Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 5h 11m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1116938106?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DKFMTK5CCDE0

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:50] Good afternoon. I call to order this September 9th, 2025, Loudoun County School Board meeting. I have been notified that Dr. Deans would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Dr. Deans, would you please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter?

[00:01:07] I'm in my home office, and it is medical, and I am alone. I am on one floor, and my husband's on another floor. Okay, I guess that will satisfy our second question, if anyone's present with you.

[00:01:23] And I'll now entertain a motion that Dr. Dean's request to participate remotely be granted. Madam Chair. I move that the board approve Dr. Dean's to participate remotely in our meeting this evening.

[00:01:39] Thank you. Vice Chair Donohue, and I have a second by Ms. Chandler. It's been properly moved and seconded, and we will go ahead and take a vote. Clerk, oh, is there any discussion? No. clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display

[00:02:12] the vote that motion passes unanimously with dr. deans absent for the vote but welcome to the meeting dr. deans thank you i'm sorry um i think we have some hearing um devices at the at the back

[00:02:38] there um if you would like to help with that um yeah i know that's why i said someone help you okay um we're going to be moving on to uh item two disclosures at this time we'll read our disclosures and i'll go ahead and start as a member of the loud and county school board i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with an

[00:03:16] item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for lcps employees specifically as a school board member i am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an lcps employee these benefits however affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected of which i am included i can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years ms chandler thank you madam chair

[00:03:53] As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:04:10] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included.

[00:04:26] I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance, and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:04:54] Specifically, my spouse and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance, and my minor children. Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me.

[00:05:10] These subjects include thousands of employees, well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse, my children, my sister-in-law, and I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years.

[00:05:28] Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and our health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:05:49] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public's interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the school in the public records of the clerk for the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you.

[00:06:17] Thank you, Ms. Griffiths. Mr. Straffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees specifically as a school board member I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these benefits however affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the

[00:06:53] clerk of the school board for five years thank you mr. Streffy miss LaBelle Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with this item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:07:18] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. In addition, as a former LCPS employee, I, as well as my spouse, receive Medicare Advantage insurance benefits through LCPS.

[00:07:35] These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statuatory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which my spouse and I are included. i can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you miss labelle miss shirnoff thank you madam chair as a member of the loudon county school board i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other

[00:08:11] discussion that may include or affect benefits for lcps employees specifically as a school board Remember, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included.

[00:08:29] I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public record of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. And with that, we'll move on to item three, approval of the consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda?

[00:08:48] Seeing none, before we vote on the consent agenda, we have one proclamation to read. Our only proclamation this evening recognizes September 5th through October 15th, 2025 as National Hispanic Heritage Month in Loudoun County Public Schools, and will be read by Mr. Streffi.

[00:09:06] Mr. Streffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month was established in 1988 after originating in 1968 as National Hispanic Heritage Week, and whereas there are over 20 Hispanic countries all over the world identifying history, culture, and contributions that help shape the fabric of America, and whereas Hispanic Americans have played a vital role in the moments and movements that have shaped our country, enriching our culture, enhancing the economic infrastructure, bringing creativity and innovation to education, the sciences, the arts and sports, as well as other roles that have added to our society.

[00:09:45] And whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the unique voices and experiences of the Hispanic Americans and recognize their history and achievements, inspiring younger generations and bringing communities together. And whereas within Loudoun County Public Schools, Hispanic Americans comprise 19.8% of our student population and 13.8% of our employees and are valued and respected members of our community and contribute to the rich diversity of school division, and whereas our school division is stronger when we reflect and respect the full diversity of our school community, which enabled 96.7% of all students

[00:10:23] in Loudoun County Public Schools to graduate in 2025, and whereas Loudoun County Public Schools renews our commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive, and affirming environment in which multiple students, staff, and families' identities and cultures are affirmed, valued, and celebrated and used as assets in teaching and learning.

[00:10:42] And now, therefore, be it resolved, the Loudoun County School Board proclaims September 15th to October 15th, 2025, National Hispanic Heritage Month in Loudoun County Public Schools. Be it further resolved that the Loudoun County School Board encourages our staff and community to observe, recognize, and celebrate the culture, heritage, and contributions of Hispanic Americans to our country, the Commonwealth of Virginia, our beautifully diverse county, our schools, not only during National Hispanic Heritage Month, but throughout the year. Thank you, Mr. Streffi. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent

[00:11:20] agenda. Yes, Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the London County School Board approve the consent agenda. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. Is there a second? I have a second by Ms. Chandler. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda that has been properly moved and seconded at this time we'll go ahead and take a vote um clerk please open the vote members please

[00:11:50] record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk please close and display the vote and that motion passes with mrs griffiths abstaining for the vote um okay we will move on to our item four which is our work session the department of communications and community engagement school business partnership executive council update presented by

[00:12:25] miss Renee Dawson director of family and community engagement and Susan Mitchell CEO and president of a thari bio sciences and miss Mitchell is chair of the school business partnership executive council welcome good evening can everyone hear me good evening dr. Spence chair Mansfield school board

[00:13:03] members and the loud and community I'm Susan Mitchell I'm the founder and chief Executive Officer of Athari Biosciences and I'm honored to serve as chair this year for the School Business Partnership Council. The Loudoun County Public Schools Business Partnership Executive Council was established by the school board action in 1990. For over 20 years its primary mission has been to strengthen connections between business industries and the school division while recognizing business partners who are dedicated to shaping Loudoun's future

[00:13:40] Through the support of today's classrooms, through initiatives such as Job for a Day, which provides students with real-world career experiences, the School Business Partnerships Award Breakfast, which celebrates outstanding business contributions to our schools, the Executive Council fosters meaningful engagement between education and industry.

[00:14:04] The Council not only supports workforce development, but also serves as a champion and spark for connecting resources that meet a wide range of needs across the division. From supporting innovative teaching and learning experiences to providing wraparound services, wellness initiatives, and community-building efforts, the council has a meaningful role in ensuring students, families, and staff have what they need to thrive.

[00:14:33] It supports the school division holistically by allotting community partnerships with division priorities, expanding access to opportunities, and cultivating a shared commitment to students across all areas of Loudoun County.

[00:14:51] Next slide, please. Last year, the School Business Partnership Executive Council took a strategic approach to strengthen its identity, governance, and impact. Each initiative was thoughtfully aligned to our mission of preparing students for success in their post-secondary pursuits through meaningful school business collaboration.

[00:15:17] If you see our beautiful new logo, which we unveiled, reflects the council's evolving vision. The design symbolizes a bridge representing the council's role in connecting students to real-world experiences and supporting their transition from school to college, careers, and beyond.

[00:15:39] It also reinforces our unified presence across the community. You would also notice that we have bylaw changes that updates the council's bylaws, and they were made to enhance sustainability and expand representation, and these include the addition of a higher education partner to strengthen alignment with post-secondary institutions, a formal succession plan for the chair role to ensure continuity, and long-term leadership.

[00:16:06] We also see where partnerships at the close of the 24-25 school year, Loudoun County had 1,418 partnerships. is very impressive I think we should give ourselves a round of applause okay we did this across the division and our network continues to grow both in scope and depth it is important to note that these partnerships support not only workforce development but also provide essential resources higher education wraparound services and enrichment opportunities that help meet the diverse

[00:16:44] needs of our students and all of our schools this strategic approach to partnership ensures that the council is not only responsive to current needs but also positioned to continue success in the years ahead next slide please so you will also see how we have broken out the impact this partnership council has and in this vibrant example of how strong's community school partnerships can transform student experiences you can see that we're in close collaboration with Loudoun County Public Schools, the council's work aligns with four key areas that

[00:17:23] reflect its ongoing impact. These areas include career-aligned industry representation, innovation and learning opportunities, holistic community support, and collaborative partnerships for impact. I'll now offer a brief overview of each area. Career-aligned industry representation is a foundational portion of the council's role. With this, members representing all 17 national career clusters and Loudoun's key economic development priorities, the council works alongside LCPS

[00:17:56] to ensure students are connected to meaningful pathways in fields like health care, technology, agriculture, construction, and business. These connections help students envision and pursue their future with clarity and purpose. The council also leads efforts in innovation in learning, partnering with LCPS to expand and enrich academic opportunities. From mentoring and guest speaking to supporting curriculum development, members help shape relevant real-world learning experiences.

[00:18:32] Their collaboration has contributed to initiatives such as pilot courses in technology and the establishment of the Health and Medical Sciences Academies at Briarwoods and Tuscarora High Schools. Through our holistic community support, the council members partner with LCPS to connect schools with vital resources that benefit students, families, and staff.

[00:18:56] This includes sponsorships, volunteer efforts, financial literacy programs, wellness initiatives, backpacking school resources, as well as recognition events that strengthen the fabric of our school communities. These efforts are strengthened through the collaborative partnerships for impact. The council works closely with the Loudoun Education Foundation and departments across LCPS to align goals, share resources, and create solutions that serve the whole community.

[00:19:26] The Executive Council is more than a business advisory group. It is a dedicated network of partners working hand-in-hand with Loudoun County Public Schools to build a stronger and more connected Loudoun County for all. Now I will turn this over to our fantastic Renee Dauphin, the Director of Family and Community Engagement. Next slide please. Well now I get to brag. So this

[00:20:01] past year has been, last year was a remarkable demonstration of what happens when schools, families, and community partners come together with a shared purpose to help every student thrive. The School Business Partnership Council has played a vital role in leading and supporting these efforts, connecting education with real world in powerful ways, from career exploration and healthcare access to honoring first responders and bringing signs to life in our classrooms.

[00:20:33] The council's work continues to open doors and create opportunities for students across LCPS. One of the key charges of the council is our signature Job for a Day program. It remains one of the most impactful ways we connect students with the world beyond the classroom.

[00:20:51] Under the leadership of Dr. Grubbs, Christina Lee, and the amazing CTAE team, this initiative is thriving. This past year, 536 juniors and seniors participated in a job-for-a-day shadowing experiences hosted by 82 community career partners.

[00:21:13] Together, they represented 15 of the 17 national career clusters. Students explored industries such as medicine and health, communications, marketing, and local government. They attended meetings, toured workspaces, and engaged in conversations with professionals.

[00:21:30] And these experiences expand students' understanding of career pathways and truly empower them to make more informed decisions about their futures. And I will say I enjoy going to the job for a day experience myself. Another cornerstone of the council's work is the School Business Partnership Executive Council Awards Recognition.

[00:21:50] And this is one of Loudoun County Public Schools' most meaningful celebrations of collaboration. Its purpose is to honor the outstanding contributions of businesses, organizations, and individuals who partner with schools to support student learning, enhance school environments, and uplift the broader community.

[00:22:08] So this past year brought together over 760 attendees, which was pretty amazing, including school leaders community partners and representatives from every major industry sector with all 17 national career clusters represented that was very exciting the event served as a platform to share inspiring examples of partnerships in action across lcps recognized partnerships came from every level of our school division elementary middle and high school and four themes emerged from this year's nominations they focused on enriching student learning through career

[00:22:47] exploration and hands-on experiences addressing school specific needs with targeted resources and volunteer engagement creating lasting impact through long-term relationships and enhancing educational environments by promoting wellness inclusion and staff recognition so several winners were recognized for workforce development initiatives including partnerships with industry leaders like Mantec, which gave students real-world exposure to careers in technology and national security. Others showed how partnerships can strengthen curriculum, encourage civic engagement, and include the broader

[00:23:26] community. And one is my personal favorite. One example was the Together in Remembrance Memorial Day event. This initiative brought students, staff, families, active-duty military, veterans, and community partners together to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. More than just an awards event, this gathering reflects the strong and ongoing ties between LCPS and its community. It is a celebration of what is possible when we work together to help every student thrive. In addition to these flagship efforts, the Council supports other initiatives that make a direct and lasting impact on

[00:24:05] students and staff. Since its launch in 2023, the LCPS Mobile Health Clinic has delivered essential healthcare services to hundreds of students through 34 clinics held in communities across Loudoun County and this collaborative effort between LCPS and NOVA Health System Health Works for Northern Virginia the Loudoun County Health Department the George Washington University School of Nursing to community and medical dental providers by bringing healthcare directly to students the clinic removes barriers such as lack of insurance or transportation, really helping to ensure students are healthy and ready to

[00:24:45] learn. We also expanded our embryology program in partnership with Loudoun 4-H, bringing its unique experience to 68 schools and reaching more than 28,000 students from K-12. Students had the opportunity to observe the life cycle of chickens and an experience that aligns directly with the Virginia Standards of Learning and Biology and Life Sciences.

[00:25:10] And each June, LCPS hosts the First Responders Appreciation Event, a tradition that honors the dedication and service of hundreds of local first responders. The 2025 celebration held this past summer in June was hosted in partnership with the Loudoun First Responders Foundation, the Loudoun Education Foundation, and members of the School Business Partnership Executive Council.

[00:25:36] The event featured a patriotic-themed lunch and meaningful recognition for those who serve our schools and community. Grill Masters Principal Jeff Adam and Assistant Principal Ross Armstrong from Heritage High School kept this tradition going and added a personal welcoming touch.

[00:25:56] More than 600 hot dogs and hamburgers were served. It was hot. It was hot this past one. And student volunteers from the Academies of Loudon played a key role in supporting the event and engaging with professionals in the field. Business partners, including Rosenden and Apple Federal Credit Union, also joined the celebration, further showing the power of collaboration between schools, local businesses, and emergency services.

[00:26:20] What makes all of these efforts so powerful is the active involvement of the School Business Partnership Executive Council's representatives. Their organizations contribute time, expertise, and resources to bring these opportunities to life.

[00:26:38] Together, they make sure that partnership is not just an idea, but a practice that enriches learning, removes barriers, and helps every kid thrive. So now I'd like to show you a short video that we did for thanks to our council.

[00:26:54] So next slide, please. If we go one more.

[00:28:41] That was really exciting, and I think that gives you a really quick glimpse of all the hard work that we're doing at this council in support of LCPS. the students, and the community. And so as we look ahead, our work remains centered on strategic growth and deepening impact.

[00:28:57] This slide outlines three key focus areas for the School Business Partnership Council as we move forward. First, job for a day. It continues to be one of our most impactful student experiences. We're working to strengthen and reimagine its strategic value by aligning it more closely with the priorities of career, technical, and adult education.

[00:29:19] This ensures students are not only exploring career options, but also connecting those experiences to real programs and pathways in our schools. Second, membership. The strength of our council lies in the diversity of industries represented.

[00:29:35] As we grow, we are committed to maintaining that broad representation while continuing to build strong networks and recruit new partners. This helps ensure students are exposed to a wide range of career fields, perspectives, and opportunities that reflect the real world.

[00:29:53] We have provided the board with our recommendations for the new members to the team, including Sean Mitchell, our newly elected vice chair, Nene Spivey, and Jen Andos, our two newest members. Third, holistic impact.

[00:30:11] The council's reach extends beyond career readiness. We are focused on elevating and expanding initiatives that promote access, resources, and opportunities that support students and schools in comprehensive ways, whether through wellness, enrichment, or essential services.

[00:30:30] Together, these priorities reflect our shared commitment to meaningful partnerships that create lasting value for our students, schools, and community. Next slide, please. So, this concludes our presentation, and we would like to open the floor and happy to answer any questions that you all may have.

[00:30:57] Thank you so much, Ms. Mitchell. Thank you. And Ms. Dawson. Board members, do you have any questions? Yes. Mr. Straffi. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I want to thank you both so much for the presentation. I think you both articulated so well the impact of all of the work that's being done.

[00:31:16] But as the liaison to the Executive Council, I just want to share also how much of a powerhouse this group really is for LCPS. From attending meetings or the events or just meeting with members, the level of personal commitment and dedication of each of the members is extraordinary.

[00:31:38] And more than that, the energy that the members bring to the LCPS leadership and staff is something to note as well. I mean, I think everyone knows that if you want, if you have a dip in some of your motivation or your inspiration, go to the executive council meeting, right?

[00:31:56] And you'll get recharged. So I just wanted to kind of state that. I couldn't have said better than both of you in terms of the importance of this work. And not just as a board member, but also as a community member and parent, I want to thank you for all of the work that you put in each year.

[00:32:13] Thank you so much. Anybody else? I'm sorry, we don't take questions from the audience at this time. It really is just a presentation between the school board and the presenters.

[00:32:33] So I'm sorry. Yes, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you both for the presentation and for all the work that you do. I will say learning about this program has been one of the great joys of my service on the school board, And I love the metaphor or the symbol of the bridge because it really is such a great opportunity to bring together the fact that we have just unbelievable resources in Loudoun County.

[00:33:03] I mean, truly, anything that exists in the world is located here. And you're harnessing all those opportunities and bringing them forth for our students. It's so powerful. And I really hope the community appreciates the good work that you're doing. So thank you.

[00:33:18] Thank you so much. Yes, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. This was amazing. This is a lot of work that you all put into it. And I know it's not in a short amount of time. I know this is in a long amount of time. And I just wanted to offer some words of encouragement further that if there's anything you guys need to continue to bring this to fruition, always reach out to us.

[00:33:39] We would be more than welcome to, you know, go ahead and make this go further. We will hold you to that. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. - The one thing that I thought was very, you know, we went to go see Janelia this last week, I think, and what struck me the most was that the employees would actually go and be in the schools and also provide that help for our teachers and get them excited, like you were talking about earlier, and inspiring them.

[00:34:16] I think that's what this is all about. It's that partnership. - That's what it's all about. 'Cause the children are the future, and we have to be sure to, encourage them and make sure that they feel supported so that they'll continue to stay in the educational mindset and then want to create and create and create with their community.

