Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting, Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 55m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1115849759?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] Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Chernoff, and I'm calling this September 3rd, 2025 Curriculum and Instruction Meeting to order. I am joined by my colleague, Dr. Rasheed, and I have been made aware that Dr. Deans is requesting remote participation for tonight's committee meeting.

[00:00:19] So, Dr. Deans, can you hear me? Yes. Please state your location and whether this is a medical or a personal matter. I'm in my home office, and it is medical. Thank you. Is anyone present with you at this location? If so, please state their names.

[00:00:38] My husband is in the other part of the house, but I'm in a closed door room. Perfect. Thank you. I will entertain a motion that Dr. Deans' request to participate remotely be granted. So moved. I second that. All those in favor? Aye. That is unanimous. Dr. Deans, welcome to the meeting.

[00:00:59] Thank you. we will move on now to public comment we have one speaker today we have mr. Scott Pakula and he will come to the mic now and we will give you three minutes so when you're ready thank you very much I'm here to discuss policy 5125 basically it's the policy for alternate paths to obtain standard units of credit essentially the policy falls short for families that are trying to educate their children independently so for example the Virginia Department of Education offers

[00:01:35] substitute tests where a family can go and take one of these tests and let's say if your child is trying to accelerate in algebra or science or any other subject the Department of Education has a substitute SOL exam that they can take and you know you know that would issue them verified credit the unfortunate part is that there is no merit-based pathway for a student if they wanted to accelerate to let's say offer and say that hey I've I've passed this exam I would like to go and let's say you know accelerate into a higher level of math higher level of you know science so the you know the request to

[00:02:14] this committee is to review this policy and to you know look at offering a merit based pathway so that it can be more you know accessible so that people can you benefit and be able to accelerate thank you very much thank you there are no other speakers signed up at this time so we will move on to item number three point oh one the approval of the draft minutes for August 6 2025 meeting are there any amendments or is there a motion to approve motion to approve I

[00:02:51] second that all those in favor aye dr. Deans awesome that passes unanimously so the minutes are approved and now we will move into our information items tonight we have item 4.01 to kick us off and we are going to have an English learners program update and instructional impact and we have Miss Rosario the director of the division of English learners here to present the floor is yours thank you miss Chernoff during our time together I'll provide a district level

[00:03:26] perspective on how we align our offices to support instruction and ultimately impact student achievement. This will include an overview of the organizational structure of our offices, a look at our tiered professional development model, and school-based support across all instructional levels, a sample of the results and impact of our feedback and coaching efforts, and we'll conclude by identifying key areas of need and opportunities for continued growth. At the heart of everything we do is one goal, and that is supporting student outcomes.

[00:04:03] Our program is intentionally structured to be integrated, impactful, and student-centered. The Welcome Center is typically the first stop for many of our students and families, but you'll hear more about their work at an upcoming CNI committee meeting.

[00:04:19] Today we'll just focus on our dedicated EL professional learning team, our elementary and secondary instructional team, and our EL family and community engagement team, better known as FACE. With approximately 11,000 English learners in our district, we recognize the need to equip educators with the skills and tools necessary to support ELs effectively.

[00:04:44] We also understood that one-size-fit, all-day training approach is not going to be enough. So that's why we developed a tiered professional learning plan, and it's designed to meet educators where they are and to build their capacity. The emerging tier is for all educators, the bottom tier, and especially those that are newer to supporting ELs.

[00:05:07] Trainings in that tier include Welcome Center Services, the why and the how. We determine eligibility of our EL students. It also includes EL foundations and training to support duly identified students and the accountability measures around that.

[00:05:24] duly identified students are students who are eligible for special education services as well as EL services. The expanding tier, the middle tier, is for educators who are actively working with ELs in their classrooms. This tier builds on foundational knowledge with practical classroom focused strategies. Professional offerings include English Language Development Standards, better known as ELD Standards, Quality Teaching for English Learners, also known as QTEL, and co-teaching. The enhancing tier dives deeper into specialized needs of EL populations,

[00:06:02] and focus areas include literacy programs such as Read 180 or IEP-related services for dually-identified students. We even have autism one-on-one training. We measure the effectiveness of professional learning via participation and feedback received from participants.

[00:06:20] Now let's dive into school support, where the real day-to-day work happens. We clearly define the role of the EL teacher into three key areas, and that is the expert of language acquisition, meaningful access to grade-level curriculum, and an advocate for resources, information, and programming.

[00:06:44] We also provide embedded real-time support to participants of key EL professional learning offerings specifically EL foundations ELD standards and QTEL and with over 100 schools to support we partner closely with our school improvement office and use a data driven approach to strategically deploy our EL instruction teams to schools with the highest needs receiving the most intensive support last but not least we offer EL face programming at the school level that assists schools with learning experiences of their students and

[00:07:19] families to inform engagement efforts. So how has all this work transformed to teaching and learning for ELs? So let's take a look at each level. Here's a pictorial representation moving to the next slide of the EL elementary team.

