Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Specialized Programs and Centers Committee Meeting, Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 50m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1115667334?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] all right good afternoon everyone i'd like to call the september 2nd meeting of the special programs and centers committee to order my name is dr sheath i'm the chair of this committee and thank you for coming out today i appreciate your presence here today um i wanted to discuss just briefly what our meeting is about we will approve minutes and we have one action item for policy 5410 for charter schools and then we have a couple of information items one for njrotc update there's a cte update and a special programs update And I understand, to the best of my knowledge, we do not have public...

[00:00:34] No one signed up for public comment, am I correct? No, we do not have anyone sign up for public comment. Okay, thank you, Mr. Slevin. We first need to approve the minutes from our last meeting. I believe that was from August 5th.

[00:00:50] Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes, and are there any corrections or additions? Being that there are none, I entertain a motion to approve the minutes from August 5th, 2025. Yes, Ms. LeBell. I move that we accept the minutes as written for the August 2025 meeting thank you so moved by Miss LaBelle is there a second second seconded by mr.

[00:01:12] Estreffi all those in favor say aye aye okay the minutes I great the minutes have been approved all right so now let's go ahead and go straight into our review of policy 5410 charter schools I'll go ahead and turn it over just for a brief summary for what this item is about from Ms. Mitchell afternoon thank you Dr. Rasheed so I'm just going to give a couple of statements for an overview and then we have other departments here if you have any

[00:01:50] questions so this was a cross-departmental collaboration to involve facilities and elementary education to include the change in the process of establishing and maintaining charter schools also to talk about the school board role in the application process and it specifies the responsibilities of the facilities so one of the big additions was adding a

[00:02:25] section on the facility part which is number 36 in terms of the charter school applicants and the plan for acquisition of that facility and then another part on Part G which is if the school board were to approve or deny an application for a charter so also we added that this would be an establishment of charter schools so thinking about moving forward if we were to ever have additional

[00:03:01] charter schools then this would be our guiding policy for that thank you miss Mitchell before we go ahead and vote on it I like to open the floor for a brief discussion or questions or comments are there any from my board members I have none yes miss LaBelle why did remember all by myself this time okay if you will

[00:03:35] all look at page 3 line 102 people think I don't read this but it needs to have a period not a comma added to that it is incorrect the way it sets thank you thank you Miss LaBelle so I I'd like to just verify that would be considered an amendment am I correct Mr. Slevin to add a punctuation I wasn't sure I think that's just a technical change okay okay so with this amendment all right this

[00:04:11] amendment is on the floor by Miss LaBelle for adding a period in line 102 of the red line copy oh I don't see a comma okay we could just that was a comma okay we could just we could just fix it okay we don't have to vote on it oh great okay wonderful we'll make note of that and we'll fix it before okay great so then we'll move on if there's no other further questions on the red line copy of 5410 I'll entertain a motion to approve this policy do I do I have a motion thank

[00:04:47] you mr. Streffy do I hear a second second thank you seconded by mr. Bell all those in favor say aye aye and so it is moved to the full school board for further processing thank you we will now transition to our next agenda item and that is 5.01 that is the NJROTC I will turn it over to miss Katie Clark for any

[00:05:20] additional information or mr. Slevin whoever yeah take your time all right so

[00:06:24] we are here this afternoon with a quick update on NJROTC and emissions so So previously our admissions process for out of zone students, they were selected through an admissions committee and an interview process and out of zone students to Loudoun County High School.

[00:06:42] So from all of our feeder high schools, they had to do a writing prompt, have two letters of recommendation and have that parent approval piece. And our capacity was 25 out of zone students were selected. And then all of our zoned Loudoun County High School students had access to that program with no admissions criteria or interview process so moving forward our update for this admissions process is that all students whether they're zoned to Loudoun County High School or feeding into Loudoun County High School they would submit interest like all of our other programs kind of aligning with that

[00:07:19] through student opportunities and we would be removing the recommendation and writing sample and we would conduct a lottery for this admissions we would add an orientation meeting for accepted cadets both zoned and out of zone students so that they understand the commitment and the requirements for this program so instead of that individual interview it would be a mandatory meeting with the school principal and senior captain we would look at increasing the program capacity to potentially three seats per feeder high