[00:34:34] - Thank you. Thanks. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, Ms. LaBelle, and then. - Thank you, ladies. It has been a joy watching you work, watching your video, and I am totally impressed and thankful that you have included all 17 career clusters so that our students get a complete view what's out there what there is to do and then they have you to help them move forward and learn more about it and explore so thank you again thank you

[00:35:05] thanks y'all have a nice evening okay we'll move on to 4.02 Department of Academics 1 LCPS strategic plan 2027 update presented by staff members based on each goal I thought that it might be better if we could have like two minutes for each goal afterward like to discuss them if somebody had questions so that we didn't have to hold all questions until the very very end if that's all right but at first I think we have

[00:35:40] well I'll just let Dr. Ellis present. Dr. Single is going to kick us off and I think you know everyone but we'll do quick introductions as well. Good afternoon Chair Mansfield, Vice Chair Donahue, school board members and Dr. Spence. This afternoon we are presenting our annual strategic plan update we will share data highlights and actions we believe led to the results we will

[00:36:17] present one goal at a time and we'll highlight the data and the goal accomplishments and then some next steps we will pause after each goal to provide an opportunity for you to ask questions please note that in board docs you have the detailed data and targets documents for each strategic plan goal the strategic plan implementation committee goal coaches will be presenting the information for each goal for goal one we have mr slevin assistant superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Mrs. Boland, Chief Human Resources Officer, for Goal 2. For Goal 3, Mr. Smith, Chief Technology Officer, and for Goal 4, Dr. Ellis Williams, Assistant Superintendent of

[00:36:52] DEIA. In LCPS, our actions are guided by four strategic plan goals, empowering students, exemplary staff, enriched division, and engaged community. Next, we will take a look at each of these goals. I will now turn it over to Mr. Slevin to present Goal 1. Good afternoon. Goal 1 has four aligned actions as you can see illustrated on this slide. Now we will take a few minutes to highlight data, accomplishments, and next steps. As a reminder, all of the detailed data are

[00:37:27] attached in BoardDocs. Our commitment to core academic excellence is reflected in the assessment data. The MAP fall to spring conditional growth percentile results indicate that LCPS is meeting or exceeding expected growth. The VALS results indicate that significantly fewer students were moderate or high risk in the spring compared to the fall. The SOL pass rates have been gradually increasing since 2021. Multiple accessible pathways are expanding, with over 98% of our students successfully using school links to plan their courses and more than 14,000 students

[00:38:04] enrolled in dual enrollment. Under Care for Students, we've ensured 100% participation in SEL lessons for pre-K through middle school, and nearly 80% of students with disabilities are learning in inclusive settings. Our focus on student voice continues to grow, with over 20,000 students engaged in extracurricular activities and 362 new student interest clubs launched this year. These data points highlight our strategic progress in supporting academic achievement, personalized pathways, student well-being, and engagement. This year we advance strategic

[00:38:42] priorities by supporting students through school links and targeted outreach, strengthening instructional quality via our instructional framework, and hosting our first Workforce Summit to deepen career-connected learning. We also developed guidance for instructional technology and generative AI, while expanding school-based supports for special education, EL services, and classroom instruction.

[00:39:04] Looking ahead, we will focus on enhancing sense of belonging and begin planning for the LCPS Transition Center and the Global Linguistic Studies Academy. Our next steps also include aligning curriculum and professional learning to the instructional framework and fostering co-teaching through collaboration between special education and EL teams.

[00:39:22] These efforts reflect our commitment to continuous improvement and equitable access for all learners. I will now pause to see if you have any questions related or comments related to Goal 1. I will now turn it over to Ms. Boland for the Goal 2 update.

[00:39:44] Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. So, Goal 2 is centered on exemplary staff. As we all know, after parents, our teachers, administrators, and staff are the most important factor in student success. That's why ensuring that our staff feel esteemed, supported, and accountable is vital to our mission.

[00:40:04] This goal has three aligned actions, which you can see illustrated here on the slide. In the next few slides, we'll look more closely at the data, and I'll share the strategies we're implementing to address what the data is telling us and continue moving our work forward.

[00:40:23] While our full HRTD data will be available in December, we do have several highlights to share today that we are proud of. As of August 6th, LCPS had hired 626 new licensed personnel for the 2025-26 school year.

[00:40:41] Nearly 60% of those new hires hold a master's degree, and just over 2% hold doctoral degrees. By August 20th, our fill rate for school-based license position was close to 99%, an impressive achievement for a division hour size.

[00:41:00] We also continue to prioritize recognition. This past year, 735 employees were honored through Shine submissions, and more than 2,000 employees received service pins for milestones years of service, including 51 who reached 30 years, 7 who reached 35 years, and 4 who reached an extraordinary 40 years of dedication to LCPS. In addition, we've seen increases across all three levels in the percentage of teachers with collaborative learning time built into their

[00:41:35] schedules. Both the division and schools received higher net promoter scores from school-based staff reflecting stronger satisfaction and confidence in our direction. Finally, staff feedback on professional learning and alignment with division initiatives continues to remain very strong with 86 percent and 92 percent positive responses respectively. These accomplishments highlight the continued progress we are making in recruiting, retaining, recognizing, and supporting the

[00:42:09] exemplary employees who drive student success. This year we placed a strong emphasis on staff development and retention. We awarded both sign-on bonuses and retention bonuses and we hosted impactful professional learning events, including the Lead Loudon Conference, which welcomes 700 attendees on day one and 575 on day two. Our teams also supported teachers through several large professional learning events, such as the Teaching and Learning Leadership Institute, new higher content office meetings, and our county-wide staff development day. Professional

[00:42:48] learning communities continue to be a focus across the division, and we expanded leadership development through programs like the Talent Development Leadership Academy and Launching Your Leadership. In addition, we aligned our coaching and professional learning modules for school-based support positions to the LCPS instructional framework. Recruitment has also remained a priority. HRTD hosted 28 recruiting events and attended 74 college and career events, more than 100 in total, to help us maintain a strong pipeline of teacher candidates.

[00:43:27] Looking ahead, work has already begun on developing the profile of a LCPS leader. We will also continue to celebrate and recognize our staff as a central part of this goal. These accomplishments and next steps reflect our ongoing commitment to cultivating a thriving, supported workforce that drives student success.

[00:43:48] And I'll pause here to see if there are any questions about Goal 2. Okay, and I will turn it over to Mr. Aaron Smith, our Chief Technology Officer, to provide the update on Goal 3.

[00:44:06] Goal 3 focuses on ensuring that we have an enriched division through aligned culture, straightforward communication, and safe and productive learning environments. We continue to prioritize alignment with our strategic plan through strong collaboration between central office and school-based leadership, focusing on continuous improvement.

[00:44:26] Our redesigned website has seen a 50% increase in traffic, reaching 15 million sessions with users spending over a minute per visit, indicating improved access and navigation. LCPS remains fully compliant with Virginia School Safety Audit requirements and actively partners with public safety agencies at all levels to enhance school security.

[00:44:44] These efforts reflect our commitment to building a unified culture, improving communication, and maintaining safe, productive learning environments for all students. This year, we made significant strides in operational excellence and safety. The enterprise-wide adoption of AptoG alerts and mobile platforms has streamlined communication and improved access for families.

[00:45:06] We enhance school infrastructure through LED installations at 39 schools, restroom technology upgrades, and critical system renewals, while also advancing security with AI camera analytics, regional SSOs, and a 24-7 IT security operations center. Looking ahead, we will further improve staff communications through intranet redesign and expand AptoG adoption across the school community.

[00:45:27] Additional safety measures, including body-worn panic buttons and a digital threat assessment tool, are being procured to support proactive and responsive school environments. I will now pause and see if you have any questions about Goal 3. With that, I will now turn it over to Dr. Ellis Williams for our Goal 4 update.

[00:45:51] Thank you. Goal 4, which focuses on engaged communities, states that parents, families, and our community must be a support, guide, ally, and partner. There is no one more deeply invested in the success of students than their families. GO4 has three aligned actions, as you can see illustrated on this slide.

[00:46:12] We continue to strengthen family engagement with positive responses to the annual family survey, rising to 85% in 2025, and family liaisons providing over 33,000 instances of support. Strategic collaboration among CTAE, Family and Community Engagement, and the School Business Partnership Executive Council led to a 35.7% increase in active business partners.

[00:46:40] Trust-building efforts are also yielding results, with an 8-point increase in our net promoter score and a 29% rise in visitors supported by the Office of the Ombuds. Additionally, our first full year of implementation of the Let's Talk system showed an average resolution time of just 4.2 days.

[00:47:02] These outcomes reflect our commitment to building strong relationships with families, community partners, and vested parties across the division. We strengthened partnerships with community organizations and achieved a double-digit increase in our net promoter score since 2023, reflecting growing trust and satisfaction.

[00:47:28] Our redesigned website and expanded communication tools have made it easier for families to access accurate, timely information. Looking ahead, we will deepen trust through proactive storytelling and personalized engagement, especially with hard-to-reach families.

[00:47:44] We also aim to enhance internal communications to reinforce LCPS as an employer of choice and promote career and workforce development through strategic outreach. These efforts support a more connected, informed, and engaged LCPS community.

[00:48:01] This time, are there any questions pertaining to Goal 4? Members? No? Questions? Well, this concludes our presentation for this afternoon, and we thank you. Thank you very much for your presentation.

[00:48:18] okay um i guess we'll move on 4.03 department of academic strategic plan 2032 mission and vision is presented by dr ashley ellis our chief academic officer and dr single supervisor of strategic planning and continuous improvement thank you chair mansfield good afternoon dr single and i

[00:48:54] are excited and a little in awe that we are bringing forward a presentation about a strategic plan that will end in 2032. But here we are. It's very exciting. Today, we're going to provide you a historical perspective of our current strategic plan. We will go over our timeline for the development of the next strategic plan that will begin in 2027 when our current plan sunsets. And finally, we are seeking your input on our current vision, mission, and core values, and we have a

[00:49:27] couple of quick activities to get your feedback on those things. Our current strategic plan is made up of four parts that take us from our aspirational core values at the base of this triangle all the way up to the more specific goals and strategies that you're familiar with and just heard about.

[00:49:47] Our core values in the 1LCPS 2027 strategic plan are holistic support, equity and opportunity, trust through listening, rigorous teaching and learning, individualized student success, and continuous improvement.

[00:50:03] Our vision, which articulates what we aspire to achieve, is that every student will reach their full potential and achieve their dreams. Our mission, that describes what the organization does and who it does it for, is empowering all students to make meaningful contributions to the world.

[00:50:20] And of course, our goals focus on students, staff, our division, and our community. Each goal is accompanied by aligned actions and strategies that you heard about today. In 2022, LCPS and the board initiated a comprehensive strategic planning effort.

[00:50:40] This process was facilitated by an organization called RTI International. They engaged the entire community in defining goals, core values, and strategies. Frequent updates were provided to the board on the development as well as the implementation of the plan, and the board gave feedback and guidance on the goals and strategies.

[00:51:03] As stated in the previous slide, that work resulted in our six core values and the four strategic goals. In the coming months, we will begin preparations to collaboratively develop the next iteration of our strategic plan. This will be a highly collaborative effort, bringing together the board, our students, families, staff, and the wider community as we work together to build upon the successes of one LCPS 2027 strategic plan for excellence.

[00:51:32] As you can see on the slide, our strategic plan development will unfold in four phases. The initial phase focuses on engaging our invested parties to gather their input, analyze relevant data, and thoroughly understand our community's aspirations. We plan to have a strategic planning team made up of approximately 35 staff, students, family members, and community members that will develop goals based on stakeholder input and data. On the strategic planning team, we also plan to have one representative from each organizational school board committee to include MSAC, SEAC, LEAF, CTEAC, and GEAC. Business

[00:52:09] partners, community partners, one representative from each LCPS department, students, families, principals, and teachers. Once we have a draft plan, we do intend to get further feedback from the community and the board. Our goal is to then have staff work to develop strategies and metrics based on stakeholder input and feedback.

[00:52:29] And then finally, we will seek your approval. This slide shows key anticipated activities for each month. As stated earlier, our intent is to partner with you in this process, and we will provide frequent updates to the board and the public. The red arrows show when we anticipate those updates will take place to the board.

[00:52:49] In November, students, families, and staff and the community members will have an opportunity to participate in a strategic plan survey. The survey will conclude by asking members if they wish to participate in focus groups and be a part of the strategic planning team. Staff will then randomly select from the survey a list of participants for the focus groups and to serve on the strategic planning team.

[00:53:10] We plan to hold our first strategic planning team meeting in January, and we do intend to come back in front of the board in February to provide you with an update. So now we would like to seek your input and guidance on our current vision, mission, and core values.

[00:53:28] We've planned two activities to gather your input, And we do intend to have the strategic planning team that Dr. Singel just described engage in similar activities to guide the refinement of our vision, mission, and core values. But we think it's important to start with the school board's thoughts on those three things.

[00:53:46] The strategic planning team will use your feedback to also inform their work. So the first activity is focused on our current vision and mission. They're stated on the slide, and this activity is really a discussion that we will use to capture your thoughts and share with the strategic planning team.

[00:54:06] When you read the vision and mission, what components still ring true? So that's the first question we would like you to consider and discuss. And then secondly, what might be some additional concepts you think should be considered or given wings to in the vision and mission?

[00:54:25] So we'll pause and give you a couple minutes to think, and then I will turn it back to Chair Mansfield. To engage in a dialogue around those two questions, so just to reiterate when you think about our vision and mission What still rings true and what additional ideas might be considered or given wings to okay?

[00:54:48] I can start off a little bit When we're talking about the holistic support I do feel that but I think that we need to put something in like belonging which is something that we're focusing on and While I agree with rigorous teaching and learning, and we're challenging to reach their full potential, I just have this gut reaction that I want some sort of message for foundational instruction

[00:55:22] that we're also looking at, you know, spelling it out, like literacy and math, as well as other things. And I always wonder what is best performing division in the nation.

[00:55:39] I mean, that always means. So, anyway, other thoughts from people? Ms. Chernock. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the mission and vision, it feels a little fluffy to me.

[00:55:58] Like, I don't mean it in a bad way. It sounds nice. Every student will reach their full potential and achieve their dreams. I mean, that sounds good. I think we have more mechanisms at our disposal and resources to say more than that.

[00:56:13] I think my biggest struggle with this strategic plan that's in place right now is just how broad it is. It feels very cumbersome to look at all these, what feels like hundreds of metrics. I mean, I printed them out, and I feel like I'm splitting hairs from something that goes from 89% to 88%.

[00:56:30] So when I look at this far-reaching statement for vision and mission, and I actually do like our mission statement. And I think it's a little ahead of its time, actually, because we're forward thinking about having our kids be prepared for the world and contributing to the world. So I don't so much feel that way about the mission, but I feel like we've got to have more to say about our vision in terms of our kids and our resources and what they can do.

[00:56:56] And I think we've talked about this before, but I would love to see things in there about, you know, high expectations, meeting individualized needs. I think that those things speak more specifically than to just their dreams. So I would like it to be less ethereal and more concrete in terms of things that we can actually name and evaluate.

[00:57:21] I would connect with that, too. Madam Chair? Yes. Yes, Dr. Deans. I would like to contribute that while we have that mission and vision that it cannot be achieved without the best step.

[00:57:41] So I think something needs to be in the mission and the vision about the provision of excellent staff. And I'm also about community.

[00:58:03] I'm sorry, community, parent participation. So I think as written, it is quite bare and it needs more depth to it. Thanks, Dr. Deans.

[00:58:19] I think that's what Ms. Chernoff was talking about. too um meaningful contributions i think i'd like to what does that really mean um we're talking post-secondary what are we talking about um and the different pathways that we're doing that yes miss labell i would i would like to see something a little bit more specific to take um miss dr dean's advice perhaps it could say something like lcps will engage well qualified teachers and staff

[00:58:56] that will empower students to identify their strengths, their interests, and their values in order to make a meaningful contribution to their community and the world.

[00:59:14] Mr. Straffi. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I do agree with some of the comments in terms of the phrasing around achieve their dreams. Maybe there's something we can do there, But in general, I would just caution us that our vision and our mission should be broad.

[00:59:40] And I really like our mission, the way it's stated. And I think that where we're trying to insert anything related to rigor, instruction, staff, and the importance around those areas, that we kind of focus our attention to the core values and making sure that we go to that level of detail for those.

[01:00:02] because when I really like going to schools or speaking to staff and everything reverberates around that mission, right? And that a student knows what our mission is very easily. And I think our mission is very...

[01:00:20] I've heard a few of the kind of the Ivy League institutions. It's very similar to what kind of the service-based approach. And if I had any comments on the core values, just kind of thinking about this right now, in holistic support, although I like the word happy generally, I don't know how much utility it has in this statement, right? I like better, I like welcomed, included, represented, right? When I think about our students and the different backgrounds that they come from and circumstances, I just don't know that happy helps us here. And then

[01:00:57] with continuous improvement, I think it's very important that we've mentioned it as a core pillar, but I don't know that we've, we said continuous improvement, and in the sentence, a culture of continuous improvement should drive us. I don't know that we've said anything important about continuous improvement here, and I think there's just so much left on the table. So we could distill this even more and help us really define what continuous improvement means to us and how it drives us versus that it drives us. And I love the core value in

[01:01:36] terms of what resonates with me around trust through listening um i think that when we've seen that as we've focused on that um we've seen the returns right um as a division so that should remain there i probably have some more but i'll stop there dr rasheed thank you chair i wanted to piggyback off what ms labelle um uh mentioned about interest and i i really think that there should be some some sort of interest i mean i do agree with mr streffi that happy doesn't suffice because we're happy not doing homework so yeah this like yeah happy although we want our students

[01:02:15] to be happy but you know we want to guide them so I do like to see something about interest I do like what's written there but it just needs a little bit a little bit more detail so we have all these programs and I'm a little biased because of being a part of SBCC so we're having all these you know programs coming out and all that and we're always you know developing on our curriculum so we're always up and coming so I do want to see interest because it all definitely hones around students what their interests lie so they're going to go into certain programs or apply to certain programs or just in general they're always leading towards that and I definitely want to echo Dr. Dean's what

[01:02:54] she had mentioned altogether I do love the mission statement that should give it wings but I do like how empowering all students to make meaningful contributions to the world really sums it up for the mission thank you Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say what Mr. Estreffi said really got me thinking, and it definitely resonated with me, the idea that we shouldn't necessarily be so specific, but keep the idea in terms of being general. And when I reflect back

[01:03:31] on what we've heard from our community in our time in these seats, what I hear most is that people use the language from our mission when they come to speak to us all the time. they really do yeah so it the fact that it seems to have resonated with the community and is grounded in that way says something to me about how meaningful it is so I really do appreciate that and I know this isn't the first time I will share my little history geek side but happiness is one of those words I

[01:04:07] always find most interesting and it hasn't a long legacy in our in our government. But one of the things I don't think everybody knows is that Thomas Jefferson thought about using the word property, right? But this pursuit of happiness has definitely been an American ideal. But when you think about what a successful adult is, it's not necessarily grounded in happiness, right? It's grounded in resilience. And I think there are a lot of things that we could consider um and i'll look forward to the conversation continuing yes myla thank you

[01:04:47] thank you madam chair um i i really love this and i love a lot i agree with a lot of this but i i really like the mission statement what i want to see in the core values is kind of individualized success and holistic support combined because holistic support can mean they're getting support in all different areas but it could mean they're getting the same support in all different areas And that's not really holistic.

[01:05:13] Thank you. Nicely said. Anyone else? Yes, Dr. Ellis. Sorry, I was just going to make sure you remember there was a second activity. Is that your cue for me to move on, Chair Mansfield?

[01:05:38] You take as long as you want. No, it's fine. I think some of you are eager to talk about the core values, so I want to make sure you... Yeah, I mean, I guess some of us kind of like put them together because we're not following directions. We go with the flow. I am the one who started that. Sorry. Okay. The one thing that I will say for this vision and mission is what we have found so valuable is our collaboration with the community in many different ways, including our school business partnerships and partnering with our parents.