[00:07:38] It includes one EL elementary supervisor and a specialist and three EL instructional facilitators supporting 239 EL elementary teachers in 62 schools. One of the three Title III facilitators is Title III funded.

[00:07:58] Under the leadership of our EL supervisor and specialist, the facilitators partner with identified schools to conduct walkthroughs that inform feedback and guide professional development needs. They also actively participate in grade-level CLTs and support lesson planning at the grade level.

[00:08:19] Across all levels, we've seen powerful shifts on how English learners are included in instruction, starting with a significant transformation at the elementary level. We're moving away from practices that place L students in the hallways or separate spaces and toward full inclusion in general education classrooms, where they access rigorous content and strong language models.

[00:08:43] And it accelerates both their language and academic growth. In the spring of 2022, our EL elementary instructional team visited 59 schools and observed 187 lessons. Only 33% of those lessons were delivered within the EL students general education classroom.

[00:09:06] Fast forward to 24/25 this past school year, in the spring, they visited 21 schools and observed 92 EL teachers. We're now seeing a 94% inclusion rate. that's a dramatic and meaningful increase.

[00:09:21] Now, we plan on visiting more schools this year, but we are seeing more collaboration, more co-teaching, and more intentional planning to ensure our ELLs are learning alongside their peers. I'd like to highlight one school, specifically Sugarland Elementary at the elementary level.

[00:09:40] They have shown significant growth in the past three years, specifically in their access proficiency rate, and that is the number of L's that are exiting from the EL program. Their exit rate more than doubled from 8% to 17% in the last two years.

[00:09:57] And not depicted in this graph here, but I want to note that their 4th grade exit rate reached 58%. It's well above the LCPS average of 40%. And despite having the second highest free and reduced lunch rate, 74%, Sugarland's exit rate and proficiency rates outperformed 26 elementary schools.

[00:10:21] Additionally, their math SOL scores have improved by 12%, so that's exciting news. Now, some contributing factors are Sugarland has been consistent with implementing QTEL strategies. They have a very strong and supportive EL contact, and their assigned EL instructional facilitator is focused on building ORC, supporting ELD standards, and co-teaching.

[00:10:48] And they also have really committed to ongoing efforts to engage their families, which is an important factor. At the secondary level, we have one secondary supervisor and specialist supporting both middle and high school. This secondary team encompasses one dedicated middle school instructional facilitator supporting 89 middle school teachers and one high school EL facilitator supporting 146 high school teachers, EL teachers, that is.

[00:11:19] And they have one dedicated secondary facilitator who focuses specifically on language and literacy, and she supports middle and high school. Two of our secondary EL facilitators are Title III funded. And similar to the elementary facilitators, they work closely with identified schools to review data, provide classroom observations, participate in CLTs, they provide teacher feedback, and they inform professional development needs.

[00:11:50] Now, just like the elementary level, we're seeing some meaningful transformation in secondary classrooms, especially in schools that participated in QTEL cohorts. Between fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, we conducted follow-up observations in secondary schools and saw clear growth in two key areas, instructional rigor and student-to-student interaction.

[00:12:16] Regarding instructional rigor, it increased from 26% to 65%, which resulted in a 39% increase. That's a powerful indicator that teachers are raising expectations and designing more cognitively demanding tasks for ELs.

[00:12:34] In the student-to-student interaction portion, it rose from 29% to 49%, which resulted in a 20% increase. This tells us that classrooms are becoming more collaborative, with ELs engaging in meaningful academic conversations.

[00:12:50] These shifts reflect the impact of targeted professional learning and a growing culture of inclusion and high expectations at the secondary level. Now, because I like highlighting schools, here's Parkview at the secondary level.

[00:13:07] Parkview is our Title I high school and highest EL population. We've seen a truly remarkable shift, especially in math. The school's leadership made a strategic decision to invest in professional learning by having both math educators and EL teachers partake in a math-focused QTEL institute.

[00:13:29] This targeted PD helped educators better support ELs in mastering both mathematical content and academic language. In one year, from school year 22-23 to 23-24, the math SOL pass rate for ELs at Parkview doubled.

[00:13:47] Now you can't see it here, but their scores were 29% in 22-23 and rose last year to 65%. This year, we just obtained our math SOL scores and they have increased to 74%.

[00:14:02] This is a powerful example of what happens when we align professional learning with student needs and when we believe in the potential of every learner. Now it's in addition to the work of our level-based instruction teams, Our English Learner Professional Learning Team is strategically structured to provide impact to support educators across the division.

