Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 5h 44m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1163723566?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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

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[00:02:54] Good afternoon. I call to order this February 10th, 2026 Loudoun County School Board meeting. Our first item tonight is our disclosures. I'll start. 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.

[00:03:32] These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years.

[00:03:50] 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.

[00:04:08] 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 the 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's interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public's rec public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you miss LaBelle 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

[00:04:47] 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. In addition, as a former LCPS employee, I, as well as my spouse, receive Medicare Advantage insurance benefits through LCPS. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which my spouse and I are included I can

[00:05:25] 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 Riccardi 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'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these benefits however affect thousands of employees

[00:06:04] Well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Ms. Chernoff Thank You madam chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda Regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees Specifically as a school board member I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these benefits however affect thousands of

[00:06:41] 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 record of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you Miss 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 Specifically, my spouse, my minor children, and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance.

[00:07:21] Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me. These subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse, my minor children, my sister-in-law, and I am included.

[00:07:38] 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. We will now move on to agenda item number three, approval of the consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda?

[00:07:56] All right. Thank you so much. Before we vote on the consent agenda, we have two proclamations. The first proclamation formally recognizes February 2026 as Black History Month in LCPS and encourages staff, students, and community to celebrate the culture, heritage, and contributions of Black and African Americans throughout the school year.

[00:08:17] It affirms the school board's ongoing commitment to equity, student success, and culturally responsive practices. This proclamation will be read by Dr. Sumerah Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. It is an honor to present this proclamation for Black History Month.

[00:08:34] Whereas Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a noted Black scholar born the son of enslaved parents in Virginia and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History initiated Negro History Week on February 12, 1926 to promote the forgotten achievements of black people.

[00:08:54] And whereas the celebration of black history expanded from one week in February to Black History Month in 1976. In 1986, Congress passed public law 99-244 designating February as National Black History Month, chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. And whereas this year marks a full century of acknowledging and celebrating the impressive contributions of black African Americans

[00:09:27] to the economic, cultural, spiritual, educational, and political development of the Commonwealth wealth of Virginia and the entire United States. And whereas during Black History Month, Loudoun County Public Schools highlights the important role of education in the history and advancement of black African Americans. And whereas 7.7% of enrolled LCPS students are black African American and 6.7% of the LCPS workforce has self-identified as black African American. And whereas 97.8%

[00:10:07] percent of black African-American students graduated on time from LCPS in 2025 compared to 91.7 percent of all black African-American students in the state of Virginia in the same year. And whereas the school division continues division-wide efforts in diverse recruitment and hiring and retention and collaborates with the Loudoun community to form strong relationships that benefit all students and maintains a commitment to equity, to ensure student growth

[00:10:43] and success through learning environments where all students see themselves represented. And now, therefore, the Loudoun County School Board proclaims February 1st through February 28th, 2026 as Black History Month in Loudoun County Public Schools and encourages our staff and community to observe, recognize, and celebrate the culture, heritage, and contributions of black African Americans to our country, the Commonwealth of Virginia, our beautifully diverse county, and our schools during Black History Month and throughout the year. In witness whereof, the Loudoun County School Board

[00:11:21] issues this proclamation to honor and recognize the contributions of black Americans whose impact is evidenced both nationally and globally. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. The second proclamation formally recognizes the contributions of future business leaders of America to the LCPS community.

[00:11:41] This recognition highlights the program's role in developing student leadership, promoting business literacy, and preparing students for post-secondary success in a global economy. This proclamation will be read by Mr. John Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas Future Business Leaders of America, Inc. , FBLA, is a nonprofit educational organization whose first chapter was established in Johnson City, Tennessee in 1942, and whereas Virginia FBLA was chartered in 1950 as the 11th state chapter of Future Business Leaders of America,

[00:12:17] And whereas FBA includes more than 250,000 members and advisors in 4,600 chapters nationwide in middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities, career and technical schools, and private business schools.

[00:12:33] And, whereas FBLA is a professional business organization dedicated to bringing business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. And, whereas FBLA members perform community service activities and strive to build a student's understanding of the realities of the modern business world.

[00:12:57] and whereas FBLA teaches middle school, high school, and college students basic business and leadership principles and assists them in the transition from school to work. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognize February 8th through 14th, 2026 as Future Business Leaders of America, FBLA Week.

[00:13:21] Thank you, Mr. Pepper. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Yes. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you. I move that the school board approve the consent agenda as put forth on board dogs. Second. Let's see. It has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donohue and seconded by Ms. Chernoff to approve the consent agenda. At this time, we'll take a vote to approve the consent agenda. Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote.

[00:14:09] i don't know could we uh try to clear oh no okay um let's try that again school board members please record your vote no oh all right thanks that persistent let's try right persistent pays

[00:14:44] persistence pays off right thank you so much um clerk please close and display the vote um that A motion passes with nine school board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and one school board member abstaining, Mrs. Griffiths.

[00:15:08] All right, let's move on to item number four, our school board and administrative advisory committee update. Tonight, we will have a presentation by Ms. Danielle Nadler, our Loudoun County, or excuse me, Loudoun Education Foundation Executive Director, and Dr. Michael Purim, Loudoun Education Foundation Board President and Director of Innovations and External Relations at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

[00:15:32] Thank you for being here tonight. The floor is yours. Thank you so much for having us. And I'll try to click, yes, or I'll keep you posted. Okay, so many of you know that it was actually you all, the Loudoun County School Board, that started the Loudoun Education Foundation in 1991, 35 years ago, and we operate as an independent 501c3 with our own staff and our own board of trustees, but we work very closely with you all to support Loudoun County Public School students and educators.

[00:16:08] Next slide, please. And similar to other education foundations, we offer scholarships and classroom grants, but there really is kind of a superpower here in Loudoun, and I think you all know it.

[00:16:25] We have school systems twice our size reaching out to say, "How is your education foundation able to be so impactful?" And we share that that superpower is honestly, it's you all, it's the LCPS leadership. It's both staff leadership and school board being willing to collaborate.

[00:16:44] So that collaboration starts with our board and your board. For example, school board member Lauren Chernoff and Superintendent Spence are voting members of the LEF board of trustees alongside business leaders and community volunteers.

[00:17:02] And that collaboration between LEF and LCPS also happens in our day-to-day operations. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Neil Slevin, is LEF's liaison. And he's kind enough to have us be our, he's our neighbor on the fifth floor so that we can collaborate closely with his teaching and learning team.

[00:17:21] So we have ongoing conversations about, with department leads, about needs, challenges, or opportunities to invest. So this positions us to create effective public-private partnerships.

[00:17:39] We invite businesses, organizations, and individuals to give in support of the schools. Some of our top partners include the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where I work, the Jack Kent Cook Foundation, the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Inova, and Microsoft. Next slide, please. As a fundraising organization, we bring in more than $3 million a year to support four areas of focus. That's curriculum enrichment, student health and well-being, teacher development,

[00:18:12] encouragement and scholarships. Next slide please. And through these partnerships and funds, LEF has helped pilot and provided ongoing support for programs like Propel and Level Up, Beam Summer Camp, and the Health and Medical Science Academy. We also secure various sponsors for various events like the Regional Science and Engineering Fair, of which HHMI General Research Campus is the title sponsor. Each of these is an example of what LEF brings, how it brings in outside organizations,

[00:18:47] including those businesses, colleges, and charitable organizations to support academic enrichment and workforce development. Sorry, Mike drew the short straw with the mic. Next slide, please. One of LEF's proprietary programs, much of our support, we fundraise and then we hand the funds over to LCPS and their team really leads it and it runs that program.

[00:19:13] But one that is truly proprietary to LEF is Fueled. It used to be called Backpack Coalition, but people kept donating backpacks, so we changed the name. And it supports more than 2,000 students each week and their families through meal bags, in-school pantries, and snack support.

[00:19:32] We've grown that this year to support 56 schools and just seen a large increase in need. But we've also been able to, thanks to we have a great development team, grant funding and generous donors, we've been able to meet that full need.

[00:19:49] And just a couple of quick shout outs. The reason we're able to do so much with we have a team of five with Fueled, we partner with Amazon. They drive for free every week our meal bags to the schools. Loud and Hungry Relief is another great partner.

[00:20:06] They, again, for free, hug your friends and partners. They let us have free warehouse space in their Leesburg warehouse, so that's huge. And then family liaisons are another great partner of ours. We work with them every week.

[00:20:21] They order food through an app, so we know exactly how many meal bags they need, how much fresh produce they might need. Bainham Foundation Farm is another partner to provide some of that fresh produce at some of our pantries. So it really becomes this wild-oiled machine that if we didn't have our partners, it just wouldn't be possible.

[00:20:40] Next slide, please. So in addition to that, we support, we have a lot of support for our educators. And on the slide, you'll see some of our examples of that. The Innovation in Education Grants, also known as the Classroom Grants, where individual educators apply for support for innovative projects.

[00:21:02] The Continuing Education Scholarships, and our Monthly Shine Award for Excellence in Education and Staff. Next slide. And if I may shout out to our board president, Mike Perum, he chaired that committee, the Innovation Education Grants Committee for the last couple of years and helped bring it from 50K a year to now this year we've been able to grant 100K a year.

[00:21:30] So huge win there. This may be take-home homework for you all, but I worked with Mr. Slevin to try to create a visual, and I showed this to you last year as well, but just a visual of what that life cycle looks like for some of the public-private partnerships, some of those grant-funded programs.

[00:21:48] So just to kind of reiterate that a little bit, it really starts with those conversations with educators all the way from the school-based staff. We hear about needs and we'll see trends through those classroom grants. And then on up to cabinet-level staff who we're thankful to be able to meet with regularly to hear both, again, needs, challenges, or opportunities for innovation.

[00:22:12] And then we have an incredible director of development, as many of you all know, Carrie Murphy. We go out and bring partners in who might be, who it aligns with our philanthropic goals. We're really blessed, as you all know, to live in an area where there are some big national companies nearby and they want to be good neighbors, and we love when they want to be good neighbors.

[00:22:31] Then we'll also go out and just write grants, too. From there, we measure the impact over the next couple years. How is this pilot program working? Talking with educators. is this effective? And then from there, if and most all of them have been found effective and worthy of moving away from grant funding, it really graduates into the LCPS operating budget, which you all have been really great about doing. Maybe I'll give a real, sorry, before going to the next slide, a real brief example of one of these programs through this life cycle. The Health

[00:23:06] Medical Science Academy, this was over four years ago that the CTE team and the teaching and learning team and LEF were talking about really how to connect the increased student interest in health and medical science coursework to the obvious huge need, workforce need for health and medical sciences. And then as they worked through what the Ham-Sci Academy could look like, LEF worked with them to host roundtable events that brought the CEO of Innova and Stone Springs and HHMI and Kaiser just all these folks quite literally to the

[00:23:42] table on the fifth floor alongside educators so they could help inform what that curriculum would look like they would ask questions hey what are those what are the industry recognized credentials that these students should should be earning on their way out the door and then with those partners at the table Carrie Murphy and I are gonna ask for funding as well so we applied for grants and through the generosity of Cloudmore and Nova and Google and others, by we I mean LCPS, was able to launch that HAMSAI Academy years earlier than would otherwise be possible.

[00:24:15] And now, as you all know, and thank you, it's gradually graduating over to the LCPS operating budget. Next slide, please. So with many organizations, we struggle to let people know what we're doing and report on so people know that all this great stuff is happening in their schools and in their community. So these are examples of posters that our staff have assembled that relate to each of the programs that impacts each individual school. If you go to the QR code, you can navigate to each individual school and see what programs through LEF have been

[00:24:52] worked out with that school. Next slide, please. All right. So thank you all so much. We appreciate the opportunity to share our work um you know you know where to find us and again just in general thank you dr spence and school board for casting that vision that partnerships really i think do i think when the community feels invested in the local public schools whether they have kids in the schools or not um it benefits all students all staff and then the community as a whole so thanks for letting us be a part of that work thank you both for the presentation um school board members Do you have any questions?

[00:25:31] By Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say, as you two know, I just finished my two years of being board liaison for LEF, and it was a really fun experience seeing how the group operates and having that firsthand ability to observe all the amazing work that the group is doing for our school community.

[00:25:56] So I was a little bit sad to transition off, but I know that Ms. Chernoff will take excellent care of you all. But I will miss being at the meetings, and I will look forward to still getting to come to some events. So thank you for everything you do for our schools. Thank you. It was wonderful having you on there.

[00:26:14] Yes, Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for Vice Chair Donahue graciously passing the torch, although I have told her she's more than welcome to crash the party, and I think you agree. I believe we all try to crash the party as much as possible I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for your work during the snow days with getting food to kids I think there's a lot that is seen by LEF but I and I know the LCPS shared it out so maybe people did see it but it's really you guys are that stand-in-the-gap filler too at times and you know when kids are out of school many of us are blessed to not struggle to have food but there are a lot in our

[00:26:51] community that they rely on those meals and so you got you all stepping up answering the call to do all that there's a beautiful video that that has been posted and I would encourage people to see that because that really is the heart of who you are it's the heart of who I know you all to be and I look forward to partnering you partnering with you in this work as we move forward through the year and I'm very excited but I just wanted to put that on people's radar it's really important what you do from a basic needs level all the way up to all the cool Amazon stuff we do too, which does get a lot of attention.

[00:27:22] So thank you. Thank you so much. And I should share a quick plug for social media, LEF4LCPS, and that's just the best way to kind of follow. We do some fun stuff, and we so appreciate all the ways that Cabinet really reached out to us during those snow days to say, hey, can we partner to help give more food to kids?

[00:27:43] So there's a little video of us sweating in the warehouse to get that done, but it was so worth it, we're so thankful to be part of it. Thank you. Ms. Riccardi? Well, I think I might try to wrestle this away from Lauren at some point in time after she's done. That's okay. You know, as a Sterling Park resident, I just want to thank you guys for all the work that you do. I know that as I'm learning more about what you all are doing and about the needs of our schools in Sterling Park in particular, I know you guys have a huge, huge impact on our community. And so thank you again for that. I'm super excited to learn more about what you guys are doing. I already have a couple

[00:28:18] of thoughts about some additional support that I've heard of recently so I'm excited to share that with you guys as well and see how we can figure out to bridge the gaps there on that but I'm excited to work with you guys thank you so much for your presentation thank you appreciate it thank you so much for being here tonight we appreciate it and with that we will move on to item number five in our work session enterprise resource planning project update presented by Ms. Sharon Willoughby, our Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Lisa Boland, our Chief Human Resources Officer, and Mr. Aaron Smith, our Chief Technology Officer.