[01:06:17] And so I don't know how that would go into the vision or mission, but that collaborative part of what we do, I think, is really important. And it makes a huge difference bringing the community into our schools.

[01:06:35] So, OK, you can go on to your second part. Thank you. And before I do, just a sincere thank you to each of you for your feedback. This is extremely helpful. And as I'm listening to you talk, I'm envisioning us gathering this same feedback from our strategic planning team and bringing it back to you all, potentially in another work session type setting, to finalize these and make any necessary changes, because it sounds like there could be some tightening up of the vision and mission.

[01:07:08] So we also did want to give you an opportunity to think about and speak directly to the core values. I love that some of you are jumping ahead. That's great. We have placed at your seat a little half sheet of paper listing each core value in this table that you see on the screen. If it's helpful, we would love to give you a couple of minutes, although it sounds like you've all thought about this ahead of time. Ms. Mansfield, I'll take the lead from you. We are hoping to have a discussion

[01:07:43] about the six core values the values that you still strongly agree with and think reflect who we are as a school division perhaps values that you think reword need rewording or clarification perhaps as miss jackson mentioned combining core values and then are there values listed that you believe no longer reflect who we are so i'll turn it back over to you miss mansfield and whenever you think you're ready we will um we will love to hear your thoughts so i'll just go ahead and

[01:08:22] do a little bit um because i've been thinking about this um except that when you just said something about reflection when we're talking about continuous improvement we're really reflecting back and looking and i kind of like that more and i think if we're continually a continuous reflection um we're looking at the school we're looking at the division the children or the students are looking back at and reflecting on themselves teachers are also reflecting back I want if

[01:08:57] we're really talking about culture I mean I think we're talking about like the small all the way to the big um so that's one thing anyone mission off did you want to speak I have a few things but I couldn't agree more I actually had that in my notes as well I think one of the main things that And I'm going to zoom in on continuous improvement as well, although I have a couple of notes on some other things.

[01:09:24] But I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of reflection. And it is a best practice that we already do, but I really don't feel that it's captured here. Again, continuous improvement, that feels a little vague to me in terms of what I think for the general public and for maybe even just understanding schools, what that means.

[01:09:42] But I'm really looking for, and I hope I'm not going ahead of myself for disrupting this process too much, but I'm really looking for something sort of innovative when it comes to a strategic plan that is very different from what we have now. I think reporting metrics year to year is a lovely thing to do, and it keeps the community up to speed on many different areas.

[01:10:05] But what I really want to see is a clear cycle of analysis and action. So not just metrics, but what do they mean? And this is continuous improvement. What are we doing in response? And then the cycle there is, it working so more of a cause and effect approach which is grounded in that reflection annual review and then that adds a layer of accountability because it's not just here's the metrics we're not doing anything about it we are doing a ton of things in each of these areas but that would be impossible to communicate so I feel it would be far more effective if we were drilling down into a couple of things and I have to wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Deans that

[01:10:43] it to me it really is the three categories it's students educators and and its community members and parents. And so I think kind of couching it in those three areas and looking at continuous improvement underneath would be something that I would love to see. And I'll just throw a little bone out there.

[01:10:59] I also agree with adding sense of belonging in terms of support and getting rid of happy as well. And I also think that it's weird that we want to aspire to become the best division in the nation. I feel like that takes it off of the kids and makes it about us and making it about being forward-facing to the nation that we're the greatest.

[01:11:19] We're going to be the greatest when we're doing the things that meet our students' needs and when they're achieving at their fullest potential. And we don't need to worry about what anybody thinks about that. And I'll end on that soapbox note. Thank you. Yes, Ms. LaBelle.

[01:11:34] I agree with Ms. Chernoff on the best in the nation. What I'd rather see it say is part of a system that encourages lifelong learning. That's the important part.

[01:11:50] That's what comes after what we do with continuous reflection and growth. Then we want them to leave here and have habits of lifelong learning. Good point about growth. I don't see that in here at all.

[01:12:09] Yes. Ms. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just going over this list real quick, the holistic support, I think it does need, from your sheet, it needs rewording and more of a clarification. i do agree with miss shirnoff just about everything she said the next one you had equity and opportunity all students and staff should access have access to resources programs and support that enable a successful future i would say opportunity i would not use the word equity

[01:12:42] i'm more merit-based we should be following a merit-based system for all students trust through listening all students and staff community members should have regular opportunities to be heard in a two-way conversations across the division I you know I would think we're doing that now but I think our main goal is to just in with the next thing rigorous teaching and learning just make sure we educate everybody make sure any issue that any child may have is taken care of and give

[01:13:18] individualized speak with kids individualized as far as what is is going on is there an issue you know and with Miss Chernoff I agree innovative but also the CTE programs not everyone's going to go to college and I mentioned that before so we really need to speak to our students and find out you know what are you interested in what do you want us to offer and then you know of course a continuous improvement and innovation again I'm gonna use that word

[01:13:55] again but that's I'm going off your your sheet here just to give you some feedback thank you so much I'm always cautious with innovation because innovation doesn't always mean evidence and research based and so while I am totally for innovation I think it has its place at times and so I just I just want to make sure that we're you know hitting that hammer every time that foundational instruction that's that's uh research-based and evidence-based okay um anybody else dr deans did you have any

[01:14:33] more no i think we gave you all a lot of like talking like words anyway yes that was extremely helpful thank you so much for all of your input and we will use this input when we meet with the strategic planning team and um dr single and i will be back thank you so much okay um we have

[01:15:07] about 15 minutes part of me wonders if we could go ahead and do like we have two information items that i think are fairly quick naming um let's see we have the school board calendar but we also have the naming of the LCPS recovery school and the other one and I'm wondering do you think you guys think we have enough time to do that before yes thumbs up yeah you want to go

[01:15:45] ahead okay okay so we're going to move on to 13.02 and y'all are going to have to help me remember that I skipped 13.01 finance and operations committee naming of the LCPS recovery school presented by Mr. Estreffi, Chair of the Finance and Operations Committee, and I'm certain he's going to probably get some help by Ms. Richardson. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. In our last Finance and Operations Committee meeting, we discussed and approved the new name for the LCPS Recovery

[01:16:23] School, and the recommended name is the Recovery, Inspiration, Strength, and Empowerment Academy, which is the RISE Academy, and I will pass it to Ms. Richardson to add any context. Thank you, Mr. Estraffi. I appreciate that.

[01:16:38] So this item was first presented to Finance and Operations in June, and then it came back again. It was scheduled for August, but didn't make it until September. It has been properly vetted by LCPS legal counsel for all trademark issues, and there are none. Of course, our Recovery Academy launched this school year on August 21st, and we're excited.

[01:17:00] They are looking forward to having a name so that we can get some signage put up and have a ribbon cutting ceremony. Input on the name was taken in by our student assistance specialists. They all got to meet at one of their monthly meetings.

[01:17:17] They made naming recommendations and then they voted and we landed on RISE Academy. - Thank you, Ms. Richardson. Board members, do y'all have any questions? Okay, seeing no questions, may I have a thumbs up for this item to go consent, September 30th?

[01:17:36] All right, that will be going to consent. Let's move on to 13.03, again, Finance and Operations Committee naming of the LCPS Transition Center, presented by Mr. Estreffi, Chair of the Finance and Operations Committee. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. So we brought this forward in the Finance and Operations Committee to approve the newly recommended name of the LCPS Transition Center in our last meeting, and the recommended name was the LCPS VIEW Transition Academy, which stands for Vocation, Independence, Employment, and Work Readiness.

[01:18:11] And I'll again pass it to Ms. Richardson to add any additional context. Thank you, Mr. Estreffi. We are very excited to be working on the development of our Transition Center here in LCPS. Again, it was brought to Finance and Operations in June, and then again in September.

[01:18:29] It has been vetted with legal counsel for any trademark issues. There are none. input on the naming of this facility or program was gathered by our transition teachers, our job coaches, as well as SEAC, and everyone was able to make submission on naming recommendations, and then they had the final vote.

[01:18:51] And so we have landed on the LCPS View Transition Academy. - Thank you, Ms. Richardson. Board members, do you have any questions? Can I get a thumbs up for consent? All right, that will go to consent for September 30th. I'm just going to go right back up to 13.01, Department of Business and Financial Services, school board calendar for the development of fiscal year 2027 budget presented by Ms. Sharon Willoughby, our Chief Financial Officer.

[01:19:17] So I have for you today our proposed budget calendar for developing the FY27 budget.

[01:19:36] The calendar is similar to the process and the timeline that we used last year. Highlights include holding the fall budget work session on October 14th with the school board, Also, a preliminary forecast following county issuing revenue guidance, as well as then a series of budget work sessions that begin in January after Dr. Spence will present his estimate of needs on January 15th.

[01:20:00] The work sessions are the same number that we've had in the past to include two public hearings, and this would all culminate in the school board adopting its budget on Tuesday, February 3rd. As always, the calendar is subject to change.

[01:20:17] The workload and school board member schedules can create a need for additional work sessions or changes in the schedule, and the school board chair typically initiates any of those changes. And with that, I'd be happy to take any questions, and it is our intent to have this return as action at your next meeting.

[01:20:35] School board members, do you have any discussion? Yes, Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ms. Willoughby, and I thank you for the conversation that we had in advance of tonight to help me understand a little bit better about the public hearing. This is just a personal thing for me. It's always bothered me a little bit that we have the last public hearing when the amendments that we have to bring to the budget have to be submitted the Monday at noon before that Tuesday meeting.

[01:21:03] So basically, we have solidified the action that we're taking, and then we're saying, come and tell us what you want. That makes very little sense to me. So the first year, the example was the athletic trainers had come right after we got elected, and that sort of started the ball rolling for the following year's budget cycle.

[01:21:21] But in that moment, it felt very helpless to me. And, of course, like they could follow and get come earlier, I guess. But to me, it is my understanding that we only have to have one. So I see that we're honoring by having a second, and I'm not suggesting we take one away.

[01:21:37] But I'm wondering if this board sees that as a thing or if there is maybe appetite. I know it's optional on the 29th if needed, but maybe that would be a nice gesture to have another public hearing before we solidify our amendments for the budget.

[01:21:54] So just your thoughts on that. It's just always been a pet peeve of mine. It always felt kind of sad to me to see them standing there begging us for stuff when we've already submitted all of our things for the board and all the things. just putting that on the table. I appreciate that conversation, Ms. Chernoff. I also think that there might be some communication or some communication plan that we could do.

[01:22:18] Hey, if you want things, you need to start coming in in August and September, much like the volleyball, the boys' volleyball, who have already started. So I think there might be some thoughts to having communication if you want to come and advocate for something.

[01:22:40] come earlier yeah any other discussion from school members yes mr. Struffy to that point would it would it be possible to maybe add even another public hearing at some point after the superintendent's estimate of needs of after that initial presentation I'm just just out of curiosity what does that is that the timeline issue no so holding the public hearings as Mr. and off mentioned we're required by Virginia code to have one and so we do hold two

[01:23:19] there are posting requirements public notice requirements that we must adhere to and so any changes to this while we're talking about now gives us ample time but as we get closer if there were changes that would be something we would really need to know well in advance the scheduling and how they're spaced out was trying to allow where the public had heard some information kind of halfway through to have an initial public hearing and then the timing of the last while I recognize what Mr. Chernoff is saying was allowing the public to have heard all the presentations and all the discussions and this was more of maybe

[01:23:58] kind of like a last call in terms of bringing forward you know your concerns I have made the note in terms of you know working with our communications team that we can work to publicize and do more outreach in terms of our public caring opportunities, as well as the public always has the opportunity at any school board meeting during public comment to also give thoughts on the budget. Thank you, Ms. Willoughby. Any other discussion? So if somebody wanted to change this, so we would take it to action, somebody could make

[01:24:34] an amendment. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So with that, if you guys, I mean, I'll ask if anybody wants this to go to consent no okay so it will not go to consent it will go to action um for the september 30th uh meeting okay thank you miss willoughby okay and then with that i think we will um go ahead and recess this meeting for dinner and we'll reconvene at 6 30 all right the board

[01:25:12] is now in recess good evening the board is coming out of recess at this time and we will continue

[02:00:49] with our meeting with item seven the pledge of allegiance and national anthem the pledge of allegiance and national anthem will be performed by etheria quartet from freedom high school the freedom high school saxophone quartet known as etheria quartet is coming up on its two and a half year anniversary since formation its members have been playing and performing together in other ensembles for six years etheria has enjoyed playing at many venues in the freedom high school community, including at school events and fundraisers. The quartet is led by Jonathan

[02:01:24] Schiffler, Director of Bands at Freedom High School. Will everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.

[02:01:40] To the which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:03:52] Thank you so much. All right, we'll continue on with item eight, recognitions. One LCPS spotlight the power of community partnerships, Belmont Ridge Middle School and Orblinks Academy, presented by Katie Johnson, Principal Belmont Ridge Middle School. Welcome. Thank you so much.

[02:04:17] So good evening, LCPS school board and LCPS leaders. I am Katie Johnson. I am the proud principal of Belmont Ridge Middle School, and I am thrilled to be here to talk about our community partnerships. We'll be highlighting our engaged partnership with Orblinks Academy and our goal of developing informed critical thinkers, collaborators, and contributors to the world of STEM. Next slide, please. As previously shared, this partnership directly aligns with the LCPS Strategic Plan for Excellence, more specifically Goals 1 and 4. As a reminder, Goal 1 seeks to

[02:04:55] empower students by creating opportunities to become knowledgeable critical thinkers, collaborators, and innovators. And goal four seeks to create an engaged community by building meaningful partnerships with our community. Next slide. Before diving further into the alignment of our LCPS strategic plans and business partnerships, I'd like to introduce our presenters. Ms. Katie Johnson, principal of Belmont Ridge Middle School. Ms. Ferry Riar, founder of Orba Links Academy, myself Annie Grazier, financial technician of Belmont Ridge, and most

[02:05:34] importantly some of the former and current students of Belmont Ridge. Next slide please. So why did Belmont Ridge and Orblinks Academy engage in our partnership back in 2019? It was our shared desire to increase the number of female students engaged in interest in the STEM fields. We know that while girls and young women do well in math and science, they face barriers within the STEM community. These barriers include stereotypes about STEM careers, a curriculum that can feel irrelevant to their lives, and limited exposure to

[02:06:11] relatable female STEM role models. We also know that these stereotypes about girls interest in computer science are formed as early as age six and are present through adolescence. The good news is that 86% of young women want a career where they can help others and interacting with diverse role models can help shift the perception and increase their identification with STEM. Next slide. Now let's

[02:06:36] take a look at some of the highlights of our collaboration.

[02:07:23] Next slide please. I'm a 12th grader and I've been participating in STEM with Orblinks Academy since I was in 8th grade. Orblinks Academy has truly been the best program I've ever joined. Our six-year partnership has been instrumental in providing so many different opportunities for our kids. I would recommend it to anyone no matter if you're into science, if you're not, any person would love Orblinks Academy. Next slide, please.

[02:08:01] This collaboration with Orblinks Academy is a fantastic example of a community partnership that addresses these barriers head-on. Our mission has always been to make STEM not only accessible, but relevant and meaningful, giving students a full-circle STEM experience that connects their classroom learning with world impact and career opportunities.

[02:08:27] Through our collaboration, we have brought in our STEM innovation labs, our summer STEM academies, as well as our sustainable initiatives directly into the classrooms. All the student projects have a direct impact on the community and are aligned with the goal of graduating contributors who initiate change.

[02:08:48] Our senior cohort is a great example of a full circle STEM learning experience at Orlinks Academy. Many who began with us as just a sixth grader middle school students are now heading to college with a scholarship, internship, and leadership opportunities and experiences that shaped with their Orblinks Academy journey.

[02:09:10] Next slide, please. Now, I think it's light before that. Now I'd like to turn it over to one of our senior students, Olivia Nugent, to share her journey and experience with Orblinks Academy.

[02:09:30] - Thank you, Ms. Ferry. So, through Orblinks Academy, I can't say more amazing things about it, but I'm gonna highlight some of my key experiences today. In Orblinks Academy, I think I've become a more independent and motivated learner.

[02:09:45] Instead of seeing challenges now, I see opportunities to critically think and grow as a student. A few summers ago, I was introduced to something called mycelium. Mycelium is a plastic substitute that's extremely durable, 100% biodegradable, fire resistant, and carbon negative.

[02:10:03] Me and a group of my fellow students created and now run a team called BioBench, where we inspire environmental advocacy with making benches out of mycelium. When I started Orblinks Academy in sixth grade, I was terrified of speaking in public. I had a tough time speaking with my peers, not even presenting in front of five people.

[02:10:23] But Orblinks Academy has given me the confidence in public speaking skills to not only be good at public speaking, but also enjoy it. Something that highlights this is when I gave a TED-Ed speech. In there, I was actually enjoying myself and not upset to be public speaking in front of a crowd.

[02:10:40] And I also was able to get my points across without messing up my words too much. Through Orblinks Academy, I also think I've become a better leader and more importantly, a team member. I've done this through several community works, projects, and being able to mentor younger students as well as being mentored by older students.

[02:11:00] When I started Orblinks Academy, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with my career, but STEM wasn't anywhere on my mind. After being introduced to these career opportunities in different sciences, science is something I hold very, very dear, and I plan to go into the STEM field.

[02:11:17] Orblinks Academy is a wonderful program that's given me real-world experience, public speaking experience, problem-solving ability, as well as leadership qualities that will carry me far into my college and career. Next slide, please. I would now like to introduce a current Belmont Ridge Middle School student, Myesha.

[02:11:37] Thank you, Olivia. Obelix Academy has changed the way I learn by not only expanding my creativity, by helping me persevere through challenges. Every year I go through the hard process of picking an idea from my projects, and creativity is always a big part of it. Whenever doing anything, you will face challenges, and you face challenges when making projects.

[02:11:56] You have to persevere and find creative solutions to these problems. Obelix Academy is very different from regular classroom life. It is definitely hands-on, from working with mycelium to making your own circuits. you definitely are able to let your creativity be free. There is so much freedom with the way you are able to do, to able to make anything you want.

[02:12:12] I've definitely gained some leadership skills by helping younger students and just seeing how the amazing Ms. Ferry we are leads. Especially when it came to last year during the school year, I would sometimes help the younger students with projects. Being at Orbis Academy has definitely made me consider other careers in the future.

[02:12:28] I would love to pursue a career that has to do with sustainability or engineering in the future. Women's presence in these careers are so important. Also, thank you with all my heart to Ms. Farah Riar, Ms. Barbar, Ms. Rodriguez, and all the interns. I absolutely love being a part of the academy, and you all deserve this recognition. Now let's hear from another student, Lisa.