[00:14:27] This team includes one EL Professional Learning Supervisor and three EL Professional Learning Content Specialists. They deliver both division-wide and school-based professional learning. A key component of their work involves conducting instructional walkthroughs to reinforce the implementation of training initiatives.

[00:14:48] These walkthroughs include pre- and post-observation cycles for QTEL and WIDA ELD standards professional learning, allowing for targeted feedback and reflection aligned with instructional goals.

[00:15:04] The ELPL content specialists also conduct post-observation visits following EL Foundations training to assess the integration of foundational strategies into classroom practice. These walk-throughs are essential for ensuring fidelity of implementation, identifying key areas for continued growth, and reinforcing professional learning through real-time coaching and support.

[00:15:30] Here are a few examples of schools who participated in our professional development who have obtained feedback that resulted in access proficiency growth.

[00:15:45] Finally, we know that schools thrive when families are engaged. Our EL FACE team is made up of all Title III funded positions. We have one dedicated EL FACE supervisor and two full-time EL FACE instructors.

[00:16:03] We also have Title III funds that support part-time staff and we have two EL FACE part-time instructors and we use funds to support school-based PEP programs. The next slide shows some of the wonderful programs that our FACE team offers and you You may recall their work last year in one LCPS spotlight.

[00:16:27] But while all of those programs are valuable, next slide please, we strongly recommend that schools consider student and family feedback circles, giving our multilingual students and families a voice in shaping their school experiences.

[00:16:44] So we are a reflective group, and we think about our work all the time. And as we reflect on our work, a few key lessons have emerged, lessons that are shaping how we move our program forward we've learned that one size doesn't fit all support needs to be tailored what works for a middle school might not work for a high school each school and each teacher has unique needs we've also learned that ela and math require different types of approach that's why coaching and post-training follow-up are so important they help translate learning into practice we have also learned that leadership matters we've seen firsthand that principal

[00:17:22] support is a key factor in successful implementation when school leaders are engaged the impact is deeper and more sustainable and progress takes time this journey it's a process it really is a journey the progress we're seeing is gradual but it's real and it's worth the time and the investment now as we look ahead our focus is on sustaining this momentum by continuing to listen adapt and invest in the people who make this work possible the progress we've made is truly a testament to the incredible work of my team our school-based leaders and our dedicated teachers and i continue

[00:17:58] to rely on our wavering support of our senior staff sitting here and you the school board and i have kind of sprinkled along my presentation uh the those that have been title iii funded and the others are locally funded but i thought this slide would help inform um the difference on my staff or just shaping my staff on who is locally funded and title iii funded for your reference. And last but not least, forecasting ahead, I would like to explore moving grant-funded positions to local budget to sustain the work of our instructional facilitators and our EL FACE

[00:18:35] team. I'd like to take a closer look at the elementary staffing standards and how teacher-to-student ratios impact instruction and support for ELs. I also would like to consider a fourth EL professional learning content specialist, not supervisor, to expand that delivering of professional development and offering real-time feedback and I have checked off the opening of our second welcome center so thank you for all of your support and we will provide more information regarding the second center when we meet again on that topic in the future but for now thank you for your

[00:19:12] time and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you miss Rosario for that update colleagues you have any comments or questions dr. Rasheed thank - Thank you Chair and thank you for this awesome presentation. The results are outstanding.

[00:19:28] The percentage increase is just pretty impressive I have to say. And based on that I wanted to ask so did you hear from teacher feedback like was it just as positive I'm assuming it is based on the amount of increase that percent increase that it was that the results show.

[00:19:44] - Thank you for that question yes and I think the feedback that we find most valuable is that of our content area teachers for our EL teachers the information is is almost redundant right they understand second language acquisition but when they participate with their co-teaching content peer that language then becomes baseline for their planning for their lesson planning for their co-teaching together and they understand how to meet the needs there of their students and beyond the teacher be even being there so when the teacher is moving from classroom to classroom to support other teachers we have learned that our content teachers are feeling

[00:20:22] more equipped to support the needs of English learners with or without their EL teacher in the classroom and then also if you can weigh in on I don't know if there was any data on virtual loud and then how that fits in here or is it just the same I can definitely get back to you on that but we have had participants from virtual allowed and attend our professional learning thank you thank you dr. Dean's did you have anything you'd like to add or ask yes I

[00:20:49] I just thought the results were fantastic, and it just shows how good LCPS is moving forward. So I'm real pleased, real pleased.

[00:21:07] I was impressed. Thank you. I agree. I think that there's some really big celebrations here and some really thoughtful planning from your department, and I had the luxury of running into you in the hallway and hearing more about the professional development, And then that same afternoon, I was at Loving Elementary talking to their EL team, and they were so thrilled to be doing PD side-by-side with their co-teacher.

