Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Student Behavior and Accountability Committee - Appeals Hearing Closed Session, Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 23m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1164343203?rel=0

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:00:00] good afternoon I'm calling this meeting of the student behavior and accountability committee to order it is currently 2:20 this meeting is to hear one or more student discipline appeals my name is Miss Carrie LaBelle and I'm chairing this meeting with me are Mrs. Ann Donahue and Mr. Ross Svensson I would like now to call for motion to move into closed session Miss Donahue I will move for us to go into closed session mr. Allen do I need the regular language I

[00:00:40] move that the Student Behavior and Accountability Committee of the Loudoun County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2 - 3 7 1 2 of the Code of Virginia for the following purpose discussion or consideration of a recommendation for disciplining one or more students enrolled in Loudoun County Public Schools as authorized by section 2.2 - 3 7 1 1 sub a sub 2 of the Code of Virginia Is there a second to this motion?

[00:01:12] Thank you, Mr. Svensson. The motion's been seconded. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Seeing no opposition, committee approves the motion to move into closed session by a vote of 3 to 0.

[00:01:31] Do I hear a motion to adjourn the closed meeting? Yes, Chair LaBelle, I have a motion. Thank you, Mr. Svensson. Go ahead. I move that the closed meeting be adjourned, that the Discipline Appeal Hearing Committee of the Loudoun County School Board reconvene its public meeting, that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting second thank you ms donoghue ah the motion's been seconded all in favor say aye aye anyone against say nay having no opposition the committee approves the motion to adjourn the closed session

[00:02:07] by a vote of three to zero now can i have a motion to certify the closed meeting yes chair labelle i have a motion thank you go ahead mr spenson i move that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting resolution number 24-25-26 whereas the discipline appeal hearing committee of the loudon county school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the virginia freedom of information act and whereas

[00:02:41] section 2.2-3712d of the code of virginia requires a certification by this committee of the school Board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the Discipline Appeal Hearing Committee of 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 executive meeting to which the certification applies and two only such public business matters that were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by

[00:03:17] the discipline appeal hearing committee of the latim county school board is there a second thank you ms donahue the motion's been seconded all in favor say aye aye all against say nay hearing no opposition the committee approves the motion by a vote of three to zero to certify the closed session regarding appeal case let's see do i have a motion for this appeal case yes ms donahue thank you chair labelle i move that

[00:03:53] That this committee modify the student disciplinary decision made by the hearing officer for student appeal case number OSA 05-25-26 in the following way.

[00:04:09] That the student be referred for a threat assessment as part of the review process in June 2026 to determine his enrollment slash readmittance in a comprehensive LCPS school or different alternative educational setting effective beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

[00:04:32] The threat to be assessed will involve the student's reported threat to further harm another student. Notwithstanding the above, the student will not be permitted to return to any school that student A attends.

[00:04:48] Thank you, Ms. Donoghue. Do I hear a second to that motion? Second. Thank you, Mr. Svensson. The motion's been seconded. All in favor say aye.

[00:05:07] Aye. All those opposed hearing no opposition the motion passes by a count of three to zero the student behavior and accountability committee's findings and decisions will be included in a report and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting there is no other business before the committee today I move to adjourn this meeting is there a second second thank you mr. Svensson the The motion's been seconded.

[00:05:42] All in favor say aye aye all opposed. DIRECTOR HARRIS: Are we going to talk about future meetings or not enclosed. DIRECTOR HARRIS: We're not enclosed. We can't we're in an open session. DIRECTOR HARRIS: Oh OK. We're just going to.

[00:05:57] DIRECTOR HARRIS: You I thought you were adjourning all together and I wasn't sure if we're allowed to talk about sorry. DIRECTOR HARRIS: We don't we don't need to do it in a meeting. We can just before we leave are you still a nay. DIRECTOR HARRIS: May I may I make an inquiry to Mr. Allen.

[00:06:18] DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yes. in an in an abundance of cautions because we we wanted i i believe there was a desire to discuss scheduling for future meetings of this group which was not listed on the agenda for today but also there are three of us so i'm not sure if that's something that chair labelle has the discretion to address as new business even though it's not part of the agenda and or if there would would be any FOIA concerns or open meeting law concerns if Chair LaBelle were to adjourn this

[00:06:53] meeting and then we have that conversation. You have an opinion, Mr. Allen. Thank you, Chair LaBelle and Ms. Donahue. Yes, Chair LaBelle does have the discretion to add this administrative topic as a new business item or discussion item. Another way to handle it is through Ms. Scanlon and her staff through individual conversations.