[00:07:54] school so that could be up to 48 we will need to work with Bev and her amazing planning team to see if that's possible so that's just an approximate amount of students depending on the projections each year sometimes we have to change how many out-of-zone students that we can accept into a program so those are admissions updates and now I'm going to turn it over to dr. Grubbs to give an update on potential expansion thank you miss Clark in addition to some of the admissions updates we've been reviewing enrollment interest and support for expanding JROTC and Lawton County Public Schools I think this has been a

[00:08:31] conversation for many many years there's an interesting community to add JROTC programs if you're familiar with JROTC programs you are on an extensive wait list sometimes up to 20 years to add a new branch but we have been fortunate where we've been working over the past few months with the Army for an alternative way to get JROTC program into the school system and so we are looking to start a JROTC program through a preliminary process through the National Defense Cadet Corps so NDCC oftentimes programs that are put on

[00:09:08] probation or need to sunset a program sometimes they will be put on an NDCC it is just an opportunity for a school system to either save a program or to start a program without without the full commitment of the the the service branch one of the differences for these models is that the financial burden falls on the school system so it is a non-cost sharing opportunity so in this instance we would we want to pursue an army and DCC program and we would look to foot the bill for that program to get it up and up and running the good thing is if

[00:09:46] you show success in the program the service branches tend to fast-track you down the road to convert into an official JROTC program so some of the limitations are you have 50 students instead of 100 and you have one to two instructors versus two to four instructors so we are actively pursuing adding an NDCC program none of the benefits for the students go away you're just picking up the financial burden so students would still be recognized as JROTC students they would still compete they would still get all the traditional benefits of the JROTC program we would just pick up the costs

[00:10:24] and moving forward so we're bringing to this committee feedback and interest in pursuing this as a program moving forward. Thank you Dr. Grubbs I would just add before we turn it over to you Dr. Rashid for questions this is an item that we're bringing to the committee's attention because it's a change in information that we've shared in the past.

[00:10:47] We have consistently shared that we were waiting upon federal funding for the expansion of our JROTC programs. And since then, we have learned new information about other options available for expanding JROTC. And so while this may or may not be included in the five-year plan for CTE expansion, there are other options that we're exploring.

[00:11:10] So it may show up as a budget item. It could be in a future budget year. But the main point of bringing this up is it is changing our approach in terms of thinking about expansion for our JR2C programs and LCPS, if that makes sense. So happy to answer any questions or offer any clarifications.

[00:11:27] Thank you so much for this awesome presentation and this update. I'm going to ask my board members, do you have any questions about this? Yes, Mr. Streffi. Thank you very much for the update. I remember this being an area, you mentioned that we've been tracking for a while now, and can you tell me a little bit about the demand for the program?

[00:11:44] I know there has been demand. We've been asking for it for years. And then if you can just confirm, it's essentially the same exact program. There's no real difference. They're actually enrolling in, it's the same as JROTC, but it's just the way it's funded that's different, which warrants a different name.

[00:12:06] I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything on that. Yeah, I can answer that part, and then I think Ms. Clark's going to talk about some of the enrollment and the student interest. Yes, that's correct. You're essentially, students are still getting the benefits. They're still getting the steps if they were to graduate from the program and go into the Army. You would get, I think it's two steps right now in terms of service rank.

[00:12:26] The most significant difference is that we're picking up the cost versus sharing the cost with the respective service branch. There are still options if we need help with uniforms and things like that. But primarily we have to pay for the instructor. We have to pick up the uniform cost, any sort of transportation events and things like that.

[00:12:45] That's really the only difference. And I can just share some numbers from last year for NJROTC. We did, we had 185 students who had started an application. That doesn't mean they finished it. And again, that was not including zoned Loudoun County students because they didn't have to do that process.

[00:13:06] So that was for those 25 seats that we had available. So that just shows some interest in the ROTC program. Yes, Ms. Abel. I was wondering where we would place this program.