[00:21:35] That was very powerful to them. They felt heard. I know that you took that directly from their feedback, from the surveys that you do from your PD. And so for them to have felt heard and then to have value there, I think this speaks volumes about your department and your willingness to be flexible and adjust, and also to be responsive to the needs.

[00:21:53] I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on the Parkview situation with a QTEL Institute. Is that different than a basic QTEL training, or is it something different? No. Actually, we offer currently elementary QTEL building the base professional learning for all elementary educators and EL teachers.

[00:22:17] At the secondary level, we offer an English language arts QTEL professional learning that is offered to any EL teacher and ELA content teacher. And then we also offer a math QTEL training.

[00:22:33] Parkview heavily invested on training all of their math teachers and EL teachers who support math. It was a dedicated cohort for their school only. So they had all participants from their school attend that training, whereas the other trainings are opened up to schools within our district.

[00:22:53] I mean, that's incredible results and commitment. So whatever that would take to replicate, like, I'm hopeful that we can get other schools on board and get them invested. Because I think that one thing that I, you know, really love about QTEL is it's sort of become the language of EL and Loudoun County Public Schools, which I think is really rare because in professional learning, and I see you, Ms. Abune, over there, one of the things is, you know, people are torn in a million different directions with a lot of different trainings, but it feels like QTEL kind of anchors your department, and maybe that's over a stretch,

[00:23:29] but I think that that is at least what I hear about, and you have a lot of buy-in from the admin, and I think that the communities, if we can get on board there, would be, that's something we should replicate because those results are incredible. I'm excited to see that. And then I did want to just put a plug for, you know, I think there are a lot of, I will speak for myself, I'm, you know, feeling a little bit anxious about the budget season in terms of titled funds.

[00:23:59] There's a lot of uncertainty swirling around that. And when I see how much support you're getting, especially with your FACE team, which if we don't have that partnership with families and them invested in their children's education and giving them access to our students I really worry about what will happen to those scores because I think being supported in your home is one of the greatest indicators for the buy-in in the classroom and the support so also with the new accreditation system and how heavily we're going to be relying on EL and still seeing those gaps I you know I think the memo went out last week on the SOL scores and I'm not trying to take away from all the celebrations because they're wonderful

[00:24:38] But when I see that 30%, you know, 36% pass rate for English learners in English, when 80% of all students are passing, I mean, that's a huge gap that we're still facing. And we're going to be held accountable for that at a higher level now. So I would hate to see titled funds that are lost, not to see positions lost that support our English language learners.

[00:25:03] So I will go on the record and say that I think this is a very worthy investment. It's something I will definitely be looking at. it's school-based we've seen the results you've proven that here today and these kiddos need our full support to close those gaps at an even higher rate and I think COVID is kind of like in the past now it feels like we've pivoted now that all groups are improving so I you know I'm I'm cautious about where we're headed with the budget but it does concern me because you know we talk a lot about marginalized kids and you know I there's a lot of different groups that are competing for

[00:25:39] these funds and they all deserve our support so I'm grateful that you separated it out made it very clear-cut for us because I think it's important for us as a school board to understand that if those title funds are at risk that that's those are people those are people doing good work in the trenches with our kids and with our families and that really matters to me it's really important that we get that right so I really appreciate you coming today I'm grateful to have had this presentation so one other question yeah go ahead Dr. Dean question. I'm sorry. No, you're good. Go ahead. Do you have any numbers related to special needs kids

[00:26:13] in EL? Absolutely, Dr. Deans. I can get that to you. What would you like to see specifically with regards to that data? Their progress and their integration into the general curriculum. Of our duly identified students, yes, I can definitely get that for you. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

[00:26:40] is there anything else all right thank you miss rosario for that information um thank you for the work that you do and to the others that are in the audience that support that office as well i see you and thank you for being here um we will now move on to item 4.02 and we have a long list of friends who are joining us today so i will dive into that today we are going to be talking about staff considerations and updates across multiple different departments and presenting is Mr.

[00:27:15] Rounsley director of teaching and learning and we have Ms. Kelly James the supervisor of world languages and cultures we have Ms. Alyssa Moritz the supervisor of library media services and Mr. Michael Pearson supervisor of fine arts I thank you so much for being here today and I look forward to your presentation floor is yours thank you Ms. Chernoff and we have some great experts here Ms. James, Mr. Pearson and Ms. Morris who all have some unique situations regarding staffing, things we wanted to bring to the board's attention and also talk about some potential enhancements and solutions that might exist.

