Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 4th Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 4h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1167853411?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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[00:00:47] Good afternoon. I call to order this February 24th, 2026 Loudoun County School Board meeting. As a point of privilege, I'd like to start the meeting off by wishing Mr. Pepper a very happy birthday. Thank you, Chair Chandler. All right.

[00:01:04] We'll start this afternoon with item number two, approval of the consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda? Let's see. Before we vote on the consent agenda, we have several proclamations to read. The first proclamation, recognizes March 2nd through 6th as National School Breakfast Week. This proclamation will be read today by Ms. Riccardi. Thank You Madam Chair. Whereas the school breakfast program has served our nation admirably since it was

[00:01:40] permanently established in 1975, and whereas the school breakfast program is dedicated to the health and well-being of our nation's children, and whereas the school breakfast program joins and has been joined through the years by many other excellent school nutrition programs and recently recent research shows students are receiving their healthiest meals at school and whereas during national school breakfast week Loudoun County Public Schools recognizes the vital role school nutrition professionals play in ensuring students begin each day nourished focused and ready to learn and whereas research consistently shows that students who eat a healthy breakfast

[00:02:19] demonstrate improved concentration stronger memory better problem-solving skills and higher attendance laying the foundation for academic success and lifelong wellness and whereas there's evidence of continued need for nutrition education and awareness of the value of school nutrition programs and whereas by providing access to balanced nutritious meals our school support not only physical health but also the cognitive development and emotional well-being being that help every student thrive in the classroom. Now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims the week of March 2nd through 6th, 2026 as National School

[00:02:58] Breakfast Week and encourages the community to become aware of the benefits of the school breakfast program and support good nutrition habits for their children to help develop a more healthy community for today and the future. Thank you, Ms. Riccardi. The second proclamation recognizes March 1st through 7th, 2026 as National School Social Work Week. This proclamation will be read by Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas social work and social workers help address the nation's pressing issues, including increased needs for mental health care, especially for

[00:03:35] children and adolescents, substance use disorder treatment, and increased economic and political division, and whereas school social workers enhance the academic mission by providing services to address these issues and other barriers to learning, helping students reach their full potential, and whereas school social workers are actively committed to helping students explore individual and collective abilities, strengths, interests, and talents using research-based interventions and promoting education equity, and whereas school social workers help parents focus on ways to further their children's educational, personal, and social

[00:04:14] growth by strengthening the link between school, family, and the community. And whereas school social workers bring unique professional knowledge and mental health perspectives to school personnel and families to help identify students experiencing academic challenges due to social, emotional, and or behavioral difficulties. And whereas school social workers contribute to prevention and intervention services by providing comprehensive assessments and screenings, program development, individual and small group counseling services, as well as crisis intervention, consultation,

[00:04:50] collaboration, and restorative practices to reduce barriers to learning for students. And whereas school social workers are recognized for their vital role they play as catalysts in helping to create an environment that is conducive to effective problem solving and learning for the whole child. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes March 1st through 7th, 2026, as National School Social Work Week. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. The third

[00:05:24] proclamation recognizes March 2nd, 2026, as Social Emotional Learning Day in LCPS. This proclamation will be read by Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas Social Emotional learning, SEL, is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. And whereas SEL competencies develop

[00:06:00] throughout our lives and are essential to success in our schools, workplaces, homes, and communities, and allow individuals to contribute meaningfully to society and whereas SEL can be taught and developed throughout childhood adolescence and beyond and whereas schools families and the wider community must be engaged to enhance the strength depth and pace of acquisition of SEL competencies and whereas SEL helps return long-term social and economic benefits to society from the implementation of evidence-based SEL, and whereas Loudoun County Public Schools

[00:06:36] supports students in their acquisition of the core SEL competencies of self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, and whereas LCPS supports students in their acquisition of foundational knowledge to support the profile of graduate and career and workplace readiness skills, and whereas LCPS supports students with community building and connections across the school environment to support student learning and whereas lcps supports learning environments that foster welcoming affirming and inclusive

[00:07:12] opportunities to promote equitable opportunities for academic and social success in school and in life now therefore be it resolved that the loudon county school board recognizes march 2nd 2026 as sel day in loudon county public schools and encourages all community members to learn about and share their knowledge of the importance and impact of integrating evidence-based scl into our schools organizations and community thank you chair thank you dr rasheed the fourth proclamation recognizes march 2026 as equity and education month this proclamation will be read by vice

[00:07:49] chair donoghue thank you madam chair whereas equity and education month is celebrated in march to promote educational equity in Virginia, the Virginia School Boards Association established the month to increase awareness and support for students. And whereas educational equity is the premise that all students have the opportunity for success regardless of their background or circumstances.

[00:08:12] And whereas educational equity is achieved through creating intentional systems of support that meet the diverse needs of all students in order that they meet their full potential. And whereas Loudoun County Public Schools has adopted a commitment to equity to ensure student growth and success for every child, create culturally responsive environments where all students see themselves represented, foster a sense of belonging, and eliminate opportunity gaps, and whereas educational equity focuses on creating a learning environment that's tailored to meet individual student needs, such as accommodations for students with disabilities, appropriate access to buildings and campuses, supports acquiring English language services,

[00:08:52] and the rejection of behavior that is discriminatory based on inherent characteristics, And whereas the Loudoun County School Board continues to be committed to equity in education and creating a climate and curriculum where all students receive the resources needed to graduate prepared for success after high school.

[00:09:07] And whereas the Loudoun County School Board affirms that providing an equitable education for every student is a valuable mechanism for increasing academic success, building a thriving community, and driving economic advancement for its citizens, now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board recognizes the month of March 2026 as Equity in Education Month and supports equity in educational best practices and programming opportunities for all students.

[00:09:33] Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. The fifth proclamation recognizes National Women's History Month as March 2026, and this proclamation will be read by Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:10:05] Whereas Women's History Month began as a local week-long celebration in Santa Rosa, California in 1978, and since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamation designating Women's History Month, celebrating the courageous women who have helped our nation build a fairer, more just society that is the very fabric of our democracy. and whereas Women's History Month honors the contributions and achievements women have made, celebrating their perseverance and leadership across society and their impacts on history, the present and the future.

[00:10:28] Whereas though these women's stories too often go untold, we stand on the shoulders of many sung and unsung trailblazers, from women who took a stand as suffragists, abolitionists, labor leaders, to pioneering scientists, doctors, engineers, educators, groundbreaking artists, public servants, and brave members of our armed forces. And whereas the National Women's History Alliance has set this theme for 2026 as leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future, celebrating the

[00:11:07] diverse contributions of women who are leading sustainability efforts across environmental, economic, educational, and social justice movements. And whereas in Loudoun County Public Schools, women comprise 77.23% of more than the 13,000 dedicated individuals in our K-12 workforce, serving as teachers, administrators, and leaders, Counselors and coaches, support staff and mentors who inspire and empower our students every day.

[00:11:40] And whereas the young women in our schools represent the next generation of leaders, innovators, and change makers, and it is our responsibility to provide them with the opportunities, encouragement, and support to reach their fullest potential, Now, there be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims March 2026 as Women's History Month in Loudoun County Public Schools, and further be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board encourages staff and community to celebrate women's history

[00:12:16] by learning about their contributions and encouraging women and girls to continue to break barriers and to learn from and be inspired by the many contributions of women throughout history and today. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. The final proclamation recognizes March 2026 as visual and performing arts in our schools month. This proclamation will be read by Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas music in our schools month, youth art month, and theater in our schools month are integral opportunities for our community to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of visual and performing arts in our schools,

[00:12:55] and whereas visual and performing arts have enriched Loudoun County Public Schools throughout its history, describing, defining, and deepening the human experience for every learner, and whereas visual and performing arts education provides a lens through which students understand themselves and their world, fostering meaningful intellectual engagement in global citizenship, And whereas visual and performing arts education develops students' creative thinking, expressive communication, collaborative spirit, and critical thinking as part of the profile of a graduate.

[00:13:28] And whereas visual and performing arts education serves as a catalyst for unlocking the potential of the whole child, empowering students to apply critical skills across all academic disciplines while elevating the morale and vibrancy of school culture. and whereas visual and performing arts education significantly enhances school culture by building self-confidence, self-reliance, empathy, and compassion in students, creating a supportive and vibrant learning environment, and whereas visual and performing arts educators continue to demonstrate dedication to their students, creativity, and resilience, providing impactful

[00:14:05] visual and performing arts education. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County school board formally recognized march 2026 as visual and performing arts in our school's month thank you thank you i'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved thank you second all right um we have a motion by mr svensson to approve the consent agenda and a second by vice chair donahue it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda at this time we will take a vote to approve the consent agenda clerk please open the vote

[00:14:43] Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes unanimously with all seven school board members present voting yes. And Ms. Chernoff and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote.

[00:15:02] With that, let's move on to item number three, our school board and administrative advisory committee update. Tonight, we will receive an update on the school health advisory board presented by Jeannie Kloman, supervisor of student health services, and Kirk Dolson, director of student services.

[00:15:32] Good afternoon, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, and members of the school board, as well as Dr. Spence. My name is Kirk Dolson, and I am the Director of Student Services for Loudoun County Public Schools. Unfortunately, Ms. Jeannie Clumman, our Student Health Services supervisor, was not able to be with us this evening due to a family emergency, so you have me presenting this information.

[00:15:53] This afternoon, I am here to provide you with the School Health Advisory Board update. So the school health advisory board, otherwise known as SHAB, is liaised by our own Dr. Samira Rasheed.

[00:16:10] Our bylaws can be found on our lcps.org website on the student health services page. And just very briefly, the mission of the Loudoun County Public Schools SHAB committee is to advise the school board, you all, on concerning community perspectives about the school division's health programs, services, and activities that are consistent with the requirements of relevant law, rule, or regulation, and, as requested, to assist with the development of health policies in the school division, as well as the evaluation and status of school health,

[00:16:46] health education, the school environment, as well as health services. One of the things that CHAB does is annually update the Allergy Procedural Handbook. This handbook identifies responsibilities and practices that when followed consistently promote a safe, inclusive, allergy-aware environment for all students.