[00:13:21] would it be it wouldn't be in the same school as the Navy no yes no would not be the same school so it wouldn't be at Loudoun County High School we would meet with surrounding schools we have a few programs that are sunsetting certain CT programs we would look at space and facility and we would have some follow up conversations with those principals I think we have planted a few seeds with some principals and some school counselors if there'd be student interest but at this point we were just we're just looking to move forward the application before we pick a school and move forward with the next steps this is

[00:13:58] fantastic I don't have any questions but this is I'm very excited as to where this will further take our students what does Loudoun County not do these opportunities are fantastic for our students all right there's no other questions or comments I'm gonna go ahead and move on to our next information item which is 502 CTE Career and Technology Education update I will turn it over to dr. Grubbs or any information he can provide thank you thank you all right thank you I am joined here by miss Jen Alpers and mr. Nick Grazito we are gonna take you through some updates to our CT five-year plan and we will pause

[00:14:38] for questions and then I'm gonna invite my colleague miss Daniel Nadler to come up and we're gonna talk about the go Virginia grant that we are looking to pursue the couples our five-year plan and support so we are excited to talk through the CT five-year plan has been a topic that we've been talking about all last school year we wanted to provide some updates and just revisit some opportunities and needs so if we look at opportunities right now goal 1 action 1.2 the school board our superintendents our community have all expressed interest in expanding opportunities for multiple accessible pathways for success for students and we are also experiencing a new state accreditation and

[00:15:18] accountability framework that is putting increased pressure on work-based learning, industry-recognized credentials, and career development. Those three bullet points cannot happen without more CT courses and without more CT pathways. So we feel like there is a need for the development of a five-year CT pathway expansion plan, and not just that plan, but also an opportunity for resources and funding for implementing those new programs, which is going to really tie well with our go Virginia conversation after we conclude this part so as we talk about the CT five-year plan on the next slide you know what is

[00:15:56] really driving expansion needs I think this is a really important slide to capture why we're expanding and I think there's four main focus areas we do have one LCPS that I just referenced in terms of more pathways we know when we look around the school system we do not have the pathways that a school system this size should have with the new state accreditation and accountability framework there is increased pressure for students to graduate workforce ready and we are getting employment points for how many students are in CT courses work-based learning and industry recognized credentials I just want to

[00:16:34] remind this committee and ourselves that work-based learning and industry recognized credentials you don't get those points unless you're in the and so we need more courses to provide those opportunities for students. The state has also recently released a high demand occupation list. We want to be responsive to those areas of high demand moving forward and we think that our five-year plan is responsive to that new framework for what counts as high demand moving forward. And then those three aside, thinking about students, career development opportunities are just good for them. It doesn't matter about 3E, it doesn't matter about entering the workforce. We know that if

[00:17:13] students participate in career and technical education they have increased attendance rates increased math and ela scores increased self-efficacy so as much as i spoke about the first three areas that are driving the five-year plan it's really that fourth one that is really driving our work and why we want to expand these opportunities for students so on that note um you know last year 24 25 we really spent time reviewing our existing programming so last year we made several presentations of the school board we call it our Christmas tree chart it could be called a heat map whatever you want to call it but the red is really illustrating where we do not have

[00:17:52] programs so we spent a lot of time last year just finding out where we have CT programs where we do not and really focusing on equity and access and so last year we've made a lot of presentations around you know where those gaps are for this school year we're we are really in the proposed phase we are going to come back October 28th to the full school board and we have a five-year plan document and we're going to give you a sneak peek into some of that today but our goal is October 28th to really showcase some of the specifics of the programs we want to expand for feedback what I just want to highlight is that that is a plan

[00:18:29] we may look up in six months or a year or two years and say you know what we thought this was a great program we were going to bring into the county things have changed or we missed this one so between proposing we want to then we then need to have some follow-up conversations with facilities with our principals with our community members and make budget requests but where we are today I feel very confident with the programs that we're recommending in terms of meeting the needs of our students and then just getting to the implementation stage where our students are in our programs and benefiting from those experiences

[00:19:03] so the proposed pathways we have in front of you we did give you a list these are the programs that nick and jen and i have really really honed in on in terms of programs that we want to prioritize for expansion i just want to offer that all these programs are meeting three different areas economic need equity and access around the county and innovative so those are our three lenses that we worked with our advisory committee and our teachers to say if we were to expand programs moving forward what would be your top three priorities and so all the programs in the list are checking those three boxes there's certainly opportunities

[00:19:42] for more programs above and beyond this but we feel confident these are the programs that we should start focusing it on moving forward so before I pass it off to Nick and Jen to give some high-level highlight the ones that are in blue or programs that we already offer so those programs are programs and pathways that we already offer in Loudoun County Public Schools however they might not be offered in every single high school or they might not be offered in a specific zone.