[00:29:20] Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, and members of the board. Today, we are excited to provide a comprehensive update on our Enterprise Resource Planning Project, or ERP. This is a foundational initiative project for Loudoun County Public Schools, and as of January 2026, we are officially moving from the planning phase into the implementation phase.

[00:29:44] Before we dive into the why and the how, it is important to understand the who. and recognize that this isn't just an IT project. This is a business transformation led by three collaborating departments, business and financial services, human resources and talent development, and digital innovation.

[00:30:00] An ERP is the backbone of our operations. It is the system that allows us to hire and pay 13,000-plus employees, purchase our goods for student needs, manage our budgets and transparency, along with many other financial, HR, and other operational. To understand where we are going, we first need to kind of understand where we are and look at our current landscape and the progress that we've made to date.

[00:30:28] Currently, we share an aging Oracle ERP system with the County of Loudoun. This creates a dependency on external technical support that will officially end on June 30th, 2028. Our current state is characterized by disconnected systems, software that isn't interconnected and doesn't natively talk to each other, forcing our staff to use manual workarounds and complex reporting tools just to get basic data.

[00:30:49] We are managing critical integrations from the Virginia Retirement System to payroll and procurement on a platform that's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. LCPS has had to procure several bolt-on systems to supplant existing offerings in the current Oracle environment. Since the existing system cannot support our business needs, separate systems have been implemented for items such as budgeting, applicant tracking, professional development, evaluation, and other core services.

[00:31:17] Our future state is a consolidated, integrated, modern, AI-enabled cloud platform. Crucially, the new system will significantly improve our reporting and transparency. Because our core systems functionality hasn't aligned with our core, our actual business needs, we've been forced to implement numerous bolt-on systems, as mentioned before, and much of this work is manual just to get data that we need for day-to-day use.

[00:31:40] By moving to this unified platform, we are eliminating those fragmented workarounds, we are replacing a patchwork approach with a single source of truth, and once implementation is complete, it will give the board and our leadership real-time reliable data to make informed decisions for the district. We are following a phased implementation to minimize risk and manage staff workload.

[00:32:03] The next slide will highlight the implementation timeline for the project. In December 2025, our teams completed initiation of the project, which started in January of 2024, and included securing funding, requirements gathering, process mapping, and re-engineering, solicitation, vendor reviews, and the final task of awarding the contract, which the board voted on in December.

[00:32:25] Project implementation began January 2026 and is a multi-phase approach as outlined on this slide. Phase 1 began last month. We had our kickoff meeting on January 14th and focuses on finance, school activity funds, with a go-live of July 2027.

[00:32:42] Phase 2 kicks off in July and focuses on our human capital management and recruitment. And Phase 3 and 4 will follow, bringing sourcing and budgeting online throughout 2028. By staggering these, we ensure each department can transition successfully without overwhelming our operations.

[00:32:59] I will now turn it over to Ms. Boland to discuss the work ahead. Sorry, my computer decided to reload.

[00:33:18] Okay. This work is not something LCPS is doing alone. We have intentionally partnered with experienced organizations to support both the technology and implementation effort. Oracle Fusion is providing the core ERP software platform, which will support our finance, human capital, payroll, and budgeting functions in a fully integrated cloud environment.

[00:33:44] IBM is serving as our implementation partner, leading project management solution design, configuration, data migration, testing, and overall delivery, while also supporting change management and organizational readiness.

[00:34:00] For time and attendance, we are partnering with Time Clock Plus to support time tracking, scheduling, and workforce management, including the associated hardware and implementation services. We officially kicked off the project on January 14th, and I'm pleased to report that there is strong alignment and genuine enthusiasm across all vendor teams and LCPS staff.

[00:34:23] The early alignment is critical because successful ERP implementations depend as much on partnership, coordination, and trust as they do on technology itself. LCPS Resources and Commitments.

[00:34:46] This is the largest modernization project in LCPS history. Over the next 33 months, our project plan estimates a commitment of over 55,000 LCPS staff hours from our core departments.

[00:35:01] We will also be tapping into the expertise of school-based staff and various offices as we reach specific milestones to ensure the system works for the people who use it the most. This means asking those individuals who already do so much for our organization to do that much more.

[00:35:20] Ensuring that burnout is managed and our staff are prepared, provided with the resources, and ready to move forward is going to be an integral piece into the success of this project. At this point, I will hand it over to Ms. Willoughby to discuss the rest of the ERP project.

[00:35:43] So as we are preparing for this monumental business transformation, we know that success depends on more than implementing just new technology. It requires thoughtful change management, clear communication, and effective training to ensure our people feel supported throughout the entire transition.

[00:36:01] From a change management perspective, we are engaging stakeholders early to build alignment and readiness across the district. We are also designating change champions to help lead and support the transformation, along with structured transition planning to ensure the new system is used effectively from day one.

[00:36:20] Clear and consistent communication is a critical part of this effort. We will provide timely updates on progress and upcoming changes, set clear expectations, and maintain open feedback channels so staff can share input and help us refine our support approach.

[00:36:36] Training will be delivered in a targeted and practical way. Role-based training plans will be implemented across schools and departments, supported by hands-on learning and practical materials. After go-live, refresher training and on-demand resources will remain available to reinforce confidence and drive long-term adoption.

[00:36:55] Our approach follows a clear and straightforward path, create, execute, and operate. We are currently in the create phase where we are refining requirements, aligning on scope, and defining what success looks like. This phase lays the foundation for everything that follows.

[00:37:13] Next, we will move into the execute phase. During this stage, the solution will be configured, tested, tested, and tested again with validation of processes occurring throughout. This includes data migration, system integrations, and change management activities to ensure the solution is ready for use.

[00:37:32] The final phase is operate, which focuses on preparing LCPS for deployment and long-term success. This includes transition planning, training, and cutover activities, followed by moving into production, stabilizing operations, refining processes, and ensuring sustained value.

[00:37:50] Throughout the entire implementation, LCPS and IBM will work closely together maintaining clear communication, actively managing risks, and using quality checkpoints to stay aligned and on track at every stage.

[00:38:06] So finally, let's look a little bit at the numbers related to the project. The RFP process began before February 4th, actually, 2025, and the final award was completed by the Board on December 16th, 2025. I want to highlight the amount of time our teams have already invested in the project that began last year.

[00:38:26] They spent all of 2025 defining requirements that would go into the solicitation, reviewing proposals, viewing vendor demonstrations, and answering numerous questions that ultimately led to our selection of Oracle, TCP, and IBM.

[00:38:41] This project is funded with $22.5 million out of the CIP budget. As we progress through the project, we will monitor project milestone dates and the project budget. This project is about moving LCPS into a more efficient, transparent, and modern era of business operations.

[00:39:00] It is a strategic investment to modernize and automate processes while leveraging the latest technology. It is a significant lift, but our teams are truly ready. We are happy to take any questions you may have about the roadmap, the technology, or the implementation process.

[00:39:15] Thank you. - Thank you for the presentation, school board members. I'll open the floor to questions. Mr. Pepper. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few clarifying questions, if that's all good.

[00:39:31] First is I know that, first of all, this is a huge undertaking, and so good luck to all of you doing this. Let's just begin with that. When we go, and I know that I wanna get the slide right because I wanna make sure that, I'm going back to the timeline really quickly.

[00:39:48] - When we go to the human capital management phase, which I believe is not until FY27, is that correct Ms. Bolin? Does that change our entire applicant system, right? So if someone has put an application in, in our previous system, do they have to then reapply for a whole, on the whole new system, is that gonna happen?

[00:40:09] - So the goal would be no. - Okay. - The goal would be to have an integration aspect to where we could roll over those applications into a new system. - Has that happened before?

[00:40:24] I know that you guys switch from, I think it's like School Spring, Power School Now, and then it was something else before that. - It was, it was iRecruit before that, but we now have Power Schools, yes. - Okay, and then is there, so I know we talked a little bit about fundraising, and I'd ask you guys this when we kind of discussed this earlier, is there a cost savings in the long run for this because we're not using four or five different systems and we're just kind of consolidating it all to one?

[00:40:57] - So there will be consolidation of systems. So we're currently paying for a budgeting system outside of Oracle. We're paying for applicant tracking, professional development, evaluation, all of those systems. There will be ongoing fees for Oracle or for all the software titles that we have because right now the county of Loudoun is paying those.

[00:41:15] So there will be an offset there, but the measurable impact will be all of the manual processes that we will be able to re-engineer and automate and apply logic to them so that we are able to respond quicker, have better data, more real-time data access.

[00:41:32] So I think that there's a lot of value in business opportunity that will be generated by the system other than just like the licensing costs for software. - I appreciate that answer. The business opportunity was clearly obvious. I think that's fantastic. Like I said, I was just hoping that we could find, you know, if we're not paying for four things, paying for one thing it might be some savings kind of there but i appreciate it thank you um mr carty thank you madam chair so just a quick question for you so did you guys say that the um that the hard deadline for kind of severance with the county is in june of 28 is that correct

[00:42:08] that's correct at this time the county has committed to supporting the system through june 30th of 2028 we do have contingency plans for other if we need to pivot or have a system online for longer and we will be archiving that system so it won't be a full production system supported by the county but we will the goal is to have that to go back to in case we need to look at something or have some historical and make sure that we got all that data migrated over so there are some contingency plans in there but the county will stop providing that support on June 30th 2028 okay but then I see in here on your timeline on slide seven that the go live is October 2028 so what are we doing between June and October

[00:42:44] October account. So those systems that are being implemented after the June 30th, 2028 are external to Oracle that the county provided supports now. So those would be, that's why they were moved to the end of the implementation. For one, they need kind of the prereqs of the other systems in place. It's hard to budget if you don't know what your financials are. So that's not only from a timeline perspective for that side of it, but also because those systems are not supported by the county of Loudoun now. So that wouldn't be contingent on those dates. Got it. Okay. And so what's the, I mean, as technology implementation, especially big ones like this go, what happens if we get to the point where we slide, I mean,

[00:43:23] is sliding past the June 28th, June 2028 deadline, even an option for us, or is it a hard, hard deadline? So that's why when we have contingency plans, we do have opportunities for say someone else to manage that system instead of the county. We will also, once the county is out of the system, and we'll have more technical access to it.

[00:43:45] So if we do need to support it, I do not envision the system still needing to be online in an active role after June 30th. These timelines have a lot, like there's four testing windows built into this. So we have a lot, we actually doubled those as part of our negotiations with our vendor to make sure we had enough time to validate these things.

[00:44:04] So we, that's one of the, we tried to measure twice, cut once. So we had a project plan that we felt was achievable 'cause I don't wanna come to the board and not achieve these dates. So the team is very clear that these are dates and we really have those non-negotiables that we will be doing our very, very best to adhere to.

[00:44:20] - Right, and then what is kind of the reporting, kind of status reporting back, just so we can kind of keep track of this? What's the plan for reporting back here? - I think our plan was to bring, once we get further into the implementation, like we're just a month in, we had calls yesterday with IBM, so they're really developing documentation.

[00:44:39] We have almost a finalized statement of work and be able to bring that back we get into the next phase of that project when we're really doing that implementation but some sort of regular update to the board via this type of update where we'll be able to share actually more specifics with the next update it won't be as general and as high level we can actually get into specifics of timelines actual tasks that have been completed those type of things yeah that'd be great and if you could also include kind of where you guys are milestones on the budget as well I think that would be helpful because a lot of times these projects can get a lot more expensive and really the scope creep on this can be astounding sometimes so and I'm not suggesting it will be here but

[00:45:17] I've seen that happen many many times before in big ERP implementation so that would be really helpful to you thank you thank you yes thank you madam chair thank you very much for the presentation and the information my question is if I see the value in terms of efficiency and productivity etc in connecting our systems but what happens then if our systems are connected and there is a virus or other like cyber attack that is directed to one of the

[00:45:54] systems what happens in that circumstance that scares me don't say that no we there will be lots of mitigation strategies in place this is a cloud service hosted by Oracle which is a international cloud service provider this will have resiliencies built in multi locations cloud service hosting there'll be protections such as you know air gapped data so we will be as least resilient to anything happening as possible by the design of the application so we will have contingency plans in fact one of the items we plan on doing every year we do a like an IT security tabletop exercise and one of

[00:46:34] the next ones is going to focus on this area so as we transition from the County of Loudon providing this IT support, to our IT in providing this support, that we can kind of build some capacity there about what it looks like, what it happens, and what our responses need to be, so we can kind of practice that in hopes that we never need to use it.

[00:46:51] Any further questions? Thank you so much for the presentation. And we will, since we have some significant time left in our early work session, we will move on to item 14.01, our first information item tonight, which will be presented by the Department of Academics. Our action plan to support targeted support schools presented by Dr. Ashley Ellis, our chief academic officer,

[00:47:28] and Dr. Ryan Tyler, our director of research assessment and school improvement.

[00:47:54] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the school board. This evening, Dr. Tyler and I will provide some updates regarding the Virginia Department of Education's new school performance and support framework specifically requirements for federally identified targeted support and improvement or TSI schools so we're talking about federal identification and those TSI designated schools you'll see in the information that dr. Tyler shares in a moment that local school boards are required to approve a multi-year school support plan for any TSI or CSI school this

[00:48:33] evening we'll be talking only about the TSI schools and later in the spring we will bring you the comprehensive support and improvement plans they are on a different timeline so this slide is a visual reminder of the federal identification process and three potential categories of improvement schools may be identified as dr. Tyler and I presented this information including and starting with the state designations in the school performance and support framework and then how the state calculated the federal

[00:49:08] identifications of TSI and CSI at the December 16th 2025 school board meeting so if you want a refresher or to go into more detail about that that's there's a riveting presentation from December 16th also if you have any questions about that or what we share this evening please don't hesitate to reach out so for the purposes of this conversation and the plans you see in board docs and we need approval for, we're focusing on the yellow category on this slide, the targeted support and intervention schools. These schools have been identified because they

[00:49:42] have one or more underperforming student groups scoring below the highest performing comprehensive support and improvement school. And just as a reminder about that, this visual shows how the state identified those comprehensive support and improvement schools. And so this year the relevant category for LCPS is that top category. So we have two schools in the bottom 5% of all Title I schools in the state of Virginia. And again, we went into much more detail last time, happy to go

[00:50:19] over it again, but that's just a reminder that those are comprehensive support. Today we're focused on targeted support. So in December, which was much later than anticipated and much later than typical years, the VDOE provided these identification categories and the data behind it for all the schools in the Commonwealth, and LCPS had 11 schools identified as targeted support and intervention, and two schools identified as comprehensive support and intervention.