[00:27:48] So we're going to start. A couple of things we're gonna talk about tonight is first give you some information about current levels of staffing in these three departments, especially as it relates to consistency across our schools. Also explore the impact of our existing staffing models on how that might impact equitable access to some programming program availability and our opportunities for students across our schools.

[00:28:11] And finally consider some potential actions that the board may choose to take to address some of the situations that we've laid out here. So our big driving question on the next slide that we're going to hopefully all address here tonight is how we balance a sense of consistency in these areas elementary library world languages and fine arts all of which have some unique attributes to them that that contribute to that along with some flexibility for schools to help support their unique needs and situations across all of our various schools.

[00:28:43] So we're going to start by just talking a little bit about the staffing that currently exists how this is done. And I believe the next slide will focus on world languages and fine arts and Miss James and Mr. Pearson are going to talk about that. Thank you Mr. Rounsley.

[00:29:00] So at the secondary level staffing for world languages and fine arts programs is included within the school's overall general education teacher allocation and school leaders make staffing decisions based on a based on a wide variety of priorities within the school and factors and those may include right off the bat course requests and enrollment in the program enrollment trends in the program up or down the availability of certified teachers and one thing I would add there is we get way down on enrollment it's a point two program it's hard to get somebody who

[00:29:35] wants to take a point two job but are looking for a 1.0 job scheduling program balance school and division priorities and the the impact of the community's preferences on their desire for certain courses to be offered in their community school and I think one thing we wanted to highlight here is is just to say that it's not always just about numbers in making staffing allocations principals are making decisions all the time for a variety of different factors and so different principals might choose different priorities or have different different drivers in making decisions.

[00:30:12] But so it's not always strictly the number of students enrolled there's a lot of factors that go into making those decisions across our different schools. Thank you. In elementary libraries our current staffing is based on the standards of quality from the state of Virginia.

[00:30:28] So we have a half-time librarian for smaller schools. A full-time librarian for schools up to a thousand. And 1.5 for schools over a thousand students. Library instruction is part of the elementary instructional schedule and students receive 50 minutes of instructional time each week or every other week depending upon the size of their school and the staffing.

[00:30:51] Schools with four or fewer classes per grade level may choose to have weekly library classes and librarians also need to receive time for instructional planning and collection management. So on the next slide we're going to talk a little bit about given those parameters for scheduling the impact that has on our various programs and some of the ways that our incredible supervisors here support the work that's happening in those various areas.

[00:31:19] So at the middle school level Spanish is available in that we have at least one full time Spanish teacher available at every middle school. Where we have limited or no availability at our middle schools is in French German and Latin.

[00:31:34] So what this might mean is that the course is either not available to students or the teacher is itinerant. So if the student needs it on an A day and the teacher is not there on an A day they might not be able to take that language ASL American Sign Language Russian Chinese and Arabic are not available at the middle school level French and Spanish are available at all high schools and where we do have limited or no availability at our high schools are in German Latin ASL Russian Chinese and Arabic.

[00:32:04] This this slide illustrates two things one is part time programs and part time teachers. So you'll see under the choral section, we have three individuals currently working part-time for LCPS, a .2 and a .6 at the high school level, and a .6 at the middle school level.

[00:32:29] In terms of the rest of our, in the case of music, the rest of our teachers are full-time, but they might be teaching in more than one program. So in the example up here I have one high school where the band director is also is a point four band teaching a point four orchestra program and then picking up another block of something else.

[00:32:51] It's an inordinate strain on these folks because you're doing double duty double both of those programs have their weekend and after school activities that are required. the at the middle school you'll see that we have fewer part-time programs because we have more enrollment at the middle school level and it does drop off between eighth and ninth grade for a variety of reasons in art this table doesn't quite capture all of the essence of this all of our teachers are full-time but we have noticed that in some cases is an interesting phenomenon

[00:33:29] where simply independent of enrollment cutting back FTE in the school and putting it somewhere else also results in lower art enrollment which can that means there's fewer people in the cycle and then it gets cut again and so some schools of equal enrollment might have different numbers of different number of full-time staff and again and like in our first slide there's a number of variables to go into how that plays out so a number of things we've done for program supports the first thing is several years ago when I first started

[00:34:05] in this position I noticed that we had boatloads like a lot of students in beginning band right this is great and then in the spring when I went to our ensembles to watch them perform in the spring adjudications I noticed some really small programs so like where are these kids going I started looking to data and there's a huge about 50% drop-off between 6th and 7th and looked at that closer we had some honest discussions just let the numbers speak for themselves and just by having that conversation with with our staff we saw some folks really start paying attention they said you know what yeah we need to pay more attention to this so not only did they pay more attention to