[00:17:13] This year, LCPS Supervisor Amy Wheeler, and Ms. Wheeler is the Supervisor for Health and Physical Education, presented the Family Life Education Curriculum to SHAB for review, for required review, comment, and feedback.

[00:17:39] Members were divided into groups to review the curriculum for specific grade levels, and SHAB members were given an opportunity to review the curriculum over time and provide feedback into an electronic system. Members had an opportunity to review all feedback that was entered, as well as ask questions.

[00:17:58] We also had a presentation from Teresa Lucas, the LCPS School Nutrition Coordinator. SHAB received education and information related to federal requirements for school nutrition and activities involving the sale of food or beverages during the school day.

[00:18:20] Members have reviewed School Board Policy 6120, Wellness, which is up for renewal and will have opportunities to provide feedback on the policy. Related to the policy review, members of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth from the Rev Your Bev campaign made a presentation to SHAP highlighting the importance of hydration and avoiding hidden sugar in beverages.

[00:18:48] This is the second year that the Student Health Services Department in LCPS is using Follow Me apps to observe the blood glucose of students with diabetes who use a continuous glucose monitor, otherwise known as a CGM.

[00:19:10] When parents and guardians have completed the required paperwork, LCPS staff may connect a school iPad to the student's CGM to observe the blood glucose at times determined by the medical provider and when the application alarms to let us know the blood glucose is heading out of range.

[00:19:31] In school year 24-25, we followed about 30 students, and this year we are following about 66 students. Using a follow app to observe blood glucose can help limit interruptions to learning for students with diabetes and facilitate early intervention when blood glucose is trending out of the optimal range.

[00:19:58] And last but not least, our Mobile Health Clinic Inova partnership. SHAP has been encouraging the mobile health clinic team efforts to support student health and school attendance. The LCPS Community Schools nurse practitioners provide students with free physical examinations that are required for school entry.

[00:20:22] Students are referred to community resources for health, mental health, dental or vision concerns and immunizations. and I am proud to share with you all that LCPS was recently approved to be a Virginia Vaccines for Children VVFC provider. With parental consent, LCPS nurse practitioners will begin immunizing students with immunization deficiencies later this month. And with that, I appreciate your time and attention, and I am certainly here to answer any questions you may have.

[00:21:00] Thank you, Mr. Dolson for that presentation. It's very informative. School board members, do you have any questions or comments? Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Dolson. I'm not sure if it's related, but I had the privilege of attending the health and wellness resource fair on Saturday and learned there about our school system having received a grant for some mobile health resources, and I wondered if you could tell us anything.

[00:21:33] about that so yes ma'am um that is something that we were going to share at our shab meeting that was supposed to occur yesterday but because of the cancellation of school we were not able to share it um it was shared um with mr pepper and members of the students the student services committee meeting um that um we are entering into a partnership with um in order to provide a school based health center um in coordination with health works for northern virginia um in essence what it it will do is it will provide a federally qualified health center within Loudoun County.

[00:22:11] And again, in collaboration with HealthWorks for Northern Virginia, it is a $1.7 million renewable grant based out of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to provide mobile health care, mental health care, vision, and dental care to LCPS students, families, and staff. Thank you, Mr. Dolson. I appreciate the update. I was very excited to hear that. It was over the weekend. I'm glad we're able to share this today. Yes, ma'am. We are very excited. Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Thank you, Mr.

[00:22:49] Dolson, for this awesome information. I had the pleasure of visiting the mobile clinic last year, and it was really nice. I mean, you really feel like you're in a clinic just on wheels. So it was quite enlightening, and we got to see some of the kids that went to visit there as well.

[00:23:07] So unfortunately, I no longer meet regularly with Shab. We did have some committee reassignments. So I'm really grateful for the time I was able to serve with all the health-focused and driven committee members, especially as a health care provider myself. So I know that they'll continue all their good work with Mrs. Griffiths as their new school board liaison, and I know she'll be Shabbing with you guys.

[00:23:28] Thank you. Thank you. Well, I will also say I'm so happy to hear that we're able to add the Virginia Vaccines for Children provider as a service that we provide to our community.

[00:23:45] I have been lucky to have watched the inception of the Mobile Health Clinic and really feel it's had a very positive impact in our community, especially in my district. And I want to thank you for the ongoing support and help in that effort. And thank you for the presentation.

[00:24:02] With that, we'll now move on to our work session. First up, we have item 4.01, The Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, Equity in Action, Supporting the LCPS Community. Tonight, presented by Dr. Letitia Ellis-Williams, our Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Shahid Muhammad, our Director, Cynthia Lewis, Supervisor, and Jessica Heitfeld, the DEIA Coordinator.

[00:24:31] All of these employees are with the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Welcome. Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, fellow board members, and Dr. Spence.

[00:24:58] Thank you for the opportunity to share the impactful work of the Loudoun County Public School Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. I'm Dr. Letitia Ellis-Williams, and I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, to my right, Ms. Shahid Muhammad, Ms. Cynthia Lewis, and Ms. Jessica Highfield.

[00:25:18] Next slide. The primary focus of the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility is to improve outcomes for all students. In doing so, it is important to recognize the unique characteristics of our staff and most importantly, the unique characteristics of our students. We approach our planning with intentionality by using a research-based and asset-based approach to design processes, practices, and structures to ensure student success. And you can see on the slide

[00:25:56] the Loudoun County Public School is an excerpt from policy 1040. It's a lengthier document, but this encapsulates the rationale as to the spirit of that policy. Next slide. This looks familiar to all of you. It's the LCPS Commitment to Equity. The LCPS Commitment to Equity is a foundational document that communicates the importance of creating and sustaining an environment that fosters student success. There is a substantial amount of research that shows a student's environment in school is a key lever in a positive academic

[00:26:33] achievement and student engagement ensuring that children and adults feel they belong in their school community mandates that we are committed to educational equity next slide thank you for our friends over in the communications office we now have our little DEI a quick fact sheet and it does not encapsulate the entire kitchen sink but what we have before us here this evening is the following. This snapshot includes the types of supports provided by the

[00:27:07] division across the division, the number of supports provided, the categories of professional learning, an overview of equity walks, and a number of equity walks completed by level. Next slide.

[00:27:27] So the LCPS Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility is very proud of the partnerships and collaborations we have to ensure alignment with departments, divisions, and offices in support of all students, staff, and families in the LCPS community.

[00:27:44] In this presentation, we will focus on four major areas of our work, our collaborative efforts, support for learning environments and school culture, elevating student leadership and voice, and enriching family and community engagement.

[00:28:01] Next slide. Thank you. Providing professional learning is one of our major focuses that reaches school and central office leadership, equity leads, and teachers. We collaborate with departments and offices to facilitate professional learning.

[00:28:18] Equity-focused leadership is a collaboration with Human Resources and Talent Development, the Division of School Leadership, to provide professional learning to assistant principals, deans, and aspiring leaders on a myriad of equity topics. Some of our most recently offered professional learning has been on leading with empathy, cultural humility, inclusive curriculum design, mitigating racial slurs and hate speech, and cultivating a sense of belonging.

[00:28:48] Keeping in alignment with our common theme of belonging, we collaborate with Human Resources and Talent Development to provide professional learning for new teachers and mentors on student sense of belonging, as well as professional learning for equity leads, so that they may have resources to share with staff in their school buildings in real time.

[00:29:07] We provide professional learning for teachers and administrators by unpacking VDOE Standard 6, and we have created a crosswalk document which supports teachers and administrators expand their understanding of the performance indicators for Standard 6.

[00:29:24] We continue to collaborate with the Department of Teaching and Learning in support of the instructional framework and elevating what inclusive curriculum is and why it is important at the system and school levels. Next slide. Thank you.

[00:29:42] The LCPS Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility partners with community organizations with the goal of fostering more equitable and inclusive school environments for students. Together we work to make our schools and communities places where everyone can learn, achieve, and thrive.

[00:29:59] This work is ongoing with check-in meetings and planned events where feedback and successes are shared. When applicable, information garnered is shared with the Department of Communications and Community Engagement. Next slide.

[00:30:15] This next area of focus is on DEIA collaborations. Our work in DEIA focuses on intentional collaboration across the division, directly aligned to division priorities and to improving student outcomes.

[00:30:34] Providing culturally responsive instruction for students is an ongoing collaborative effort and is embedded in the LCPS instructional framework through high expectations, the welcoming and inclusive classroom community, and within student-centered learning.

[00:30:50] These collaborative efforts have included the development of the culturally responsive framework and ongoing professional learning for school leaders and teachers. DEIA has also partnered with the division of teaching and learning, student services, school leadership, human resources and talent development, and research and school improvement on a sense of belonging by establishing shared language, designing and delivering professional learning, and developing aligned resources.

[00:31:20] And finally, in collaboration with content offices, DEIA has provided teaching and learning content-specific professional learning on student-centered learning and culturally responsive instruction. Next slide.

[00:31:38] Now we're gonna move into our next area of focus, learning environment and culture. Equity walks are a structured, non-evaluative process that provides schools with classroom and school-wide data aligned to the VDOE evaluation standard six, culturally responsive teaching and equitable practices.

[00:31:57] The process begins when a principal requests participation through DEIA directly or the Department of School Leadership to schedule an initial meeting. During this initial meeting, the principal and the school team identify goals and determine focus areas for the walk.

[00:32:13] From there, DEIA plans and conducts the walk, analyzes the data, and prepares a formal report. In the final phases, the building principal coordinates the date of the equity walk debrief and determines the team members present.

[00:32:30] DEIA will then facilitate a data dialogue with the school team to review findings, identify strengths and areas of growth, and reflect on recommendations for next steps. Next slide.