[00:50:54] And as Dr. Tyler and I talked about in December, there were very few surprises when we received that data. We have been tracking these schools for quite some time, working with the principals and their school leadership teams. All 11 of the TSI schools were identified for the student group, students with disabilities, and one was identified for an additional student group. So we had been working with these schools locally over the summer and in the fall.

[00:51:26] They've been receiving division-level support, having regular meetings, looking at their school improvement goals, talking with experts on our teams, and getting support as needed. So since we have received the designation information, we've been continuing those conversations and have shifted to planning these multi-year support plans that you see here.

[00:51:49] In January, we received information on BDOE's expectations for supporting these schools, including instructions on how to develop the multi-year support plans and the requirement to have board approval of those plans before submitting to BDOE.

[00:52:05] Fortunately, we're very well poised to complete this task because of the structures that we already have in place. And so now I'll turn it over to Dr. Tyler to provide more details on how we developed these plans and steps moving forward. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. Good evening.

[00:52:22] You see on this slide, there are details regarding the requirements for targeted support and improvement schools. And I would highlight a needs assessment is required. The schools have completed a needs assessment from the previous spring. This actual stage involved refining it more specifically to students with disabilities.

[00:52:41] A multi-year school support plan must be developed by the school. And you actually see we have drafts of those plans in board docs. And we'll walk you through an example of one. And the key component of this is the idea of a partnership between the school and the division.

[00:52:57] For these 11 schools, we're really focusing, hyper-focus on students with disabilities, and that plan is developed in a partnership with different stakeholders. We'll talk about what they refer to as evidence-based interventions. We all think of them as strategies, just evidence-based strategies.

[00:53:14] And the plan must be approved by the school division and the board, published and monitored. Next slide, please. The next two slides actually provide outlines of the different requirements for the CSI schools, which we'll talk about later.

[00:53:29] So we can just kind of go through those, but you see it just kind of summarizes what I mentioned on that previous slide. The next slide, please. The continuous improvement process is really what drives all of this work, and the schools engage in this with their needs assessment all the way up to building and implementing a school improvement plan.

[00:53:51] The slight difference here is that as we build a multi-year school support plan, it's involving different stakeholders, and in this particular case, we're drilling down specifically for students with disabilities. We're addressing root causes, not symptoms, and we're creating and integrating action steps with those strategies.

[00:54:10] Now, again, as we'll go through a little bit further, it's more of a partnership between the schools and the division where the previous system kind of looked at schools. This actual partnership involves looking more at some of the other factors that impact schools, which we'll mention.

[00:54:28] So the idea of evidence-based interventions or strategies is that when you conduct that needs assessment for students with disabilities and you're looking at root causes, we're looking at any one of three different resources from the state around national research about what is effective.

[00:54:46] And we had options to either identify different strategies from other forms of research to look at what's called the What Works Clearinghouse. So what emerged out of this, if we go to the next slide, is that we come up with a timeline for this extra layer of analysis and looking at the needs of students with disabilities and how we support these schools.

[00:55:09] We've met with the school, the leadership at the 11 schools. We've reviewed the evidence-based interventions. There's actual school improvement grants that are available to actually support the implementation of these strategies. And you see there listed the actual deadline of February 28th for submission.

[00:55:27] We'll submit on the 27th. So school improvement grant funding. So if you imagine that we've conducted a needs assessment and we've refined it and we're looking at very specific strategies and maybe there's an extra layer of resources needed to implement, these schools be eligible for school improvement grant funds.

[00:55:50] The targeted support improvement schools you see listed there, That actual amount has been adjusted to $45,150, so it's actually $490,000 or so that these 11 schools are eligible for. And the state is saying, acknowledging that this recognition of this need coming later in the school year, if there are additional resources needed to implement, there's funds available.

[00:56:13] So you see on the next slide, that led to the development of the multi-year school support plans. So as we'll go to some of the outline of what's included in it, for those of you who prefer in-board docs, there's an actual, there's 33 pages of the draft multi-year school support plans for the schools if you wanted to zoom in a little more, because on this next slide, that's actually not too bad here in the boardroom to see that.

[00:56:43] So you see now, imagine that the school and the division were notified that the state is saying we want you to look a little closer students with disabilities because we're seeing a need there. We've conducted a needs assessment already. The state is saying we'll drill a little bit further on students with disabilities. So what we were able to do is to reach out to the special education department and to look at the 11 schools plans and to look at the evidence-based strategies and the special education, the amazing special education department was able to say well let's drill a little further and let's identify some very specific strategies because

[00:57:20] maybe the premise of what works for all students may not necessarily work with students with disabilities or English learners. So there's a three-year goal statement listed here and you see there's measurable objectives and you really start to see the impact of this activity when you see the evidence-based strategy and it says evidence tier one provides systematic and explicit instruction included in the concrete representational abstract framework and what the special education department was able to do is to say that's a good overall strategy but for students with disabilities we're looking at math we're going to integrate something called touch math grounded in the

[00:57:59] science of mathematics and unpack those address math sol units to design lessons that make that learning criteria clear equitable and accessible for students with disabilities so you see there's an extra focus of that strategy had to be refined more for students of disabilities and the experts in special education were able to apply that and you see it reflected in the action steps multi-sensory math implementation deploy touch math kits for systematic instruction math tutoring high-impact tutoring with explicit instruction and you see in board docs you see the attachment there's 11 there's a plans for the 11 schools and you see the

[00:58:39] extra value added of targeted support and improvement actually helps us to drill down into very specific strategies and we are we are going to pursue school improvement grant funds because this is an extra cost that is needed that we see value in but there's an extra cost needed to implement touch math tutoring and additional supports training for teaching assistants things that are best practices that we're going to use to enhance the implementation of the

[00:59:13] strategies and before I turn it back to you Miss Chandler I'll just add that once we submit these draft plans to video we we anticipate a back-and-forth with them their school improvement office typically gives us extensive feedback and we will incorporate that feedback as we deem appropriate and ultimately submit final plans we did receive guidance though that they wanted board awareness and approval of us to submit the draft plans before we do that and we are happy

[00:59:49] to answer any questions thank you so much for the presentation and for giving us that context there at the end we certainly have had the opportunity to review the draft plans board members are there any questions I'm sure enough thank you madam chair thank you so much for the presentation and for the update. I know this is kind of feels like it's all like happening live, like we're building the plane as we fly it. I guess it's more of a clarifying question. I can certainly attest to the work that we've already been doing in this area and LCPS for years. I mean when you say evidence-based

[01:00:26] strategies or best practices, I mean research-based. I mean we've been doing this and then we had the evolution. I know you're talking about touch math in this example, but we had the evolution of the VLA and all of those things, and now the state is actually telling us what's evidence-based, whether we agree or not. And then we had this whole undercurrent for decades of RTI coming to life, and then MTSS, and we have these established departments and programs and supervisors and plans and modules, and you name it, we got it. So I guess my question is, and maybe the answer is a little

[01:01:05] bit of both, is it really that they're looking for brand new things? I heard you say like drill down further or is it really we're in a pretty much a good place and it's just going to be sort of fine-tuning those things? And my second piece of that question is how does MTSS and the modules sort of interface with these schools and how is that used for our reporting and can we leverage some of that work? So what's ironic about your first comment is that if you go back in the slide deck on the example, the evidence-based strategy from the federal government did not specifically

[01:01:43] address the needs of students with disabilities. So the special education experts here had to add a finer-tuned component to it to say touch math will more directly address that need. So even in the national research, it's not when we actually filter through and we filter for students with disabilities, the presumption was these are great practices for all students.

[01:02:06] So in answer to your question, what we found was that it had to be refined even more by our experts to really ensure that it got to the needs of students with disabilities. So in short, I think it's the latter of the two scenarios that you described. I think we're well poised to do this, and it's really the state, I think, wants to see specificity.

[01:02:29] And so I think it has been a helpful exercise to work closely with our Office of Special education and get really explicit about the strategies. May I follow up? And then just one follow up on that. In terms of the grant funding, I'm assuming those grants you apply for at the state level? We do. They're actually part of the federal funds. So we will submit on the 28th and the state will review it and the state makes the final decisions. We actually did

[01:03:06] get approval for school improvement grant funds last year for our five targeted support schools. So we've been through this process before. Okay, that's great to know. And then I know like recently some of the literacy tutors that we use have been talking about wanting more training and wanting to learn some new things. Would some of this grant funding extend? I heard you mention teaching assistance, which I think is a phenomenal idea. But we have a lot of people in our buildings that are supporting students, it's not necessarily just for licensed staff then, possibly.

[01:03:39] Correct. What the memory serves, the special education office is really speaking to. There's training that's being provided using these funds to expand it beyond just like special education, teaching assistants, but just additional staff. So, yes, the idea of expanding that training, making it available to more staff.

[01:03:59] I really appreciate all the work that you've done for many, many years, and I feel like It's kind of colliding in a way that is going to continue to serve our students. And I'm thankful for the great foundation that we already have. So I appreciate your work on this. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:04:19] I was wondering, I know after many years in special education that we do a lot of measurement. We have a lot of goals, written goals. We have to collect data. How often, my question is, are these things that we're doing, these initiatives that we're doing, Are they consistent with the IEP goals that might be written for the student, or do we have to write different IEP goals to match what we're putting out there?

[01:04:49] And then the next question becomes, how are we monitoring it? How often are we monitoring it? Who collects the data and reports it? All of those things that they're doing right now in special ed, this would just be another big dump of information for them to collect and monitor.

[01:05:08] So I wondered how we're going to handle that. Thanks for that question, Ms. LaBelle, and I'll start. And then if Ms. Richardson wants to add anything I may have missed, she's more than welcome to do so. So we are absolutely not expecting IEP's goals to be rewritten to match the strategies.

[01:05:26] Quite the opposite. The Office of Special Education team works very closely with school leaders and the special education experts at the school level to ensure that the strategies are meeting the needs of students and their existing IEP goals.

[01:05:42] And your follow-up question was about monitoring, I believe, and that is also a collaboration that happens consistently ongoing on a daily basis at the school level with support and guidance from the Office of Special Education.

[01:05:59] And Ms. Richardson, would you add anything to that? No, Dr. Ellis, you did a great job. Thank you. Mr. Pepper? Hi. Thank you. This is super informative, and thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make sure I missed the bubbles. Okay, do you have any questions? A couple things.

[01:06:20] First of all, I noticed that these plans have to be written really through 2028, and students are going to get tested again in 2026. What happens if, in either scenario, one, a school suddenly improves their scores? Are they pulled out of the program? And then also, if they're not, does it push the window further down the road? I guess is the first question.

[01:06:43] I appreciate that question. I will, I'll start and then Dr. Tyler will have more details because he's been in the weeds. So the, I think this is where our continuous school improvement process overlays these multi-year support plans. Because to your point, as soon as the plan is submitted to VDOE, it is probably, is likely going to change at least a little bit for the real live human beings that are in the schools.

[01:07:08] And so the school improvement process is ongoing and requires constant monitoring. I believe these plans should also require constant monitoring and adjusting. What I don't know, and maybe Dr. Tyler does, is if we make changes to this plan as the needs evolve, if we're required to continue to submit or how that works.

[01:07:32] Thank you, Dr. Ellis. So the premise of this is that the TSI schools are identified on a yearly basis. The divisions are asked to do a multi-year school support plan. So when the school adds its status, our role as a division is to sustain them for at least another year to make sure the practice is going to take hold.

[01:07:50] So if they leave status, the multi-year school support plan continues through next year to ensure that they're able to sustain it, if that answers your question. That's helpful. I mean, it's important that we contain it. It's a basic good best practice to contain it. Yeah, sorry.

[01:08:08] I was forming my thoughts. So I also think that really in terms of the work that we do and the structures we have set up, I feel for the schools having to have these multiple plans to go to. So I would encourage our team to really incorporate the action steps of the multi-year support plan in their school improvement plan so they're not working off two separate sheets of music, if that makes sense.

[01:08:33] Okay. A couple really other quick questions. Just because I'm actually looking through the plans that you shared with us, they're on BoardDocs. I noticed that reading and science are combined. Was that a state-directed, or is that something that we did? And then as I look through that, I notice that most of our action steps are focused really solely on the literacy piece.

[01:08:54] So any reasoning behind both those two things? So the way the TSI schools are identified is that they look at a particular student group, and that student group must be below the threshold for reading, math, and science. So the idea is the approach needs to address the three areas, But what we found in the discussions is that that core literacy component that impacts your performance in science, it makes sense to kind of build those core reading skills.

[01:09:21] So we do have to address all three areas, and that's why you see them addressed in the way that's purposeful. I say that as a science instructor, and I appreciate it greatly. And then the very last thing is, as I'm going through these plans, I notice that, for better or worse, they seem to be extremely similar to each other.

[01:09:40] The state's not going to have comments on that, are they? they will not. Mr. Svinson? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just going off that point that Mr. Pepper raised, so it looks like they are pretty consistent across the schools. I imagine that makes sense because for the most part, if a program is going to work in one school, work in another. Are there any instances where it's different? And if so, what would be the reason for that, the decision by the administration at school? Or are there other reasons that they might try a different strategy?

[01:10:17] So in the case of Guilford, we did find it was students with disabilities and other student groups, so we may have to have a broader consideration in that case. You saw a lot of similarities because when we brought the 11 principals together in December and we had discussions, there were a lot of parallels in some of the staffing challenges, but just the general need for targeted instruction in this way, it was common across the schools.

[01:10:49] Mr. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm really excited that we're really focusing on these schools. I know that the framework is, you know, some people love it, some people hate it, some people still have no clue about what it actually is going to do at the end.

[01:11:08] But I think at the core, the fact that we're being able to put some more targeted resources to these schools that really need it is really important. So you all know that I really support these efforts, and I'm really excited about them.

[01:11:24] I am gonna be real curious to see if they're how well the state's gonna take the The common the fact that these are all very similar and what they're gonna do with that I hope that's a good thing I'm it makes me kind of wonder and just kind of a needs assessment process, and I'm not I know we're meeting separately I'm to talk about this But one of those questions I think is gonna be is what you know What are we looking at from a needs assessment piece?

[01:11:52] What did we were the questions we asked? What are we looking at doing? You know, what are we looking to do differently? because, you know, unfortunately, the schools that are here that I'm most familiar with have been struggling in these areas for a really long time, in some cases more than a decade.