[00:20:09] So those programs are a little bit easier for us to lift up off the ground. We don't have to go to the state for permission. We just simply need to have some conversations with principals and school counselors to say, "Hey, is this an opportunity to bring, for example, manufacturing to your school?

[00:20:24] It's in 15 of the 17 high schools. What will it take for us to offer this pathway in your program?" So the ones in blue are somewhat of our low-hanging fruit. Those are the ones that we know We already have proof of concept, we've already budgeted for, we just need to expand them.

[00:20:41] So from there, I'm going to pass it off to Nick to talk about some of the programs he is considering for expansion. Good afternoon. Although I'd love to be talking about quantum computing right now, I'm going to shift gears over to aviation technology and aircraft maintenance.

[00:20:57] Having two airports, very easily accessible to our students, where we could tap into high-quality staff and instruction. we're really looking at proposing something to the board regarding those two programs.

[00:21:13] We think that we can send students over to Leesburg Airport. We think we can connect Dulles Airport to our students, have them get their pilot's license, have them actually work on actual aircraft maintenance. We also have Udvar-Hazy real close to us as well.

[00:21:31] We have the hangar over there, and we have some unique experiences that we can really tap into with that partnership. also data center operations another really amazing topic since we do have 70 percent of the world's internet traffic flowing through Loudoun County it seems this is pretty low-hanging fruit as Dr. Grubb said to really tap into this experience for our students not just on the computer science side but also looking at the HVAC side looking at the building maintenance side the energy side that we really need to tap into at this particular point so two really

[00:22:07] exciting programs three actually that we're really taking a look at proposing in the upcoming months and so now I'm gonna turn it over to Jen Alpers thank you so I am going to share a little more about the health science programs that you are seeing on our list here the idea are some program goals here is to provide broader access for students in grades 10 to 12 to access programs in healthcare it will we are looking to allow schools some voice to select focus area so you'll see three distinct services therapeutic diagnostic and

[00:22:47] support so really giving our schools some voice and choice and what their students interests are what is directly near them in their community to support also how does this align with staffing at their school and also looking to build a tiered system that would include exploration foundational skills and pathway specialization whether that is completion at the students high school or possibly you know that lottery selection at Mata maybe there are some you know future conversations around regional access to programming or that sort of thing so if you look for example at therapeutic services this might look

[00:23:27] like an introduction to health and medical sciences and medical terminology for our 10th grade students who then might look at exploring nutrition for health and medical sciences or sports medicine and athletic training or perhaps they get through that nutrition for health and medical sciences and they're chosen for a lottery seat say at MATA for a physical therapy and occupational therapy program so we're looking at ways to really specialize and build on what they could have access to at their schools and what might be available throughout the county

[00:24:04] One thing that I want to point out is we do have ideas for specific locations. However, we are working with the new principal at Academies of Loudoun. We're looking at programs either we want to enhance or maybe we want to move around the county. So we're really mindful right now of inspecting the programs right now and thinking about what could replace them down the road.

[00:24:26] The other thing that we're looking at is we're working facilities and we're looking at spaces. So we're going around schools and we're thinking about programs that are maybe low in enrollment or maybe looking for some sort of enhancement. And we will be between now and October 28th bringing forward some suggestions for schools that we think would be really good fits for this.

[00:24:43] It doesn't mean that it's set in stone, but we would be having some follow-up conversations between now and then. So on that note, one of the things we are trying to prepare for is the October 28th Board of Education meeting. And we would like some feedback on either what programs you do not see or what would be helpful for you and your fellow board members to look at this list and give us feedback on program implementation and next steps.