[00:32:47] Equity walk next steps and outcomes are led and implemented by the building principal with collaborative support from DEIA. Next step actions have included presenting the report to school leadership teams, the school-based equity committee, collaborative learning teams, the whole staff, and in some cases, the broader school community.

[00:33:09] Equity Walk follow-ups include targeted professional learning, development of resources, and additional data collection from students and families, guiding next steps and continuous improvement. Next slide. Thank you.

[00:33:26] Our next area of focus is student leadership and voice. As part of the strategic plan, our division creates regular opportunities to amplify student voice. The Student Equity Ambassador Program is a space for students who are passionate about issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

[00:33:47] Students are in these roles because they see a need in their schools and they want to advocate and take action for solution and change. Student Equity Ambassadors are volunteer students in grades 6 through 12. Each middle and high school selects two to three students for this role.

[00:34:04] We meet with Student Equity Ambassadors four times per year virtually and once per year in person. Students can also reach out to the specialists in our office when additional support is needed. We provide learning for students around how to collaborate, how to advocate, what does it mean to be inclusive, what does it mean to be an ally, and what are some ways to learn about others and what is important to them.

[00:34:29] The goal of our meetings is to develop leadership skills, celebrate students' work in their schools, allow students to share ideas, and discuss the ways in which they can impact change in their buildings. We asked student equity ambassadors what they've learned about leadership through their work with us.

[00:34:48] This let us know that learning how to listen and amplify the voices of others, being a strong collaborator, being intentional about including others, and even bringing in students with different opinions as a plus that allows for more ideas to be shared.

[00:35:08] Student growth, experience, and the student environment is our main goal. Our core initiative is to enhance school culture and instructional practices by creating opportunities to actively listen to student voices.

[00:35:29] A significant component of this work involves students exploring and articulating their personal values and stories. Last year, for instance, we collaborated with Trey Baker, a nationally recognized spoken word artist and author, to help students discover the power of their own narratives through poetry.

[00:35:48] Our student equity ambassadors each wrote and shared original poems, connecting their personal stories to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This impactful experience provided a foundational understanding that strengthened their leadership abilities.

[00:36:06] Several of these students championed this work back at their schools, encouraging their peers to engage with poetry, and successfully advocating for Mr. Baker to present to fellow students. As a result, Mr. Baker was featured as a speaker at student assemblies at both Heritage and Dominion High Schools.

[00:36:23] His presentations focused on student empowerment. Next slide. As equity-oriented change agents, student equity ambassadors participate as guests on the DEIA podcast and host and moderate and participate in student-developed panels.

[00:36:42] Their efforts have reached the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce annual DEIA Summit. Student equity ambassadors address inequities in their schools and amplify barriers to student promise. Student Equity Ambassadors support their schools to ensure that their peers are empowered to make meaningful and equitable contributions to their school community and the world.

[00:37:05] Next slide. We will now shift to our last area of focus, family and community engagement. Our division works within the community, learning about different perspectives and concerns. We meet regularly with the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, Loudoun County Government, and others.

[00:37:25] This work has led to professional learning opportunities for staff and deepens our understanding of community needs. Recently, DEIA leadership designed a panel-style presentation for parents and community members at the Adams Center in Sterling. Another project we have that deepens family and community engagement is the DEIA podcast, Better Together.

[00:37:48] Our goal is to share our work with the LCPS community, highlight our partnerships, and to define equity work and its impact for students and families. Some topics from recent episodes include student-centered engagement, representation, the power of professional development, inclusive access for student success, demystifying DEIA, and DEIA in action.

[00:38:17] The podcast features work for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility that is happening throughout the division. Guests on the podcast include students and LCPS leadership from Human Resources and Talent Development, the Division of School Leadership, the Division of Family and Community Engagement, Dr. Spence, and members of our own division.

[00:38:41] We also boost family and community engagement through the DEIA newsletter. The newsletter is published five times during the school year and is available on the LCPS website. It supports schools in their work and includes examples of DEIA in action in the LCPS community, general updates, community events, school board proclamations, and an overview of upcoming observances and holidays.

[00:39:10] This year, our focus is on belonging, and we always include resources and articles for learning. Next slide. Our division has worked. along the Department of Communications and Community Engagement, and the English Learner Family and Community Engagement Office to enrich community engagement in LCPS.

[00:39:35] Our collaborations include professional learning for equity leads and building administrators to address family survey data and information and resources to provide language support for families who require it. A professional development session for family liaisons is being planned to support them with building and sustaining a bridge of belonging for families.

[00:39:58] Our community work continues with the newly formed Administrative Committee, the Loudoun County Public Schools Equity Council. The council met for the first time last week. There are 25 council members that include parents, staff, students, community members, Loudoun Interfaith Community, and Loudoun County Government.

[00:40:22] The goals are educational excellence and staff and student belonging. Next slide, please. The work of the division is ever-evolving, and we remain committed to growing our content knowledge to support the Loudoun County school community.

[00:40:39] We look forward to the continued collaboration with all invested parties and participating in robust data dialogues to inform the necessary steps to ensure the promise of each and every student. And that's our team. Ms. Randolph was not there that day, but we thought we looked really cute, so we chose that picture.

[00:41:00] Next slide. Thank you for the opportunity to share an overview of the work of the division of DEIA. We did not throw the kitchen sink with you, because we'd be here much longer. But at this time, we'd like to entertain any questions or comments from the board.

[00:41:18] Thank you so much for the presentation. And board members, I'll open the floor for questions. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much, Dr. Ellis Williams, and to all of your team members. I am a little bit biased because I am the board liaison for the equity council And I was I was very excited to be able to participate in the first meeting of the council last week But I was hoping dr. Ellis Williams and your team that you could tell us a little bit about The goals of your team short term medium term anything that you have long term

[00:41:57] how you what kind of metrics and systems you use to assess progress and What needs your team has for continuing the work that you're doing? Thank you vice-chair. I'm Donahue for those questions. So we have Every year we've created a logic model We've adjusted that logic model to meet the needs of our goals and our activities and our outputs with the support of Rossi team And this year, our goals were, I won't read them all, but I'll be happy to share the document with you.

[00:42:30] It's to create an environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and affirming to give every student, family, and staff member a sense of belonging. To develop LCPS employees' capacity and skills to provide an equitable, culturally responsive environment. And third, and there are more, ensure equitable opportunities and diverse representation in key decision-making within a division.

[00:42:51] some of our outputs are the number of meetings we have with our different invested parties equity lead attendance data professional learning attendance data student equity ambassador attendance data DEIA created tools and resources and of course our newsletters and a number of work groups we participate in some of our short-term outcomes include staff members gaining an understanding of the principles of equity inclusion and accessibility community members proactively engaging all family members and community

[00:43:26] members and midterm outcomes students from all backgrounds are growing and achieving at grade level and all students are graduating which is also a part of long term and as far as community members all families feel welcome included and affirmed and we tend to stay away from in our logic model long term because we feel as though when time elapses that's time where either harm can be caused if someone's not having the experience that we want them to have an LCPS so we focus on short-term and midterm goals as opposed to beginning middle and in taking a litmus to see and that creates a longitudinal time in which things may not be happening for the best interest

[00:44:06] of a student or family thank you dr. Ellis Williams you mentioned some of your metrics as participation in professional development and also in work groups and other things like that is that participation voluntary on the part of the people who are attending? At times it's voluntary like our equity walks or voluntary principals ask for this it's something that they volunteer to participate in and they recognize an area that they want to examine other times it is based on our student equity ambassadors when they sign up they're signing up to receive the training receive the learning and grow as leaders

[00:44:43] and so that investment of time and energy is self-selected as well when we're working with our colleagues from our other divisions and departments it is usually needs based for example I work with the instructional framework is something that's it's not voluntary something that we're it's an initiative for the district and the division and we are helping to facilitate the ways in which there are equitable lines of effort and practices embedded within this construct of that document thank you and since you mentioned the the student equity ambassadors how is how is that program going do do we have equity

[00:45:20] ambassadors in all of our schools are the numbers increasing what's the interest out there yes we have student equity ambassadors in all of our schools and programs as well we our students are really working toward advocacy they're advocating for things like prayer spaces and reflection spaces they work toward bringing awareness to their schools around issues such as having voice on student advisory, daily recognition of students, so students talking about like they want to hear more from their teachers when they're

[00:45:55] doing things well, and they're also focused on collaboration efforts with their school leaders and designing and leading school initiatives and campaigns like No Place for Hate campaigns and One High School is working on a root out hate campaigns so our students are bringing up the need for that leading that designing that and really bringing that student voice and speaking to leaders about what how to really reach their peers and how to run the initiatives in the way that will have the most impact that's very exciting I feel like it wasn't that long ago that we did not y'all did not have

[00:46:34] ambassadors yet in every school so it's very exciting to hear that the that the interest is increasing and that I'm sorry I distracted you but my last question Dr. Ellis Williams had been does your team have the supports that you need to continue doing the work is there other support that you need from us thank you for the question as I look over at my superintendent I am quite sure that Dr. Spence will provide us with all necessary human capital that we need to expand our bandwidth for our division to be able to have a greater impact across

[00:47:08] the division right now this score is 9 to 105 and we'd like to be able to move away from creating asynchronous professional learning and be able to have adaptive change over time and spend more time in schools over a lengthier period of time but with our current structure we spend a significant amount of our time reacting and working in the moment so with more staffing we will be able to accomplish that gradually as we move forward thank you thank you very

[00:47:43] much, Dr. Ellis Williams and Mr. Muhammad, Ms. Lewis, and Ms. Highfield. Ms. Riccardi? Thank you so much. Thank you for this presentation. I really appreciate it. So I'm just, I'm looking at the DEI quick facts sheet really quickly and it looks like this last year you guys had 34 equity walks between the schools. I guess my first question is that I'm assuming all the schools would get information about how to request having the equity walks. And 34 out of 100 schools, I don't know, how was that, how

[00:48:20] does that compare to the year before I guess would be one question and then you know one of the things and we've talked about this before I'm just I'm always looking for the data the impact data right and there's a lot of really great information in here kind of about the the qualitative side of the programs that you all offer but I'm really looking also for the quantitative data the effectiveness of the training programs and things like that because I just think that's a really important piece of information for us to have So it's a couple different questions kind of thrown out there, but I'd love to get your feedback on that

[00:48:55] Thank you. Um, if I need you to reiterate one or two, I will ask you to do so so first and foremost as I stated earlier Having the number of schools in a time that it takes to actually give the quality of an equity walk as a half-day endeavor So we roughly start around 7:15 in the morning and it ends around noon from there we come back to the office and debrief and that's just based on one school and a number of classrooms we've currently visited 140 classrooms across the division so when we look at it when we look at it in that sense we feel like we've been in a lot of spaces and a lot of different environments to be

[00:49:33] able to glean based on standard six of VDOE's standard we want to be able to get to more schools but that requires the bandwidth. We are small and mighty, and it is a voluntary situation. We're not going into schools unless we have been asked to by leadership or if leadership has invited us into the school.