[01:12:08] So I want to make sure that what we're doing is going to make transformational change for these students. It's not just a check the box to appease video. And I'm not suggesting that you are. That's not where I'm going with it. But I just want to make sure that we're really making transformational change with these student groups and really getting these schools um to par with um i mean the fact that some of them are at the bottom five percent of the title one schools in the in the commonwealth is concerning um and i want to really make sure that we're putting all of the resources that we possibly can and doing

[01:12:41] things differently to get a different result may i mr chandler thank you so i appreciate those um those thoughts, Ms. Riccardi, and I will just add, I think one of the reasons why the multi-year school support plans are so similar, and why I truly believe VDOE will not have feedback on that, is because these plans are much more narrowly focused than the school improvement plans on that gap for students with disabilities.

[01:13:15] So you'll see when you look at the school improvement plans, their goals and strategies will vary And one of the, I think, benefits to having these conversations over the past month as a system is to actually get aligned on the very specific strategies that we're using to support our students with disabilities in these schools.

[01:13:36] So while it may feel like a copy-paste, I think it's actually more of an alignment on those strategies. Would you add anything to that? I would agree. And what is also different about this process, you see in the slide resources were referred to.

[01:13:52] We conducted a resource and equity exercise where we met with the principals and appreciation for Ms. Bolin and Dr. Spence and Dr. Ellis, I think Ray Mitchell. so they're actually going to be staffing considerations and adjustments for these TSI and CSI schools like the opportunity to be able to post positions to be able to get more flexibility to get a group of staff who identified to go into these schools so that is also another layer that's

[01:14:23] a district division commitment that is different from the previous systems. Thank you any further questions all right well I'll just ask one and then we'll maybe move on so in looking at slide 10 where the multi-year school support plans for federally identified schools should specifically address how the school and the division will the first item is involve the entire school community and everyone

[01:14:59] affected by the school could you give me any more context on what that means or at some concrete examples of how that need would be met. So what we've discussed with the principals when we shared the draft plans with them last week is ensuring that teachers and other members of the community who built that initial needs assessment are part of this conversation around we were right in the right ballpark, we're implementing the right strategies, but making sure we're going to train more folks in these strategies.

[01:15:34] We're going to implement a touch math and other resources. So it's making sure the additional stakeholders understand we were probably on the right track. This is a way to refine it even more and making sure those stakeholders are aware and committed to this multi-year approach.

[01:15:50] And I would just add that those stakeholders not only include teachers, but family members and others. Principals will often have those representatives in their team that develops the school improvement plan.

[01:16:06] And we also, you know, the schools have different ways of sharing that information, whether it's through parent-teacher organizations, parent coffees, et cetera. but I do think it's important to highlight that it's not just a principal and someone from central office sitting in a room and and creating these plans they really are dynamic and need to address the whole school thank you all right we'll move on I think we could maybe fit in one more

[01:16:41] presentation thank you so much so we'll do item 14.02 department of business and financial services fiscal year 26 second quarter financial review which will be presented by miss sharon willoughby our chief financial officer thank you as i always start off with this i'll highlight that the full financial report is available in board

[01:17:20] docs and i will be presenting highlights this evening which includes actuals from july 1st through december 31st and projections from january 1st through june 30th since it's the second quarter review we typically present with a focus on changes from the first quarter but with three new board members I have tried to provide additional information and context throughout. Starting with our school operating fund the revenues for the school operating fund are projected at 1.996 billion which is 5.2 million below budget. State revenues are projected to fall short by 8.1 million and the shortfall is

[01:18:00] primarily driven from lower enrollment this year. We budgeted for 1,112 more students than we actually had as of the official September 30th count. State funding streams primarily based on enrollment are $11.8 million less than budgeted, however stronger offsets from sales tax and regional special education state funding have resulted in a slightly better net projection for state revenues when compared to the first quarter.

[01:18:29] Federal revenues is a small revenue stream in our school operating fund and it does not encompass federal grants. Those are budgeted and accounted for in the grant fund. For federal revenues, we are below budget by about $300,000 as LCPS is no longer eligible for federal impact aid support and we are also seeing slightly reduced payments related to our JROTC programs.

[01:18:53] Our other revenue category is above budget by $3.2 million and led by charter school payments related to service contracts that we have with them as well as we are seeing more students pay for additional AP tests beyond the four that LCPS provides for free.

[01:19:10] This is also the area where we have received the $2.2 million IRA clean energy program check that is recorded in this area. So overall, our revenue is $5.2 million under budget in the operating fund.

[01:19:28] Moving to expenses, we are projecting a total surplus of $34.7 million, which is primarily driven by savings and personnel costs. Since personnel counts for about 90% of our budget, this is typically where we see budget surplus from lapse and turnover. However, it is critical to note how narrow these margins are.

[01:19:48] The projected personnel savings of $29.5 million represents only 1.7% of the total personnel budget. We are usually in the 2% range or higher, so this is a very tight margin. It is also a $2.6 million decrease from the savings we had projected in the first quarter, largely because our licensed fill rate has improved to 99.4%, which is great, meaning fewer vacancies and less turnover.

[01:20:12] Our operating and maintenance accounts are generating $5.2 million in savings. This is a minor decrease from the $6.9 million we projected in the first quarter. These savings are coming from favorable service contracts, insurance reimbursements from special education claims, and a diligent review of spending across the division.

[01:20:32] The financial analytics team regularly meets with all areas to monitor spending and identify these shortfalls and surpluses as the year progresses. These very narrow margins, particularly in personnel, truly highlight the significant budget tightening that has occurred over the years.

[01:20:48] We are operating with extremely tight control to ensure we stay within budget. After accounting for revenues and expenses, we are forecasting a $17.5 million ending fund balance, which is a decrease from the $20 million projected in the first quarter.

[01:21:03] This figure is after the anticipated $12 million carryover that is included in the FY27 budget that the school board adopted as a funding source. While $17.5 million is a large amount, it is only nine-tenths of 1% of our entire budget. This is a very small margin while ensuring we do not go over our allocated funds.

[01:21:24] I'd like to compare it to landing a plane on a pinhead. The $17.5 million projection does not include the action taken by the school board during a budget adoption that moved $1.5 million of expenses to this fiscal year. That brings the fund balance down to $16 million.

[01:21:39] Again, this makes me nervous as it limits our ability to be flexible for unexpected needs. An example of something unexpected that we don't typically budget for and that we rely on budget flexibility are snow days. One snow day incurs about $225,000 of overtime pay.

[01:21:56] You multiply that by five since we actually experienced in January when our schools were closed, and that results in about $1.1 million of overtime costs. It is our intent, with the fund balance, to again transfer those remaining funds to the health self-insurance fund that is allowed per the county's appropriation resolution.

[01:22:18] Before we began transferring year-end funds to the health self-insurance fund, it was our practice to return no more than 1% of the budget to the county. the process would be once the third quarter financial review was complete we would begin discussions with departments to identify additional one-time needs we could address if we were projecting a fund balance above one percent while we are not able to resume that practice this year I wanted to highlight what that looked like for our new school board members one last one last note as it relates to managing school division finances in Virginia Virginia does not allow school districts to levy their own taxes and instead has them reliant on an appropriating

[01:22:57] governmental agency such as counties. This means we are not fiscally autonomous. If we were fiscally autonomous, we would seek to retain a minimum two-month or 17 percent fund balance reserve in accordance with best practices guidelines from GFOA as an example. This further highlights the complexity of the work we do here at LCPS. Moving to our school nutrition fund, and this should be relatively fresh on everyone's mind since we talked a lot about this area during the budget process.

[01:23:28] This fund also feels the impact of reduced student enrollment this year. Despite a 20-cent meal price increase, total cafeteria sales are projected to fall $2.6 million below budget. Simply put, fewer students in school means fewer meals being purchased.

[01:23:45] Snow days also have an impact here and aren't reflected in the second quarter review, but will be included in the third quarter review. When schools are closed for a snow day, staff continue to be paid per their contracts, but we aren't serving any meals to generate any revenue. One snow day is about $225,000 of lost revenue, so that week of closures would result in about $1.1 million of lost revenue that we experienced.

[01:24:10] Expenses are relatively the same from the first quarter, with a surplus of $4.2 million projected with $1.6 coming from lapse in turnover and personnel costs, and $2.6 million in operating expenses resulting from less supplies needed.

[01:24:27] The net operating loss, which is revenues minus expenses for the year, is now projected at $5.1 million, slightly higher than the $4.7 million reported in the first quarter. The fund balance will be drawn down by $5.1 million to cover the funding shortfall.

[01:24:42] While the actual ending fund balance still exceeds the USDA's reserve limit, we will continue using excess funds to subsidize our operations. Based on current usage rates, we should have about three more years to turn this operation fiscally sustainable. As shared during the budget presentation, we have numerous factors in play.

[01:25:04] And then again, just reinforcing as described in the other slides, the snow days will be factored into the third quarter review. The next area is a grouping of three of our self-insurance funds. The workers' comp fund pays for claims expense related to work-related injuries.

[01:25:23] The short-term disability and the Virginia Local Disability Program Fund accounts for short-term disability claims. They are set up into two separate funds because depending on which VRS retirement plan an employee is in drives their disability program.

[01:25:38] The short-term disability program is for employees on VRS Plan 1 or Plan 2, and VLDP is for VRS hybrid plan employees. Being self-insured for these three funds means we cover all expenses with a transfer directly from the school operating fund.

[01:25:56] Dollar for dollar plus additional funding to maintain our minimum two-month claims reserve as we have outlined in our policy. We're seeing the same trends from the first quarter review. Claims expenses are forecasted to be above budget for workers' comp related to some large claims and increased payroll costs.

[01:26:13] Claims for the short-term disability area are forecasted to be in line with the budget. And claims for the VLDP are forecasted to be above budget due to increased utilization. Currently, the workers' comp fund expenses and the VLDP fund expenses are projected to exceed their budget.

[01:26:31] We will continue to monitor this throughout the year, and we'll bring a supplemental action to the school board to increase the budget spending authority for these two funds if necessary. Our fourth and final self-insurance fund is our health fund.

[01:26:47] Revenues are forecasted to exceed budget by $23.1 million. As you recall how we had the high fill rates on our positions, And this shows up in this area because it translates to additional premium revenue here as those employees participate in our health insurance program.

[01:27:04] Additionally, we are seeing $7.5 million in rebates from pharmacy expenditures. The 12% premium increase went into effect on January 1st and are factored into the projection. Total expenses are expected to be $30.5 million above budget.

[01:27:19] Medical claims are still projected to increase 10% year over year and prescription costs by 15%, which is consistent with the first quarter projections. We see a small glimmer of hope that we may have reached the top of our claim surge that we've been experiencing over the last couple of years.

[01:27:37] Each quarter, I would report that claims projections continue to show an alarming trend that we were struggling to cover. This is the first quarter where the growth rate may be beginning to taper. The drivers behind the 10% increase in medical costs and 15% in prescriptions are due to high utilization and an increase in medical costs across the board.

[01:27:58] As reported in the first quarter review, the contractual services line includes the cost of the new Medicare Advantage plan that began January 2026. Previously, our provider Cigna offered this plan at no additional cost as part of their bundled health care package. When Cigna discontinued the plan, LCPS had to either secure a new provider at a cost or explore alternatives.

[01:28:20] Per the school board direction, we obtained a new provider to continue to offer Medicare Advantage and this projections includes that new ongoing cost. Hopefully these trends of additional premium revenue and leveling off of claims expense continues and we can return to the fund covering its operations without additional funding support from the school operating fund.

[01:28:41] The operating loss is forecasted at $36.5 million, which is an improvement from the $41.8 million loss we had projected in the first quarter. Despite this, the fund is still projected to have a negative net ending position without a transfer.

[01:29:01] Not included is a $12.8 million transfer from the county. Before the winter break, the school board took action requesting some of the county's year-end funds, and our request of $12.8 million was approved. This will be included in the third quarter projection. We now anticipate a FY26 transfer of $9.2 million from the school operating fund will be necessary to just maintain a positive fund balance.

[01:29:25] Like last year, as I mentioned earlier, we do intend to transfer the entire ending school operating fund balance into this area. Managing our own insurance program leads to fluctuating financial results. Before COVID, we had several strong years, but the last few have been challenging, requiring support from the school operating fund.

[01:29:45] We are hopeful that we are entering a more favorable period, and to help stabilize the fund, the FY27 adopted budget includes a 20% premium increase that will be effective January of 2027. We hope this increase, as well as the trends we are seeing, signals that we have reached the peak of our premium adjustments and we can begin to decrease the rate of what we had been increasing those premiums by.

[01:30:13] Last grouping are our capital funds. The first fund is the Capital Asset Preservation Program Fund that holds funding from the county to address major maintenance and system replacement projects. Projects must have a minimum value of $10,000, and the replaced systems must have an expected lifespan of over 10 years.

[01:30:33] The CAP funding is flexible to allow staff the ability to manage emergencies and other high-priority needs. You will see in the report that the costs are categorized by work types, such as HVAC, plumbing, or electrical. And when compared to the first quarter report, there are some fluctuations of spending projections between these categories.

[01:30:51] However, all funds are projected to be fully spent. It projected $2.4 million in savings currently will be used to address cost overages, any supply chain risk we experience, and new requirements across all projects. The other capital fund is the Capital Improvement Program Fund that accounts for the expenses related to construction and renovation facilities, land acquisition, bus purchases, and certain renovations.

[01:31:18] Embedded in this fund are the Capital Facility Renewal and Alteration Program projects, with funding for all coming from the county as well. The expenses in the report are by capital spending categories such as construction, contract, and land acquisition. At this time, there is a modest $4.8 million of savings projected with recently completed projects that will be released once they are fully closed out.

[01:31:43] I will also share that we are striving to provide a greater level of detail for the third quarter to provide the school board with additional transparency in an alignment with the CIP budget that is adopted by the school board. And with that, I think I ended right on time, but I'd be happy to take any questions.