[00:25:09] Thank you for questions. Thank you so much. This is like, it's a lot. It's mind-blowing, but very important. I'm going to open it up to the board members, see if you have any questions before I say my questions. Ms. Amel.

[00:25:26] Yes, thank you, Dr. Ashid. I was looking at cosmetology. Could you tell me what parts of cosmetology were including? Nail design, hair design, what are you including? So the Virginia Department of Education, in partnership with the Board of Cosmetology, has a very outlined curriculum around what is included.

[00:25:55] So it is hair, nails, skin. It is all of that. It also includes not just, like, when we think about hair, not just haircut, but barber, trades, all of the chemistry related to, like, hair coloring and that sort of thing, different types of hair.

[00:26:15] So that is all included when we say general cosmetology. Yes, Mr. Strip. Thank you, Dr. Sheed. So I have a lot of comments, but I'll just try to keep it brief.

[00:26:32] So first and foremost, I appreciate, whether it's in this presentation or in others, any time you identify the problem or the gap or the problem statement so well, and I think it's really clear to the public that, like you said, we don't have enough CTE programs for a division of our size, and this is how we need to approach this.

[00:26:52] And so I appreciate that. And knowing where we are in terms of the equity and access piece, I appreciate you spotlighting that as well. And so as I've said to you earlier in terms of that matrix or Christmas tree graph, I think that's exactly how we should be approaching this problem.

[00:27:08] And issues or problems are not bad in and of themselves. So they allow us to focus. And so I think that's what we're doing. When it comes to the programs, some of the things that I think about when I look at a long list like this are just thinking about some of the research that's coming out right now with students, specifically with AI and technology advancing so quickly, entry-level positions, regardless of how you get into the workforce, are going to be affected first, potentially negatively.

[00:27:42] And so doing this work now, I think, is really important for the years that are coming. And then the other piece that I wanted to mention is one of the things I appreciate most about some of the existing CTE or courses that we have that are STEM-oriented or that, like, even at Academies of Loudoun, in some of these programs, you're getting a really good foundation, for example, systems engineering, right?

[00:28:07] Like you're actually preparing a student, whether they're going to go into the workforce or into higher education, that they have a solid foundation to build from. And so what I think about, I wonder how focused or how broad some of these courses are, and are they going to kind of fill that piece?

[00:28:26] Because that piece to me is at least really important. So, like, how do they complement entrepreneurship or, like, product design or product lifecycle design and some of these things that are life skills plus, you know, career pathway oriented programs. So, like, so I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know, how do we make sure that that to your point doesn't matter what they choose, right?

[00:28:51] It's it's that we know that these types of programs lead to success down the life outcomes down the line. How are we looking at those types of things holistically in terms of life skills? And do we have any principles behind how we deploy these courses in the future?

[00:29:07] I know there's a little bit of a mouthful, but there's just some musings. I can take a stab at some of that. All of our programs have 22, 23 core competencies around life skills, employability skills, soft skills. All these programs would either have that baked in or we would ensure that they are baked into the programs.

[00:29:26] Just a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, things are blurring together. We have a new advisory committee, and I can tell you that everyone around that room asked about how we're incorporating AI into all of our programs, not just computer science. So I think this gives us an opportunity, too, as we roll out some of these new pathways.

[00:29:42] How do we not just roll them out as they were written five or ten years ago? How do we roll them out in where they're going five, ten, fifteen years down the road? So I think concepts such as AI, entrepreneurship, all those things we can ensure are baked into so that students can adapt and be flexible in their pursuits.

[00:30:00] Not just their first career, but their next career. And I know that everybody loves culinary. Just hear that all the time. I think I just pulled enrollment yesterday. I think Warmade Foods is one of our top enrolled courses in the school system, which is why you see some of the culinary arts in there.

[00:30:18] Yeah, great question. Thank you. All right. I just had some questions, and I think you already answered most of them. I think you had said that these programs, the ones that we haven't determined where they would be set at, would be based on demand you had mentioned and what would enhance that school. Am I correct?