[00:49:55] So we just began to have this happening with a level of fidelity just this year. So this is basically baseline year. Last year was the tweaking in us developing what that will look like and what it should entail based on the feedback we received from the brave leaders that actually invited us in last year.

[00:50:13] So we hope to grow the numbers. I know Dr. Spence and I have spoken about having a goal where we will reach a certain amount of schools at each level, but at this juncture, we are invited in, so it's not something that's scheduled without a discourse to say this is welcomed at this time, or we would like to do so at a later date.

[00:50:31] Your next question was in reference to the quantifying and qualifying of the data. We have a logic model that I'll be happy to share with you that actually demonstrates our inputs and our outputs, and it's both qualitative in nature and quantitative.

[00:50:47] We do rely on the data from our annual stakeholder survey to be able to glean from the questions that are within the construct of that document to see what the experience is for our students and our staff alike, so we're able to lean into that with the support of our Rossi team.

[00:51:05] We also have our own trackers that are in our division, as we would say, in-house, within the house, in which we are able to look at which schools we're going into, which types of supports they require, whether we're going in a proactive stance, whether we're in a reactive stance, and we look at this data and we work with the level directors and our leadership office to see where there are areas that may need to be, for lack of a better term, targeted supports, intentional supports, where resources provided by the regional cluster leads, each member of my team who's actually seated beside me and behind me all have a regional cluster

[00:51:42] and we'll be happy to share which of your clusters have had which interactions. And you will be able to see the types of work that's happening in your regional clusters and we track that as well. - Just a point of clarification, Ms. Riccardi.

[00:51:58] There have been 17 completed. I think we were adding up the elementary and the high school together with the numbers. 17 actually 19 as the end of this week for this school year and we had some last year in the initial phase of the implementation right that's super helpful thanks for that clarification so I just I would kind of just say I would love to really see like more impact data you know and I'm and part of that reason why is just from the bigger budgeting perspective right at some point in time we're gonna have to really start justifying all of our programs and

[00:52:36] all of our services and really start looking at that at some point in time in the near couple of years as the budget starts leveling off and so I and I know you guys have been around for a couple of years now I would love to start seeing you know this is kind of the extension of the PMC work that I'm doing too right look really taking a look at the data and the impact data that you're having so you know as somebody that runs training programs and for my clients all the time it's I'm always asking them about getting feedback and I would love to be able to see some of that feedback from the programs you're offering just because I'm curious as to kind of what the feedback is and the impact and so I'd love to see that at some point as you guys move forward but thank you so much

[00:53:13] for this it's been really really good information thanks Dr. Rasheen thank you Chair Chandler and thank you for this amazing presentation you know I'm so proud to work with the DEIA office as part of MSAC and you know all the work that you do to help with all the students and you know making such an impact across the division I did have some questions that being said if I don't know who to ask but what are some of the most impactful or rewarding parts of your work not that you didn't mention it already but if you have any more

[00:53:48] that'd be great yes so um thank you for that question I would say that both equally impactful and rewarding is the support that we provide for schools we've had over 200 requests just this year for support in terms of guidance in terms of equity walks equity equity committee support support for equity leads and school data so it's equally impactful because the school is then receiving our

[00:54:24] guidance and our support resources and professional learning and then turning it around to make an impact for student achievement and also their experiences we received an email just yesterday with a celebration on a belonging pep rally that Stonehill Middle just planned and then implemented with their student equity ambassadors and it's really rewarding to receive those emails and see the impact of the work and just a follow-up question if you could well how

[00:55:01] does your division support student leaders and what's been that impact or what has been the impact of that? Well we support our student leaders first of all by providing them that space because it's wonderful to see our kids get in community with like-minded students. As I said it's really a passion for them. We provide a lot of training and learning around allyship, inclusivity, what it means belonging and inclusion we talked to them about how they can get involved with their school leaders how they can be a voice for other students we also

[00:55:40] support them in their leadership as a spectrum because we have some students who are more outgoing and are doing bigger things such as campaigns with their schools and some of our students are having one-on-one conversations answering questions that parents might have you know what is the student equity equity ambassador. So we talk about that spectrum of leadership. We bring in speakers to engage with our students so they see how young people like themselves are out in the world and advocating for issues around DEIA. And we also advocate for students to be a part of our school-based

[00:56:15] equity committees that schools are working toward and really focusing on the issues within their own buildings and having them have space on those school-based committees to bring their voice and bring the voices of their peers into that room and I promise one last question and I think you answered part of it if you could tell me more about your team's community collaborations if any more than what you mentioned I'll be happy to share not limited but to include our collaboration with the Loudoun County government their office that mirrors our office we do have

[00:56:52] a lot of collaborative opportunities the collaborative collective interfaith community we meet with to be able to support our families and within the Loudoun County community community relation organizations that we collaborate with as well when there are issues concerns and or compliments we're happy to say that this year we did not have as many as previous years situations or circumstances that put us in a position of having to move stealthily make a change because we actually have put in the work with our students and

[00:57:29] we're cultivating environments in which we are diminishing on some of the incidents that might bring communities into our schools with issues or concerns the civil rights organizations as well as local fraternities so our sorority organizations as well most recently we helped support an endeavor in which there was a free family shopping spree in which over 200 families in Loudoun were able to come and shop for free and there was actually you can go from children's to household to just like being in a grocery store and it was held at the historic Douglas school and members of

[00:58:02] our team I ran the aisle for detergent and so it was something that was really rewarding because we're able to be in a space and not be in our current capacities like we're the office of but to be in a community and share time space and cultivate relationships that are necessary to continue to support this work and to inevitably support the division. Mr.

[00:58:28] Svensson. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Thank you, Dr. Ellis Williams and your team for the presentation and for all the work that you're doing. I first want to say thank you for empowering student voices in this work. I know first they're making a difference in their schools and their communities, but second they're building skills and broadening their perspectives that they're going to be able to bring into every facet of their life. So I think that's really meaningful work that you all are doing. And my question was specific to the equity walks you had discussed the observational data that you all would take in and I understand it may be situation dependent in terms of the purpose of the equity walk but could you give us an example of

[00:59:05] some of the observational data that you all are taking in and maybe it has to be a concrete example from a particular reason for the equity walk but it might be helpful for us to understand a bit what you're looking for yeah so thank - Thank you for that question.

[00:59:22] As we kind of break down the performance standards, we think about 6.4, which is inclusive curriculum. Some of the data that we are observing is how are students being represented in the curriculum or instruction that they are being provided by the teacher.

[00:59:39] A lot of also the data from teacher moves is how they are interacting with students or having students interact with each other gain different perspectives through discourse and dialogue in the classroom. Also the relevance or the availability of student work and authentic student work that really impacts not only the implication to the curriculum but also given a piece or snapshot of their personal lived experiences. And then of course how teachers are maintaining engagement within the instruction,

[01:00:16] providing visuals, doing equitable calling practices, things of that nature that would align itself with a particular performance standard such as inclusive curriculum. As we get deeper into that, is the evidence of the intentional planning to empower or elevate the work that's going on that students can bring their lived experiences and outside experiences with their familial information into the learning environment so that students can gain positive experiences learning about

[01:00:53] each other while they're learning the content and the standards in the classroom. So that's one particular example. Thank you. That's very helpful. And when you all are able to provide feedback in the classroom about equitable calling practices or ability for students to engage with each other, have you been finding that those recommendations are taken in by, if it's in a classroom teacher, and implemented, and is there a follow-up process that you all have for making sure it's implemented or further discussing with the teacher about those recommendations?

[01:01:27] Yeah, so that last step of the equity wall process is ongoing, and so a lot of times we are giving the school teams the opportunity and time to really think about what it is they want to elevate in terms of instructional practices within the building, and sometimes it's not immediate, so we do follow up over time and ask with the recommendations that we've provided, what are some ways that we could collaborate and support you in the work and your next steps?

[01:01:55] We hope that to be not just a one-shot situation, but over time, so that we are there to support the schools in their process of really improving or elevating their instructional strategies for all students, and really, how does that address some of these outcomes or gaps that students are having.

[01:02:19] - Thank you very much, appreciate it. - Mr. Pepper. - Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Dr. Ellis Williams and your team for the presentation. It was definitely informative. A couple things to begin with. First is I really am appreciative that your focus this year is on belonging.

