Think about what it means, what your story means to you. What story do you want to tell about yourself? What do you want people to know about you or what do you just want to be written down for your own sake about yourself um if you could write one sentence that captures your journey what would it be it could be a quote a line of poetry it could be something that impacts you it could be something that you carry with you no matter where you go whatever you do and then what parts of your story bring you the most joy because

[01:24:57] even in these times we're still leaning into joy we're still focusing on our joy and what makes us who we are and what gives us strength and what uplifts us. So we're going to take a few minutes. I am not going to ask anybody to share. This is your story. You can, wouldn't do that to you. Wouldn't do that to you. But this is your story. Write what you feel called to write and there's no right or wrong way. This is just you being you in your own personal little journal and the journals go home with you. I will not be collecting them. I had a question asked by a

[01:25:33] certain high schooler. You're not taking these, are you? No, I don't want them. So just take a moment, connect with yourself, connect with your story, connect with whatever is on your heart and in your mind. Please remember, there's tons of hot chocolate and donuts back there. Please

[01:26:15] grab a snack, and we'll just take a few minutes to write our stories. Can you get it?

[01:39:42] It's not the right message. Here, come up. You want to say thank you for joining us? All right,

[01:52:38] I know we are all having great conversations, but I just looked at the clock, and it is 7. 55.

[01:53:01] So I just want to say thank you all for joining us tonight. I want to end with letting you know that our mission still stays the same. Our focus stays the same. We are still going to keep spreading our message of joy.

[01:53:17] I think it's needed in the midst of everything that is going on. I do also want to say that if you need anything, if you need support, if you need help, if you need an ear, we are here. We are available. Please reach out to us. If there's a question, if I don't have the answer, I will work hard to find the answer for you.

[01:53:36] If there's a resource that you need, I will dig deep. Like I said, I will harass and harangue people to get the answers for us and to provide us with the best possible information. But, again, I'm so glad that you all came tonight. thank you for sticking with us for the entire evening we will see you Wednesday March 19th same time same place and drive safe stay warm and have a good night thank you all for coming thank you

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