[00:30:37] Yeah. Okay. So, for example, like dental careers or whichever, surgical tech, how would be, and especially those that are further out, like I think in year three is when it's proposed, which is 2027, 28, for example, quantum computing game design excellent excellent fields and how do you gauge that again is it like surveys that you send out yeah so we well one we would look at our career links school links data so all these programs are met back to student interest if you look at school links health carriers for example is one of our number one areas of student interest to as far as where we

[00:31:15] placed it in the continuum we've taken into consideration the facilities upgrade some of the space requirements so dental for example is it going to take a significant space overhaul in also finding a specialized teacher that's why it's a little bit with the right board member we could probably move that up a little bit but so a lot a lot of the reason that we push certain programs further back or either their ease of entry into that or the challenge of finding a specific instructor for that program or pathway and again these are flexible I mean if we had someone that came along or we the right facility we could we could be a little bit adaptable with some of these programs sliding them

[00:31:53] up and back a little bit great question I thought I thought it was already a cosmetology I could have sworn I saw that at ACL are we expanding on that and I think sure I think she had mentioned it Carrie had mentioned we do we so we haven't academies allowed and we have two instructors there but I think there's such significant interest and need in that program and for a school system the size I had five cosmetology programs around a previous school system that I in we think about not just cosmetology but also barbering we look at entry-level work we look at skill set I think that that is a really viable program and it's

[00:32:31] believe it or not an area of high demand in the area a lot of a lot of demand for barbers and cosmetologists so and good for those students are looking to start their own business as well not just go work for say corporation or business or something like that so that is a program that we're considering expanding but beyond academies allowed down the road that's fantastic thank you so much i think mr streckin you have a question yeah last question for me um can you i know i mentioned this a few times but can you help me understand how to weave in how do we weave in the apprenticeships and the job

[00:33:05] shadowing into how we plan for these types of programs yeah great question um just last week the state um virginia board of education just revamped uh what counts and doesn't count towards work-based learning so there's becoming an increased attention towards apprenticeships and internships all of our programs are going to have one of the six new work-based learning criteria that's either going to be entrepreneurship internship apprenticeship clinical experience supervised agriculture experiences and school-based enterprise so we're actually in the process of

[00:33:40] going through all of our courses and trying to increase what matches to what of the new high-quality work based on experiences so we're actually going through the list actually just this morning if something counted for service learning can we move that to apprenticeship can we move that to an internship so we're in the process of kind of revamping all that as we speak this was a state board decision just just a week ago we have a few more slides thank you so much yeah please please yep I think we're ready to move on thank

[00:34:17] you for the questions so we are going to provide bless you an update on we are considering going for a go Virginia grant and I am excited to share a little bit of our proposal with Loudoun Education Foundation this is really in response to the work that we just presented to you on the five-year plan and how we're gonna fund some of that program expansion we are looking to partner with Stafford County Public Schools to ensure that we are developing programs that are aligned to high-wage high-skill and high-demand industries so on the next slide I'm going to talk a little bit more about what we are looking

[00:34:55] to fund we are supporting pathway expansion so a lot of the pathways we're looking at here are going to require curriculum development teacher training purchasing of resources and equipment we're looking to offset some of those costs through a go Virginia grant and we are also looking to increase our work-based learning resource teachers which is a new model that we started this year so we would offer four FTEs for work-based learning expansion right now we have five work-based learning resource teachers this year that would bring us up to nine if we were to pursue and get the go Virginia grant a lot of the expansion efforts from the go Virginia grant would support that

[00:35:35] increase in equity and access and also meeting students meeting 3E expectations which are enroll enlist and employee pathway expansion would cover areas that aligned to the go Virginia targeted industry sectors which are a lot of the what you see on the list there such as aviation aerospace those types of pathways and programs that are more innovative and this will really help students bridging the skills gap and preparing them for high demand fields which is the purpose of the go Virginia grant slide so Danielle's going to talk about the timeline and where we are and next steps thank you so much and as you

[00:36:13] all know the LEF and LCPS team led by Nick Rosita won a 2.4 million dollar LEF or Go Virginia grant we I think you found out about that January 2020 so it was a great time to kick off a grant but the success of that led by the LCPS teaching and learning team and Nick is computer science supervisor at that time turned heads at the state level they were really impressed with that it laid the groundwork for computer science curriculum division-wide starting as you on elementary level, integrating into multiple subject areas, and then going through middle school and high school where it focused on work-based learning.