[01:02:37] I think that I know from research that when students feel they belong, they're more likely to attend school, they're more likely to be active in school, it improves attendance, it improves graduation rates, improves basically all outcomes my question with that is what data are you as a team taking on how the work you're doing a belonging is successful so that you can you see where to tweak your work I guess so as I stated earlier this year is a baseline year we were swatting multiple endeavors over the past two years and this year the intentionality of really taking a dive into data

[01:03:14] dialogues around belonging talking to students we value the soft data the qualitative as well as a quantitative data and sometimes the lived experiences not as respected as numbers but when we're talking about human beings and the lives in which they're living it's in my opinion the most important because if you can speak with a group of students and they're telling you this is what it feels like to attend my school this is the ways in which our leadership team and our teachers help us understand that we belong that our assets are welcome

[01:03:49] that there's not a dominant culture that is literally creating the environment and we have to figure out how we navigate it but that we are all of our assets are included and we are all a part of what it is that makes school X or Y the school that it is and so hearing from the students is so important to us having the students be in spaces with adults who can help enact that change is important to us and as we all know even as adults sense of belonging is important because it's hard to function students you know tend to have more resilience when it relates to certain aspects of the world but this is very primal and

[01:04:28] very important in order for them to be able to grow in the environment in which they show up to every single day to attempt to be the best version of themselves and we don't take that lightly and their words and experiences are something that we truly value that's that's excellent so um I just wanted to add jump in I just wanted to add because we love working with students and we recently talked to students about what makes them feel a sense of belonging and overwhelmingly what some themes that came up was respect for students listening to students students want to have clubs activities school spirit and

[01:05:05] school pride was important to them. Support for new students came up over again and having trusted adults, someone that they can speak to. We also work with schools and we help them go through their data and analyze their climate survey data from parents and students as a part of our work with schools and helping them to identify some areas of growth and to even celebrate on what they're doing well.

[01:05:29] I'll just add to that. Looking at that annual student survey data with the schools and disaggregating it by the schools that we've been heavily supportive of this year, looking at some of those questions that are equity-focused that we can really look at and do some comparative analysis to years past, as well as when you look at the learning environment, we really want to take a look at some of the schools that we've been supporting heavily with mitigating racial slurs and hate speech to see if reduction has occurred in that endeavor.

[01:06:04] We do know that as of right now, we are around 306 incidents for the school division. Last year, at the end of the year, we had 654. So we're just really looking at those as also metrics to kind of look at impact as well.

[01:06:20] I appreciate that. You all had mentioned trusted adults, which I think is very important. Are we still doing equity leads at the schools and how's that going? We have 142 equity leads across all the schools. So some schools have co-leads and it's going very well.

[01:06:40] And in terms of some information that Ms. Lewis shared, those meetings with equity leads are invaluable because really they're working with the school administration to really look at the equity focus for that school and getting support from us and how we can support them in their efforts.

[01:06:58] In those efforts, those focus range from a lot of different topics, but we want to make sure that it is aligned to what the school needs, and so we're very proud of the fact that our equity leads are having consistent equity committee meetings at the school, but also they're having the chance to meet with their school principal and administrators to really talk about the work that they're doing over the course of the year.

[01:07:22] And so as a support to them, we look forward to having those open conversations with them on a consistent basis. That's excellent. I want to end kind of my line of questioning with two things. One, I'd love the opportunity to join you all for an equity walk. I'd love to see what's going on just kind of at that micro level because it's super interesting to me.

[01:07:41] The kind of questions you're asking, the kind of things that you're seeing, how you've kind of tied it to the BDOE frameworks. So that's the other thing. And then the other piece of the puzzle is would love to, you know, kind of talk through and not at the whole board focus, just the idea of how we mitigate slurs and hate speech, something that's pretty important and near and dear to a lot of the things that I do and I believe in.

[01:08:04] So I appreciate the work you guys are doing and thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Ms. Neal. Hi, I just want to say thank you for the presentation. I learned a lot. And I know it's a little bit out of the ordinary for like a student to speak, but I guess from like a student's perspective, like I don't hear a lot of this data from school.

[01:08:24] And I feel like I know a lot of people at my school who would like love to hear this type of thing. And like it would really put into perspective for a lot of people. So what do you think that like I can do as like a normal student to like bring this awareness to like teachers to like just show us more of like the stuff that's going on in your guys' program?

[01:08:43] Well, thank you. And it's not out of the ordinary. We love talking to students. I think that the first step would be to reach out to your equity lead at your school. Your principal and leadership team will be able to direct you, and they will be able to support you in bringing your concerns to leadership. And if there is an equity school-based team already at your school, you can ask to come and speak or ask questions because each school is expected to have an equity lead school-based team in which such questions concerns or excited you know thoughts can be brought to thank you so much

[01:09:19] i am a part of the black student union at champ so i'm definitely going to bring that to like the attention to like bring more awareness especially during advisory lists and stuff like that because i just know like especially at champ like so many people would just like love to hear just like data like this to like um bring more awareness so thank you and we'll make sure that mr everett calloway will reach out to your equity lead he's your regional cluster lead and And so he will support the lines of effort as well as any other member of our team in doing so.

[01:09:50] Thank you so much for engaging in the conversation with us. I really appreciate your questions. And thank you to the team for your presentation. Before I let you move on, and we'll move on to the next item, I just wanted to say I always try to center my own work in an awareness of who we serve here.

[01:10:07] And it really means a lot to me knowing that 61% of our students are students of color and that the work that you're doing really has a direct impact on making our school climate more welcoming and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to be successful.

[01:10:26] So I couldn't possibly come up with any more questions. I think our team covered it today, but thank you for your efforts. All right. Next up, we have our final work session item, 4.02, Department of Student Services, Restraint and Seclusion Annual Report, presented tonight by Ms. Tedra Richardson, our Assistant Superintendent

[01:10:54] of the Department of Student Services.

[01:11:17] - Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, members of the Board, and Dr. Spence. Policy 5345 serves as the compass for guiding our practices in restraint and seclusion of students.

[01:11:35] By providing a framework that ensures consistency, fairness and effectiveness in decision making and actions. It establishes clear guidelines, objectives and boundaries within which LCPS operates.

[01:11:52] Moreover, policy 5345 provides a mechanism for accountability and transparency. It also serves as a tool for continuous improvement, allowing for regular evaluation and adaptation of practices to better achieve desired outcomes.

[01:12:13] I am joined this evening by our Director of Procedural Support, Mrs. Donna Smith, and I will hand it over to her at this time. - Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Want to start with talking briefly about policy 5345.

[01:12:31] It was recently revised in February of 2025. There were a number of revisions to the policy, but I think the most significant revision was the prohibition of seclusion. So when you see the data, it will have some data regarding seclusion, but starting in February of 2025, that was a prohibited practice within Loudoun County Public Schools.

[01:12:52] Policy 5345, Restraint and Seclusion of Students, serves to protect the rights and interests of stakeholders while promoting efficiency, equity, and progress. It is through the implementation of a thoughtful and inclusive policies that we can navigate complex challenges, uphold standards of excellence, and drive positive change in society.

[01:13:16] - So the Department of Student Services promotes a multi-tiered system of supports. That's sort of our first beginning of the measure. There's really a tiered sort of approach that we do with supporting students. Our first supportive measure is the multi-tiered system of supports. It promotes, it's for all students through universal, targeted, and intensive interventions.

[01:13:38] These interventions include and are not limited to positive behavioral interventions and supports, PBIS, social and emotional support through the unified mental health teams, and individualized behavior plans. The MTSS framework provides the foundation that fosters safe and supportive learning environments for all students and staff.

[01:13:56] So that really is the foundation of our work. With policy 5345, there are a number of requirements, as well as just in Loudoun County, we have a number of annual training requirements, which is the second part of our support measure.

[01:14:15] So we have some annual trainings, it's for all, there are for all students, because all, I'm sorry, all staff, because all of our employees have the responsibility for understanding and complying with the policies and regulations related to the appropriate response to student behavior. Each school must have a team that includes members that are trained in the use of physical restraint and seclusion.

[01:14:35] The school-based team is composed of administrative and instructional personnel, including staff who by reason of their training and job responsibilities work with students who exhibit challenging behavior and have the potential to engage in dangerous conduct. I do want to point out that we do continue to do training in seclusion, although it is prohibited because we want to make sure that our staff are aware of what seclusion is in case there is some emergency situation that occurs that staff are aware of what is and is not appropriate.

[01:15:13] When it talks to, I want to go back to where it talks about the teams of members trained, that is called our behavior intervention team. You can see on the previous, oh, it's on this current slide, each school's responsible for having a behavior intervention team. And we also utilize the MANT system for training, UCARE for crisis intervention, and then VCU, and I'm going to talk about those a little bit more.

[01:15:37] policy 5345 for restraint and seclusion we do specific training with MANT for special education teachers teacher assistants behavior assistants special education deans administrators as well as any staff member in this on the school-based behavior intervention team it's a self-paced we have some self-paced modules so there's first there's just modules that they all complete and that's the first layer of training and then we go into the MANT system which is more involved for staff that are specifically working with students with disabilities that require a high level of

[01:16:15] training as well as our behavior intervention teams. The MANT system has three levels of training. There's relational, technical, and supplemental. The relational training is a trauma-informed approach to teach staff to really, it's about building positive relationships, understanding behavior, understanding your own behavior and your own responses to trauma and crisis situations, reading verbal and nonverbal communications of the students, managing your own personal emotional responses to student behaviors, verbally de-escalating potentially aggressive situation, utilizing physical techniques and restraint to intervene and prevent

[01:16:54] imminent danger or serious physical harm of self or others. The technical and supplemental MANT is only training provided to staff who really are working directly with students who are at risk of having significant behaviors that may require crisis intervention, as well as the behavior intervention team.

[01:17:19] We also provide that training to bus drivers and bus assistants as it applies to what is safe to do on a bus. This school year, we actually transitioned to something called MANT 3.0, which is the newest version of MANT.

[01:17:36] One of the big differences between the two, between MANT 2.0 and 3.0, is they replace the language of restraint with holds. So they're not called restraints in the training, it's called holds. And they added a couple of additional holds. But when we do our trainings, we do talk about how it is considered a restraint for our data reporting.

[01:17:56] We also use UKERU, which is a crisis management system that is also trauma-informed to resolve conflict, as well as physical techniques. It is with the use of cushioned blocking pads, so it really does take away from that physical interaction.

[01:18:13] It's more of a protective barrier to protect everyone and keep the environment safe. Select employees, also very similar to the MANT technical and supplemental, utilize the UKERU training. So it's also our BIT team members.