[00:34:42] recruiting for the programs they paid more attention to making sure they to the extent possible that they're making that a place where students want to be as they go through and continue because that's the idea so the data was important part we saw a lot of growth as that correlated with those discussions we have on multiple occasions well first of all we provide resources that are written within our school groups access to teachers but we've actually had roundtables and opportunities for our teachers both that professional development activities on our professional development days and that

[00:35:17] some of our district-wide teacher meetings we've provided opportunities for them to share strategies on how they recruit for the programs how they keep kids in the program and that's been helpful as well and the third thing I will mention here is when we do have growth the one thing we can do that this is probably the easiest thing as long as we have the budget which is okay we'll support that make sure they have the program make sure the program has what

[00:35:43] it needs to support it. So we would also be partnering with HRTD to allocate staffing effectively and expand student opportunities encouraging our school leaders to invest additional staffing where programs are expanding and advocating for increased staffing support for large programs. So this is what we've been doing working with teachers principals and HRTD to focus on

[00:36:21] using what we do have more efficiently and to provide information for future decision-making the impact of the staffing at the elementary level for libraries is that about 50% of our schools have weekly library classes about 50 don't there every other week because they're the volume of kids to go through the library program and one of the things that has happened over the past few years when we had the every other week library for everybody is book clubs emerged co-teaching and classroom support emerged the

[00:36:56] librarians were able to enrich their library services but this year we're finding that it's limited to the smaller schools that have the lower populations the larger schools just can't handle it even with every other week or every week schedule so given some of those that information and the supports and the impacts that we're seeing we put together a few potential suggestions for how we might address some of the concerns that Miss James Mr.

[00:37:29] Pearson and Miss Moritz talked about here today so on the next slide we have a few suggestions that we'll go through one of the things that would impact both world languages and fine arts would be to establish a centralized staffing pool to strategically support new and expanding programs this is something that we implemented this year in providing two ASL positions to offer ASL where it hasn't been offered previously and this opportunity doesn't force principals to use their own staffing but rather that staffing comes from teaching and learning to support and start these programs and help them grow.

[00:38:08] An additional one would be to offer explore regional staffing model for language offerings at high schools to maximize the efficiency and collaboration as well as considering adding a an exploratory language course at the middle school level and an exploratory language course would allow many of our itinerant teachers to be full-time at one middle school as well as offer students who might not be ready to start a world language at the middle school or to commit to a language to understand and have a little bit of experience in all of the languages that are available in Loudoun to better understand and to see what their opportunities are to make an informed decision about what the

[00:38:46] language they do want to learn we want to ensure dedicated staffing to fine arts to meet the unique instructional and extracurricular demands of these programs I mentioned earlier the demands outside the school day we're not just trying to staff two blocks of band it's a program that becomes part of the experience for students in throughout their experience outside the school day the the we're very focused on staffing towards enrollment as enrollments fluctuate it could be because of an instructional issue or it could be due

[00:39:23] to just a rezoning or opening of a new school that drops down enrollment and when we adjust down FTE has that cyclical response that I mentioned earlier where it's hard to get that FTE back up even when enrollments in the school might grow.

[00:39:38] So thinking about staffing programs is more on making sure we have a program there for students and less so on the total enrollment in the program. Although we also need to respond when a program outgrows one FTE as well.

[00:39:57] So one other thing I wanna throw out there that I've heard of some school divisions doing and that's incubating a program of staffing okay so it's dropped way down to a point two in the school let's let's invest some staffing in that school to get that back up and give them a time period let's say five years so that it's not open-ended there's some accountability but the chance to just get someone back in there full time a good quality person to build it thank you for elementary libraries we have aspirational standards we'd like to have one librarian for every 22 classrooms with a minimum of one librarian

[00:40:34] at each school to keep the library open every single day for every student and teacher in the school that would use it. The one for 22 would align library staffing with the other elementary specials like music and art. Thank you.

[00:40:53] And those are that's the information that we have and we're happy to take any questions you might have on any of the information we presented or suggestions that were shared. Thank you so much. thank you for all of you for being here my i'll pass it to my colleagues first dr deans do you have anything um i had a question about are there parameters or limitations on beyond the school day

[00:41:23] and on weekends for the sign art staff or does it vary from one school to the other there are we have the stipend process which compensates not directly for hour to hour it's meant to compensate and honor some of the time that's committed the demands can can vary based on the size of the program in a type of program particular uh a marching band program obviously is going to be very active uh at a large orchestra program like we have at a couple of our high schools

[00:41:59] those folks are out quite a bit uh on the weekends and after school okay so sorry so i guess the principal would request the added stipend, I guess, for the after-school and weekend level of activity of his staff?

[00:42:26] There's a, yes, HRTD has a process for that based on the role or the position itself. At some point, what we've seen is sometimes the demands exceed what a person wants to be paid for. Everyone has their limit. Okay.