[00:36:52] So it really set the stage for, hey, gosh, when we throw, I don't have very many sports analogies, but when we throw loud in the football, they seem to carry it across the goal line. Yeah. So now I think they're excited to hear, and we got a call from a gentleman from the Go Virginia team saying, we're excited to hear that you all are working on another letter of intent so this and one just kind of maybe goes without saying the benefit of grant funding is that LCPS can can pilot programming kind of have a proof of concept or launch launch programs earlier than would otherwise be possible and I think that's where we're at with this one is that there's there's such a

[00:37:31] need and student demand for this go Virginia funding if it's successful would help launch some of this programming earlier than otherwise would be possible the timeline is slower than any of us would like but this week we're submitting our letter of intent along with Stafford LEF and LCPS will be the lead applicant but Stafford is going to partner we talked to a handful of school districts and where Stafford is and where their vision is really aligned with where our CTE team is so that was really good discussions there and then it goes to the full board in December, final approval, spring, and then if we get

[00:38:11] the green light, that's when the two-year grant period would begin. So we're on our way. Any questions? So we'll make sure the board continues to be informed as this progresses, but we did want to just update this committee that this is something we're working on and coming down the road.

[00:38:32] So thank you. Thank you so much. What a great update. I'm really excited because we have the best committee. All right. All right. So we'll go ahead and now move on to our next agenda item, which is 5.03, special program. update I will turn it over to miss Katie Clark for any information thanks miss Clark all right back again thank you for having us for this special programs update just want to start with an update regarding the survey and that we talked

[00:39:08] about back in April we brought a draft survey to this committee and mentioned that we wanted to tie it with a community event in September so just a little bit of an update this survey is going to have kind of two purposes the survey will identify which special programs and academies should be added or expanded and then we have also partnered and we will also have a second part of the survey that will help better understand parent and student priorities for the upcoming LCPS capital budget so we've taken two things and we have combined them into one which is going to be great less surveys

[00:39:46] for families and hopefully be able to get that intended outcome from that survey the survey window will occur from September 16th to the 30th and that ties into our special programs fairs that we'll talk about in just a moment and our survey audience will be all parents and guardians and middle school and high school students will be able to take that survey everyone will receive an email with a link they will need to enter their email that is on file with LCPS in order to be able to complete that survey and I just want to give a

[00:40:22] shout out to our research department and our communications as they've been supporting this effort and making sure that we have a good strong communication plan to get that out so with that our two special programs secondary fairs last year was our first year this will be our second year doing this we will have two locations the first one is on Thursday September 18th at Heritage High School and our second night will be on Thursday September 25th at Parkview High School we will have a welcome and student panel from 6:00 to 6:30 it's a

[00:40:59] great time for families and students who are interested in these programs to kind of come out and see all of the programs at once instead of having to go to all the different information nights and they will get to hear from students who are currently enrolled in these programs after that they will break out into 10-minute rotations where they can visit up to all of the programs if they want to if they're interested in all of them or they can just pick and choose the programs they want to attend and then leave for the evening looking forward to that event and now I'm going to turn it over to Grant Schaefer our supervisor of academic programs to talk about some of our other outreach efforts

[00:41:37] hi good afternoon I am fresh off the first middle school visit so we had the first one this morning we have 15 more to go this month we'll connect with all eighth graders and it was exciting for for two reasons one is that it's it's pretty fun to talk to eighth graders to start September off that way but secondly we change things up a little bit we noticed last year we had a lot of eighth graders who had questions afterwards and wanted some one-on-one time to talk learn more about the programs or to even tell us a little bit

[00:42:14] about themselves and what they might want to do so we decided to offer the schools to have a Q&A table at lunch and today we started that we really didn't know how would we go but we spoke to about 35 students today who came up and approached the table so they they quickly got their lunch ate and came over sometimes with groups of friends as eighth graders tend to do sometimes alone but it was it was great we had a plethora of conversations and questions so I think this bodes well for the rest of the month a couple other things of