[01:18:31] And then on the bus, some of the pads are too big, but we do provide training as needed for specific pads that would be safe to use on a bus, and that training is provided by Office of Special Education, MANT faculty members provide that training. In addition, the Virginia Commonwealth University Autism Center of Excellence, it's safety for all autism training for transportation staff.

[01:18:53] It's something that was developed by VCU-ACE, and we utilize that to do bus training on an annual basis. Another requirement for us is really some documentation of restraint and seclusion.

[01:19:09] We have restraint and seclusion incident reports that are, there's a form that is completed as part of policy 5345. It captures information described within the regulation. Administrators and designees fill out that immediately upon being involved, there being an incident in their building.

[01:19:30] And then that is also, those incidents are part of the student record and are provided to the parent within 24 hours. Parents are notified, I'm sorry. Now we're going to do some working definitions of the restraints. so the first type of intervention is mechanical restraints and that is the use of any material device or equipment that restricts a student's freedom of movement that doesn't include devices implemented by trained school personnel or utilized by a student that have been prescribed by an appropriate medical or related service or professional and are used with parental consent and for the

[01:20:10] specific and approved purposes which the devices are designed and I'll give an example of something that wouldn't be a mechanical device may be a student that's using a gait trainer and gait trainers have belts that keep them strapped in so that they are able to use their gait trainer that's an approved device it's a medically prescribed device so that would not be considered a physical restraint or if a student is in a stroller or a car seat and you've got the five-point harness or the straps that go in a stroller for moving a student transporting a student, that would not be considered a mechanical restraint for those specific purposes.

[01:20:48] Seclusion, again, as I said, is a prohibited practice in Loudoun. I skipped physical restraint, I'm sorry. Physical restraint is a personal restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a student to move freely.

[01:21:05] Physical restraints are only allowed to be used as a last resort in an emergency situation when all other interventions would be ineffective. It is only to be used to prevent a student from seriously harming or injuring themselves or others, to quell a disturbance or remove a student from a disturbance in which a student's behavior threatens serious physical harm or injury to students, defend self or others from serious physical harm or injury, obtain possession of weapons or dangerous objects.

[01:21:38] Restraints must be discontinued as soon as a danger is no longer evident. It may not be used for destruction of physical property and less they're using that property like a desk or a chair as a danger to someone else.

[01:21:59] Restraints may never be used to punish or discipline, a means of coercion or retaliation, a convenience or for any other reason other than those that are allowed in the regulation. And then seclusion, although prohibited, the definition of that is involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room from which they are physically presented from leaving the room, and it should only be used when there is imminent danger of self or others and should be stopped as soon as.

[01:22:29] That is no longer a concern. I'm going to go over the data for Loudoun County Public Schools for restraint and seclusion. First and foremost, children's safety is the most important for us as a division, so their well-being and dignity are paramount in the educational environment.

[01:22:50] As educators and stakeholders in the education system, it's our duty to ensure that every student feels safe, respected, supported, and thrive academically and emotionally. The following slides capture the last three years of restraint and seclusion data for Loudoun County Public Schools.

[01:23:08] You will see the number of incidents of restraint and seclusion and mechanical restraint. It is broken up for students with disabilities, students without disabilities, and students who have a 504 accommodation plan only because we do have some students that have both do or both special education and have a 504 those students are reported as students with disabilities under IDEA under the IEP section it's important to note that the incidents reported reported are not reflected of the number of students and some students have multiple incidents in the educational setting and there is a slide that has that also in the presentation

[01:23:45] which I found errors in just a while ago and so I've got them corrected on my sheet and I will make sure it's corrected for you all as well. So this first slide is the number of instances of physical restraint in Loudoun County locations. I think important you will see in this these are our comprehensive schools. We also have slides at the end that are for students who are in private day and residential settings because we report those separately to the state. So for For last school year, this is the 24-25 school year data, there was one instance of physical

[01:24:23] restraint for a student without a disability, seven incidences of students with a disability under IDEA with an IEP, and then none with students on a 504 plan. So that's the number of incidents. We had a total number of eight incidents last year in our comprehensive schools for restraint.

[01:24:42] For seclusion, we also had eight incidents of seclusion, and those were all eight were with a student with a disability under IDEA. Of note, I think it's important to note that the policy change was February of 2025, and there were two incidents of seclusion after the policy change.

[01:25:04] And what my office does when that occurs is we meet with the staff. We do an overview of exactly what happened, review the situation, and then we do retraining if retraining is needed. and both of those incidents there was actually a significant risk to staff at the time that the judgment of the staff they felt like they had exceeded all other options available and needed to remove themselves from a situation for safety purposes but there were two at the end of last year for mechanical restraint we had one incident of a mechanical restraint and it was with a

[01:25:40] student with a disability I think what's important to note with this mechanical restraint is we are required to report a mechanical restraint anytime law enforcement uses handcuffs on our school property on a student if charges are not filed and in this particular situation law enforcement used handcuffs on a student due to a crisis situation but the student was not charged so we have to report it as a division as a mechanical restraint and that was that one incident for Loudoun County this next page is the page that had the

[01:26:19] clerical error it had the number of instances instead of the number of students so I will correct it so you can see our three-year trends and we really are doing a nice job continuing continuing to reduce the number of instances for the school year 24 25 it's broken up for older than age 9 and then 9 and under that was a focus point for the previous policy so for the number of physical restraints there were a total of eight restraints of the eight restraints two

[01:26:55] of those students were students older than nine three of them were under the age of nine or nine and under so it was five students with a total of eight incidents if that makes sense okay for mechanical restraint it was a student older than the age of nine and then for seclusion there were eight incidences of seclusion but two of it was two students older than nine and five students

[01:27:23] nine and under so seven students with eight incidences of seclusion so this next section I'm going to review the data for restraint seclusion for students in private day and residential settings these students the majority of our students are supported through the children's services act which was a law enacted in 1993 that establishes a single state pool of funds to support services for eligible youth and their families. State funds combined with local community funds

[01:27:59] are managed by local interagency teams who plan and oversee services to youth. The core values for the Children's Services Act are support a system of care, child-centered and family-focused, provide a continuum of care, integrate services across agencies, foster collaboration, fiscal accountability, inclusive excellence. The CSA process in Loudoun County is administered through county-operated units. The local CSA unit is based within the Department of

[01:28:31] Family Services, or DFS. Services are typically funded by Loudoun County CSA, services that are typically funded by Loudoun County CSA are for behavioral emotional difficulties, and can include community-based, residential, and special education services. CSA policy is set by our local community policy and management team, CPMT, which is made of appointed members from the community and local Government, DFS, which includes Foster Care, Child Protective Services, and Juvenile Court Services Unit as a member of the CPMT.

[01:29:09] Other CPMT member agencies include Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services. Educational placements for students with disabilities and private day placements are one of the final considerations along the continuum of special education services, special education and related services, which ranges from the general education classroom with inclusion to residential placements.

[01:29:36] As of June of 2025, at the end of last school year, we had 43 students in private day placements and 11 students in residential placements. That number does fluctuate throughout the year, but it's pretty consistently right about that range.

[01:29:56] Again, I want to point out that there's actually a separate set of regulations that the private day and residential schools have to follow through the Virginia Department of Education, so they don't follow Loudoun County policy. They follow the state regulation. For the 24-25 school year in our private day and residential placements, we had 19 incidents of physical restraints.

[01:30:24] Let me go to the next one. There were no incidences of mechanical restraints in the private day and residential setting, and there were 10 incidences of seclusion. All of these were with students with disabilities, because these are all placements of students with disabilities.

[01:30:45] And then this next slide is where I had another, where it had the number of incidents instead of the number of students, so I have that corrected. So for physical restraint, there were 19 incidences total. Nine of those were children of children who were older than age of nine, and then there was one student who was under the age of nine. There were no mechanical restraints, and then for seclusion it was one student who had been secluded 10 times and then our last

[01:31:23] slide we are really just do a breakdown of a number of the school divisions that we often are looking at data in comparison as we are continuing to grow and improve as a division and if you this is actually coming from the video we reporting website for restraint and seclusion so for Loudoun County for the number of restraint number of students restrained our number is one of the lowest of any of the school divisions reported as well as our number of restraints seclusions for us is lower than some some have zero because there were school divisions that already had seclusion being prohibited in their

[01:32:01] school division and some of the school divisions are a little bit smaller I will say if you were if you look to compare the video a report to at what we reported it's gonna look a little bit different because on the state reporting they combine physical restraint and mechanical restraint to be the same things. So where we have eight and one, there's just going to say nine. And that is why there's that difference. They put mechanical and physical together under physical restraint. I do want to do a shout out to the teams who are doing our trainings for MANT and Ukiru. That responsibility

[01:32:38] has moved to my office this school year. And there are some remarkable caring members of our team that do this training every day. And they are very passionate about it and focused on the trauma informed part in the dignity for the students and the care of the students as well as the care and the toll that this takes on our staff as well so I would be remiss without a shout out to those instructors that we have across the division we also have school-based instructors but they are doing a remarkable job and our numbers do tend to appear to continue to go down for restraint

[01:33:12] anybody has any questions thank you so much for the report and I will say I've heard directly from teachers in my district who really appreciate the training and the additional training in from you Kuru and man and that's making a big impact board members do you have any questions I'm vice chair Donahue thank you madam chair thank you Ms. Richardson and Ms. Smith for the presentation I as you all

[01:33:49] know I have an avid interest in this topic because of the work that we have done in this area on student services over the last couple of years I was surprised to see that the number of seclusion incidents increased so dramatically from the last couple of years dramatically in that there were only two or three previously and then this year there were or this past year there were there were eight I had written down some questions that I was going to ask about those numbers but miss Smith you actually addressed them

[01:34:23] in the course of your presentation so I I was going to ask if there's any information that you can tell us about the the instances with students age nine and under for any of them for the restraint or the seclusion instances with those younger kids are you able to tell us like what was the youngest age of any of the students that fall into those categories I don't have that information with me we were we have historically reported nine and under just this how we

[01:35:03] we reported but I don't have the specific information with me I can get that I can get back with you with that but I don't have that with me I was just wondering and it's not really a question I guess but I I will use this as an opportunity to pause the policy that we were working on in student services at the end of last year 5340 because as our our newest board members might not be aware the definition of seclusion as specific as it is in that it pertains to a child who was left entirely alone. My memory from when we were working together previously was, for example, if a child was in a room and

[01:35:43] there is a staff person on the threshold doorway of the room, that does not count as seclusion. Is that correct? Okay. That's correct. So it does not count as seclusion, which means right now we do not have any requirements or methods for tracking those instances or reporting them to parents and families. Not that that I'm saying that we're that any of y'all are doing anything wrong but I think it would be good to put systems in place to track and report those instances that do not rise to the level of seclusion. So it's not it's not up to

[01:36:22] me anymore with student services but I encourage my friends and colleagues who are on the committee now to continue working on that issue. Thank you for everything that you do for our students. Board members, any other-- oh, Mr. Svinson.