[01:32:01] Thank you so much. We've been very efficient tonight. school board members no stop stop I'm just noticing we do not boo that I would like to remind the board of the decorum requirements please school board members would you like would it be possible for us to come back for questions when we get through our agenda items are there many questions I don't want to prevent the school board from having time to ask questions no no any

[01:32:36] questions want to go for it now no no question okay well thank you so much for making that work and with that um we will move on to our meeting recess we'll recess this meeting for dinner and

[01:32:53] reconvene at 6 30 the board is now in recess good evening the board is coming out of recess at this

[02:03:46] time we will continue with item 8 which is the pledge of allegiance and national anthem tonight the national anthem will be performed by the Tuscarora High School Chorus. The Tusky Chorus is a mix of various ensembles that meet during their respective ensemble class blocks at Tuscarora High School, ranging from 9th grade through 12th grade, and with wide-ranging experience levels, each singer in the Tusky Chorus is dedicated to musical excellence, literacy, and building

[02:04:19] community. Under the direction of Anthony Polisimo, the choral program at Tuscarora is focused on developing musicians into lifelong learners and performers who desire to enrich their community through singing. Welcome and thank you for being here tonight. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

[02:04:52] for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:06:32] Thank you so much. That was beautiful. We're so grateful for you for being here tonight. At this time, I would like to take a moment of personal privilege and recognize two individuals whose work behind the scenes is essential to the smooth operation of this board and our school division. In honor of School Board Clerk Appreciation Week, we want to express our sincere gratitude to our school board clerk, Sherry Byrne, and deputy clerk, Marie Ingram, for their outstanding service and dedication. Sherry has served as our clerk since 2019, ensuring that every meeting

[02:07:08] runs seamlessly, every record is accurate, and every detail is handled with professionalism and care. Her knowledge, patience, and organization keeps us all on track, and we are incredibly grateful for her leadership in this role. Marie joined as deputy clerk this year and has quickly become an invaluable member of the team. Her support, efficiency, and attention to detail make a tremendous impact, and we are so fortunate to have her working alongside Sherry. On behalf of the entire board, we thank you both for your commitment, hard work, and all the many ways you

[02:07:41] contribute to the success of LCPS. Y'all are literally the best. Please join me in giving Sherry and Marie a well-deserved round of applause.

[02:08:15] Thank you, everyone, for giving us that space to say thank you to our important team members. And with that, we will move on to our next item on the agenda, which is item number nine, recognitions. First up, item 9.01, Department of School Leadership, the LCPS Middle School Intramural Flag Football Champions Recognition, presented by Mr. Derek Ferry, Director of Athletics and Extracurricular Activities.

[02:08:50] Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Spence, members of the school board. Thank you for your continued support of LCPS athletics and activities. This evening we are proud to recognize the outstanding students and teams who achieved state championships and VHL competition this past fall. Their dedication, discipline and commitment to excellence led to truly remarkable accomplishments. We would also like to celebrate our county champion from the LCPS middle school intramural program. We

[02:09:29] start with our 2025 LCPS intramural flag football champions, the Gum Springs Middle School Mountain

[02:09:36] Lions.

[02:10:36] Now it's our pleasure to recognize our high school programs. During the fall of 2025, LCPS high schools produced 89 all-state athletes and captured five VHL state championships. Our first team being recognized is the Briarwoods High School competition cheer team, winners of the VHL class 5 state championship. This is the ninth state title for competition

[02:11:00] cheer in school history. Next we recognize the Broad Run high school competition cheer team

[02:11:52] for earning the VHL class 4 state championship. This is Broad Run's third state title in competition

[02:11:58] cheer.

[02:13:03] Next we recognize the Independence high school golf team which earned the VHL class 6 state championship. This marks the program's fifth consecutive state championship, its sixth overall title since the school opened, and making Independence the only school in VHL history to win

[02:13:21] a team golf state championship in three different classifications.

[02:14:15] Our next honoree represents Riverside and earned the VHL class five state championship in golf, marking the program's second state title in the sport. We conclude our team recognitions with Riverside High School's

[02:14:38] volleyball team, which captured back-to-back VHL Class 5 state championships.

[02:15:16] We would also like to recognize schools that demonstrated exemplary sportsmanship during the 24-25 school year by earning the VHL Stay in the Game Award. This year, Briarwoods High School and Freedom High School were honored at the VHL Fall Membership Meeting for this distinction. In closing, congratulations to all of our student-athletes, coaches, and school communities being recognized tonight.

[02:15:38] Your hard work, perseverance, and commitment to excellence have brought great pride to your schools and to LCPS. We're incredibly proud of your achievements. Thank you.

[02:15:58] Thank you again, Mr. Ferry, and congratulations to all of our VHSL Fall State Champion teams.

[02:16:15] It's always such a nice evening when we get to celebrate with our students. With that, we'll move on to 9.03, our one LCPS spotlight. Work-based learning at Heritage High School, presented by Jeffrey Adam, principal, Kimberly Vaughn, assistant principal, Angela Frazier, work-based learning resource teacher, and Jeff Mizukowski, tech ed teacher.

[02:16:41] Oh, and also Akiya Pano and Roman Corona, heritage students. Welcome. Good evening, everyone. Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, school board members, Dr. Spence, LCPS staff, and members of the wider LCPS community.

[02:16:58] It is our honor and pleasure tonight to be here to present a little about the exciting things happening at Heritage High School surrounding career education and high-quality work-based learning. As a very brief aside, I do want to say thank you for your vote of confidence in the IB Career Program at Heritage Loudoun Valley in Parkview.

[02:17:16] Hopefully tonight's presentation helps you feel your trust has been well-placed. Next slide. I am Jeff Adam, in case you all do not know who I am. Jeff Adam, principal at Heritage High School. With me is Ms. Kim Vaughn, who is our assistant principal.

[02:17:34] Ms. Angie Fraser, who is our work-based learning resource teacher that works with Heritage. Mr. Mizakovsky, our amazing tech ed teacher. And two of our students. This is Akam Panu, and this is not Roman, but this is Joey Nailashi.

[02:17:53] Nailashi, there we go. And we are here to tell you a little bit more about Heritage. Go ahead. Next slide. All right. So with this being CTE month, our career-based education programs go right to both these goals, both empowered students, making sure that our students have lots of different pathways that are available to them, whether that's career or college focused or whatever, right?

[02:18:21] We know that students have many options after high school. We want to make sure that they have all of those options available to them. It also, of course, helps with an engaged community, especially the idea of strong work-based learning programs, which bring together both the school community as well as business partners, community partners, to make those pathways clear for our students.

[02:18:44] Next slide. A little bit about heritage. We are a high-challenge, high-support community in school. We believe that students don't need to just be career-ready, but they don't need to be just college-ready, but they need to be life-ready. And as an IB World School, we combine both the IB attributes of graduate as well as the LCPS 5Cs to really think about what we want our graduates to have as they graduate, all of them, no matter who they are, no matter what their pathway is.

[02:19:17] Next slide. So I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Vaughn who's going to tell you a little bit about what we're doing. Good evening. So at Heritage, we already have some students who have been engaging in work-based learning in the local Leesburg community, and those experiences have helped our students to be informed about their career or post-secondary pathway decisions.

[02:19:38] The learning has been strengthened through cross and co-curricular connections, including the student participation in the career and technical student organizations, including FBLA and DECA. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. So as you may know, the Virginia Board of Education in 2025 shared the high-quality work-based learning implementation guide.

[02:20:01] And it's really saying we want to provide sustained school-coordinated experiences with industry professionals in high-demand fields that can lead to credentials, certifications, or post-secondary credit. Next slide, please. Why it matters?

[02:20:17] Well, it's important for Heritage students because it's going to expand their access to real-world learning opportunities, strengthen business and community partnerships, and it's going to prepare our students for life beyond Heritage. And that's why it's so important that we have Ms. Fraser, our work-based learning resource teacher, that's been able to come in and help us build on the foundation we have, and she's been able to facilitate and coordinate some experiences for our students that will help them in the future.

[02:20:47] Good evening. At Heritage, work-based learning is intentionally designed. The role of the work-based learning teacher is to serve as an additional resource, collaborating with teachers to connect classroom learning with meaningful real-world experiences.

[02:21:06] This includes building and sustaining partnerships in business and community organizations, designing experiences that align to coursework, and ensuring students are supported as they apply their technical and durable skills.

[02:21:21] Just as importantly, the Work-Based Learning Resource Teacher helps to guide students along a continuum, which includes learning about work, learning through work, and learning for work. Next slide, please.

[02:21:38] At Heritage, this includes students learning directly from industry professionals through experiences such as visiting a local data center to see how classroom learning translates into high-demand careers. and participating in the Workforce Summit to practice interviewing and communication skills.

[02:21:57] Through guest speakers, field experiences, job for a day, and pre-apprenticeship opportunities, our work-based learning team ensures students are not just exposed to careers, but they are actively applying their academic, technical, and durable skills alongside industry professionals.

[02:22:17] As this work continues to grow, so does the opportunity to deepen our connections with the business community and expand access to these experiences for more students. I can stand here all day and tell you about how work-based learning is designed and implemented, but the impact is best understood through those who experience it directly.

[02:22:40] Therefore, I'd like to turn it over to our students and our teacher so they can expand on their perspective. Is there another slide? Next slide.

[02:22:57] By definition, TechEd is work-based learning, and I think we do some pretty interesting things. But in addition to that, what takes us to the next level is we annually go to the Aviation Career and Education Expo.

[02:23:13] It used to be at Leesburg Airport. They outgrew that, moved it out to Hagerstown Airport. It allows students the opportunity to talk with people in the industry, aviation organizations, universities. They offer scholarships. Maryland State Police helicopter flew in. The crew got off, talked to the students, answered questions, took off. The students could look at the helicopter. They also offer scholarships.

[02:23:41] Last year, one of our students won a $20,000 scholarship to Embry-Riddle, and a couple years ago, we had a student who was interested in her private pilot's license, started working on it, applied for a ground school scholarship through the Aviation Expo, won the scholarship, got the ground school scholarship, and there at the Expo, she learned about and talked to the 99s, which is a women's flight organization, originally had 99 members, first president, Amelia Earhart.

[02:24:18] She joined the organization, and they let her fly their aircraft to build up her hours and gain more flight experience. And as far as I know, to this day, she's still flying. We also, this year, we had a couple airline pilots come in and talk to the students, and that was an invaluable experience.

[02:24:39] They were younger. They were young airline pilots. One was literally a Heritage High School graduate came in and talked to the students and said, I sat right there in that seat where you're sitting, and I didn't graduate top of my class.

[02:24:55] My parents weren't rich, and now I'm an airline pilot, and you can do the same thing. And that's, I think, invaluable experience to the students. And they told us about their day, you know, the day in the life of an airline pilot and what it took to get to that point and another thing we just did this year we went to a data center took a tour and the students got to tour the data center and talked to the the employees there and learn about all the positions and you know as we know the data center is getting built as we speak and there are a lot of positions available they talked to all the people there

[02:25:31] and learned about the jobs from you know diesel mechanic to electrical engineer and how to get to to that point. They talked to all the employees and got their experience on what led them to that position in their career path. Thank you. Hello. I am Joey Nolashi. I've been taking Heritage High School's PLTW course for around three years now, and I am currently in progress of taking the

[02:26:07] aerospace classes. I really enjoy all of the engineering classes at the school. I think that They provide me with a lot of information on the field that I want to go into when I'm an adult. I like, every once in a while, Mr. M will do a challenge, usually before a break, where you have to take certain normal household things like paperclips, straws, paper, and build random stuff.

[02:26:43] Could be a flying machine, could be a bridge, could be really anything. And it's for a prize usually, but it really makes me think critically, makes me problem-solve in real time.

[02:26:59] And I think that they, in all, just really prepare me for the future and what college and work is going to be like. Hello, I'm Akin Panu. I'm also in my third year of the PLTW classes at Heritage, and I'm also on the cybersecurity side.

[02:27:20] One great opportunity I get to experience in those classes is being able to go to George Mason's Cyberslam. And there I really got to connect with other, like, with professionals in the cybersecurity field. It opened up, like, my eyes to a lot of opportunities and more details in the cybersecurity field.

[02:27:41] And overall, I think that the CTE classes, I feel like they open up these opportunities to me. it's kind of more of a problem of there's so much I want to do because I'm being exposed to all these, like, all this information, all this interesting stuff.

[02:27:58] I really feel like it does, it just fills me with so much like, oh, I want to do this, oh, I want to do this, like, after, as I'm learning. And it really just is a positive experience for me because coming into high school, I was kind of like an aimless wanderer. And I feel like it's just been really positive for me and it's been putting me in the right path.

[02:28:22] And it's opened up a lot of experiences for me, being able to be in these classes, thank you. - Okay, next slide please. All right, so looking forward, right, next slide.

[02:28:38] One of the things that we're really looking at, we've got the 3E readiness framework that VDOE has given us, and I'm a big fan of it because it does give schools credit for the things they're doing within all three of the three E's, right?

[02:28:55] Whether it's enrollment, employment, or enlistment. And so as we continue to focus on that and continue to do the things that we're doing, we're hoping to expand students' exposure to high quality work-based learning experiences, expose students even more industry-recognized credentials, things that they can use no matter what their pathway, where their pathway leads after Heritage High School, right?

[02:29:21] Things that they can use, they can take, whether they're going to college, or whether they're going into the armed services, or whether they are going right into the world of work. So we're excited about that. We've got our quality team here that represents a collaboration between both the campuses as well as the central office, and we think that's really, really important, and we're excited to see where that can take us as we move forward.

[02:29:51] In addition to that, it doesn't just rest at the high school, right? It also goes down and trickles down to the work that we do with our middle schools and our elementary school partners as well. So next slide, please. So just in summation, thank you for your support of career education, both within the CTE department, but also larger than that, The work that we do through school counseling and through all of the things that help get our students ready for that next step after graduation.

[02:30:25] Thanks so much. And we will entertain any questions if anyone would like. - Thank you so much. We're so pleased to have the opportunity to hear about this amazing program. And I have to say it's so particularly meaningful to hear directly from the students on the impact that having this learning experience has had on your life.

[02:30:43] And I'm so excited for the opportunities that are to come and wish you well. So thank you for being here tonight. And with that, I'll open the floor to questions. Board members? Yes, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. And I don't have a question. I have more of a comment.

[02:30:58] You know, my son goes to Heritage, and he has a wonderful experience with the counselors. And it is quite-- you know, Heritage has really created quite the pathway, the light pathway for him. And he's in the IB program, just FYI. And every day, like whenever he goes to Heritage, It really brightens up this day, and it's made quite an impact.

[02:31:18] So thank you for all you do. Sure enough. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for being here, Heritage, big fan of Heritage in the Leesburg District. So I'm very happy that you are here, and I feel like it really is a great piggyback off of some of the initiatives that were pursued in the budget and just kind of where we're headed as a county.

[02:31:39] And I really also love hearing from the students always, and it just amazes me how poised both of you are and for you to say like things like I was a wandering soul I think you said and now you have like a pathway that should be like the tagline for our program right like I mean that's what we're looking for that's exactly what we can offer here in Loudoun County and I'm so grateful that you go to a school that supports that work and thank you so much for being here Mr. Pepper first of all thank you all thank you madam chair thank you all so much for being here this is amazing I And I'd love to echo what my colleagues said.