[00:42:51] note the program videos is something we're trying with with the help of our communications team to essentially a goal is to have links video links to these courses in school links so for students as young as fifth grade to be able to look in the catalog and click on health and medical sciences for example what does that look like what's the day in the life of a student clicking on that video and learning about it so we're excited about that collaboration it's gonna take a little bit of time throughout this year but but that definitely is something that I think is needed and will help the magazine is

[00:43:29] also another collaboration with communications office that'll serve a couple purposes one it will be something that's attractive to the eye to hand out at events to parents and students also without having cell phones in schools these days we we are going to try to give these out to the eighth graders during the presentation so they can follow because it has a little workbook section in it that they can take some notes about programs that appeal to them things they might be interested in today we didn't seem to have any trouble keeping students attention but I think this will be another added resource to

[00:44:08] use let's see information nights Miss Clark already shared a little bit of that information I will expand on again like last year we're really trying to cast a wide net with getting the word out there so all the school board's special committees will be going to those again this year and we've also tried to reach groups that already have a target audience of eighth grade parents or middle school parents an example of that would be propel and level up i'm going to be working with them to to talk to their to their parents that they already have um so why not just you

[00:44:48] know maximize that time right um some other groups that we're looking to with target audience are the gifted and talented edge group the to start even even though they're in elementary school we want to start that conversation and get that information out to them uh we're going to be meeting with middle school lead counselors to let them know again about the new programs and deadlines and then I reached out and I'm connecting with the middle school social workers so again some cross-floor collaboration here to really catch everyone with this information and let's see the websites again just making sure

[00:45:27] everything is updated and new especially our dates that we'll show you on the next slide and really you can see the AOS AET window is already opened we shared that with students today and reminded them MATA again is also falls under that December 1st to January 16th timeframe for the lottery so those are some of the big dates we want to make sure we're correct on our websites and updated and for this for this year if I didn't miss anything we can we can take

[00:46:04] any questions you might have at this time board members any questions on this yes miss about is it possible to also push this out you're talking about gifted education would it be also important to spread this to some of our special ed students who may be disinterested in school and this would give a motive motivation to stick it out work harder and maybe you know get into those programs I like that idea I know we'll be meeting with the committee

[00:46:41] from the school board and we will be doing a fair night for them to with parents I know that the transition team is always one that we we connect with so we'll make sure and do that like we did last year yes mr. Strachey thank you very much appreciate all the ways that you're trying to engage students and families and I had bumped into you and miss Clark at one of these events when I I was touring the Stonehill Middle School. So I got to sit in the auditorium. It was a lot of fun for me. I can only imagine it was fun for the eighth graders. One of the ideas I had is, I don't

[00:47:19] know if you're engaging with family liaisons and just that connection that they have with families and just trying to double down on maybe the connection to the parents and caregivers. And, you know, assuming that they may not be able to come to some of the after school um events that we have is there a way that instead of just waiting for maybe the the the videos um that we could just offer the full recording of the event itself um maybe with a little bit of editing um because i think the energy of and i was there the energy of that whole gathering was

[00:47:54] was really great and i think uh if parents weren't able to see what their uh you know child or student was experiencing in the school um while learning about those programs that they could kind of see the same thing just a thought yeah I'll share I like that idea one way we're getting close to that is by again working with the communications team we obviously work a lot work a lot together but at the end of every day the each middle school that we present to the parents get an email with essentially some of the slides here that you saw and then the link to the presentation

[00:48:33] itself so they do get that slide deck so that's what we're offering now it's also posted on our website the slide deck so any all the community can see it as well fantastic thank you so much again so excited what does lcps do not what does it not do once again well thank you so much for the presentation any other questions comments before we kind of wind down yes mr streffi i was just going to say that the next committee meeting is the best committee just strike that in the

[00:49:10] minutes so just erase that line so our next meeting is scheduled for our best next meeting is scheduled for October 7th 3:30 mark your calendars any further business no all right I entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved okay moved by mr. Streffi do I hear a second thank you miss LaBelle seconded by Miss LaBelle all right all those in favor say aye aye okay the meeting is adjourned see you guys soon thank you

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