[00:07:23] But to the extent you're all together assembled and discussing the transaction of public business then you would need to do so in a public forum. I would just add if it makes a difference and it may not this item is on the agenda for our SBAC meeting in a week and a half.

[00:07:49] It's meant to be on the agenda. I I would like to request that you exercise your discretion as chair of the committee to initiate a discussion of administrative logistics for the next Thank you to Donna here. I think that we need to considering that one of us will not be able to participate To look at alternative dates and as long as we're all here

[00:08:29] I'll have our calendars that might be helpful. So can I ask you a threshold question Ms. Scanlon. Yes we have we have a hold on the calendar for the for February 23rd for a potential SBAC appeal hearing at this time.

[00:08:48] Do you know if there is. We're still here. We're almost done I promise. Well we'll be we'll be out. in like five at this time Ms. Scanlon do you know if we will be holding any hearings at that time at 2:00 p.m. on February 23rd or not.

[00:09:15] There will not be an appeal hearing on the 23rd. So Mr. Svensson has advised us that he will be out of town for work on the 23rd. That's correct.

[00:09:32] So but we had we had we had 4:30. So I we were or I was wondering I was wondering if it would be possible to shift the time of the 4:00 p.m. meeting to be later in the day if Mr. Spenson might be able to join us virtually can't do later and you can't do earlier I unfortunately can't do earlier.

[00:10:05] I think my preference given the schedule for that day would be to move it to a different afternoon if that is possible so I'm not going to be able to tell you in the moment if that is possible because it's going to depend upon the availability of either this room or the room 100 not not knowing since Mr.

[00:10:31] Svensson and I are brand new to the committee and have not really any idea of what policies y'all are looking at or if there's anything that is time sensitive. The other option would potentially be to we can have the meeting with two members and or ask chair Chandler to appoint a third member to fill in person is for Mr. Spence and for the regular meeting on the twenty third although that would be unfortunate if you had missed the first meeting all together. I could offer some possibilities.

[00:11:07] First of all Ms. LaBelle and I have met to discuss the agenda which is how I knew this was meant to be on the agenda for the end of the month. We will not be introducing any new policies. Instead, what is on the agenda is to talk about the scheduling of the regular monthly SBAC meeting, the scheduling of holds for our intermittent as-needed SBAC hearings.

[00:11:36] And then with the time remaining, Ms. LaBelle asked me to put together like a welcome to SBAC. What are the policies that are coming up? What are the responsibilities? What is the discipline process? Share a little bit of data. Talk about how hearings proceed.

[00:11:52] Obviously, you've already experienced one. But that will give you an opportunity maybe to ask questions related to the procedures and the policy.

[00:12:07] So that's what's on the agenda for the 23rd. Yes, it could be done with quorum, which is two. I will tell you that we do have another hearing to be scheduled and we had hoped to slot it into the 2 o'clock but that won't work for reasons I won't go into.

[00:12:26] But we have to have it before our March SPAC meeting because of the 30 day timeline. So my AA actually when I left to come down here this afternoon was in the process of looking for possible dates where we could schedule that.

[00:12:46] So assuming that we can find a date that you're all available for that hearing, we could reschedule the 23rds meeting to occur either just before or just after that, assuming that you all are available for the extended block and the room is available for the extended block.

[00:13:04] What about? No, the hearing, I counted it out today, so you'd think I would remember the 30th day.

[00:13:19] The hearing we have to have done within the next three weeks. Well, the next Monday after today is President's Day, so LCPS will be closed. The following Monday is the 23rd, when Mr. Svensson is not available.

[00:13:35] And then the Monday after that is March 2nd. So not that it has to be a Monday, but since we're scheduling other things for Mondays, that's why I was... So the hearing has to occur no later than March 4th. So it's just, I mean, it's just an option.

[00:13:55] We're going to hopefully, the three of us, reconvene before March 4th anyway to do a disciplinary hearing, and if we can get a larger block of time with the room and your schedules, we could do them together. Should we, like, deconflict schedules now?