[01:36:38] Thank you, Chair Chandler. I just had a couple questions. So it looks like-- and correct me if I'm reading the numbers wrong-- but we had five students that were secluded, but there were eight instances of seclusion. Is that right? And so if a student is secluded a second time, I guess I'm wondering what happens after a seclusion has occurred to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

[01:37:05] It seems it did happen again to certain students and just kind of curious about what the practices are following that. So actually there were eight incidences of seclusion this last school year with a total of seven students experiencing it.

[01:37:23] So for per policy, if a student experiences a restraint or seclusion more than once in the school year, the IEP team needs to convene to review the incidences to determine if there needs to be an amendment to the IEP, if a functional behavioral assessment or a behavioral intervention plan is necessary to support the student.

[01:37:46] And if it's not a student with a disability, school teams are still required to meet to discuss the incidents to determine whether there needs to be some type of intervention or support for the student. So that is an ongoing part of the process, as well as if a student with a disability experiences a restraint or seclusion more than once, the IEP team needs to convene.

[01:38:07] It needs to be documented in the IEP that the student presents data that presents behavior that may result in the need for that level of a crisis intervention. It's documented in the IEP, discussed with the parent, so it's all part of that discussion.

[01:38:24] - Thank you, that's helpful. And then on the student that was handcuffed, I see the mechanical restraint is in the older than age nine category, but could you share a little bit more information about the age or grade level of that student?

[01:38:41] And also, I guess the, I presume that the person, so, and can you just give a little more context on that? I might have some follow-up questions based on that. So I can tell you that it was a secondary student.

[01:38:59] the specifics of the incident I really be due to confidentiality it being we only had one in the division it really would be not information we could really talk about and I can tell you in this moment I don't remember because it was last school year but I can tell you it was a secondary student and it was law enforcement intervention it wasn't our school safety off security officer it was actually a law enforcement that was involved and when you say law enforcement was that the SRO or is that, okay, that was the SRO. Yes, sir. And do our SROs receive training akin to

[01:39:31] MANT or Ukuru or other training in terms of dealing with a situation like this? We have offered, but they are, they do not all participate. And I know you don't have these numbers in front of you, but it would be helpful to have a breakdown in the number of SROs who participate in the training versus don't participate in the training. Thank you. And I have to say that it is discouraging to hear that training would be offered for folks working in our schools and they would not take the

[01:40:08] opportunity to participate in that training. So thank you. Thank you. All right, board members, we will recess this meeting for dinner and reconvene at 6 30. The board is now in recess.

[02:03:02] Good evening.

[02:04:54] The board is coming out of recess at this time. We are going to do something just a little bit out of order tonight. Thank you guys for your patience. I have been notified that Mrs. Chernoff would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Ms. Chernoff, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter. Hello everyone. Hello Chair Chandler. This is a personal matter. I am away. I'm out of town. I am alone in a conference

[02:05:27] room at the hotel I'm staying at and I think I already said it's a personal matter. Thank you so much for offering us your location as well Ms. Chernoff. Given this is a personal exemption and I believe this is your first one for the this year therefore I will entertain a motion that Ms. Chernoff's request to participate remotely be granted. Madam chair I move to I move for the board to approve Ms. Chernoff's remote participation. Vice chair Donahue has made a motion to approve

[02:06:02] Ms. Chernoff's remote participation do I have a second second thank you the motion was made by Vice Chair Donohue and seconded by Ms. Riccardi let's see with that clerk please open the vote school board members please record your vote all right clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes unanimously with all seven school board members present welcome to the meeting Ms. Chernoff thank you and with that we will continue on with item number eight which is

[02:06:39] the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem. Tonight, the Rockridge High School Chorus will be our pledge leader and National Anthem performers. Representing Rockridge High School, this talented group of singers, ranging from grades 10 to 12, has a palpable passion for singing.

[02:06:57] Members of Rockridge Sings have proudly represented Loudoun County Public Schools through performances for the U.S. Department of Education, the Virginia Music Education Association Conference, and on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. as part of the music in our school's month celebration the singers are routinely selected for district state regional and national honor choirs as well as the virginia governor's school for the visual and performing arts this evening the performance of the national anthem will be directed by former choral director and current performing arts specialist mr jordan jordan

[02:07:33] markwood um welcome and thank you for being here tonight and everyone please stand for the pledge

[02:07:38] of allegiance thank you that was wonderful next up we'll move on to item 8. 01 our recognitions

[02:09:57] tonight we are having a signing ceremony to acknowledge the collective bargaining agreements for the certified employees and the non-certified employees bargaining units presented tonight by miss lisa bolin our chief human rights officer good evening tonight marks a historical milestone for Loudoun County Public Schools. We gather to formally sign two collective bargaining agreements

[02:10:32] and to recognize the dedication, professionalism, and shared commitment that made this moment possible. Over many months, representatives from both Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun Education Association engaged in thoughtful and rigorous negotiations. These agreements reflect meaningful progress in compensation, including step advancements and multi-year cost of living increases that support the talented professionals who serve our students each and every day.

[02:11:06] Reaching agreement on the division's first collective bargaining agreements required individuals on both sides of the table to approach their responsibilities with seriousness of purpose and a shared commitment to students, staff, and community.

[02:11:23] This evening, we will sign each agreement separately. We will begin with the Non-Certified Employees Bargaining Unit Agreement. For purposes of this agreement, a non-certified employee means an employee who is not required to hold a professional license.

[02:11:40] This includes valued members of our workforce, such as paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, custodians, bus drivers, school security officers, and many others who ensure our schools operate safely and effectively every day.

[02:11:57] I would like to recognize the members of the non-certified employees bargaining teams representing LEA, Chris Countryman, President, Chief Negotiator Mary Hayes, School Security Officer at Potomac Falls High School, Andrea Herzfeld, Administrative Assistant at Harper Park Middle School, Jordan Mante, Digital Experience Specialist at Belmont Ridge Middle School, Clayton Thomas, Bus Driver, and serving as alternates,

[02:12:30] Karen Terrell and Karen Colantonio, representing Loudoun County Public Schools, myself, Lisa Boland, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Negotiator Cliff Dozier, Director of Workplace and Labor Relations, Kevin Lewis, Chief Operations Officer, Don Traynor, Executive Director of Facilities, Kimberly Jones, Supervisor of Special Education. Additionally, both teams were supported throughout this process by Cambria Chris, Administrative Assistant of Workplace and

[02:13:08] Labor Relations, who worked behind the scenes helping ensure the coordination and logistics that made these negotiations possible. On behalf of the school board and the entire division, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation for your dedication, professionalism, and continued service to Loudoun County Public Schools. At this time, I would like to invite the following individuals to come forward for the ceremonial signing of the non-certified employees collective bargaining agreement.

[02:13:40] Chair April Chandler, Vice Chair Anne Donahue, Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence, Chief Negotiator Cliff Dozier, Loudoun Education Association President Chris Countryman, and Chief Negotiator Mary Hayes.

[02:15:14] I would now like to invite the members of the non-certified employees bargaining teams to join us at the front for a commemorative photo.

[02:15:44] We will now turn to the Certified Employees Bargaining Unit Agreement.

[02:16:40] A certified employee means an employee who is required to hold a state-issued professional license from the Virginia Board of Education or the Virginia Board of Health in order to be employed in their current LCPS position. This includes both full-time and part-time permanent employees, such as teachers, counselors, psychologists, and other licensed professionals who provide direct instructional and student support services.

[02:17:06] I would like to recognize the members of the Certified Employees Bargaining Teams, representing LEA, Chris Countryman, President, Chief Negotiators, Charles Hansen, math teacher at North Star School, and Christopher Conkiss, math teacher at Independence High School, Corey Brunet, EL teacher at Broad Run High School, Aaron Crumbliss, science teacher at Freedom High School, Suzanne Cochler, music teacher at Harper Park Middle School, and serving as alternates Daryl Dawson and Michelle Barnett. Representing LCPS, Lisa Boland, Chief Human Resources Officer,

[02:17:45] Chief Negotiator, Cliff Dozier, Director of Workplace and Labor Relations, Kevin Tyson, Executive Principal Secondary, Elaine Lehman, Director of Elementary and Charter Schools, and Nikea Purnell, Assistant Director of Special Education, with alternatives, Ray Mitchell, Chief of Schools, and Sharon Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer.

[02:18:08] On behalf of the school board and the entire division, we again extend our sincere appreciation for your dedication, professionalism, and continued service. At this time, I would like to invite the following individuals to come forward for the ceremonial signing of the Certified Employee Collective Bargaining Agreement.

[02:18:26] Chair April Chandler, Vice Chair Anne Donahue, Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence, Chief Negotiator Cliff Dozier, Loudoun Education Association President Chris Countryman, and Chief Negotiators Charles Hansen,

[02:18:41] Christopher Conkiss, and Cliff Dozier.