[02:12:46] - Thank you. In Orblinks Academy, we have been given the option to find problems that interest us and come up with innovative solutions to that problem. We are taught about all of the materials that we are provided and are able to use any of them that we want.

[02:13:02] The interns help a lot with giving pointers on how to make a better project, finding materials for it, and supporting us through frustrating but rewarding journey of bringing ideas into reality. While in the presence of like-minded people, I have learned how to work well with others to bring their plans into action as well as my own.

[02:13:20] I have helped others achieve goals, given advice, and received constructive criticism. One way that Orblinks is different from the regular classroom is that it gives you the brain space to come up with great ideas, follow through with them, and present to others. I had given STEM jobs very little thought until I joined Orblinks.

[02:13:37] I am so thankful that I finally found what I truly love. - Thank you. - Those young scientists are a hard act to follow. Can I have the next slide, please? So in summary, the partnership is a huge success 'cause it understands the needs of adolescent learners and it demonstrates how to engage them through hands-on STEM projects, project-based learning, and real-world applications.

[02:14:00] We believe this collaboration can serve as a model for future community partnerships. Next slide, please. Thank you, and at this point, we'll open the floor to any questions, and I'm sure they're gonna be for our young scientists, so I will ask them to come up here.

[02:14:17] Thank you. Board members? Yes, Michelle. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. And you young ladies are quite impressive. This is not always an easy test, even just come talk to us. So I just am so impressed. You mentioned the mentorship program a little bit. Can you talk about how that structure works in terms of when you transition to being a mentor? Is there some kind of training? Do you have to be in the program? Can you just speak to that a little bit? Yeah, a hundred percent. So I became an intern, I guess, freshman year now, so about four years ago. I'd been in the program for three years beforehand I knew it very very well and I knew the materials we were doing but honestly they still teach me with the new ideas they come up

[02:14:56] with but from there miss Ferry asked me if I would want to have more of a leadership role and be an intern to help other students and then in a separate session I would still be doing some of my own work so I transitioned to that she gave me pointers and held my hand through the way for the first year and had definitely some training to be an intern but internships I do every summer and now I do during the school year during my early release as well and I just help out the students I mean if I'm going to be honest they do all the work I'm just there to make sure that it isn't too crazy of idea

[02:15:30] but it's it's all them they they do everything. Thank you. Anyone else? We really appreciate you being here and have you guys also been at Step Up Loudon? I think I remember you and I think maybe the bench is what you were talking okay that was a very cool project uh and using mycelium to make furniture i remember so well thank you so much thank you so much for being here and for your

[02:16:06] inspiration and your for everyone so everybody else okay thanks y'all take care all right we'll continue with a student school board representative milo jackson milo jackson is a senior at the North Star School. They're involved as an equity ambassador for North Star and they enjoy connecting with their North Star community at any chance they get. Last year Milo working with Senator Perry

[02:16:41] created legislation that makes May Ehlers-Danlos Awareness Month in Virginia a condition that they are personally affected by. At their home school Milo is heavily involved in their theater department and they are Virginia thespian officer. Welcome back Milo and the floor is yours.

[02:17:01] Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening. I'd like to thank the school board, my principal, Ms. Manenberg, and everyone at the North Star School who helped make this happen. My name is Mila Jackson, and I have been attending the North Star School since the second semester of my freshman year. The North Star School is a non-traditional education program that is geared towards students who need a smaller, more personal learning setting. The North Star School is also for students who may have moved to LCPS from another school system in an alternative format.

[02:17:27] The Northstar school runs on a 4x4 schedule. This allows students to take four classes each semester instead of seven student seven classes on alternating days. This is one of the many things that drew me to Northstar. At the Northstar school the classes consist of ten or less students, which allows each student to receive the instruction in a way that works best for them.

[02:17:47] At Northstar, I know all of my classmates names and I'm able to make friends easily. The 4x4 class schedule works for me because I've dealt with health issues and I sometimes need to miss class. However, instead of waiting until the next A day to receive instruction, I'm able to jump back in without missing a beat.

[02:18:06] This year, the North Star School introduced higher-level classes including Pre-Calculus, AP Statistics, AP U.S. History, Dual Enrollment Government, AP Psychology, Latin 1, and Spanish 5 Honors. These classes will accompany Dual Enrollment English 12 that was added last year.

[02:18:21] This gives students at the North Star School the same opportunity for academic rigor that they would have at their home schools. Along with higher-level classes, North Star has introduced activity periods on Fridays where we will hold various fun and community building opportunities. The North Star School is so excited to have this new level of community within our school.

[02:18:40] Many students transferring to North Star assume they have to give up their extracurricular activities they participated in at their home school. This is just not the case. At my home school, Heritage High School, I'm an active member of my theater department and I participate in National Honor Society.

[02:18:56] Many other students at North Star participate in sports at their home school as well. North Star has given me the opportunity to succeed at academics while still being involved and extracurricular activities at my home school. The students at North Star are driven and hardworking. Our students put in immense effort to succeed in their academics in order to work towards a successful life after high school.

[02:19:15] Students from all experiences and walks of life come to North Star to learn. They made a conscious choice that despite their hardships, they want to work for an education. Some reasons students may come to North Star include, but are not limited to, medical hardship, learning differences and disabilities, mental health hardships, and the motivation to graduate sooner.

[02:19:37] All North Star students strive to exemplify the star qualities, service, trust, attitude, and respect. Before arriving at the North Star School, I was learning to rebuild my life after a mental health crisis and the diagnosis of a chronic illness. Life wasn't easy, and I was struggling in traditional high school.

[02:19:54] As I began classes at the North Star School, my world began to open up. I received instruction that I was actually understanding, and I could have one-on-one instruction when I needed to. and I felt empowered to advocate for myself in more than just the educational environment.

[02:20:12] The North Star School taught me how to work alongside my disability and how I can use my unique experiences as an asset for my future. I was empowered to reach out to organizations and causes I care about to create a real difference. The North Star School has made me a stronger student and encouraged my determination.

[02:20:29] Every student deserves to have the opportunity to succeed. I'd like to thank my dad, Heather, my Gammy, and everyone who has ever supported me in my education. all are truly appreciated and i'm so lucky to have people in my life who love me so much that they want to see me succeed thank you that was beautiful thank you for having for coming and

[02:21:01] sharing with us okay we're going to move on to item 10 superintendent support report presented by dr aaron spence our superintendent dr spence thank you madam chair thank you miss jackson for sharing that with us we appreciate those those comments and board members it's always my pleasure to share good news from around the school division this evening i'd like to begin by asking miss erica sampson to stand up miss sampson has been named the director of school nutrition miss sampson comes to lcps from houston texas where she was the district manager of student

[02:21:40] nutrition for aramark prior to that she served as national director of food service and regional food service manager for southwest key programs miss sampson also held an earlier role as a child nutrition program director for port arthur independent school district and we'd like to to welcome Ms. Sampson to her new role and to LCPS.

[02:21:57] Congratulations. I'd also like to ask Nicole Agoni to please stand up. Ms. Agoni has been named Director of Teaching and Learning for Professional Growth and Innovation.

[02:22:14] Ms. Agoni was most recently the K-12 Mathematics Supervisor for LCPS, a role she's held since 2017. In this role, she's led curriculum development, professional learning, and initiatives supporting math placement and acceleration. Prior to that, she served as a division instructional facilitator in LCPS, supporting teachers with curriculum implementation and coaching.

[02:22:35] Ms. Agoni began her career in Fairfax County Public Schools as a high school mathematics teacher and later served in several administrative roles before joining LCPS. We welcome Ms. Agoni to her new role. Congratulations. Elsewhere across the division, excited to share that Belmont Ridge Middle School students are national champions.

[02:23:00] In just their second year as a Chapter 12 students representing Belmont Ridge at the Technology Student Association National Conference in Nashville, brought home four national championships and multiple top ten finishes. From biotechnology and CAD foundations to video game design and forensics, their creativity and innovation showcased the power of STEM education.

[02:23:22] The team competed against thousands of students from across the country and these accomplishments highlight how early exposure to STEM, like what we heard about earlier this evening, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills that support success across all subject areas. Congratulations to these students, advisors, and the Belmont Ridge community for this remarkable achievement.

[02:23:42] Also, this summer, 10 students from the Academies of Loudoun participated in an international research partnership with the Wachong Institute in Singapore. These students worked alongside their peers from Wachong on original research projects as part of the year-long Singapore Research Collaboration. This experience reflects the LCPS instructional framework in action, giving students authentic and real-world learning opportunities and building cross-cultural connections. I also would like to commend LCPS educators Jennifer Chang, Erica Hansen, and Ethan Kantz, who not only supported and mentored the

[02:24:17] students but were invited to attend the Global AI Nexus of Schools, or GAINS, consortium while in Singapore. Ms. Chang even presented on ACL's approach to generative AI and in a follow-up note GAINS leaders commended the team's leadership noting that their contributions will help shape policies and processes far into the future. This evening I also want to recognize and congratulate Deborah Tripp, graphics communications teacher at the Academies of Loudoun for receiving the Roger Johnson lifetime achievement award achievement award from the Virginia Association for Trade and Industrial

[02:24:52] Educators. This award, unanimously approved by the VATIE Board, honors her exceptional dedication to trade and industrial education in Virginia. Ms. Tripp has served as the SkillsUSA Virginia State Director, serving in that role from 2012 to 2018, and she continues to inspire future leaders through her work in the classroom, where her students regularly achieve top honors at district, state, and national levels. Congratulations also to Gumspring Middle School, J. Michael Lunsford Middle School, and Seneca Ridge Middle School on being named Schools of Distinction by the Association of Middle-Level Education.

[02:25:30] This honor recognizes the school's commitment to young adolescent education and continuous improvement. These schools, these three LCPS schools, are amongst just 24 U.S. middle schools and the only Virginia middle schools recognized by the AMLE this year.

[02:25:47] In total, 10 LCPS middle schools have earned this recognition since AMLE began recognizing schools of distinction in 2022 and then finally this evening i would love to highlight three recent collaborations between community partners the division of family and community engagement and our schools to support our back to school season and provide resources for our students and families first the division of family and community engagement and the division of career technical and adult education partnered with the broadlands rotary club to deliver backpacks to leesburg elementary meadowland elementary and sugarland elementary helping students

[02:26:24] begin the year ready to learn and with the supplies they need. The Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, a tremendous and long-standing LCPS partner, supported students and families through the Heroes and Hornets Backpack Initiative, ensuring Sully Elementary students were prepared and confident for their first day. And the Division of Family and Community Engagement also worked with many generous partners who supported students with supplies and resources to get them ready for school at other sites. These initiatives highlight how LCPS works side-by-side with our community partners to provide resources and build a stronger sense of connection

[02:26:57] and belonging around our students. Madam Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Spence. And with that, we will move on to public comment. Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from the Loudoun County residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a strong of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted and based

[02:27:34] on the number of speakers and the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted one minute each for public comment please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time decorum and civility all audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break.

[02:27:59] Violations of civility, decorum, and respect include shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting, obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa, interrupting speakers, attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair, and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees.

[02:28:25] Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, or other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students and or individual division employees during public comment. As a reminder, School Board Policy 2520 states, Speakers may not target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment.

[02:28:50] Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements.

[02:29:06] And I do want to take a moment to clarify a few things. As I explained previously, speakers can personally identify a student or employee without stating a student's or employee's names. That is, personally identifiable information is any information that a reasonable person can link together to pinpoint an individual student or employee and where that individual student or employee is known to others in their school and surrounding community based on the context that is shared.

[02:29:38] The school board welcomes you to share your concerns, but asks that to the extent you have prepared remarks that criticize, target, or attack any individual students or employees, you generalize such remarks to ensure compliance with board policy.

[02:29:55] For example, comments that target, criticize, or attack a student or an employee or a student or an employee from a specific name school or a student or an employee with any characteristics where the information would personally identify that student or employee to others in the school or broader LCPS community would violate school board policy.

[02:30:25] However, comments that discuss general concerns with students or employees at schools do not target, criticize, and do not target, criticize, or attack an individual identifiable student or employee are permissible.

[02:30:45] Under school board policy, I, as school board chair, am charged with the responsibility to maintain order during school board meetings. Accordingly, when reasonable, I will warn of breaches of decorum, civility, and respect and ask speakers to redirect their comments prior to possibly discontinuing individual speaking privileges or taking other actions to preserve the civility, decorum, and orderly conduct of the meeting.

[02:31:12] Such action includes calling a recess in order to maintain and or restore order. If speakers fail to comply with board policy regarding public participation, you will receive a warning and a request to redirect or generalize your comments. Should you fail to redirect or generalize your comments after that warning you may be asked to yield the microphone at which time you should yield the microphone as well as the floor and take your seat and I will then call the next speaker. To the extent necessary I will also warn of breaches of decorum, civility

[02:31:48] and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly conduct of the meeting. Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board. Per school board policy 2520, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in on the decision of the chair public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's

[02:32:28] agenda limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending for the evening distribution of materials to school board members copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting please provide 12 copies of the materials under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais The public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through LCPS-TV on Comcast Channel 18 and 1070 HD and Verizon Vios Fios Channel 43.

[02:33:08] The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. And we'll start with our virtual public comment. And I believe we will start with Shefi Simon, followed by Natalie Kozbob.

[02:33:28] We do not have a virtual public speaker by that name. Natalie Kozbob, followed by Brenda Bankson. We do not have a virtual public speaker by that name.

[02:33:53] Brenda Bankson, followed by Lynn Davis. Noted educator, Haim Gano, said it best. I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.

[02:34:11] It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable. or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. Thanks to the majority who support

[02:34:49] 8040. All students deserve humanization, not vilification. Always. Thank you. Lynn Davis, and then we'll continue with our in-person speakers. First one is Tina Glover. We do not have a virtual public speaker by that name. Okay, first in-person as Tina Glover, followed by Maggie Barone. I'm here to advocate for additional resources to ensure that our students can arrive

[02:35:27] school on time and can access the special academic programs offered by Loudoun County. My child is in the pre-IB program. As a resident of the Dulles South area our child was assigned to Loudoun Valley High School. That means a commute from the Hub Stop and Aldi to the school in Percival. According to Stop Finder the estimated bus stop pickup is 8:30 and the estimated arrival at LVHS is 9:10. To date the bus has been has missed this mark 100% of the time ranging from 15 to 45 minutes late. For example today the bus arrived at the the school at 9 30 when the kids should have already been in their classrooms this is a group of students who have a 40 plus minute bus ride and the late bus times further lengthen their commute

[02:36:07] create stress and result in missed classroom time for the entire bus load of students i hope we can all agree this is a problem the good thing is that it's a problem that can be solved if the county wants the ib program to succeed it can allocate additional resources to support the program for example a dedicated bus for the ib program that would avoid cascading delays from challenging elementary school runs thank you your time is thank you um okay um maggie barone

[02:36:34] followed by peg klein no maggie barone okay peg klein followed by chris klein facts are stubborn things out of the 81 000 students at lcps 50 students identify as trans 0.06 percent lcps

[02:37:10] receives approximately 47 million in federal funding of which 29 million supports special education. Federal funds support 23,278 students for free or reduced lunch, 12,000 English learner students, 9,000 special ed students, and 15 Title I schools to help families who fall below the poverty line receive needed academic support. LCPS is willing to risk that to accommodate 50 students.

[02:37:39] LCPS claims federal funding is not significant and can be replenished. Really? Tell that to the families who desperately need support to help their children learn and help ensure that their child has something to eat for the day? Is LCPS willing to jeopardize programs that support tens of thousands of children to promote a controversial ideology and political position? How is this

[02:38:02] appropriate? Thank you. Chris Klein, followed by Amy Riccardi.

[02:38:21] In my opinion, policy 8040 infringes on the privacy, educational, and nutrition needs of thousands of students, making matters worse Some of the board members have willfully voted to forego further review of the policy until certain conditions are met, nearly guaranteeing that 80-40 will not be reviewed for a long time.

[02:38:43] It may even handicap future school boards from reviewing it. This is undemocratic and dangerous. There's a common sense solution that protects the rights of all children. Instruct trans or non-binary students to use gender-neutral bathrooms. This protects the privacy and dignity of all students, including trans students.

[02:39:02] It will likely preserve federal funding and prevent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. I can't help but to speculate that if board members were personally and financially responsible for their votes, their voting might have been different. Rescind or modify policy 80-40 so that schools are able to respect the values of all its students and the taxpayers who fund it.

[02:39:24] Thank you. Amy Riccardi, followed by Chris Countryman. I want to thank Ms. Klein for teeing me up. So the students that are most impacted by the decisions that you've made are seven of the 15 Title I schools in Sterling Park.

[02:39:47] And the SOL numbers just came out again. And yet again, we're failing our Title I and English learner students in Sterling Park. English reading scores in Sterling Park schools are at 51, where the county is at 82. Math scores in Sterling Park are at 53, and the county is at 82.

[02:40:05] Science scores in Sterling Park are at 47, and the county is at 80. The history results are not any better. 62 for Sterling Park schools, 86 for the county. This is historical for as long as I've been backtracking this information, at least a decade.

[02:40:21] And my thing is, you all are supposed to be education leaders. Your number one goal for the school board is student outcomes and student academic success. Where is the student academic success for our Sterling Park kids? That is the question. Thank you.

[02:40:39] Chris Countryman, followed by Omer Butt. Good evening. I wanted to once again take just a moment to thank you all for your continued commitment to all of our students and our staff.

[02:40:58] I also wanted to share good news, that while we are quite far away from a bargaining agreement, we are one step closer. Last week, LEA and LCPS signed the first substantive tentative agreement, which was on working conditions.

[02:41:18] At the same time, I want to make you aware that unilateral changes are occurring. This is a breach of good faith bargaining, which requires LCPS to maintain the status quo while bargaining is in progress. I am asking you to tell the school division to maintain past practices as legally required.

[02:41:38] Again, I thank you all for all the work that you're doing. Thank you. Well, Mayor Butt, followed by Jason Harding.

[02:41:57] Jason Harding, followed by Peter Liarni.

[02:42:09] I speak this evening as a concerned 25-year citizen of Loudoun County.

[02:42:26] I'm a parent with a child in the school system, a veteran, and someone who believes deeply in the principles of civil liberty and mutual respect. I'm not here to challenge your intentions, but to raise serious concern about Policy 8040 and its impact on the civil rights of families. The policy instructs educators to withhold vital information from parents, undermining their constitutional right to guide the child's development.

[02:42:49] It compels teachers to speak against their conscience, violating their First Amendment protections, and it creates unequal conditions in our schools where safety and privacy are sacrificed for ideological compliance. This is not equity, it's exclusion. Civil rights are not selective.

[02:43:05] They belong to every parent, every teacher, every student, regardless of viewpoint. I urge you to reconsider this policy, restore transparency, and reaffirm your commitment to a school system that respects liberty, protects families, and welcomes all voices.