[00:42:42] I would just add to that too that I think there are schools there might be schools that are more active than others in terms of some activities but there's also kind of a baseline expectation of teachers and one of the things that I think Mr. Pearson was pointing out was that when a teacher is responsible for say band and orchestra there are double regardless of how large or small the program is that's now double some of those things that are expected of that teacher to do and while they might get a stipend sometimes the evening activities or the weekend activities can make that hard to do when a teacher is covering two different programs at the same time if I could

[00:43:21] just add to that and that very statement through this lens of the student what are we providing what experience are we providing for the student are we cutting back and students in some schools get those opportunities while some others don't so we want them all to have those opportunities okay thank you all right have a few questions and thoughts first of all I want to thank the team for being willing to put this together and bring this this has been a big push of mine I feel like we've been talking about libraries since we addressed the changes in elementary master schedule which is when I first

[00:43:58] got on the board and we're still talking about it I know we quoted it out last year for the budget but it just it just didn't make it in so that is still a priority for me I think in terms of the inequity there of some kids having it every week other kids not it's it bothers me I don't love it and I want to fix it I think it's super unfair that we are treating library like a special but not staffing it like a special that is incredibly it's unfair and it's not I don't think it's working for a lot of people I continue to hear and people have gotten creative and they have done creative things because our educators are

[00:44:35] amazing and that's what they do they make do with what they have but I believe that we can do better than that so I'm really going to be looking for those numbers in the budget this year to see if we can get that to a better place and of course my reading background I mean it's library come on so the other thing I wanted to address is world languages I was wondering if you have any feedback from teachers about this hub idea have you have we engaged teachers in that at all have we talked to them about what that might look like.

[00:45:08] Has there been any data around where we might put those or are we just in the preliminary like that could be an option we explore? Something that we're considering right now it's sort of as a school to school. So if one school does not offer or have the students to offer for example AP German those students might be transferred to a neighboring high school to do that.

[00:45:30] So it's kind of been case by case at the school level but considering how we can centralize that and support the schools for that. - And as you mentioned our schools do amazing things to make sure students have access to all those opportunities but we also I think are looking at how we can preserve some of these programs that are important.

[00:45:51] That one slide that talked about community input there are families where some of these programs are really important to them and we want to make sure that we give that opportunity to as many students as possible and so this is very early and it's not budget neutral because it would require some additional transportation and a lot of coordination.

[00:46:10] But it is something that we're looking at in the in the near future to help keep some of these programs going and to give students some really consistent access to their teachers and opportunities. Yeah I'm just wondering if teachers would prefer to have the security knowing it's at a hub and the kids are going to come to them and they're going to have those full classes because they're pulling from other places or if they prefer to be in a based school and have what they have now I would err on the side of job security is going to be more appealing but I just I'm uncertain so I would be curious what teachers would think and I'm yeah go ahead I would just I think

[00:46:47] maintaining programs is an important aspect of the regional approach but there's also a lot of interest in the community from the board and expanding right and so navigating towards this model will help us in multiple ways when it comes to specifically world languages yeah you know we have seen a decrease in some of our some of our languages and for a variety of reasons and so it's important to consider maintaining access to the languages we have but I just want to remind the committee that we've had a lot of conversations about what's next yeah like Arabic like ASL yeah because I know we talked about that last year in

[00:47:25] this committee is a huge push for Arabic and that's awesome that it's often running but I'm wondering if those two things might it might be a good time for those two things to collide right um and then this is going to date me but is the exploration of the languages sort of like what a wheel would be in middle school where you rotate each quarter to a different language and like i mean i think that's what i did in middle school in fairfax county i'd like a quarter of spanish a quarter of german it's definitely fits into the converse the other conversations we're having in cni around the middle school schedule okay um but it's not completely dependent on moving towards a wheel there are in the past

[00:48:04] we've offered exploratory languages as semesters full year and there have been some schools expressing interest in going back to some of those options that we've done in the past while we're continuing to move forward the conversation about the middle school schedule yeah I know we're having a lot of conversations with our youth right now about locking into a pathway and having that choice but also that pressure that's pushing down on them in school I mean they're taking high school courses now in sixth seventh grade sometimes and you know that GPA is racking up early and so if they get locked into a language that they don't love but you know and they're pretty rigorous courses the language courses I can speak for my own daughter taking

[00:48:43] French it's it's intense so I I really like that idea I think giving those more options you know we're thinking about that with CTE like you said you know career pathways but I think language pathways I would be really supportive of that so I'll look forward to that ongoing conversation. And now the arts.

[00:49:00] I'll be totally transparent. This is kind of the whole reason that I brought this forward is you know I've heard from a lot of our teachers across the board. Some of our itinerant teachers some people that are working in these point two positions.