[02:32:18] I want to give you kind of a big caveat for me, because I work at a school that has the IBCP program put it in. So I'd love to see in the future how you connect these-- because these programs fit perfectly into those career pathways. I'd love to see how you're going to connect the aerospace pathway and the cybersecurity pathway and the other pathways into the CP program.

[02:32:36] I'm really excited to see the good things. And for the students, especially Joey, you look like you kind of got thrown here on the spot, because your name wasn't on the program. Just both of you guys did an amazing job sharing about your experiences. I wish I had something like this when I was in high school, right? To learn about aviation pathways, or cybersecurity wasn't a thing in my day, we had basic programming.

[02:32:56] But to learn about aviation pathways or other pathways, it's really just a tremendous opportunity. So I congratulate you, and I would love to know, just out of curiosity, what percentage of students at Heritage participate in a program, this program, really? - In specifically in the IVCP program?

[02:33:15] No, in the workplace learning program. In the workplace learning. Angie, do you have any idea about percentages of students who will be part of the work-based learning specifically? Yeah, percentages. But I will say that all CTE courses, work-based learning is a part of those courses, right?

[02:33:34] So I want to say 90 to 100% of the students are engaging in work-based learning in some regard. Yeah, and career exploration drives a lot of what we do, right? from ninth grade on up. And so, whether it meets the definition of high quality work-based learning, it's still important, we know, for our students to be exposed to those types of pathways and the things that they, exploring, what they may be interested in and what might be out there for them.

[02:34:04] - That was truly excellent, thank you guys. - Ms. LaBelle. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to congratulate you. I have spent the better part of 54 years trying to teach students and persuade administration, school principals, et cetera, to include work-based learning as part of the curriculum.

[02:34:25] I think here we've finally done it between Mr. Slevin and Mr. Grubb and the RIASAC model. Are you using that, by the way? So it's our plan to incorporate it more into what we do with School Links and what we do with the guidance for all of our students and the career exploration for all of our students.

[02:34:49] - Wonderful, but what I really like is that you are not only including career exploration, you're also giving them the opportunity to participate in real life experiences in careers, and that you are focused on licensure and life skills as well as just the career piece or the general academics.

[02:35:13] So congratulations. Thank you so much for being here. It was really meaningful to hear from you. Absolutely.

[02:35:31] All right, next up, we have item 10, our student school board representative's comments. Tonight, our student school board representative is Bella Toe. Bella is a senior at Woodgrove High School. She is president of the student council and is very involved in her school through academics, the theater department, the cross-country program, and the fine arts.

[02:35:51] Bella is very excited to be Woodgrove student school board representative at tonight's meeting. And we are so excited that you're here. Bella, welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and good evening. Every year, Woodgrove high school students choose a motto for the school year.

[02:36:08] Our motto for this year is, there's no place like Woodgrove. We chose this partly because we love the Wizard of Oz, but also because every morning our principal would start the day by saying, click your heels three times, and there's no place like Woodgrove. But as a senior, I can proudly say that it's also very true.

[02:36:24] With all of our amazing arts involved in passionate students, multitude of clubs, and rigorous sports programs, there really is no place like it. Woodgrove has a lot of traditions of excellence, such as our sports teams winning states or our fine arts programs being district and region runner-ups, but we also have some less excellent traditions, such as always losing power.

[02:36:45] Before I go on, Woodgrove has not lost power this year. However, we did lose water there for an afternoon in November, which was a little scary, although we did make it through thanks to our great leadership team and our on-hand supply of plastic bottles scattered through every hallway.

[02:37:02] But speaking of plastic bottles and water, this year Woodgrove has introduced their first ever and entirely new recycling program throughout the Green Team and Environmental Club. Students can choose to spend their study hall collecting recycling bins and determining if the contents are good to be recycled.

[02:37:18] Students are completely involved in planning, pickup, and setting bins in the hallway to be collected, which helps educate our student body about good recycling habits and increase recycling going contamination-free in our school, which means only accepted, clean, and dry materials are going into our recycling bins. On the topic of clubs, currently 1,157, or around 80% of our students, are currently involved in a student activity, meaning clubs, athletic teams, or performing arts groups, and our clubs have hit a new high in activities.

[02:37:48] The student council hosting a successful food drive in the fall, Ro Kappa honoring our veterans by placing wreaths on nearby veteran graves, our school store being open full-time, and a very successful international food night was held in January, including many different cultures, foods, and games.

[02:38:04] And in January, SCA had a pull-up contest during lunch, and the student body completed a total of 731 pull-ups for spirit points. With only more to come, including our international summit in April and more exciting activities by our Student Council Association. This year, Woodgrove has also added a new addition to our school called Walter's Cafe, which is run by our special education programs.

[02:38:26] They serve our students all days on Friday, and it helps our special education students learn job skills such as customer service, counting money, washing dishes, and more. The fine arts program at Woodgrove is known for its unique showcases and dedication to the arts. So far this year, our theater department has put on three shows already.

[02:38:44] Our fall play, Lord of the Flies, a winter musical, Little Women, and our theater classes put on their competition piece, Badger, which won second place at districts and regionals. Our theater department isn't done yet, with the next show, 12 Angry Jurors, having its opening night in two weeks and the spring musical, Legally Blonde, opening in April, complete with a live chihuahua.

[02:39:04] The students and staff at Woodgrove have also hit major milestones this year, with our very own U.S. history teacher, Ms. Corrado, assisting in the publication of a book about Rosie the Riveter and the advocacy for the creation of a statue in her honor at the World War II Museum and our very own ITS members Zoe Carter and Abraham Perdomo performing on the Capital One main stage during the Virginia Thespian Festival. Our athletic teams have also been thriving this year with both our field hockey and competitive cheer teams being region runner-ups and state qualifiers. Our individual athletes have also been thriving with Ashton Gordon winning All-State for cross-country,

[02:39:40] Natalie Harrison being first team All-State for field hockey, followed by seven other athletes who are second-team All-State in sports such as field hockey, volleyball, and competition cheer. The Student Council program has also been flourishing this year. Instead of the normal amount of one or maybe two pep rallies, this year SCA has put on five pep rallies with a variety of insane games including Hungry Hippos, Bubble Soup Battling, Wig Snatching, Handstand Contests, Pie Eating Contest, and Air Mattress Surfing.

[02:40:11] To make this happen requires a lot of time and preparation. So as mentioned before, our motto, there's no place like Woodgrove, really is true. With all that comes with the school, the activities, the arts programs, and the community, there really is no place like it. Thank you.

[02:40:27] Thank you, Bello. It's so nice to hear your update, and we're really glad that you're here with us tonight. With that, we'll move on to item number 11, our superintendent's report, which will be presented by Dr. Aaron Spence, our superintendent.

[02:40:47] Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. It's always my pleasure to share some good news from around our school division. I would just like to start with a thanks to our bus drivers, our bus attendants, our garage staff, and the entire transportation department for all of their hard work as they dealt with the impacts of the January snowstorm.

[02:41:05] They got hundreds of buses cleared and warmed up and ready to navigate the roads with care, and we're grateful for every safe bus trip, every mile, and every act of dedication that keeps our school community running. Next, I'd like to congratulate Parkview High School, which has been named a 2025 National ESCA Distinguished School, one of only 63 schools in the country to earn this honor for exceptional student achievement.

[02:41:32] The school was recognized for its success in closing achievement gaps with significant academic gains across multiple student groups in mathematics, reading, and science. These improvements stem from targeted data-driven instruction, expanded learning opportunities, and a strong school culture focused on relationships and belonging.

[02:41:51] Parkview High School's recognition highlights what is possible when our educators focus relentlessly on equity, relationships, and results. Parkview will be formally honored this month at the 2026 National ESEA Conference in Denver, Colorado. Next, we're pleased to note that the first-ever TEDx Youth Event in Loudoun County brought 14 middle and high school students to the stage to share fresh perspectives on topics ranging from AI to personal growth. Hosted at Belmont Ridge Middle School with the support of Orville Inks Academy. The event highlighted student voice with

[02:42:25] organizers and speakers, emphasizing the power of shifting viewpoints to spark change. Our students' curiosity, innovation, and willingness to boldly reimagine the world is a powerful reminder of the promise of today's youth. Yesterday, more than 70 business partners who supported LCPS's Job for a Day program were honored at an appreciation breakfast held at the Academies of Loudoun. This event not only celebrated our valued community partners, but also showcased student learning as catering and banquet students prepared and served the breakfast and environmental plant sciences students created the centerpieces. By opening their workplaces

[02:43:02] and sharing their expertise, these business partners provide meaningful real-world learning experiences that help students explore career pathways and connect classroom learning to future successes. Congratulations to Shannon Nealon, a kindergarten teacher at Catoctin Elementary School for being this month's Shine Award winner. Ms. Nealon was nominated by a parent who shared that she has made kindergarten an amazing experience for her child. The parent described Ms. Nealon as on the ball, kind, friendly, enthusiastic, and the epitome of what you want

[02:43:37] in a kindergarten teacher. As a Shine Award recipient, Ms. Nealon received a gift coordinated by the Loudon Education Foundation and sponsored this month by Apple Federal Credit Union. Shine, or Spotlighting Heroes in Education is a joint LEF and LCPS initiative celebrating staff who go above and beyond for students and the community. Staff members can be nominated at the website you see here on the screen. And finally this evening I would like to invite you to the United for Wellness Conference and Resource Fair to be held on Saturday, February the 21st at Heritage High

[02:44:12] School. With more than 30 engaging sessions, participants can build a personalized schedule to fit their interests session topics include addressing adhd coping with anxiety improving focus and calm fostering belonging and many more in addition to the sessions participants can enjoy a vibrant resource fair featuring over 100 local businesses and non-profits with guidance ready to support our families and students in addition the always popular food trucks will be on hand for the purchase of lunch or snacks to learn more and sign up for sessions visit the website shown

[02:44:49] on the slide madam chair that concludes my report oh thank you dr spence with that we'll move on to item 12 public comment procedures for public comment thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from loudon county residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers and the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted two minutes each

[02:45:27] 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 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

[02:46:03] 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. Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, and other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students 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.

[02:46:40] Speakers should communicate these concerns to the 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 this disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. I do want to take a moment to clarify a few things. As has been explained previously, speakers can personally identify a student or employee without stating a student's or employee's name. That is, personally identifiable information is any information that reasonable person can link together to pinpoint an individual student or employee and where the

[02:47:19] individual student or employee is known to others in their school and surrounding community based on the context that is shared the school board welcomes you to share your concerns but ask that to the extent you have prepared remarks that target criticize or attack any individual students or employees you generalize such remarks to ensure compliance with board policy 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

[02:47:57] would personally identify that student or employee to others in the school or broader LCPS community would violate school board policy. However, comments that discuss general concerns with students or employees at schools do not target, criticize, or attack an individual. Identifiable student or employee are permissible. Under school board policy, I as school board chair am charged with responsibility to main or to maintain order during school board meetings. Accordingly, when reasonable, I will warn of breaches of decorum, civility, and respect and ask

[02:48:35] 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 such actions include 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 request to redirect and generalize your comments should you fail to redirect or generalize your comments after the 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.

[02:49:12] I will then call the next speaker. To the extent necessary, I will also warn of breaches of decorum, civility, and respect from attendees prior to taking any 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.

[02:49:33] 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 later in the meeting's agenda limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending for the evening Distribution of materials to school board members.

[02:50:09] 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 materials. Under no circumstance may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that access to the school board meetings is available through LCPS TV on Comcast Channel 18 and 1070 HD and Verizon Fios Channel 43.

[02:50:35] The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. We will now start with our virtual public comment. Our first speaker is Ella Stevenson, followed by Chris Stevenson. Good evening.

[02:50:53] First off, I want to thank you all for your hard work and sacrifice to help make the school system run smoothly. My name is Ella Stevenson, and I am a senior at Loudoun Valley High School. As a student, I want to make sure that my teachers feel protected and safe to teach me the truth, particularly in regards to politicized events that President Donald Trump has cast doubt on, including but not limited to the fact that Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election and that he continues to lie about it, the fact that Donald J. Trump incited an insurrection aimed at dismantling one of the main pillars of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.

[02:51:31] No matter what he says, these are facts. And as a student in AP U.S. government right now, I believe my teacher and any others should feel safe saying so. The president has thrown our facts-based education into chaos, harming my and my peers' education and thus the future of our country. Please push back and do what is in your power to protect facts, and in so doing, protect

[02:51:55] the students of this district. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Stevenson?

[02:52:24] The virtual public speaker is unmuted. We are not getting audio. Mr. Stevenson, we're not able to hear you. Are you able to unmute.

[02:53:03] The speaker dropped from the meeting. Thank you. We'll move on now to in-person public comment. Our first speaker is Jordan Nguere, followed by Aaron Kunkel. Good evening. On behalf of the 35 board certified LCPS athletic trainers here in Loudoun County, we just want to make sure we came back to thank you all for prioritizing health and safety for after-school athletics with

[02:53:37] our student-athletes. As you know, we have close to 15,000 student-athletes across 17 high schools. which is roughly 882 athletes for the two athletic trainers at each high school. As the only medical provider, when the bell rings, we pride ourselves on the fact that we can now provide immediate care and coverage at two locations instead of just one.

[02:53:57] Just these past months, from August through to December, to give you kind of an inside look at our numbers, we had over 28,000 student encounters in our athletic training clinics. These athletic training clinic encounters included injury evaluation, emergency situations, emergency care, injury, rehab, and medical treatments.

[02:54:17] This equates to roughly $400,000 saved in billable service costs across the county for co-pays. Again, we greatly appreciate your all's support and investment in our student-athletes after school health and safety. As always, we'd love for any of you guys to come to one of our athletic training clinics after school just so you can see kind of what we do and how busy it is.

[02:54:37] Again, you're welcome any time, but thank you very much. Thank you. Erin Kunkel, followed by Sam Sharif. Good evening.

[02:54:55] My name is Erin Kunkel and I serve as chair of the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee. I want to begin by thanking the school board and Dr. Spence for your continued invisible commitment to the work of the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. I also want to affirm MSAC's steadfast support for the Division of DEIA and for the tireless work that Dr. Ellis Williams and her entire team do to support our students.