[02:43:20] - Thank you. Peter Liarni, followed by Brian Markley. Oh, that was, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't, I thought that, sorry. Okay, so there was no Jason Harding. Okay, Brian Markley, followed by Corey Brunet.

[02:43:41] Good evening. My name is Brian Markley, and I am a proud LCPS alumni, father to three LCPS students, and an LCPS employee. I am here to speak to you about the proposed revision to Policy 5410.

[02:43:58] I am a fierce advocate for public education. I believe it is a core part of the multifaceted solution that leads to a more just, equitable society. LCPS's public charter schools are not a voucher program. Many of the faculty are LCPS employees, including every classroom teacher.

[02:44:15] The students are LCPS students. I believe, like our superintendent, that we must create multiple pathways for our students' imagined futures. The proposed policy threatens the well-being of our students and our staff in one of those pathways and is incongruent with the language laid out in their agreements.

[02:44:35] Please revise the language in the proposed policy to align with existing agreements, include hca and mccs in the elementary accessible playground project and commit to ongoing and future consideration of the schools and the cip budgets thank you corey brunet followed by abby platt good evening my name is corey brunet and i'm an english learner teacher at broad run high school this school board crafted and signed a resolution to start collective bargaining between lcps staff and lea the exclusive bargaining representative for both certified and non-certified employees

[02:45:13] According to the resolution, LCPS may not withhold benefits that employees currently enjoy during the bargaining process, but this is exactly what is happening. I know of at least 30 employees whose salary, benefits, and or working conditions have explicitly and intentionally deteriorated at the direction of LCPS, and I am happy to share specific information with you later.

[02:45:39] To be clear, these are unfair labor practices. You need to be aware of this because you signed the resolution and LCPS staff are not adhering to it. LCPS will never outperform its educators. Thank you.

[02:45:55] Abby Platt, followed by Ann Miller. I wonder if a student looks like a girl, talks like a girl, wears makeup and jewelry like a girl, but she goes by a boy's name, is she still a girl?

[02:46:13] Well, no, obviously not. She's a boy. We all know that in Loudoun, one can identify however they please. It doesn't matter if that girl presents as a girl because her manufactured identity takes precedence over her sex. And we all know that everybody better play along or they'll be punished.

[02:46:29] This is exactly what LCPS is doing right now. The board voted to sue the feds just to force boys to share a locker room with a girl, with a camera, no less. Brilliant use of taxpayer dollars. Serious question. Will the teacher's retirement benefit be used to pay the 80-40 legal bill?

[02:46:45] Ms. Platt, if you would stop targeting, criticizing, and attacking individual students during public comment, please. A student, A girl, A. That is the issue. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Miller, Ann Miller, followed by Jessica Smith.

[02:47:07] You took an oath of impartiality, which means acting out without bias, prejudice, favoritism, ensuring decisions are based on objective and fair criteria. It requires that an individual not be influenced by personal relationships, prior beliefs, or self-interest when making decisions.

[02:47:26] On September 2nd, Ms. Donahue shared her concerns that for whatever reason, this board has either been unwilling or unable to have a conversation to discuss whether policy 8040 in its current draft is the best way to ensure dignity, safety, and equality for all students. Yet Ms. Manfield, you and the majority of this board ignored Ms. Donahue's concerns, suspended rules, and with implicit bias pushed through 8040.

[02:47:47] Does not take boldness or courage to use your position of authority as a bully pulpit, ignoring the majority of your constituency. What your actions took was willful and intentional abuse of power, depriving students of their rights. We all know bullying is wrong, and yet you use your bully tactics to push 80-40 through to the next cycle.

[02:48:06] How hypocritical. Do as you say, not as you do. Thank you, Jessica Smith, followed by Suzanne Satterfield. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

[02:48:34] One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our students recite this daily, yet are denied liberties, better known as our fundamental freedoms, protected by our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

[02:48:57] There is no safety when you won't follow the laws. The citizens of Loudoun County should be aware when a threat is found in our schools. Almost three weeks ago, a music teacher was arrested in solicitation of a minor.

[02:49:23] As a parent of a crime victim, we need to know the truth. Thank you. Suzanne Satterfield, followed by Tumai Harding. LCPS tells parents to lock up their guns and banned more cell phone towers at schools in the name of student safety.

[02:49:50] Inside the school for safety, they tell children to not run in the halls, yet they continue to lie to children that they can change their sex. And to parents, they lie just to keep 80/40 in place. Children and parents complained over and over the past years about a teacher's behavior that should have raised red flags.

[02:50:12] but this DEI star was allowed to continue his employment where he had access to hundreds of children. How many of these students and parents are further unsettled after finding out this very teacher known as PervTeach on Snapchat was recently arrested for sending pictures of his genitalia to what he thought was a 14-year-old boy?

[02:50:35] To add insult to injury, LCPS's response to these current families is, we're here to help. Just call the LCPS United Mental Health Center. - Thank you. To Ms. Tumay Harding.

[02:50:57] - Good evening parents and community members. Loudoun County Public Schools silenced Lieutenant Governor Winston Sears tonight, barring her from speaking for us despite her fight for parental and children's rights. I'm here demanding common sense. The board's mishandling of policy 8040 makes every bathroom and locker room a hostile space for our kids.

[02:51:17] Last week's 5-4 vote on Melinda Mansfield's proposal blocked a spring review, delaying changes until endless court battles resolve years away. This locks in a policy that erases privacy, defies federal Title IX orders, and ignores the VHSL's ban on boys and girls sports, risking $46 million in funds and our daughter's safety and fairness.

[02:51:39] This isn't inclusion, it's a betrayal of our kids. We demand secure spaces and fair play now, not delays. Please email your board members to reverse this. - Thank you. Okay, with that, we're going to go ahead and take a 10-minute recess, and we will be back at 7.30.

[02:52:03] Thank you.

[02:52:03] We're back from recess, and we will continue on with item 12, our action items.

[03:03:57] Starting with item 12.01, Department of Business and Financial Services, Special Education, Maintenance of Effort, Financial Review, presented by Ms. Sharon Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer. We typically start with a motion.

[03:04:14] Mr. Estreffy, would you like to start that motion? Yes, Madam Chair, if you'd just give me a moment. I move that the Loudoun County School Board authorizes usage of $28,997,133 of FY25 allocated and an unencumbered school operating fund balance to reimburse Virginia Department of Education, FY23 and FY24 Title IV B funds in response to VDOE's determination regarding maintenance of effort requirements.

[03:04:51] I have a motion by Mr. Streffi. Do I have a second? Okay, I have a second by Dr. Rasheed. It's been properly moved and seconded. Now, is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, I guess we'll go ahead with the vote. Clerk, would you please open the vote? Board members, would you please record your vote? Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? Yes. Clerk,

[03:05:26] would you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously. We will move on to 12.02 Department of Business and Financial Services supplemental increase for self-insurance funds and again, I'm going to ask Mr. Struffy since you're F&O if you would go ahead and state the motion. Yes, thank you madam chair I move that the Loudoun County School Board authorizes the FY 25 supplemental budget increase of 1.5 million dollars for the workers Compensation self-insurance fund to be funded by available fund balance and transfers from the school operating fund Further, that the Loudoun County School Board authorizes an FY25 supplemental budget increase of $43 million

[03:06:04] for the health self-insurance fund to be funded by a combination of excess FY25 revenues, transfers from the school operating fund, and use of available fund balance. I have a motion by Mr. Ostraffi. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Vice Chair Donohue.

[03:06:21] It's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, Mrs. Grose. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious if we're going to be at zero after we pay back the $29 million and then we have to do the $43 million transfer.

[03:06:38] Maybe Ms. Willoughby can answer that question. I believe you're referring to our school operating fund fund balance. However, I think you're conflating two items. And so in terms of the cash balance of the school operating fund, we will be at zero, as I had shared all along, and that we had communicated that with the county.

[03:07:00] We will be paying the VDOE, the $29 million, out of that fund balance, and then the remaining funds will be transferred to the health self-insurance fund. The available cash that we were projecting, though, I think was closer to about $32 million. The item before you right now is related to a budget supplemental to increase the budget by $43 million to give us the additional budget authority or permission to spend $43 million of additional claims costs that we weren't anticipating this year.

[03:07:33] That $43 million is supported or funded by the approximate $32 million operating fund transfer, the beginning fund balance, as well as additional revenues that were received during the year in the fund.

[03:07:49] Thank you, Ms. Willoughby. Yes, Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. I just wanted to acknowledge and thank Ms. Willoughby for putting on the historical chart that is on board docs if you want to see year by year how the trends are.

[03:08:04] It was helpful for me to see those shifts and those changes, although I don't love the downward trend that we are facing. I do know costs are up, and hopefully in this next budget cycle we can be more forward-thinking about making sure we're in a good place with the fund.

[03:08:19] So I appreciate the extra work and for you fulfilling that ask. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. Any other discussion? seeing none we have a motion that has been seconded um we've had discussion we can move forward with the vote clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk would you please close and display the vote that motion passes unanimously we're going to be moving to 12.03 legislative audit and policy

[03:08:57] committee revisions of policy 2310 committees of the school board uh miss chandler would you like to go ahead and make that base motion thank you madam chair i move that the loudon county school board adopt the legislative audit and policy committees approved revisions of policy 2310 committees of the school board second i have a motion by miss chandler and i have a second by vice chair donahue um before we start discussion this is going we have a lot of amendments and so I'd like to try and do this a little logically if possible and so my thought was

[03:09:34] if you guys were amenable that we would kind of go by section okay it might take a little longer but I think it will be cleaner and more logical kind of like what we do with the budget we have the base motion make an amendment then we vote on it all together you know as amended okay so we've had a base motion we've had a second the first section is section a definitions

[03:10:06] uh one two three four do we have any amendments no okay let's go to section b standing committees uh section one section two i have a an amendment for section three and i'd like uh so so we've had some concerns about particularly F&O and contracts that need to be discussed and if we can't all and we meet F&O meets twice a month and the reason is because we have so many contracts and everything

[03:10:44] and um there was a time when um two people couldn't make it and then um we couldn't have the meeting um and at that point talking it over with Mr. Allen he didn't feel like I would be able to um appoint somebody so that we would at least have quorum so that we could have a meeting particularly for contracts so then we did of course move it all to the school board meeting

[03:11:13] which makes it longer um so my thought was um i would like to amend the following at the red line 2310 um so after line 39 after viable insert due to attendance concerns then we would delete the words and two standing committee members can attend the scheduled in-person meeting then at

[03:11:47] line 40 after the word appoint delete another and replace with other and then line 41 pluralize the word member to members and then after a committee insert on a temporary basis and so then the whole thing would read starting at line 39 if rescheduling the meeting is not viable due to attendance concerns then the school board chair may appoint another may appoint other school board members to serve on the standing committee on a temporary basis so that would be the motion

[03:12:26] do i have a second second i have a second by miss chandler so is there any discussion yes miss donahue i mean vice chair donahue thank you the chairman field i agree with the need to add some clarity to what we do when we potentially can't make quorum but i would like to propose a substitute amendment okay uh so that would be okay so a substitute amendment okay what would it do

[03:12:59] So beginning on line 38 of the red line for the meeting to be rescheduled, in lieu of your proposed language, I respectfully suggest that the board to consider instead saying, rescheduling the meeting is not viable due to attendance concerns then other school board members may be appointed to serve on the standing committee on a

[03:13:37] temporary basis such appointments shall be made by the chair of the standing committee unless the committee chair is unable or defers such opportunity in which case the chair of the school board shall make such appointments so my proposal would be essentially to have the committee chair appoint have the first opportunity to appoint a temporary fill-in if committee members are unavailable and if the committee chair can't or is not interested or does not prefer to make that appointment then the school board chair would do so okay there's a motion on the floor do i have a second second

[03:14:16] i have a second by ms shernoff uh is there any discussion i have discussion um so that's not really consistent with the rest of everything and i think it's not as clean um because at the school board chair which won't be anymore but the school board chair can um already appoint school board

[03:14:44] members to the committee as well as appoint a chair originally so um i don't think that it be consistent with the you would have to change the other part as well yes go ahead if I may respond madam chair thank you I I take your point but again respectfully I somewhat disagree it while it is the case that the board chair appoints the committee chairs and the committee membership at that point I I have assumed that the committee chairs then have a certain amount of control

[03:15:24] over their own committee so I think this would be consistent with allowing committee chairs to run their committees the way that they want to run their committees and also as Dr. Rasheed pointed out with her proposed amendment the language that is currently under consideration to amend the SBAC portion of this policy it would have the SBAC chair appointing members if if a member of SBAC is not available so my proposal in this area would actually reconcile both of those parts of the policy to be consistent with each other. Dr. Rasheed.

[03:15:59] Thank you, Chair. But my proposal, which you're going to get to soon because we're going section by section, is to do the opposite of what you just said, of what Ms. Donahue just said. Vice Chair Donahue. Yes, Dr. Rasheed, I understood that, but I thought that the source of your concern was the lack of consistency between those two, between having the board chair appoint temporary replacements for other committees, but not for SBAC, but having the SBAC committee chair appoint replacements for that committee if I I

[03:16:37] may have misunderstood the the root of the reason for your proposal so I don't mean to misstate what your proposal is attempting to do I merely meant to the point out that if if my proposal were adopted that would then be consistent with the prop that the with the SBAC language that is under a proposal Chair Mansfield, I may reply?

[03:17:03] Yes. So you are correct, Vice Chair Donahue, in that case. However, the context of which I was saying, I wanted the main board chair to appoint all of them. So, yes, I agree with consistency.

[03:17:20] I agree with what you're saying. But I wanted that every committee, every standing committee, have their replacement, whoever's absent or what have you, be replaced by through the suggestion of the main board chair. But I apologize if I didn't clarify from before.

[03:17:37] Thank you for the clarification. It helped. Okay. Any other discussion? Yes, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would like to use this opportunity to ask Mr. Allen a question. We have experienced some issues throughout the tenure, our tenure on the board around this issue.

[03:17:57] And I'm just wondering beyond this policy, if there are any other underlying legal issues or structures that impact the distinction between this choice. Thank you, Ms. Chandler.

[03:18:16] I readily can't think of any constraints necessarily before the board. I think it's discretionary. The policy, of course, as discussed, does provide the chair after the organizational meeting each year to appoint board members, and that's the discretion and authority that is permitted to the chair per policy, but I do think it's a discretionary board decision.

[03:18:44] - Thank you for that. - Okay, so my understanding when we first made this was that the board chair could do that, and then when talking with Mr. Allen, that there was something else that we put in on B3 that made it so that we couldn't do something about FNO.

[03:19:13] And so that was just what I was trying to fix. Okay, any other discussion? No. Okay, so it's Vice Chair Donahue's substitute motion that is on the, that has been, that's on right now.

[03:19:36] And then if that does not pass, then it would go back to the original motion, I believe. Okay. All right. Clerk, would you please open the vote? Board members, please record your vote.

[03:20:02] Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? No. And clerk, would you please close and display the vote? That motion does not pass four to five with Ms. Chandler, Dr. Deans, Ms. Mansfield, Mr. Streffy, and Dr. Rasheed in opposition of the vote.

[03:20:29] So it goes back to the original amendment. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote.

[03:20:50] Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? Yes. Clerk, please close and display the vote. And that motion passes seven to one with Ms. Griffiths in opposition and Vice Chair Donahue abstaining for the vote.

[03:21:11] Okay. All right. So we went. So then I think we could think for clean cleanliness. Let's go ahead and vote on the base motion as amended first, and then we can go back.

[03:21:27] Is that correct, Mr. Allen? It's kind of like what we do for a budget. Yes, that's an approach you could take. so yeah so it would be like you do the base motion as amended we have discussion and then we go to that next amendment right otherwise you have two if we have discussion like we just did with vice chair donahue then there would not be another way to have that okay so we can now vote on the base motion as amended is there any other discussion saying yes mr if you could just repeat what we're voting i know so do you remember during the budget we have the base motion

[03:22:07] right and then we have amendments you can have an amendment to the amendment and then we can then we vote on the base motion as amended right what was the base motion again so the base motion was what we originally started with that miss uh that miss chandler read which was pretty much to adopt the policy as as it is now we have amended it once we'll vote on that and then we will open it up for let's see we start with with section five such and like we're just going to go down

[03:22:42] so okay so we'll now vote on the base motion as amended um clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk would you please close and display the vote that motion passes eight to one with mrs griffiths in

[03:23:17] opposition okay now we've gone through b3 is there anything b4 b5 b6 page two red line copy can you say what line we're on yeah so 52 okay on the red line i'm way deeper sorry okay okay

[03:23:52] and then six is 50 line 55 and then we have uh section seven at the top which is 61 section 7a section 7b which is 76 line 76 and then I'm anticipating we have something for

[03:24:22] section 7c all right dr. Rashid thank you chair take a breath while I say I move that the following language be deleted from lines 91 to 97 of the clean version on board ox the SBAC chair will convene two of its members to preside over such student discipline appeal hearings and the SBAC chair will recruit a school board member who does not serve on SBAC to serve at such hearings on a rotating basis. In the event that SBAC is unable to convene two of its members

[03:25:01] to serve at a particular hearing, the SBAC chair will recruit an alternative school board member to serve at the hearing so that a minimum of three members can consider the appeal. So I move that we delete lines 91 to 97 and and I will now keep going.

[03:25:16] I'm making this motion to ensure consistency with how members are recruited or appointed to serve on standing committees when members of a standing committee are unable to attend a standing committee meeting. As I currently read the standing committee description, it looks like section B7C.

[03:25:35] That's lines 85 to 101 in the clean version on board docs. The SBAC chair has provided the authority to recruit or appoint board members for when SBAC members cannot attend SBAC student discipline hearings. That is different than from what section B3 provides.

[03:25:53] That's lines 36 to 44 in the clean version on board docs, which gives that authority to the school board chair, not the committee chair. Therefore, my motion is to take out any language addressing that the SBAC chair can recruit or appoint board members for when SBAC members cannot attend student discipline hearings, so that it would default to how all other standing committees address such absences, which is that the school board chair will recruit or appoint another board member to serve on SBAC for purposes of student discipline hearings.

[03:26:27] I think I need a water drink after that. It's a lot, and that's the purpose of putting that up there so you guys can read it also at the same time. So that is my motion. Thank you, Chair.

[03:26:43] - Okay, we have a motion, do I have a second? - Second. - I have a second by Ms. Chandler. Is there any other discussion? Yes, Ms. Donahue, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern with Dr. Rasheed's proposal is that my goal when we passed this proposal out of the LANP committee was to ensure that student discipline appeals that came before the SBAT committee would involve members of the board who were not on that committee.