[00:14:12] I think we need to wait and see when the room is available. There might be two or three time slots or two or three days at different time slots. I get that, but I'm also wondering, like, just the amount of emails and texts that would have to go back and forth to check with all of our schedules I don't know what's more efficient.

[00:14:31] We do that but that is precisely why I am going to recommend that we slot every two weeks as holds because then no matter when an appeal comes in it won't be like oh we've got to scramble like we had to scramble for this one and we're going to have to scramble for the next one just by the vagaries of the calendar and then it just we all know that essentially every two weeks we've got a hold.

[00:14:59] The hold will likely go away, but we just know that if it doesn't go away and if there's a hearing that we've all agreed that we can be available, and we would book the room. But you have certain days of the week that you're not available. Well, not during the day.

[00:15:18] In the evening, yes, that's true, right? But during the day, the work day, then I make myself available. That's not to say I'm not available in the evening. I'm not available certain evenings.

[00:15:33] I think what we're going to do then there we go again so are we intending then to stick with our regular meeting be the fourth Monday from 4:00 to 5:00

[00:16:25] Personnel that has to your meeting is always different might be an issue.

[00:16:42] I was hoping to inquire if there could be a possibility of adjusting either the day or the time for the holds for discipline appeals.

[00:16:57] I mentioned earlier I have a standing work meeting every Monday and it's it will be fine to miss it occasionally. And I don't know how often the appeals appeal hearings end up going through I just I'm a little concerned about potentially having to do this.

[00:17:21] What I would say is the appeals are very irregular and unpredictable it's it seems that we either are doing many kind of all at once and then we will have a couple of months maybe even three months with no appeals. So it's very very unpredictable.

[00:17:40] Last year in the entire school year SBAC heard 11 appeals. But they were clustered right. It wasn't like with any regularity to those. So if you if you are wanting to keep them on Monday and I understand you chair LaBelle and Ms. Scanlon you were talking about checking on the dates but the next available Monday is March 2nd.

[00:18:07] What would be. That would be my question. I I we don't we don't have to move the meeting I'm I'm fine not moving the meeting um but I potentially but if they're if they're only slotted to be at most twice a month and not necessarily actually happening on those twice a month dates then I'm I'm perfectly fine continuing to plan

[00:18:44] with that scheduling in mind and if it becomes problematic I can I assume raise the raise the issue again the standard meeting time that we've set for the Monday works for me just unfortunately not on the 23rd but I would be amenable to moving it to March 2nd if we oh the appeal yeah yeah no no that the the current schedule is fine there might be one-offs where it doesn't but so are we thinking that if

[00:19:23] we can get one of the two rooms on March 2nd we would be able to do an appeal hearing and an SBAC meeting and it would just then be contingent on getting the room the SBAC hearing or meeting.

[00:19:43] No I just thought it might be convenient if you're coming here anyway to assemble and it might be convenient to do one right after the other because that prevents two trips.

[00:20:09] If a room is available if the school principal is available if the family within reason right if the family you know sometimes families we like to give them two choices we give them one no we don't give them two choices we give them a date but if they say that doesn't work we come back with another alternative we really don't say well it's that data or you just don't come.

[00:20:44] So there are other things first we have to get the room then we have to make sure that the principal and the school administrator are available during the day again unless they're on scheduled leave some kind of medical leave then during the day they make themselves available but but I can't guarantee right now that we're gonna be able to do the second I can go upstairs and tomorrow morning find out from Jasmine what days popped as being possible possibilities and like I don't even know just like there are people out here waiting now I can't say with certainty

[00:21:24] that even after like that there's not another committee meeting scheduled for the second oh yes yeah mm-hmm I am I was just I'm just thinking is there any way in March if if we could if the second doesn't work because it would be a shame for Mr. Stenson

[00:21:58] not to get the intro to SBAC meeting as a new member if we delayed that presentation until the end of March but what that then does is at the end of March I'm hoping to bring two policies as info items which it all depends on how many questions you have about those policies right.

[00:22:16] Those could be quick and there could be time for me to present two policies and do my little intro.

[00:22:31] Do we have to like adjourn now. Is there a motion to adjourn this meeting. Thank you. Miss Donahue a second.

[00:22:50] Second. Thank you Mr. Svensson. Seeing no more business before this committee today. I declare the meeting adjourned at 4:50.

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