[02:55:19] Their work is essential to ensuring that Loudoun County Public Schools keeps its promise and its commitment to equity, belonging, and student success for every student. Equity work is not abstract and it is not performative. It is thoughtful, sustained work that requires listening, data, transparency, and trust.

[02:55:39] It also requires collaboration across departments and a willingness to engage with complexity rather than rushing to conclusions or reacting with incomplete information. As an advisory body, MSAC is still committed to elevating student and family voices, responsibly, and through established processes.

[02:55:57] Our work is strongest when our advisory input is invited early, before decisions are finalized, and when we have the clarity and communication that have been prioritized to help us have the best information. NSAC remains committed to partnering constructively with LCPS leadership, the school board, and the division of DEIA to support policies and practices that strengthen trust and lead to meaningful, lastful outcomes for students.

[02:56:22] We appreciate your leadership, your care, and your consistency as demonstrated by everyone throughout this school division. We thank you for continuing the work and we look forward to working with you. Thank you. - Thank you. Sam Sharif followed by Zayna Sharif.

[02:56:49] Zayna Sharif followed by Jenna Sharif. Sabrina Liu followed by Chris Countryman.

[02:57:13] - Good evening school board and Dr. Spence and members of the LCPS community. I hope you are doing well. My name is Sabrina Liu and I am a student at Riverside High School. we would like to thank you for your continued support of Career and Technical Education, or CTE.

[02:57:30] As a member of both DECA and FBLA, I have not only found myself in these organizations, but I have found a family of like-minded peers who continue to support me. On behalf of our DECA chapter and other Career and Technical Student Organizations, or CTSOs, I would like to advocate for extended contracts for teachers and other school advisors who support school-based enterprises or school stores.

[02:57:57] These stores are a significant part of our students' lives in the high school community. They not only offer employment opportunities, hands-on experience to develop leadership skills, but also a vast majority of ways to get involved in this school. By continuing to support the teachers who support students in developing their leadership skills, we believe that they deserve compensation for their hard work and dedication who make these efforts possible.

[02:58:23] We would also like to advocate for club stipends for those who support and advocate for other students in their communities. With stipends for students and teachers who are able to create a community for their like-minded peers, I believe that students will be inclined to participate more and uplift their peers.

[02:58:43] Lastly, I would like to thank you all for your consideration and just recognize that CTE month this February is not just about celebrating, It's about advocating, because advocacy is where true change starts. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I hope you have a great evening.

[02:58:58] Thank you. Chris Countryman, followed by Andrea Weisskopf. Good evening. I have to start by just acknowledging what just occurred.

[02:59:14] Fantastic advocacy. That was wonderful. On behalf of LEA, I would like to thank the school board and Dr. Spence for your actions that are driving cultural changes within LCPS, changes that are beginning to surface across the district.

[02:59:32] I would also like to specifically thank Lisa Boland and Cliff Dozier and the other participants for the partnerships and meaningful collaboration demonstrated during our first Labor Management Committee meeting. That meeting marked an important beginning, and I want to recognize the openness and respect that shaped the conversation.

[02:59:52] Our members are on the front lines every day. We experience district decisions not as policy, but as practice, and we see decisions from the lens of direct impact to students and staff. When our voices are central to the conversation, through vehicles like the LMC, outcomes are stronger and more equitable.

[03:00:13] That said, I need to acknowledge the disappointment surrounding the recent snow days. The absence of a clearly communicated plan in advance led to significant disparity in expectations, and how they were applied across the district. Educators received inconsistent directions which created confusion, distress, inequity, and undermined trust. However, at the same time, I was encouraged by the district's willingness to listen to our concerns about the snow days, ask for specifics, and express a genuine desire to make the wrongs right. Trust is not built on

[03:00:52] perfection. It is built on accountability, responsiveness, and follow through. The response I saw gives me reason to believe that our partnership will grow on a stronger foundation of transparency and collaboration. I look forward to the possibilities as we build trust through action and ensure that educator voice remains central in the decisions that affect our schools. Thank you. Andrea Weiskopf. With two minutes I have time to explain equity to those who still don't

[03:01:31] get it this recorder I had a plastic recorder but it was confiscated by security so this recorder is equity there is no disputing the value of music education I am delighted that my representative knows that yes music education is valuable but about half of our students do not have access to a musical instrument enter the plastic recorder for five to ten dollars a a student, each and every child has access to an instrument and the opportunity to read

[03:02:07] music and express themselves creatively. Providing music education to all children is equity. When we hear students play or sing the Star Spangled Banner, remember that it started in elementary school with a teacher, a recorder, and hot cross buns.

[03:02:28] An apple should not be the symbol of public education. The true symbol of equity in public education is the humble plastic recorder. That is equity. Black lives matter.

[03:02:45] With that, we'll conclude our public comment period for this evening. Thank you all for coming out today and providing your comments. We will now move on to our action item for this evening, item 13.01, Finance and Operations Committee, Approval of Capital Improvement Fund Transfer to the Waterford Elementary School Renovation and Addition, the Valley Service Center Woodgrove Bus Parking Lot, and the Banneker Elementary School Renovation and Additional Projects.

[03:03:15] This will be presented tonight by Mrs. Griffiths. Mrs. Griffiths, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to adopt and approve the Capital Improvement Fund Transfer to the Waterford Elementary School Renovation and Addition, the Valley Service, a center Woodgrove bus parking lot, and the Banneker Elementary School renovation and addition projects.

[03:03:36] Thank you. Ms. LaBelle, thank you. It has been properly moved by Mrs. Griffiths and seconded by Ms. LaBelle. Mrs. Griffiths, would you like to speak to your motion? I would. I don't know if Mr. Traynor, who's in for Mr. Lewis, would like to speak to it first and then I'd, no?

[03:03:59] I'm happy to address it. Oh, you shook your head, I wasn't sure. Go ahead, go ahead. Well, board members, once again, Don Traynor, and this is what we're bringing forward tonight coming from the Finance and Operations Committee is a recurring process where within our capital budget, we have the ability to transfer funds between projects with school board and board of supervisors' approval.

[03:04:24] Tonight, you'll see that we have identified three ongoing, currently active projects that have a funding shortfall. Valley Service Center would go bus parking the Banneker renovation and the Waterford elementary school renovation and for each of those projects we have identified completed projects or other ongoing projects that we that have an identified surplus in funding obviously the completed projects the money's there the project is closed out and if approved by the board transferring those

[03:05:00] funds we would also close out the at the accounting file for that but this these projects once again common practice with that moving the money around I can assure you there's there were some questions that come up about pulling money from the Parkview project I will assure you that we have looked at that very closely and we feel very very confident at this time that there is enough money in the current Parkview project even after these funds would be removed to fully complete that project and I'm happy to answer any questions

[03:05:34] about the project specifics Mrs. Griffiths thank you madam chair I just want to say per Mr. Traynor I do want the people of Loudoun County to know that I voted I will vote in support of these transfers tonight because our students and staff at Waterford Banneker and Woodgrove need this facility these facility improvements and the funding mechanism reallocating from completed under budget projects is fiscally sound. That said, the Waterford

[03:06:07] project has grown 56% from its original 20 million CIP approval to 31.4 million. Staff's rationale is bundling together the future work of HVAC electrical and window replacement to avoid repeated disruption. This has merit but a scope of expansion of that magnitude deserves more rigorous upfront disclosures to the board before it's baked into the design. Banneker has now increased 36 percent from its original

[03:06:38] 38.95 million approval to 53.1 million even after receiving 9.3 million in supplemental funding just over a year ago. I'd like to better understand what's driving the continued escalation on this project. I also note that Parkview High School replacement is the single largest funding source here, contributing $6.73 million across two of the three transfers. The explanation that Parkview has a reduced funding need warrants more detail, and I will ask staff to provide that information.

[03:07:14] As chair of the Finance and Operations Committee, I take our CIP oversight responsibility seriously. When projects consistently exceed their approved budgets from 36 to 56 percent, It signals a need for a stronger cost controls and earlier board engagement when the scopes change.

[03:07:33] I'll be working with the staff to address this going forward. I just wanted to be transparent for the people of Loudoun County. Thank you. Thank you. School board members, any discussion? Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Traynor.

[03:07:49] We had a brief chance to kind of discuss this a little bit more. I just wanted to make sure that I'm confirming for, especially for our Parkview community, who is very, very excited about the new build, the reason why the money is coming out of that project, from what I understand, is that it was a highly competitive bid process, and in that process, the school, we're getting everything we asked for in the build.

[03:08:17] We're not forsaking any aspects of the build at all, but that this was actually a cost because it was a competitive bid process I just want to confirm that with you and also ensure that you know sterling community that we're not losing anything by pulling money from that project yes ma'am that is correct we at the moment everything within the Parkview project is the project is going very well the project was awarded for construction under our projected estimate because we had multiple bidders it was a very strong competition as you

[03:08:54] noted and we will complete that school and it's we're not taking anything from that school by transferring this money out at this time the project it will be completed as designed and planned okay thank you so much dr. Rasheed thank you chair I believe dr. Bergen and I visited Banneker elementary school earlier last year and I really felt that you know it was in great need of all these renovations that are being proposed in these projects that are being proposed I

[03:09:29] was I believe mr. Carter was the one that really gave us the tour we met a lot of students a lot of teachers and this was one of the big concerns so I definitely will be supporting this thank you thank you um any further questions school board members all right well I'll I'll take my turn mr. trainer could you tell us a little bit more about how overruns generally work and if there's

[03:10:08] any way that we're able to use this without necessarily leaving anything out there I'm sorry I don't quite understand the question could you I mean I guess let me just reframe that is this normative in our construction process and is it likely if we were to find a shortfall in the future that we would be faced with a similar question or a procedure that we're having tonight so it is it is quite common we we budget for projects several years in advance

[03:10:45] through our capital budgeting process and so oftentimes we're developing a project bus budget three four years before we've started a detailed design on the building so as we we submit the project we get the budget built conceptual budget at that point we're going through kind of trying to identify exactly what's going to be within the scope of the project then as we get closer to the execution of the project for example with Waterford now we're in detailed design of that project as we've been going through that school and working with our customers in the school we have identified additional needs

[03:11:24] that should have been within the scope of the project that if we don't go in and address the HVAC system now we would be doing that again within just a few years based on the time in construction and that creates a lot of disruption for the students and the staff at the school having two major projects just a few years apart. So we rolled the mechanical system replacement into this original renovation for the building and it saves us money overall because we get the consolidation of the project. We, in theory, get better pricing from the vendors

[03:12:03] because they're mobilizing one time. They're in working on the school. But you can't underestimate the impact that it has on the students and staff having multiple disruptions versus one project disruption. But ultimately, this is construction.

[03:12:18] It varies tremendously. We have fluctuations with inflation. We have huge fluctuations with the labor cost in this area. And when we put a project out for estimate, or for bid, It's based on our best guess and our estimators, professional estimators, consultants, their best guess based on what happened last week and last month and last year and what's going to happen in the future.

[03:12:46] But until we get that level of competition on the bid, we really don't know what that price is going to come in at. It is common for us to have to come back at bid to ask for more money. But at the same time, we often come back to the board and say, we had a lot of good competition, and we're under budget on this project.

[03:13:04] And so you see both here. I mean, we're under budget on Parkview. We are also under budget on HS14. Both projects had very, very large projects but had a great deal of competition in the process. So the system overall tends to balance out, and I think we've got a very good team on the estimating side where we're pretty close.

[03:13:26] But nobody's perfect in the estimating world. Thank you for that clarification. I mean, having gone through some construction projects in my own experience, it does always feel like something comes up that you're not aware of and you have to adjust and make accommodations.

[03:13:43] So I appreciate your context. With that, I'll ask one more time, school board members, any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll proceed with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote.

[03:14:03] The motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. All right. Now we will go back to our information items. And we will pick up at 14.03, Department of Support Services naming a new high school, High School 14, presented by Ms. Beverly Tate, Director of Planning and GIS Services.

[03:14:39] A little closer. tonight we are bringing you an item that will begin the process to name our next new high school HS 14 the school was funded in two parts we received design funding in fiscal year 2024 and construction funding in 2025 HS 14 as we are lovingly referring to it is now is will be built and is under construction adjacent to Watson Mountain Middle School and is scheduled to open in 2028

[03:15:13] with the start of the school year as we have indicated here this process will be guided by policy 6510 naming schools and as part of that policy each of you as board members can appoint an individual to serve on that committee our nominate thank you we've received a couple suggestion nominees already we will also be doing some outreach to adjacent secondary schools we will be including seeking suggestions from the principals for staff parents and students at

[03:15:49] Brambleton Watson Mountain Gumspring Independence and John Champ high schools because they're approximate to the school and we would anticipate would be relieved with that boundary for that school in addition we have noted here that boards prior to you have asked that we include members of the minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, as well as Thomas Balch Black History Committee to be part of that if they have a volunteer they wish to nominate.

[03:16:19] So we have put that before you as your consideration too. Part of the process, if you all give us the go tonight, we will work with the communications staff to do some outreach to the broader LCPS community seeking name suggestions that we will gather before the first committee meeting.

[03:16:38] We will run notice in print media. We'll seek some positive news from our reporters over there to help promote that we're seeking name suggestions. And then the committee will meet. Part of the process, it's a public meeting, anyone's invited to attend, that the committee will come up ultimately with three recommendations for you, a recommendation and two alternatives.

[03:17:04] it is your discretion as a board if you want to choose any of those recommendations you can pick something completely different they are only recommendations and before they come to you we will have a third party research it if it's a historic name so that you have that background before you consider it and then once it comes as an information item you can vote on it at at your next meeting so with that ever so not brief summary i'm happy to take any questions

[03:17:38] if you have them thank you miss tate i'm school board members are there any questions thank you so much for the presentation yes and i would just ask that if you do wish to nominate someone that if you would send it to me by february 23. okay thank you we will see this item back on the agenda um march 10th march 10th and that will be when we finalize the committee could you please repeat the date for the nominations uh by school board members by monday february 23. okay thank

[03:18:16] you so much thank you oh we're moving on oh um miss tate if you'll entertain our question please uh mrs griffiths thank you madam chair i was just curious if it was going to come back through committee again or just be on the agenda the review of the policy because i know that is something that the board is it's on your schedule will come through committee the appointing of individuals to serve on this committee would just come back to the full board but the policy review

[03:18:53] will follow through the fno committee okay thank you and we'll move on to item 14.04 policy 2310 Committees of the school board tonight. This will be presented by vice chair Donahue. Thank you very much madam chair Tonight, I'm bringing before the board to companion proposals with amend with proposed amendments to Policies twenty three ten and thirty four ten I'm bringing this proposal forward as two parts of one overarching proposal with the purpose of

[03:19:30] Adjusting our current setup to have with the legislative audit and policy committee as one committee to return it back to its previous status 2023 and earlier with the framework of being just the legislative and policy committee by extracting the audit functions. This proposal I'm putting before you all today to establish a separate standing committee of the school board to govern audit functions. As my fellow members may know, up to and including 2023, or once we brought in an

[03:20:06] Auditor General, which happened prior to any of us current members joining the board, when the Auditor General, Mr. Woods, first joined LCPS, there was a separate audit committee, but it was a select committee, not a standing committee. Towards the end of 2023, the previous board voted to fold audit functions out of the select committee into the standing legislative and Policy Committee, which resulted in the L.A. and P. Committee as it has been under the board

[03:20:40] since 2024. I was a member of the Legislative Audit and Policy Committee for my first two years on the board based on my experiences and observations during that time and also my conversations directly with Mr. Woods, our Auditor General. I believe that the division would be better served by separating the functions of oversight of the Auditor General's Office out of the Legislative and Policy Committee into a separate standing committee.