[03:27:20] And I believe we could rewrite the language so that it would have the board chair appointing all members for such appeals committees. But if we, I believe, if we delete the language that Dr. Rashid has proposed and don't make any other edits, that would remove the language that arranges or requires to have other board members also participate in those proceedings.

[03:27:57] Yes, Ms. Chernoff. I guess my question is more for Dr. Rasheed than the rest of the board members. So I believe that Ms. Donahue is saying what I agree with, which is that the will of the committee at the time through LAMP wanted to see one of those seats rotating on a consistent basis to give exposure, maybe not the majority of LAMP, or the majority, but not all of us.

[03:28:25] Two to one? Okay. That there would be one rotating seat as to give every school board member that experience, that exposure, and subsequently require that training for all school board members, which I wholeheartedly support. I think all of us should have that kind of training, whether this passes or not, just for the record.

[03:28:44] But beyond that, I guess my question to you, Dr. Rasheed, is that your motion would go back to only appointing school board members when someone can't make it from the original SBAC committee and subsequently get rid of this idea of having one person that is constantly rotating.

[03:29:03] Is that an accurate capture of what you're saying? For the record, I'm not for rotation at all. I think the members should be set. the member should be set and only a third member should join should someone not be able to attend from the core three oh correct yes okay yes and then I my motion is to have the main school board chair to appoint that to put that one there for that time for that time yes so my understanding was that the SBAC meeting the SBAC committee actually voted on this Ms. Scanlon is there any way that you could provide some understanding as to what may or may not be the pros and cons

[03:29:40] of a rotating committee versus a standing committee? I will be happy to give that a try. So I think that both sides make valid points.

[03:30:03] Having an entirely rotating committee, which I know isn't the current proposal, is something that would provide experience and exposure to board members, not only to the particulars of the student discipline process, but also to school operations in general, many of which do come up with some specificity during student discipline hearings.

[03:30:36] Having rotation, however, can lead to inconsistency in decision-making, particularly if it is an ongoing rotation. My recollection of how these proposals have evolved over time is that there is an attempt to strike a balance between consistency and experience in these committees by providing that whenever there was a student discipline hearing, there would be two SBAC members with

[03:31:14] one person rotating in and out, and thereby providing that the majority of each committee, presuming, of course, that two SBAC committees were available for any given hearing, would be staffed with school board members who are more experienced with the process and are more aware of the overall decision-making criteria that has been employed at those hearings over time while providing for that experience and exposure.

[03:31:57] Thanks, Ms. Scanlon. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. And really, more than anything, I just want to say this for the sake of clarity. I mentioned this last week when I introduced the policy but in the committee meeting when this passed we were at an impasse we were at a one-to-one impasse because a member of the committee was absent and the decision was made to bring the policy forward so that we could start talking about it at the school board level not as a decision that implied a preference or a

[03:32:34] a judgment on this and and I just really wanted to to be clear. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you Madam Chair. I understand the concern about consistency of outcomes and that is something that certainly is extremely important and I understand that Ms. LaBelle who has been the chair of SBAC since we all started on this journey more than a year and a half ago now has gone to great efforts to make sure that every single board member has had the opportunity to fill in on one of those student discipline appeals which I commend you for doing that I'm grateful

[03:33:12] that I was able to have that experience but that is at currently at her discretion and I I still believe that it would be an important change to enshrine in our policy that the board members the other board members should have the opportunity to do that as well because it is such an important part of the responsibility of this board and as to concerns about potentially inconsistent outcomes because the structure would still be such that it's two SBAC members and a third member a third non SBAC board member the majority of those

[03:33:49] appeal panels would still be majority current SBAC members if there are split votes on any outcomes there is the opportunity now for that to come before for this board for further review. And I'm not aware of any complaints of inconsistent outcomes that have been lodged in the last year and a half, despite the fact that the rest of us board members have been occasionally filling in as a third member on those panels.

[03:34:13] So for those reasons, I won't be supporting this proposed amendment. - Ms. Labelle. - Thank you, Ms. Donahue, for your vote of confidence. And I understand that you would like to regularize what I've been doing by rotating the empty space between board members.

[03:34:37] One thing that concerns us is the amount of knowledge that a board member might bring who isn't here as part of a regular SBAC committee. We have suggested in the past that people come, even though it's a closed committee, that they are more than welcome to try to learn what it is that we are doing.

[03:35:02] I think that that's a very important component of what we do so that when it becomes their opportunity to serve on the committee, they have a background, knowledge of the language, knowledge of what we've been doing. It's taken the three of us, Dr. Rasheed, Dr. Deans and myself, the year and a half that we've been here to actually start to feel comfortable with this because you are making a decision about a student and a family and their participation in Loudoun County Public Schools when you serve on SBAC committee.

[03:35:38] And I think that you need to know as much as you can, and it was a learning curve for us. I know that Ms. Scanlon has been very generous with her time in counseling with us, and that I think that we need to know who is going to be filling that third seat.

[03:35:58] if I get to make that choice, I generally look to see who has the most experience, who has been following what we're doing. But the biggest problem becomes who is available. We have a short period of time between the time we receive the appeal to set it up. There are many components that we have to put in place. First of all, there are only two rooms in this entire building where we can hold SBAC meetings because they need to be recorded the other component is the

[03:36:35] administrative teams that need to come in not only do we have some administrators from our building but we also have people from outside the other school administrators and sometimes people from title 9 coming in and attending our meetings so we have to work with availability of rooms availability of personnel and then the other consideration is the availability of the student and the parent who generally comes in with the student to discuss the

[03:37:08] appeal so all of these different components plus who is available among the board to be able to come when we have our meetings becomes a component I think that if I'm sorry I'm allergies if I am to vote on this I would have to vote that we need to do wherever we can find the most consistency for members and failing that that the we make it a policy that the SBAC chair will make the

[03:37:48] decision to invite the next person so that we don't have to worry as as Miss Donahue's brought up that in some time in the future if I'm not the one sitting in that chair the other person would be constrained to do the same thing that we've been doing which is been it's been very good I really thank you all for coming in or considering coming in over the past year and a half but I think we need to worry about consistency and we need to keep that in mind when we vote today thank you thanks miss LaBelle mrs. Griffiths thank you madam chair as far

[03:38:25] as I know I was asked to attend when somebody else couldn't it wasn't on a rotating basis I also feel like I understand the consistency but to prepare for that particular SPAC meeting I was given a stack to catch me up given all the information to read and to catch me up so I don't know that that I sort of I I believe I agree with Ms. Donahue that I've never, I didn't experience an issue with consistency

[03:38:59] because I was given everything and I was put, you know, I was up to date on everything. But again, it wasn't a rotating basis. It was when somebody else couldn't show up. So I would have to say I would vote no on this as well.

[03:39:16] Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Dr. Deans, do you have any thoughts? As a member of the committee, I think consistency is important.

[03:39:32] So, therefore, I think that objectivity would come more from the board chair than from the chair of the SBAC committee. Any other discussion?

[03:39:51] Yes, Ms. LaBelle. When we started this, you and I spoke about finding people for SBAC, and because you had so many other duties to do, and I didn't mind, I was the one who took it on. So this is something that you and I agreed upon, not necessarily something that was directed, just for information's sake.

[03:40:17] Okay, any other discussion? All right, so the motion has been properly moved and seconded. dr. Rashid's motion which would take out the language to switch out one person every time and then and have the school board chair actually put it to get the alternate alternative person

[03:40:55] you're voting on my amendment yeah on your amendment okay so uh hold on okay clerk would you please open the vote board members would you please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk would you please close and display the vote and that motion passes six

[03:41:28] to three with uh mrs griffiths ms donahue and ms shirnoff uh in opposition of the vote okay um that is line and then that's it and then we're going to go back and vote on the base motion as amended any discussion this is as amended as amended yeah so we can start fresh again um clerk

[03:41:57] please open the vote board members please cord your vote clerk oh dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk would you please close and display the vote and that motion passes seven to two with um mrs griffiths and ms shirnoff um in opposition for the vote okay um let's see we're

[03:42:28] moving on to line wait three four that was line one okay so 114 132 which is d finance and operations committee um then the next one is joint committee on line 142 anything there we'll go to legislative

[03:42:59] audit and policy committee lamp which is 178 yes ma'am apologize madam chair i have a proposed amendment for for a section I think you have one for HRTD correct okay okay HRTD vice chair Donahue thank you madam chair I I have a proposed amendment for

[03:43:35] this but I actually also was wondering if I could ask a clarifying question from the previous vote from the base motion as amended yes dr. Rashid's amendment addressed deleting lines 91 to 97 of the clean version and that was that passed obviously but the the red line proposes deletion of other parts of that so I do

[03:44:09] I understand correctly that well I guess is that have we now voted that those proposed deletions have come out of that policy or did Dr. Rasheed's amendment address those lines as well lines its lines 102 through 130 of the red line

[03:44:32] let me relook at her thing Dr. Rasheed you want to talk to your amendment yes yes I do my amendment addressed it already addressed that language and I

[03:45:06] just I'll defer to mr. Allen that what I added well what I deleted rather actually No, Chair Mansfield, this, I just, I agree that all of this will be removed.

[03:45:24] All that is crossed out in addition to my amendment. Madam Chair. Yes, Dr. Spence. Though, at least for clarification, no, it doesn't automatically remove what's in the redline version. When you take a final vote, things that are redline as removed, you will be removing what's in the redline version.

[03:45:45] Right. Thank you, Dr. Spence. Thanks for that. So, yes, because that was the base motion. That was the base motion. Yes. Thank you.

[03:45:59] Thank you all of you for the clarification so I I do have a proposal we discussed this somewhat last week the human resources and talent development committee has not had committee meetings for the last several months and my understanding is that that has been due at least in part because with the approval of the collective bargaining resolution and the onset of the beginning of negotiations to reach a collective bargaining agreement

[03:46:30] The majority of the topics that are addressed in the HRTV committee are more appropriately subject to collective bargaining negotiations and thus HRTD has not had a great deal of topics to discuss and it's further my understanding that staff has recommended that the HRTD committee be dissolved as an independent standing committee and that any duties that are attached to HRTD that would remain appropriate for board consideration and discussion rather than going to collective bargaining agreement discussions would be you know could be

[03:47:09] reassigned to other standing committees as was previously done with the Technology Steering Committee and the Audit Committee which was then which was folded subsequently into LA&P so for those reasons and certainly I'm happy to defer to Dr. Spence or Ms. Boland if they have additional thoughts but my proposal is to delete lines 14 so I was looking at the clean version before but we're looking at the red line lines 190 through 194 to delete that section to remove HRTD as a standing committee. I have a motion by Vice-Chair Donahue. Do

[03:47:45] I have a second? Second. Okay did you would just simply note that administration concurs with that recommendation. Wait I'm sorry did you can you say that? I would just simply note that the administration concurs with that recommendation and the rationale that miss donahue presented thanks dr spence okay so mr stuffy seconded it because i just looked um so the motion has been moved and seconded is there any discussion any more discussion yes mrs griffiths uh thank you thank you madam chair um

[03:48:24] i was the chair of that committee um so um i'm losing my committee i just wanted to uh put it out there that as a school board member that has just lost her committee, since we're creating new committees for the superintendent, I would like to be put on the committees being created by the superintendent. Considering that I've lost my HRTD committee, which I chair to collective bargaining, it would only make sense that I'm assigned to the new superintendent committees on my timeline when available. And I would, I guess, I'd be the rotating person, or actually

[03:49:03] not rotating be the school board member assigned to the superintendent's committees thank you okay any other discussion yes dr rasheed chairman or i don't know who like who can answer this question is that a choice can we we're not there yet okay thank you chair um okay it's been um moved and

[03:49:37] seconded any other discussion okay dr deans did you have any discussion no comment okay all right we'll go ahead and vote um clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk could you please close and display the vote

[03:50:13] that motion passes eight to one with mrs griffiths in opposition okay so we are now human resources and talent development committee oh let's go sorry now we vote back on the base motion as amended any discussion seeing none clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote. Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? Yes. Clerk, would you please

[03:50:46] close and display the vote? That motion passes 7-2 with Mrs. Griffiths and Ms. Chernoff in opposition of the vote. Okay, moving on to Student Services Committee, Performance Monitoring Committee, then we have Select Committees. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have proposed, I have a proposed amendment for the, for paragraph C1 of Select

[03:51:20] committee looking at the redline version my proposal is so sorry so after on so the the section starts on line 216 of the of the redline version my specific proposed amendment would start on line 221 of the redline after the end after

[03:51:55] the word creation in between creation and the next sentence which starts with appropriate staffing in between there i propose adding the following language board members may express interest in and or may propose other individuals to the chair of the school board for consideration of appointment to such select committees the board chair has sole and final discretion over such appointments but shall take into consideration such suggestions and expressions along with all other relevant circumstances we have a motion on the floor do i have a second

[03:52:27] second i have a second by um okay is there any discussion yes miss griffiths um would what i just said apply to this about being a point giving you the discretion to appoint me to that specific committee to select committees oh select not the advisory i'm confused well per her amendment are

[03:53:00] you shall take into consideration any suggestions or expressions to be placed into a committee so You're just talking about select, not advisory. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

[03:53:18] Any other discussion? I lost my... Any other discussion? Yes, Dr. Rasheed. If I could just ask for clarification from Vice Chair Donahue, because the language seemed a little redundant, because in order to serve on a selected committee or be considered to serve on a select committee, you would have to express interest and then make it known to the chair.

[03:53:46] and then the chair can only choose the select committee members, whoever was interested, whoever expressed interest. Am I correct? Is there something different in this? I believe that would be a question for Mr. Allen, but my understanding is the present language without my proposed amendment doesn't say anything like that.

[03:54:08] If the board chair wanted to select committee members, there's no, you know, the board member would be perfectly within her rights to simply reach out to, you know, the one or two board members of her choosing and say will you be on this committee to which they could say yes or no but does not provide for the opportunity for board members to affirmatively express interest in serving on select committees or to nominate other individuals for those roles so I my proposal still keeps ultimate discretion for staffing those committees with the board chair as it currently is but allows for input from the rest of the board members okay if Thank you, Vice Chair Strafi.

[03:54:46] Chair Mansfield, if I could defer to, I mean, thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. It's been a while. Chair Mansfield, if I can direct my question toward counsel, Mr. Allen. Mr. Allen, does the present language mean that the chair can find anyone to appoint someone, the current language?

[03:55:08] I just want that clarification before I vote on it. Thank you, Dr. Rashid. So specifically the current language that is on the base motion that's in the red line version on lines 219 to 223, is that the language you're requiring?

[03:55:30] Yes. So as the plain language reads, chairship and membership of select committees shall be determined by the chair of the school board unless specified otherwise in policy or by vote of the board at the time of their creation. So it does provide for an exception if the board at the time of the creation of the select committee provides otherwise as to the chairship or membership of the select committee.

[03:55:57] Thank you, Mr. Allen. And Vice Chair Donahue, are you saying this like you're saying that the main school board chair maintains that decision? You're not changing that is what you're saying. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's correct, Dr. Rasheed. This this proposed amendment would still have the final authority lie with the board chair Just again allowing for the board to have input and to regarding mr. Allen's analysis and At the time of creation, we don't always vote on the formation of the committees So to the extent that we may want to have input into that process

[03:56:36] That's why I wanted to have something clear in our policy that says we have a vehicle for that even if the even if a select committee is set up convened by the chair and is not part of a of a full board meeting discussion and vote thank you by sure Donnie yeah oh but mr. Struffy now you got me doing this really I know I appreciate the the proposed amendment and I I think it's fine to be explicit

[03:57:14] in this I just wonder and this is just for discussion right I just wonder if there's a way to just simplify it to say the book that you know the chair of the school board may consider expressions of interest from one or more board members for select committee chair positions and maintains final disc I mean I I'm okay with the way it's written I'm just wondering there's a there's a good amount of text here like along with other relevant circumstances was there anything that you may have been thinking about that I just want to make

[03:57:51] sure make sure that I have all of your thoughts on this but just thinking is there a way to just simplify it to say the you know the chair of the school board may consider expressions of interest for select committee you know chair positions from board members or otherwise I think it you know I'm I'm inclined to support yes thank you madam chair thank you for your question mr.

[03:58:16] just wondering if we can simplify it into a you know just one statement that the chair school board may consider expressions of interest and then the the the last you would ask about other circumstances so as to your question can this be simplified probably yes I am aware that I tend to be wordy as a a lawyer like words have specific meanings and I tend to err on the side

[03:58:51] of over explaining which is sometimes to my detriment but I did work on this amendment with mr. Allen and obtained his input on it before presenting it to my fellow board members I'm certainly not opposed to methods to potentially make it shorter but this this is just what I came up with and with regard to your other question about other circumstances again I may be I may be adding language that is not actually necessary but I also wanted to make it very clear that you know that the chair is can and should consider many other

[03:59:26] factors other than simply that a that a member has expressed interest she's not in any way obligated to follow you know a person's expression of interest. Part of me feels like I just want to be clear that I have always asked you guys everything, just because it feels like that I haven't been fair, and I have to say that I have been very fair in many aspects, as well as placing people on committees that I would have liked to

[04:00:02] serve on myself. Absolutely. May I respond, Madam Chair? Absolutely. I did not mean in any way to suggest that you have not been. To the contrary, my concern is that is the choice that you are making it your discretion and as as you have noted that you you will not be our chair next year we will have a different chair and that person it will be in their discretion to either continue that practice or engage in new practices and while we have the opportunity to safeguard some of the roles and divisions of responsibilities of the board members I'm I I'm in support of making it more clear in our policies thank you for permitting me to

[04:00:41] respond. Um, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I find the, the proposed amendment, um, unnecessary and I'm not inclined to support it. Um, I also, um, find it inconsistent and we have four different types of committees on the, uh, on, in, in definition in this policy and, And I find it just marginally dissatisfactory to me to put it only in one category.

[04:01:17] Thank you. Yes, Ms. LaBelle, I'm sorry. I like history. I want to go back to the very beginning when we all joined this board, and you asked us to put the names of the different committees that we'd like to be on.

[04:01:36] I don't think that allowing somebody to express an interest in being on a particular standing committee is any different than what we did when we first all got here. So I think that it would be okay if somebody said, oh, you know, I'm really interested in that.

[04:01:54] If you think it's okay, consider me to be on this particular committee. I don't think that there's anything bad about that at all. Thank you. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. And I realize, thank you, Madam Chair. I realize I mentioned an advisory committee, but it should apply to that as well, that I expressed interest because I'm losing my committee.