[00:49:15] Teachers that have unfortunately left LCPS because of impossible itinerant situations because to me the truth of it is if you're doing band an orchestra even if they're part-time it really becomes like two full-time jobs and if you're in two different schools running two different programs that's two full-time jobs that you're getting paid for to do one full-time job especially when other colleagues have a 1.0 in one school and are running one program. So some of these discrepancies is sort of what got the ball rolling on this conversation behind the scenes and I'm still trying to understand all the nuances of the staffing I know that people have brought to my attention

[00:49:56] that study hall is a barrier for some kids to not have electives that early release has become a huge barrier to kids not exploring further electives that these programs and tracks and options that we have which are wonderful also pull away from those options for electives all which impact our programs in the arts and in world languages too.

[00:50:19] So that's kind of was the thinking behind having this conversation and I'm very supportive of this sort of idea of a pot of flexible staffing that could be applied to kind of reward the programs that are growing and to take that pressure off of principals because I think that that's really stressful for them to have to make those choices.

[00:50:38] And I really I would you know in a world I would love to get to a baseline staffing of every school has every arts option and can build those programs. I understand that that's probably not very budget friendly right now but I think that the flexible staffing could be a good start and then really looking at the data and looking at where those programs are being supported and growing and and looking to it where principals have put that faith in growing those programs like you talked about and seeing if that worked because I vote you know I've said it before but I think if you build it they will come I think you know we have teachers that want to build programs and if you know you're staying

[00:51:16] changes the way you build your program versus I might be leaving you're just not as invested so I'm just wondering if you are hearing those same things can still because I know we were hearing them last year but that continues to be that has been probably one of the big sources of stress from teachers over the years especially in the spring but the oscillations of enrollments whether for for as a new school is open or rezoning or for a variety of reasons the the wondering if I'm going where I'm going to be next year it's there's a lot of instability that sometimes results from this not saying it would limit at all

[00:51:54] but like having some degree of program stability knowing that the program's there we support this now there's an accountability part of the teacher to invest in the program themselves and get kids engaged in the program and want to be there there's that part of it but sustaining that and say we we support having a choral program at every high school where students have access to the choral director after school and to audition for Allstate and to be in all of the other things that other students get to do because that's one of the things that gets dropped so I mean I could go on and on about that but there's a lot of stress with teachers and they get stretched pretty thin.

[00:52:33] Yeah I share your sentiments and I'm very appreciative of you bring up the art issue because I actually had the chance to meet with some art teachers this past week and I had no idea that that was happening. That was like totally a new one on my radar.

[00:52:49] So I'm glad that you brought that up and I I'm just hopeful that maybe we can make a start towards making this something that we're committed to and if it has to be a phase thing maybe that could be possible. I'm not sure we're going to I'm going to try and explore it. I also think maybe getting creative and addressing some of those other things like study hall and what other teachers are you know licensed for and all the different layers that add up to this.

[00:53:15] I also I really do worry a little bit about the impact on the larger school culture too because I hear things like well I have a larger English section this year because we added an arts such and such. My principal chose that. And so I just you know with principals making those decisions it's great it gives them the flexibility to meet the needs of their community it's also a burden sometimes because we don't want to pit staff members against each other right so I I struggle with that I would add that the the finite allotment of staff into schools I've seen even within our program for example that would be good analogy where two

[00:53:52] schools having the same number of students enrolled in our classes my staff and very differently one might have higher loads and they get the stipend tiered stipend that we have for taking on an extra 10 20 or 30 students beyond your normal load whereas another one may have the ability there are competing priorities I think for FTE in a school another principal I have the opportunity instead of adding stipends to that person to teach larger class loads to actually bring in FTE and an additional teacher part-time from another school or match them up yeah so there's just a lot of pieces to this

[00:54:30] equation it's and I'd be curious to hear that feedback too from teachers if it's like having the stipend and taking on the extra workload is worth it or if they'd rather have the extra time and that would be something else I'd be curious about so I could also go on and on about staffing but I think I've drawn my lines in the sand here so I'm gonna let that be but I really appreciate this conversation we want to support you we want to support our teachers and all of These things are really, really important.

[00:55:01] So we'll keep that in mind. So I appreciate all of you being here today and for the conversation. And with that, I will move to, if there's nothing else, I will move to item five, new business. Is there any new business? I guess I would just ask about, in relation to our public comment tonight, if we could talk about how that could tuck into our other accelerated math program policies.

[00:55:26] I believe that policy is assigned to the Student Services Committee. Okay. can talk to Ms. Richardson and Dr. Wallace and I will have a conversation about. Okay all right and then with that I will adjourn our meeting. Drive safe. Thank you.

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