[03:21:11] This committee would be empowered with the authority to support transparency and accountability by overseeing internal and external audit activities, examining processes, and making recommendations to staff while also reporting to the community. The amendment will strengthen board level oversight, risk management and audit processes, and compliance with applicable policies, regulations, and laws consistent with public sector governance best practices.

[03:21:40] So that is my proposal. The first proposal is to policy 2310, which is the policy that outlines the committees of the school board. There is a red line on board docs, and you can see proposed edits on page 3, section F, at lines 117 through 124 to remove references to audit and audit functions and oversight.

[03:22:14] And then on page four of the red line, beginning at lines 147 through 168-9-ish, is a new section that would establish the audit committee.

[03:22:38] I have had conversations with our Auditor General, Mr. Woods, and I will represent to the board that he is in support of making this change. I also have had conversations with Division Counsel's Office, who helped me craft the language that I'm putting before you tonight, as the proposed amendments to both Policy 2310 as well as Policy 3410, which may I address that as well, Madam Chair? Thank you.

[03:23:05] Policy 3410 is the policy that we just revised a few short weeks ago related to the authority over the Office of the Auditor General. And the proposed amendments to that policy are solely to, if the board eventually approves the proposed edits to this policy 2310, to establish a standalone standing audit committee.

[03:23:34] Policy 3410 currently identifies that oversight of the Auditor General's office will go through the legislative audit and policy committee. So the proposals for 3410 would be solely to bring it in line, consistent with the proposed amendments here for 2310.

[03:23:58] That is my proposal. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. School board members, any questions? Sure enough. thank you madam chair I don't really have a question but I just want to say that I fully support this shift I think it's a good one for our board in terms of accountability having been on LAMP I echo what Miss Donahue has said and in fact I believe that we did actually have to increase the time of our LAMP meetings by a half hour because we couldn't get to all the business so that alone provides evidence for space for these conversations the reports are

[03:24:35] quite extensive we get a high-level overview on the audits and the report through a bulleted presentation but the reports themselves are very fulsome and have a lot of recommendations and things to review so I am fully supportive I think this is gonna be a great change for us I think it's gonna provide some oversight and accountability to an office where we have worked to you know align that with the evaluation process and all the things are kind of falling into place so I will be supporting this when it goes to action so thank you Miss Donohue for bringing it forward. Thank you. Mr. Svinsen. Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you Vice Chair Donohue for putting this forward. I just wanted to state as

[03:25:14] the incoming LAMP chair that I support this and from my conversations with prior members of LAMP and with Mr. Woods, it sounds like this will be a real benefit because especially in the planning and scoping of new audits that can be time-intensive and will allow the board to to fully engage at that at that step of the process and then when we are getting reports and recommendations coming out of audits it will again allow for deeper engagement from the board and and we will have plenty on our plate in legislative and policy so I think this will be a welcome change so thank you thank you

[03:25:50] Mr. Cody thank you madam chair I'm also really interested in this thing I think it's gonna be a really interesting move for us I just have two questions for you and because I'm not familiar with the process that's happened previously has this gone this language gone through the public comment review process would be the first part of it and then is there any policy recommendation component to the audit committee based on the information that we get from those

[03:26:22] reports? Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you for your questions Ms. Riccardi to answer your first question it this has not gone out for public comment yet and And that was going to be a suggestion or request that I was going to put forward tonight as well.

[03:26:39] That if the board is inclined to move this forward for consideration as an action item in the future, I would like to request that it be posted for public comment and feedback, which could end up as seeking that feedback on a more compressed timeline than what we usually are dealing with, which I understand is not ideal.

[03:27:02] However, I will point out, we had discussions about this issue in the LANP committee back in November, I think, and before the full board at a meeting in December, the possibility of standing up a separate audit committee.

[03:27:19] So, I have not brought this through the committee, which is the normal process, and usually I am a staunch defender of we follow the regular process. In this case, having discussed with Mr. Woods the flow of his audit cycle, he indicated to me or my understanding from my conversations with him is that it would be beneficial to him if we're going to make this change that the new committee be stood up no later than March as April through June is the busiest time of his cycle.

[03:27:57] So that's the reason that I'm bringing this before the full board, rather than going through the committee process, because I, well, one, I would like to make this change sooner rather than later, but also so as to not interfere with Mr. Woods' ability to execute his responsibilities as we go into his busiest season.

[03:28:21] So that was all a lengthy answer to your first question, and I'm sorry, Ms. Riccardi, can you please remind me of your second question? Just the policy question, does this group, does this committee have any policy influence? Yes, so we, yes, yes, in 2310, there is language in the proposed amendments to 2310 that states that the audit committee may review and make relevant policy recommendations to the full school board and will have the authority to monitor,

[03:28:58] the audit committee shall monitor the division's responses to audit findings and recommendations, may review and make relevant policy recommendations to the full board. And if I could briefly take a moment to correct a prior misstatement, when I was discussing the proposed amendments to 3410, which is the auditor general policy, I had stated that the only edits were to adjust references from the L.A. and P. committee to the audit committee

[03:29:28] which was the bulk of the changes, but there are a couple of other minor changes clarifying the full scope of the Auditor General's responsibilities for internal audits and also clarifying his responsibility or position to coordinate external audits as well.

[03:29:52] So the proposed revisions are on the red line for 3410, on page 1 at lines 33 to 40, page 2, lines 53 to 55, and beginning on line 6, 253, and carrying through to line 7, 257.

[03:30:21] Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions or discussion? All right. Given the request for feedback, I will not ask tonight if there's any appetite for either of these two policies to go onto the consent agenda.

[03:30:41] And I guess just to ensure that we are hitting all of our marks, Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to say anything further about item 14.05, policy 3410? Or do you feel that you've said everything that needed to be said?

[03:30:59] Yes, I believe that I have addressed all of the points that I wanted to make. Again, I'm happy to answer any questions. I thought it would be more convenient for me and for my fellow members to discuss both sets of amendments together. They certainly do seem like a packaged program, so thank you for that.

[03:31:18] And with that, we will move on to item 15, our closed meeting. Vice Chair Donohue, do you have a motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia for the following.

[03:31:35] Consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body, as authorized by Section 2.2-3711 sub-A sub-7 of the Code of Virginia.

[03:31:52] Discussion or consideration of matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in student scholastic records as authorized by section 2.2-3711 sub a sub 2 of the Code of Virginia and consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding a specific legal matter requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel as authorized by section 2.2-3711 sub a sub 8 of the Code of Virginia. Vice Chair Donohue has made a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Ms. Chernoff. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board go into closed session. Is there any

[03:32:25] discussion seeing none clerk please open the vote board members please record your vote clerk please close and display the vote the motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members

[03:32:44] present the board is now in closed session vice chair donahue do you have a motion yes thank you

[05:31:41] madam chair i move that the closed meeting be adjourned at the loudon county school board reconvene its public meeting and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting vice chair donahue has made a motion do i have a second Second. The motion was seconded by Ms. Chernoff. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board adjourn the closed session. Is there any discussion? Clerk, please

[05:32:05] open the vote.

[05:32:30] Board members, please record your vote. It's random. Can we clear the board, please? Okay. Try this again, friends. Board members, please record your vote. I'm incredible.

[05:33:01] Okay. All right. Do you want to? Yes. Okay. Do we have to do a roll call vote in this case? Oh, yes. Okay, that's great. Mr. Pepper, could you please state your vote? Aye.

[05:33:24] Thank you. Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes with eight school board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, with Mrs. Griffiths abstaining from the vote.

[05:33:47] Yes, Dr. Spence. I just think Division Council probably needs to weigh in. If you have an abstention coming out of closed, does that have to be clarified? This is the motion to adjourn, so it's just the certification.

[05:34:06] That was the motion to adjourn the closed. Okay. Vice Chair Donahue, do you have another motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:34:23] I move that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting. Resolution number 26-25-26. Whereas the Loudoun County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this day pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, and whereas section 2.2-3712 sub d of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law, now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies that, to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies.

[05:35:02] And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the Loudoun County School Board. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second. The motion is seconded by Ms. Chernoff.

[05:35:17] It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board certify the closed meeting. Is there any discussion? Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote.

[05:35:35] The motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. All right, Vice Chair Donahue, do you have another motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board authorize counsel for the school board to proceed in the manner outlined in the closed session.

[05:35:51] Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Do I have a second? Second. The motion is seconded by Ms. Chernoff. It has been properly moved and seconded. That the Loudoun County School Board, the motion has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

[05:36:07] Clerk, please, let's move forward with the vote then. Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes with eight school board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and one school board member voting no, Mrs. Griffiths.

[05:36:38] With that, we would normally move on to board member comments and committee reports. Is there an appetite for that given that it's ten? No, I have a point of information or just sure We haven't had one of those yet this year, so we haven't done it since we were Since January since we started so I would like to ask that we move those comments to just after public comment So that we all you know the public can actually hear from us We again we've it's 10 o'clock. Nobody's here We've and we've yet to make those statements. So I'd like to ask if we could in the just the

[05:37:15] Order of business that we move our comments to just after public comments So the public can actually hear from us. Would you be open to discussing that at our board retreat? No, I know I'd actually like I mean we have another meeting before then do we not know Retreat is next week. Um If yeah, I mean we I guess because that's the next opportunity but we you know it's one of our three obligations for Virginia code and nobody's hearing from us and they haven't for for four meetings now so I really like to make sure that we're doing that at some point in time um of

[05:37:53] course to make a change you would have to have consensus on the board right it's mr. Allen could you confirm it in order to change the order of the agenda to to have board member comments after public comment.

[05:38:16] Is that the discretion of the chair or would that be something that could be considered if three school board members were in support? - Thank you, Madam Chair. Per policy, it's my understanding the chair always has discretion as to agenda contents and where each item is taken up.

[05:38:36] That direction, board chair could take board members' preference into consideration, but in terms of the policy, as it applies to the three members, that only applies to an information item getting on the agenda is my understanding.

[05:38:54] - Thank you for that clarification. In that case, I will consider it, and I'm open to having a discussion at the board retreat. Okay, with that, is there any new business? Vice Chair Donohue. - Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

[05:39:10] I emailed to my colleagues, my fellow board members earlier today. I apologize for the last minute nature of this, but it was recently brought to my attention that in many places, including by the Virginia Department of Transportation, tomorrow, February 11th, is Crossing Guard Appreciation and Safe Passages Day. And so I wanted to submit for consideration by my fellow members proposing a proclamation for tomorrow.

[05:39:38] May I read it, Madam Chair? Yes, please. Thank you. Whereas Loudoun County Public Schools is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all students as they travel to and from school, and whereas school crossing guards provide an invaluable service by protecting our children from traffic hazards, teaching pedestrian safety, and serving as a friendly, reassuring presence in our school zones in all weather conditions, and whereas the Virginia Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School Programs has designated February 11, 2026, as Crossing Guard Appreciation Day to recognize these dedicated professionals, and whereas the Loudoun County School Board acknowledges that the safety of our students is a shared responsibility between schools, families,

[05:40:15] and the community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board does hereby recognize February 11, 2026 as the Crossing Guard Appreciation and Safe Passages Day in Loudoun County Public Schools, and be it further resolved that the Loudoun County School Board encourages all students and staff to wear yellow on this day and urges our community to express their gratitude to the Crossing Guards who help make Loudoun County a safe place for our children to learn and grow bringing this up as new business and i will i would like to ask my colleagues to support a motion to suspend the rules to vote on it tonight would you like to make a motion

[05:40:52] i would thank you madam chair i move to suspend the rules um vice chair donahue has made a motion is there a second second right we have a motion to suspend the rules um that triggers an immediate it vote in order to pass there will have to be two-thirds all right board members

[05:41:20] uh thank you for opening the the board um please record your vote okay um mr svensson could you please state your vote aye um miss labelle could you please state your vote all right clerk please close and display the vote all right that motion passes with seven school board members voting yes

[05:41:53] including Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and two school board members voting no, Ms. Riccardi and Mrs. Griffiths. Is there any discussion on, so the motion passes to suspend the rules, and now we can move into discussion on the proclamation. I moved to, oh, we need to fire a second. We had a second. Oh,

[05:42:23] For them. Sorry. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the proclamation. Thank you. Second. Thank you. It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All right. Seeing no discussion. School clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote.

[05:42:48] Dr. Rasheed please state your vote. Aye. Thank you. The motion passes with eight school board members voting yes including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle and one school board member abstaining, Mrs. Griffiths.

[05:43:17] Thank you and is there any further new business? Seeing none the January... I just had a question. - Sure, Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, ma'am. So we had a conversation about the SRO stuff. Can we just put on the record kind of what our plan is for that conversation?

[05:43:36] Being that, I guess for the public record, we had a conversation yesterday with the Board of Supervisors about putting SROs in elementary schools and they've asked us to make that call sooner than later. So I just wanted to know what the plan is gonna be for that conversation, if we're gonna have it and when that might take place.

[05:43:53] - Dr. Spence. Just briefly, it's my intention to be in conversation with the sheriff's office about how to proceed with that. So if you'll just give me a day or two to get that communication there and get back, we'll be back in touch with the board. Thank you for that clarification. And I have since at least heard the deadline or have the deadline in writing for when the board of supervisors would like to hear.

[05:44:17] Of course, that device is not available now. So we will be in contact with the board to let them know what the expectations are. Okay, with that, the February 10th, 2026 school board meeting is now adjourned. Please have a nice evening and drive safely home.

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