[04:02:17] thank you noted mrs griffiths um okay any other discussion just one i have to say any other discussion okay we will be voting on vice chair donahue's amendment um clerk please open the vote

[04:02:52] board members please record your vote dr rashid would you please state i mean dr rashid dr deans would you please state your vote no thank you and that motion passes with miss chandler dr deans

[04:03:25] and dr rasheed in opposition and vice chair and chair me mansfield abstaining for the vote okay all right now let's vote on this for the base motion as amended any discussion i know this is long and i'm sorry thank you for doing this for i just think it's more logical this way um okay

[04:03:55] clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote i think my vote is no no uh and then um clerk please close and display the vote okay and that motion passes seven to two with dr dean's admission up in opposition for the vote okay we are

[04:04:31] now moving to we have advisory committees d which is 236 we're moving on to 237 238 mrs griffiths I think that you have a motion here.

[04:04:50] Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to make a slight amendment. Regarding line 244 in the red line, I think that Loudoun County residents should come out, including students of LCPS students.

[04:05:07] Instead, they must go to the parents of LCPS students. The line should read, all members of the advisory committees must be parents or guardians of LCPS students. All right, we have a motion on the floor.

[04:05:22] Do I have a second? 244 on the red line on the red line she wants to take away loudon county residents including students or lcps employees i can just want parents and guardians of lcps students is that correct yes i can read it again if you'd like i i believe as far as verbiage goes in um pretty much all our policies it should be uh loudon county parents um and not um everybody that's not involved with

[04:06:01] lcps i think the parents and the guardians of our students should be able to um should be in this in in our policies rather than everybody else so i wanted to make the amendment that the line should read all members of advisory committees must be parents and guardians of lcps students thank you and that's been seconded in discussion and i have to say that i completely disagree with you because there are committee members that i feel that are important for cac that are important for CTAC I think if you did that for CTAC there would be

[04:06:34] nothing nobody so I think that community is important and the community voice is important so I will not be supporting that motion dr. Rashid thank you chair and thank you mrs. Griffiths um unfortunately I cannot support this and I wrote up something there may be instances when community stakeholders like educational business partners would like to contribute ideas and efforts on the advisory committees. The school business partnership presentation during today's work session that we just saw and the once LCPS spotlight earlier this evening you know allowed me to think that there are important perspectives to

[04:07:12] consider in addition to LCPS students employees and families thank you. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you Madam Chair. I was also going to say that I firmly believe that the health of the public school affects the overall health of the entire loud and community and for that reason i am not going to be in support of this amendment any other discussion i'm seeing none we'll go ahead and vote clerk please open the vote board

[04:07:46] members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote clerk would you please close and display the vote that motion does not pass one to eight with miss chandler dr deans melinda mansfield vice chair donahue mr streffi miss shirnoff dr rasheed and miss labelle in opposition okay i don't think we need to incorporate that because it was a new thing okay um we'll move

[04:08:20] on to i think so two which is 252 um three d3 um then we have got rid of that so it would be d5 d6 i think that we have something from miss chandler um well i'll go ahead and say i this is really just something that occurred to me when i was reading through it at the last minute this afternoon so I apologize I don't I did not submit this in advance but it's a very minor edit that really is just

[04:09:00] meant to accurately capture our current practice so I move looking at the red line 279 to add the word chair so that the line reads the school board chair will appoint a school board member as liaison to the advisory committees to the school board thank you I have a motion on the floor do I have a second

[04:09:22] i have a second by dr rasheed any discussion yes go ahead 279 seeing none uh we'll go ahead and

[04:09:47] vote uh clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote uh dr deans would you please state your vote yes close and display the vote and that motion passes unanimously

[04:10:17] obviously um okay now we'll vote to vote on the policy as amended um clerk please open the vote uh dr deans would you please state your vote yes clerk would you please close and display the vote

[04:10:54] and that motion passes seven to two with ms griffiths and ms shurnops in opposition of the vote so really quickly if we could go back to line 222 there is a typo on the red line on line 222 of the red line version it should say it says okay so the whole like red line there it says chairship and membership of select committees shall be determined of the chair of the school

[04:11:30] board unless specified another policy or by vote of the board of the chair of the creation and then we have and's amendment that we put in appropriate staffing for instead of standing committees it needs to be select committees because we're talking about select committees there so i know that's a pain do we have to vote on that part Dr. Mr. Allen I would just for

[04:11:59] clarity of the record thank you Mr. Allen okay is there any I make a motion that we online to to to instead of standing we substitute standing for we substitute select for standing second thank you vice chair Donahue for seconding that motion um is there any discussion do you guys understand the reason yeah okay um clerk would

[04:12:32] you please open the vote um board members please uh record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes uh would you please close and display the vote that motion passes eight to one with mrs griffiths in opposition of the vote okay oh and now i need to restate it again oh my god okay um we'll vote on the base motion as amended any discussion clerk please open the vote board

[04:13:09] members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes and clerk would you please close and display the vote and that motion passes mrs griffiths mrs griffiths and in opposition of the vote okay now moving on to okay almost done okay so i think is there are there

[04:13:42] any other motions okay y'all are gonna love this oh yes miss Chernoff do you have your oh did you have one okay miss Chernoff where is yours I'm 333 would you like me to go ahead it's very simple oh oh okay yes all right um I move that on the red line version line 333 after the word

[04:14:09] superintendent we add the phrase with notification to the school board second I'm sorry okay it's been moved and um by miss shernoff and then we have vice chair donahue who has seconded the motion is there any discussion i just after our conversation last week um you know this dr spence talked about how it's best practiced for him to engage with stakeholders and i generally have no problems with you engaging with stakeholders um but if there's need for you to engage for any

[04:14:47] reason with any topic i feel like i would like to know about it especially since a school board member can be assigned as a liaison. So I felt like that was a good middle ground after our conversation that was had. Dr. Spence, I'm interested to know your opinion. As we've discussed in other places, I think it's commonly understood that I notify the board when we engage in work anyway.

[04:15:15] You get a regular weekly update where we talk about all of those things. So I'm not sure it's necessary here, but it's also not something I have any particular heartburn over. I just want to clarify, just based on Ms. Chernoff, your comment that, again, the request or the appointment of school board members would only be by request and would be in very rare circumstances.

[04:15:39] But because of that, we would want it listed here. Chair Mansfield. Yes, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. Again, I don't find the language necessary. It seems a little redundant. It's assumed, just like I just want to piggyback off what Dr. Spence said.

[04:15:57] It's already understood that advisory committees operate such that the school board and the public at large can be aware of their initiatives and goals. This is true for other advisory committees like MSAC and SEAC. So we would be expected to hold an administrative advisory committee to the same standard.

[04:16:14] Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Any other discussion? Okay, seeing no discussion, we will go ahead and take a vote.

[04:16:31] Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. - Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote?

[04:16:48] Dr. Deans? - No. - Clerk, would you please close and display the vote? And that motion does not pass with four to five with Ms. Chandler, Dr. Deans, Ms. Mansfield, Mr. Streffy, and Dr. Rashid in opposition of the vote.

[04:17:12] Okay, and then we'll go, we don't need to do that, but okay, so y'all are not gonna be happy with this one. After looking at a lot of this, And the policy is actually called Committees of the School Board.

[04:17:31] If we pass this policy, the School Division Administrative Advisory Committee is administration. It's not a school board committee.

[04:17:51] No. So advisory committee is administrative advisory committee. So my thought, because my concern is line 343, where it says, The school board may create, dissolve, or amend the scope of any school board committee not otherwise required by law by school board vote.

[04:18:14] Because I feel like the school division, and maybe I'm in the weeds, but because the school division administrative advisory committee is in the policy of the committees of the school board, I could see some problem with a school, you know, that that could just be created or dissolved or amended.

[04:18:36] And while I realize that there's a definition here, I kind of would feel more comfortable after talking with Mr. Allen, and maybe he could say it more eloquently than I have, to take out, we could pass this policy as we have it with an amendment to take out lines.

[04:19:04] and let me see hold on okay so we would vote to approve the policy 2310 and approve the extraction of the red line version um line 22 through 22 and line 326 through 340 and give that a number in the 3000 series entitled school division administrative committee along with the regulation is that emotion again i apologize yeah so i would so can i go ahead and say vote Mr. Allen, could you help me?

[04:19:42] Could you guide me through this a little bit? Can I just say we can make a motion to vote to approve 2310 and approve the extraction of red line version 2310, line 20 through 22 and line 3026 through 340, and give that a number in the 3,000 series entitled School Division Administrative Committee along with the regulation?

[04:20:05] Thank you, Chair Mansfield. So there is a precedent for taking a dual approach with motions. Usually it's adopting one and dissolving another. So this could be an approach that the board takes tonight. There wouldn't be a specific number assigned that would have to be done administratively if that's the route the board goes in the 3000 series.

[04:20:30] But ultimately you as the board have purview over the policy creation. So that's an approach the board could take. - Would that be an appropriate motion? Like what I said? I believe so. If you can do so with confirmation that you are approving otherwise 2310 as the base motion has been amended tonight, just to have that clarified and then add on the extraction part.

[04:21:02] Okay, so we would vote to approve the base motion first, and then I would make another motion to extract. Is it possible to extract before you vote on the policy?

[04:21:21] Well, that's what I'm wondering. Mr. Allen? Yeah, the board could do that as well. So kind of step it out as a motion, and if that passes, then the concluding motion would be, so you'd create the policy for the 3,000 series, and then you could then go back with that language extracted and confirm and adopt the policy of 2310 as a base motion has been amended.

[04:21:55] okay so the base motion has already been has been amended and we've already voted on that so i can vote to so i make a motion to extract okay i make a motion to should i say i make a

[04:22:22] motion to approve policy 2310 as as we've voted oh i think you would first i think you would conclude with that motion so okay if it's the board's will to extract certain portions of this and create a policy with that language in the 3000 series that would probably be cleaner yeah okay

[04:22:53] so I make a motion to extract lines 20 through 22 and lines 326 through 340 from the red line version of policy 2310 and give that a number in the 3000 series entitled school division administrative committee second is that an appropriate yeah second okay all right i think we've had discussion as why but any more discussion um when you say extract you mean

[04:23:28] remove right yes extract means remove thank you madam chair pull out of yes yes uh vice chair Donahue thank you madam chair I just I guess I'd have a question for clarification as to are we is the objection to having all of the committees discussed in the same policy because one is a superintendent and the others are not or is the concern regarding specifically that language of the last section section F that says the school board may create or dissolve if

[04:24:06] I'm wondering if the concern is more semantics that we could, we have the option of also changing the title of the policy. Well, I talked with Mr. Allen about that, too, and I was, I am concerned that this is a school, you know, school division administrative advisory committee, but it's under the policy of the committees of the school board, and so then it might be subject to that dissolution there.

[04:24:37] So I just... Could we just add into that paragraph, accepting, with the exception of? Personally, I think it's cleaner just to have another policy. And because it's administrative, it should be in the administrative 3,000 policies.

[04:24:55] That's my thought. I mean, we're going to vote on it. You guys can disagree with me, but that's just my thought. Just clarifying. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Dr. Dees. And as we move forward, there may be other committees that need to be under the 3,000, the administrative category.

[04:25:19] So I think extracting it now would not muddy the water. It will make it clear that these are committees of the school board, and then over there are some committees that are administrative.

[04:25:36] Okay, so let me just repeat the motion again. I move to extract lines 20 through 22 and lines 326 through 340 from the red line version of policy 2310.

[04:25:54] Give that a number in the 3000 series entitled School Division Administrative Advisory Committee along with a regulation. Okay. Did I have a second? I have a second by Ms. Chernoff.

[04:26:10] Any more discussion? No. Okay. I know this is exhausting. Okay. Clerk, would you please open the vote? Board members, would you please record your vote? Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? Yes. Clerk, would you please close and display the vote? And that motion passes. Well, unanimously. Okay.

[04:26:42] So now Mr. Allen would like for us to go ahead and vote on the policy completely. Is that correct, mr allen as amended yes you'd want to go back to the base motion as amended which includes the extraction of that language okay okay we will now go back to the base motion as amended which includes the extraction um do we uh is there any other discussion okay board uh clerk please open

[04:27:18] the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please state your vote yes All right. And clerk, would you please close and display the vote? And that motion passes eight to one with Ms. Chernoff in opposition of the vote. Okay. Thank you so much, board members, for hanging in there. That was a tough one, but I think it had been in committee for long enough. Okay. Yes.

[04:27:53] i was wondering if we can call a five-minute recess no we don't have to vote on it board members do you want to thumbs up for five-minute recess real quick one okay all right well you can just go you can just go just go oh she's coming up though okay um the next one is 12.05 specialized programs and centers committee um charter school annual technology and support services agreement

[04:28:24] presented by dr rasheed do you have a motion dr rasheed before oh i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry never mind okay still dr rasheed do you have a motion specialized programs and centers committee review of policy 5095 participation in the thomas jefferson high school for science and technology presented by dr rasheed do you have a motion yes chair mansfield thank you chair i move that the loudon county school board adopt the specialized programs and centers committees

[04:29:00] approved revisions to policy 1595 which is participation in the thomas jefferson high school for science and technology okay i have a motion by dr seed i have a second by um vice chair donahue is there any discussion yes vice thank you madam chair i have proposed a revision for to go with this policy along um i believe along the lines of the discussion that we had last week and ensuring that if we make any changes to the to providing transportation for our

[04:29:36] LCPS students who are enrolled at TJ that we provide that we provide ample ample notice to any families who would be affected by that change and my proposed amendment is at the end of section C on the first page which is if you're looking at the clean version is line 14 if you're looking at the red line of version one is line 21 if you're looking at the red line of version two is line 23 at the end of that paragraph i would i propose adding the following language the school board will not make any determination to discontinue transportation

[04:30:12] for lcps students enrolled in tjhsst without at least two years notice to the families of such enrolled students i have a motion by uh by vice chair donahue do i have a second second um i have I have a second, but who was it?

[04:30:34] Oh, sorry, Mrs. Griffiths. It's becoming a long night. Okay, so is there any discussion? Yes, Dr. Rashid. - Thank you, Chair. I will not support this amendment because there's no indication that interest in TJ will drop within a two-year timeframe or even within the five-year cycle of policy review because Loudon does not have an equivalent program.

[04:31:00] So there is no need to kind of interpret or paint Loudon into a corner regarding discontinuation or transportation to TJ. That would be unnecessarily restrictive and anxiety-inducing for Loudoun families. If we review TJ transportation as a whole on an annual basis, then we're already looking closely to assess the real-time needs of Loudoun students and families.

[04:31:23] Thank you, Chair. - Vice-Hare Donahue. - May I comment? - Yeah, Dr. Deans, could you let Vice-Hare Donahue, and then you're next? - Yes, yes. - Thank you. - Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Dr. Rasheed, my thinking for the suggestion of the two years was such that, for example, if LCPS were to decide tomorrow that we are no longer going to provide transportation to students attending TJ, if we delay implementation of such decision on currently enrolled students for at least two years, that would give families of students who are currently enrolled time

[04:32:00] to find alternate arrangements, or if they have students who are not yet driving age, get to the point where they may be able to drive themselves or allow time again for the families to provide transportation. So that was my thinking. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. Dr. Deans. I think that any mention of transportation in the policy would begin to deter families from applying. So I don't think that we should put anything in the policy at this point, except that we will review it yearly.

[04:32:39] And two years would not be enough to keep the commitment for those 11th and 12th graders who are already there. And so as a result, the two years is not a satisfactory timeline to notify parents.

[04:33:04] If we're going to do it, we would have to do it over a four-year period. All who are in now keep getting transportation and any new ones not get it. But I don't agree that we should even introduce anything that would give them the impression that they may get in, and then in two years, they would not get transportation.

[04:33:26] Ms. Chandler. Just as a point of clarification, the language as it stands right now, again, in version two, contains all of Dr. Rasheed's amendments that passed in committee.

[04:33:44] But Vice Chair Donahue is adding this two-year notice as a supplement in addition to, is that correct? Just to say that we would make a point to give an adequate notice if a change were to occur.

[04:34:07] Is that fair? Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your question, Ms. Chandler. And yes, that was my thinking that I just wanted to put something clearly in black and white in our policies that guarantees that if we do make any changes to the transportation arrangements, that there is a minimum amount of time that would be provided to families of currently enrolled students so that they would have opportunity to make arrangements, request exceptions, be assured that they would get an extensive amount of advance notice before any such changes would take effect.

[04:34:47] Ms. Chandler. Thank you. I so appreciate that clarification. thank you. I do hear my colleagues' concerns and can understand that any impending change like this could cause concern in the parent community, but I also find myself very much wanting for us to commit to making a long-term, I mean, to give adequate notice to parents in the event of a change. So I hope, I'm not really sure yet, but I hope this doesn't cause

[04:35:24] confusion in the community, but I am open to it. I guess I'm, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Mr. Strafi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the amendment. So I want to acknowledge first that the changes that came out of committee, I do understand and appreciate that the spirit of those changes were not to contemplate any real changes to our posture when it comes to transportation for TJ and that it was meant to bring clarity to the to our

[04:36:00] process and the policy so I do get that but I'm generally supportive of this for the reasons that Miss Chandler also mentioned and Miss Donahue that you know TJ has been a topic of conversation transportation continues to be a topic of conversation whether that's TJ or other and it would be helpful for parents, just to be able to show that, you know, if the board continues to discuss transportation for TJ, that there is something in the policy that can give them a little bit of comfort

[04:36:39] as they make current decisions about sending their students to TJ today. And so I'm generally supportive of this. Again, I hope it doesn't cause any confusion, but I am supportive of the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Shrafi.

[04:36:55] I think I have some problems with making determinations that we won't do something for two years because things happen. Not that we want them to happen, but they do. And especially when it comes to logistics, number of buses, all the rest of that.

[04:37:14] I mean, I hear what Vice Chair Donahue is saying, and I just don't know that I can support this at this point. Can I answer? Yes, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. One of my worries with putting that two-year number on it is how will this relate now to, like, siblings?

[04:37:37] So you have one that goes in, and then, well, what if someone says, well, now my son or my daughter, the sibling, got in also, but I see a challenge with sibling acceptance.

[04:37:53] The other challenge would be, so maybe you can call it an equity issue. I'm not sure, like your child is going, but now your neighbor can't go. So there's transportation with the one person, but not your neighbor down the street, if that makes any sense.

[04:38:11] So this is what I was saying, like this is what we talked about in SPCC, that we were talking about sun setting, if that's the term, sun setting the, if we were to make any changes to transportation, we would talk about sun setting and of course, allowing adequate time.

[04:38:29] but I do see, I can anticipate some problems with putting on the number two there, if that makes sense. Thank you, Chair. - Okay, any other discussion? - And then one more thing, Chair. Another problem is that COVID showed us that we can't really give two years notice for everything, if that makes sense also.

[04:38:52] - Well, let's hope that number comes back. - Ms. LeBell. - I think I wanna clarify what we were talking about with the term sun setting. In other words, the students that are already there will continue to receive those services And anyone applying after that would be told an adequate time that these are the changes we're making.

[04:39:15] It might have to do with buses. It might have to do with classes. It might have to do with numbers of students that we're accepting. There are so many things that can come up. And that's why we talked about an annual review. So when we talk about sunsetting, that's what I was meaning to say.

[04:39:34] Thanks, Ms. LaBelle. Any other discussion? Yes, Mr. Straffi. - Yeah, as we're discussing this, I'm just thinking about how prudent it is. For some reason, attendance zone changes are popping into my head as well in terms of the point around nothing is guaranteed.

[04:39:54] And I think it is important then to maybe to rethink this. I still am super supportive of transportation and making this opportunity accessible and available to everyone in the county. I just don't know if, and I know I'm backtracking, but I think there's enough hesitation or pause from me at this point to just hold off and accept the changes as is.

[04:40:27] - Yes, Ms. Donahue, Vice-Chair Donahue. - Thank you, Madam Chair, I hear the comments from all of my colleagues and they are all reasonable. I just, I wanted to say my purpose in proposing this amendment was because notwithstanding the fact that the current draft says that LCPS will provide families with quote, "as much notice as possible."

[04:40:54] I'm somewhat uncomfortable with having that open-ended lack of clarity. But that being said, I am reading the room and I will withdraw my motion. - Okay, I just wanna say I hear what you're saying.

[04:41:15] I totally do. Okay. Okay, so I guess we have to vote, right? You have to vote on the original, Yeah, on the base motion, as it is right now on the paper in the red line, or a clean copy.

[04:41:36] Okay. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Dr. Deans, would you please state your vote? Yes. Clerk, would we please close and display the vote?

[04:41:55] And that motion passes 8 to 0, with Vice Chair Donisthieu abstaining for the vote. Okay. 12.05 specialized programs and centers committee uh charter school annual technology and support services agreements presented by um dr rasheed do you have a motion yes thank you chair i move that the loudon county school board approved the technology and support services agreements for hillsborough charter academy and middleburg community charter school thank you chair okay

[04:42:32] i have a motion do i have a second i have a second okay by miss labelle i saw her hand up there um it's been probably moved in second is there any discussion seeing none clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote dr deans would you please um state your vote dr deans

[04:43:08] would you please state your vote yes clerk please close and display the vote motion passes with vice chair donahue abstaining for the vote okay now we have um 12.06 student behavior and accountability committee revisions of policy 8225 admission exclusion or reassignment of student previously expelled long-term suspended or reassigned to an alternative education program

[04:43:42] ms labelle do you have a motion yes excuse me i move that the board go and move forward and vote in the student behavior and accountability revisions for policy 8225 admission exclusion or reassignment of students previously expelled, long-term suspended, or reassigned to an alternative education program.

[04:44:11] I have a motion by Ms. LaBelle. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Dr. Rasheed. Is there any discussion? Yes. Mrs. Griffiths.

[04:44:28] Thank you, Madam Chair. I took it as reassigning dangerous students, and that doesn't make our schools safer. It just moves the problems to new campuses, which we have several cases of that happening.

[04:44:45] So we cannot continue to be shuffling dangerous students around while pretending it protects our students. Student safety must come first, and I think that I will be voting no for this policy because I do not believe we are issuing the proper discipline for dangerous students.

[04:45:04] Thank you. Ms. LaBeau. as i explained at our last meeting when this was up as an information item reassignment doesn't necessarily mean just send them to another school it could be virtual distance learning it could be tape it could be a different facility i mean it not even ours it could be a someplace like a private facility so when we're talking about reassignment we're not just saying shifting them from one school to the next i just want to make that perfectly clear

[04:45:42] Ms. Scanlon, I'm wondering if you could provide some insight. Yes, I would be happy to. Primarily, this policy is an exclusion policy.

[04:45:57] And what that policy does under the exclusion provisions is provide an opportunity for LCPS to lawfully exclude a student from admission or readmission to the school system upon a finding that that student is a danger to others.

[04:46:22] That's what exclusion is, as defined in the opening paragraph. Exclusion means denial of a student's admission or readmission to LCPS. Such student would not be attending any program if they are excluded.

[04:46:43] The reason that there is a reference to reassignment is because students may be excluded only under certain conditions as provided for in the Code of Virginia. Specifically, that would apply to a student who is coming to Loudoun County Public Schools and seeking enrollment after having been previously enrolled in another school division or a private school.

[04:47:15] Where that other school division or private school has either expelled or suspended the student for more than 30 days, then LCPS has the authority to exclude the student.

[04:47:31] But if the other school division has neither long-term suspended nor expelled the student, but rather has opted to reassign the student to one of its own alternative settings, then LCPS would not have authority under the law to exclude.

[04:47:52] So to provide the only ability to ensure that a student who might present a risk to others in that situation is not able to simply enroll in that student's home school, we have to have another provision.

[04:48:17] exclusion isn't permissible under the law, but reassignment would be permissible in that eventuality. And it is noted here in order to provide notice to the student and the student's family, which is a provision of due process under the law, so that they are aware that in that eventuality, while they cannot be subjected to exclusion, they can be subjected to a reassignment

[04:48:48] to an alternative setting any other discussion ask the clerk a question real quick um okay um if there's no other discussion then we'll go ahead and take a vote um clerk please open the

[04:49:13] vote board members please cord your vote dr deans would you please state your vote i abstain uh clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes seven to one with mrs griffiths in opposition for the vote and Dr. Dean's abstaining for the vote okay we will now move on

[04:49:46] to our infirm can so we were going so fast I just want to make sure that we that's what I was trying to talk over here um clerk did we vote on 12.05 did we vote on 12.05 okay we did vote on 12.05

[04:50:16] did we vote on 12.04 yes okay I'm sorry we did it all I mean there were there was a lot going on up here i just wanted to make sure okay all right so now we're into our information items which i know we have done one we have done two we have done three and we move on to four special 13.04 specialized programs and centers committee review of policy 5410 establishment of charter schools presented by dr samara rasheed chair specialized programs and centers committee and probably with

[04:50:56] some help with ms mitchell okay thank you chair it's been a busy a couple of months here at spcc so policy 5410 charter schools yeah charter schools has been reviewed by division council and cabinet and we suggested changes um as they are included in the red line version the policy was posted for public and advisory committee review on august 8th august 19th so um this is due this policy 5410 for charter schools is due for the for its five-year review and i will turn

[04:51:27] it over to ms mitchell if i left anything out thank you chair ms mitchell thank you dr rasheed you covered everything and it's just to point out that there are two parts to the policy one which is defining of the facility when there when there is an application to acquire such facility the process for that as well as the board's role in approving and or denying the application for

[04:51:59] an applicant should they choose to want to gain a building for a charter school so those were the two big parts that were amended to the policy thank you miss mitchell board members do you have any discussion or questions yes miss um shirnoff thank you madam chair um thank you to the committee and for the updates i in review of this policy um i have a few questions about how how to reconcile what this policy means going forward with what this means for our current charter schools.

[04:52:38] In particular, I'm looking at the red line version on line 285, section J1, where it seems that, and I will be the first to admit that this is muddy water. I think that our relationship with charter schools in the state of Virginia is unique.

[04:52:55] I think that, I mean, tonight we just voted on the technology agreement because we support that from LCPS. But looking at, and it always seems to be a conversation that comes up in the capital improvement budget process, so when I see now a red line version that says on line 285, a charter school facility or campus will not be included in the school board's capital improvement program for current or future capital improvements, to me that feels like as part of this five-year review, as we're moving forward, we're trying to draw a clearer boundary line around those items and while i understand that boundary line being drawn

[04:53:32] my biggest concern comes with reconciling that with the current renewal contract and this comes straight from hca's charter renewal from 2024 which was adopted on 620 2024

[04:53:50] And it says in section 3. 3 that we as a school board, the school board agrees annually to consider the school building and the inclusion of its capital asset prevention program, but it is not obligated to include any specific actions or improvements that will balance the needs for HCA school building against the needs of all other LCPS other buildings and available funds.

[04:54:16] To the extent that HCA has requested for capital improvement projects to be considered for all inclusion in the school board's capital improvement program, HCA shall follow all applicable and relevant tie lines. However, the school board is not obligated to include any such projects in its CIP.

[04:54:32] So I was just wondering, because to me that language is in tension with the language of this new policy. So I guess my question is I'd like some clarity around that tension. Are we envisioning that this establishment policy is only for new ones, or is there any sense that this would be retroactive, that it would apply to a renewal program, or next year's renewal, would that now be subject to the establishment policy that we are considering tonight?

[04:55:03] So, I don't know if that's a Mr. Allen question. Mr. Allen? Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. - I think it could be an operational question as well, but the board could, to the extent, again, it's the will of the board, it could call out existing charter schools because, again, the proposed name of this policy is establishment of charter schools, so that's one way the board could consider it, that the proposed language in that regard is for new charter schools down the road

[04:55:43] that are going to be established and then could provide clarity as to existing charter schools and defer to the language in their lease agreements or their charter agreements. That's certainly one way. Or it's not necessarily incongruent if the board does adopt this proposed language and retroactively applies it to existing charter schools in the sense that the language that you provided from Section 3.3 of the charter, does say the school board is not obligated to include any such projects in its CIP,

[04:56:19] but I do understand that it could be at odds with that 'cause why would you allow them the opportunity to potentially request those projects for consideration if then the policy kind of prohibits that for consideration?

[04:56:36] - It specifically says will not be included, whereas it can be considered. And so I just think for clarity's sake and for the record's sake, since we have two existing charter schools and we have our students that are attending there, it will be good for us to provide clarity around that so that they would know what is coming.

[04:56:54] Because if we are going to vote to reestablish that boundary or to establish that boundary for the first time, I'm not sure the historical context, I think that that is only fair that they might know that in their renewal contract for 2025, that is something that could impact them. I feel that for transparency's sake that that's absolutely necessary that we clarify that for them.

[04:57:18] So maybe you and I should work on some language so that we clarify that. Ms. LaBelle. I agree entirely with Ms. Chernoff.

[04:57:38] They were promised when we went through a very long, exhausted discussion back in 2024 that they would be considered when we are needing capital improvements on their schools.

[04:57:55] As long as it didn't take away from other schools that we have in the community An example was we had discussed adaptive playgrounds and at one point their name was on the list But they were the last two to be considered all other schools had to be done first. I see no problem with that Except that now it's kind of become iffy whether they're going to get those improvements yet we just as we just said voted them technology services these are Loudoun

[04:58:31] County students being taught by Loudoun County staff on a property owned by Loudoun County but rented to the charter school so why are we not taking responsibility for it and why do we continue to treat those two schools like

[04:58:50] bastard children well um mr lewis would you mind um giving some insight please are you asking for insight on the original lease or the playgrounds or both i think there's a difference between

[04:59:25] technology and playgrounds myself but um because you think about um i think well yes i'll just let you talk about it yes okay so i'll start with the playgrounds they were um the the board if you recall provided guidance and year-end funding for playground program to include inclusive playgrounds at all 60 elementary schools and the charter schools make sure schools number 61 and 62 and so we were clear in the capital budget and it's adopted capital budget for FY 26 through 32 that excluded playgrounds at the charter school specifically in the in the list so they

[05:00:05] They were listed on the sheet, but then said as N.A. for the not applicable for playgrounds in the capital budget. Regarding the overall lease, we believe that the original lease and documents that the charter schools agreed to included their responsibility for all capital improvements.

[05:00:26] Over time, we have gotten some differing guidance from past boards. And so our goal was to have this language be clear to apply for all the charter schools. And if we didn't make that mark with the language, we're happy to try to do that. But we recommended the closure of those buildings for reasons back when the charter schools were established.

[05:00:50] And we closed those buildings because it was not a good investment for the school board. And we thought on those two facilities. The charter schools chose to do that, and they agreed by their agreement to take care of all the capital improvements. So our goal was for this document to say that the charter schools would not be included, the existing and future schools would not be included in the CIP.

[05:01:16] Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Yes, Dr. Rasheed. I just wanted to add a little bit. It's not new information. This has come up before. This was exhausted in special programs, SPCC. So we came to the matter of the fact that it was, the charter schools were leased as is.

[05:01:35] And again, I point out, it's not new information. Thank you. Ms. Chernoff. Thank you. I appreciate that it's not new information. It is a conversation that we have had, and I know that you've had it in committee, but I think the clarity is important because it will impact the existing agreement that they signed for the coming year.

[05:01:57] So I'm going to work with staff and with legal to just get real clarity so that we can communicate that out because if it's going to go into effect immediately then that means this budget cycle they're exempt they're you know excluded and then next year or if it's going to go into effect for their renewal next year I think they deserve to know whether or not you believe they should be included or not is is not my question my question is what is the spirit of the policy and the intent and how are we going to notify those schools because that is a huge shift based off of the language that they have already signed off on in June.

[05:02:34] So I will work to get that clarity and get that out to the community. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. This may not be fully relevant to the discussion, but I believe Hillsborough has top scores, top SOL scores.

[05:02:52] I'm not sure about Middleburg, but if somebody has that information to share, I would think we would contribute and help Hillsborough with whatever they need regarding any maintenance, anything they need as far as saving this top school in Loudoun County.

[05:03:10] Thank you. Dr. Rashid, is there any way to verify that data? Is there somebody here that can now? I can provide that for you. Any other discussion?

[05:03:30] Okay. I'm assuming this is not going to consent for the September 30th meeting, So it will go to action for the September 30th, 2025 school war meeting. And Mrs. Griffith's request will be fulfilled by Dr. Ellis.

[05:03:53] And then, I mean, I don't see a reason why it can't be put on board docs if you want. Okay. So now we'll move on to board member comments and committee reports. People want to move on with that? Yes?

[05:04:11] Yes? Okay. We can start with Ms. LaBelle. Three minutes. - Thank you, Madam Chair. The policy that we put through today was the only policy we put through since the last board meeting.

[05:04:28] We've had an actual meeting that we didn't have. We are actually ahead of ourselves in SBAC, so there's no new reports, just the one we voted on today. - Thank you, Ms. LaBelle.

[05:04:45] Dr. Rasheed. - Thank you, Chair. The first MSAC, Minority Student Achievement Advisory committee meeting of the school year will be Wednesday, September 17th, starting at 6 p.m. here at LCPS Admin Building. MSAC's guiding theme for the year is Beyond Joy, Growing Together, Thriving Together, and I'm definitely excited to see how we continue to build community for the success of all LCPS students. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. At the Curriculum Instruction Committee this month, we received an update on English learner programs. The department shared how focused professional learning and instructional strategies have led to a significant student growth. While overall EL passing

[05:05:24] rates remain lower than other groups, the progress is encouraging and could serve as a model for other schools to replicate. We also discussed staffing and fine arts, elementary libraries, and world language programs. The Department of Teaching and Learning provided updates on current staffing levels and proposed potential enhancements. Elementary library staffing follows LCPS standards based on school enrollment with an aspirational goal of at least one librarian per 22 classrooms and a minimum 1.0 FTE per school staffing for world languages and fine arts also fluctuates with enrollment which can impact access and student participation bringing this discussion forward the

[05:06:01] hope of the committee and staff is that the school board could potentially look at some of these staffing enhancements in areas of the FY 27 budget and I just wanted to give a shout out to Miss Dawson for coordinating a fabulous event to the Janelia Research Campus. I know it's been mentioned a couple times tonight. I did not know that fruit flies can moonwalk, and I appreciate now that I do. And so thank you so much to them for their partnership, for their passion for our students, and to you, Miss Dawson, for all that you do to connect us with our community. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Chernoff. Mr. Streffi. Thank you very

[05:06:39] much. Similar to Ms. LaBelle, much of what we covered in our last Finance and Operations Committee meeting was presented to the full board this evening, which included the naming of our recovery school as well as the transition center. So that's it from me. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to second the comments that have been made already this evening about the tour that we were able to undergo at the HHMI Genelia facility.

[05:07:13] It was an amazing opportunity to get to see what they're doing over there, and very pleased to have them partnering with LCPS. And also a huge thank you to Ms. Dawson for arranging our field trip. The Student Services Monthly Committee Meeting is next Thursday, the 18th.

[05:07:32] We will be talking, among other things, about more changes to Policy 8155 School Assignment, also known as the special permission process. Also, the Loudoun Education Foundation's first Board of Trustees meeting for this school year is on Thursday morning at 8 a.m.

[05:07:48] Their annual golf classic fundraiser will be on October 27th. So those of you who play golf, because I don't, please mark your calendars and sign up for the raffle. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Donoghue. This is my committee here.

[05:08:04] We have the joint committee next Monday, I believe. and i guess that's really it for me and i really did appreciate the janelia field trip as well thank you renee for all of that miss dawson um okay miss chandler well um i wanted to start out by saying thank you to everyone who made um the start of the school year really just exemplary i think it went really well i'm hearing lots of great things in the community um lots of positive feedback regarding certain things like special permission and how it's had a

[05:08:43] positive impact in the schools some of the timing especially to the changes that were made really grateful for the energy that people have brought in meeting our students and of course the Janelia research trip was incredible thank you so much for making that opportunity available to us we are so lucky that that organization is such a good partner to LCPS and LAMP will be meeting on Tuesday again we'll have our special committee on retiree health

[05:09:17] benefits tomorrow right it's a very busy time of year but yeah good work is being done thank you mrs. Griffiths thank you madam chair I don't have a committee update but I do have comments I just wanted to say I'm glad to be back in the dais for a new school year before the summer I attended several a year-end theater productions and orchestra concerts these programs are vital they let our students explore their talents and build confidence I also heard requests for necessary school renovations our schools deserve safe comfortable learning spaces where they can our students I'm sorry deserve safe

[05:09:57] comfortable learning spaces where they can thrive to our parents our Loudoun County parents whether you've sent your children off to college or sending them to LCPS for another year, I encourage you to cherish every moment. I cherish every moment with my children. These teenage years, ages 13 to 19, are challenging. Teens are figuring out who they are, gaining independence, and navigating complex relationships. Their brains are still developing, which can lead to emotional highs and lows, risk-taking, and strong desire for autonomy.

[05:10:28] Parents, I ask for patience, understanding, and clear boundaries that are key. Listen, validate, and guide your children. They are growing into adults, and your support matters more than ever. As we begin the school year, I urge the support to focus on what really matters, improving our schools, addressing safety and health concerns, supporting our teachers, and enhancing student achievement. Let's prioritize the students and the community over divisive policies and distractions. And I do plan on attending the Riverside Homecoming Parade on September 19th, and I believe Belmont Ridge Middle School will also be there as well.

[05:11:05] So if anybody is in the area, please come by. Thank you. Dr. Deans? No comments. Okay. All right. So we'll now move on to new business.

[05:11:22] Do we have any new business? Seeing no new business. We'll move on to item 16, adjournment. The September 23, 2025, Loudoun County School Board meeting is now adjourned. Please drive safely home.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com