[02:20:02] And again, I would like to now invite the members of the certified employee bargaining teams

[02:20:08] to join us at the front for a commemorative photo.

[02:20:53] Tonight marks a historic step forward for Loudoun County Public Schools and we celebrate not only the signing of these agreements, but the spirit of collaboration and professionalism that made them possible. That same spirit will continue to guide our work in service to our students, our colleagues, and the Loudoun County community.

[02:21:12] Thank you and congratulations to all who contributed to this milestone. Thank you so much.

[02:21:29] - On behalf of the school board, I'd like to thank each one of the team members who really worked together and came to the table make this possible it is a historic occasion for our school board and lcps now i believe i have also been informed that mrs griffiths has joined the meeting with that i have been notified that

[02:22:06] mrs griffiths would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting mrs griffiths please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter i am in my home and it's a medical matter thank you mrs griffiths um is anyone present at this location with you yes my family's here but i am in an office away from them thank you um therefore i will entertain a motion that mrs griffiths request to participate remotely be granted madam chair i move that the

[02:22:41] school board approves mrs griffiths request to participate remotely thank you ms riccardi thank you all right it has been properly moved by vice chair donahue and seconded by mr carty therefore clerk please open the vote school board members please record your vote ms shirnoff please state

[02:23:11] your vote yes thank you clerk please close and display the vote the motion passes with all eight school board members present for the meeting voting yes welcome to the meeting mrs griffiths thank you all right we will continue on now with our student school board representative comments tonight our student school board representative is delaney neal a student at john champ high school

[02:23:44] delaney is a dedicated student and the 2025-2026 student council president she is deeply passionate about leadership advocacy and contributing to something larger than herself her commitment to service is evident in her roles as the historian for the Human Trafficking Awareness Club, a Morgan's Message ambassador promoting mental health awareness and athletics, and a member of the Red Cross Club. Athletics plays a significant role in Delaney's life.

[02:24:13] She has been a varsity lacrosse player for three years, serving as team captain for one season. Her athletic experience extends across multiple sports, including varsity field hockey varsity basketball for two seasons and one year as the manager for the gymnastics team whatever the field whether on the field in the classroom or through her involvement in various service initiatives Delaney consistently seeks opportunities to make a meaningful impact in her school and community welcome Delaney the floor is yours thank you good evening chair

[02:24:48] Chandler Dr. Spence and members of the school board my name is Delaney Neal and I'm the SCA president of John Champ High School, it is truly a privilege to stand before you tonight as a student representative for Champ. Serving in this role has given me a deeper appreciation for what makes our community so strong: our willingness to grow, to lead, and to create opportunities for every student to succeed. This year at Champ has been defined by opportunity and excellence. Academically, our students continue to rise to high expectations. We are proud to recognize three national merit semi-finalists and 22 national merit commended students, and

[02:25:23] and we maintain a 66% AP participation rate, reflecting a culture where students challenge themselves. We expanded our curriculum with eight new courses, giving students more pathways to explore their interests in future careers. Student involvement is stronger than ever.

[02:25:39] We started 12 new clubs, bringing our total to 86 student organizations, including Baking Club, Pickleball Club, and an IT certification club. We also re-established our National History Honor Society, strengthening opportunities for academic enrichment. In World Languages, six students are applying to the Governor's World Language Academies in French, German, Latin, and Spanish.

[02:26:02] And several students qualified for the Seal of Biliteracy, celebrating both achievement and diversity within our community. In STEM, our CyberPatriot team placed first and second overall in Virginia, an extraordinary accomplishment that highlights the strength of our cybersecurity program.

[02:26:19] Leadership development continues to thrive. Our Student Council Association will be attending the state conference for the second consecutive year through the Virginia Student Councils Association, strengthening collaboration and leadership across the Commonwealth. Additionally, two students were selected to attend the Hugh O'Brien Leadership Conference at James Madison University. What truly sets CHAMP apart, however, is our commitment to inclusion. This year, our United Sound, Unified PE, and Unified Theater programs continue to thrive. United Sound pairs students with disabilities alongside peer mentors in our band program, creating meaningful music experiences and lasting friendships.

[02:26:57] Unified PE brings students of all abilities together in a shared physical education environment, promoting wellness, teamwork, and mutual respect. Unified Theater provides inclusive performing arts space where students collaborate on productions and put a true spotlight on ability.

[02:27:13] These programs reflect our belief every student deserves to be seen, heard, and valued. We have also seen positive results from the cell phone policy. Classrooms feel more focused, engagement has improved, and students are more present in both their learning and in their relationships. As I look back on this year, I see more than statistics and accomplishments, I see growth.

[02:27:32] I see students stepping into their leadership, supporting one another, and taking their pride in their school. CHAMP continues to be a place where students are empowered to explore their passions, challenge themselves, and contribute meaningfully to their community. Thank you for your continued investment in our students and for ensuring that student voice remains part of these important conversations.

[02:27:52] Representing John Champ has been one of the greatest honors of my high school journey, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. Thank you. Thank you, Delaney, for being here and sharing your experience with us.

[02:28:11] We are so honored to be able to hear your voice and reflect on your experiences at John Champ. So, thank you. With that, we'll move on now to the superintendent's report presented by Dr. Aaron Spence. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. It's always my pleasure to share some good news from around our school division.

[02:28:31] Starting with February being School Board Appreciation Month, I'd like to take a moment to thank our school board members for your dedication to our LCPS community and to our students. The work that our school board engages in has a vital impact on our students, on our schools, and on our entire community.

[02:28:49] And your actions and decisions ensure that LCPS students have access to a high-quality education. So thank you for all that you do and for your dedication. Please join me in a round of applause for our school board. Now on the screen there, you can see as a special thanks, second grade students from Moorfield Station have created ceramic flowers as a thank you for your work.

[02:29:16] And each of our board members has been given a flower to take with them this evening. Next, congratulations to Guilford, Sugarland, Sully, and Sterling Elementary Schools on being designated as Virginia Community Schools by the Virginia Department of Education. This recognition follows a rigorous application and review process and is awarded to schools that prioritize meeting students' needs while strengthening family and community engagement and supporting emotional and mental wellness and fostering meaningful student motivation.

[02:29:44] Each school demonstrated strong alignment with the Virginia community school model and a sustained commitment to high-quality implementation. Nearly 60 schools across 13 school divisions earned this recognition statewide. Community schools serve as hubs that bring together educators, families, and community partners to remove barriers and expand opportunities so our students can thrive academically and personally.

[02:30:08] Last week, Potomac Elementary enjoyed its first-ever kindness fair. With support from Potomac Falls High School peer students, the Potomac students rotated through stations where they participated in hands-on activities celebrating empathy, inclusion, and respect for one another.

[02:30:27] Students also explored coping strategies and participated in a dance party where they learned that kindness grows stronger the more you use it. The event, which was coordinated by the school's counseling team, strengthened connections and reinforced Potomac's commitment to ensuring that every student feels valued and included.

[02:30:48] The Division of Family and Community Engagement, the English Learner Family and Community Engagement Office, McKinney Vento Services, and the Loudon Education Foundation recently participated in Ready to Respond, Strengthening Loudon's Food Security Network, a county-wide event that focused on food insecurity and a coordinated community response. This event was spearheaded by Loudon Hunger Relief in partnership with the Loudon Education Foundation and brought together more than 40 food pantries, meal programs, and community partners. The purpose of the gathering was to strengthen coordination across Loudoun's food security network, build a shared understanding

[02:31:27] of community needs, and ensure consistent, clear communication to families about available food resources. Through cross-sector collaboration and dialogue, participants focused on aligning efforts and preparing for increased demand with an emphasis on helping families know where to turn for support. LCPS's participation reinforced our division's role as a key partner in countywide planning efforts and ensured that our students' needs and their families' needs were represented in broader community responses and communication strategies related to food security.

[02:32:01] This weekend, United for Wellness LCPS's eight annual mental health and wellness conference and resource fair was held at Heritage High School. Nearly 600 LCPS families and community members participated in the event which offered opportunities to learn about mental health and wellness strategies to support our students. More than 30 sessions were offered covering topics such as understanding ADHD, addressing childhood loneliness, and navigating the influence of AI and many many more. These sessions provided families with practical tools they can use right

[02:32:36] away and in addition to the information sessions more than 100 exhibitors including local businesses and lcps offices shared information about the services and supports they provide student volunteers helped welcome and guide visitors throughout the day and the event was organized by the office of student mental health services with support from the department of student services and many other lcps team members many thanks to all involved for what was truly a great event and then finally this evening i would like to encourage our family staff and students to complete the annual survey, which opened on February 19th and closes on March the 17th.

[02:33:13] The data collected from this survey provides invaluable insights that directly inform school improvement plans and a vision-wide strategic decision-making for the 2026-27 school year and beyond. By gathering direct feedback from our families, students, and staff, we gain a holistic view of the learning climate and the operational health of our schools. Our goal, of course, is to ensure that every voice is reflected in the data as we work together to provide the best possible educational experience for our students. More details and resources can be found on our

[02:33:46] Stakeholder Survey's 2026 information page, accessible via the link that is shown right here on this slide. And Madam Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Spence, for your report. With that, we'll move on to item number 11, public comment, procedures for public comment.

[02:34:05] Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun 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.

[02:34:23] Based on the number of speakers and the agenda this evening, all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. decorum and civility all audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving departing speaking at the podium or during a break violations of civility decorum and respect include shouting heckling jeering applause or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting

[02:35:01] obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa interrupting speakers attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate disparage or distract a speaker staff member or other meeting attendees speakers should refrain from vulgarity obscenities defamation profanity and other light breaches of respect nor may speakers target criticize or attack individual students or and or individual division employees during public comment.

[02:35:34] As a reminder, School Board Policy 2520 states speakers may not target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. I do want to take a moment to clarify a few things. As has been explained previously, speakers can personally

[02:36:09] identify a student or employee without a student's or an employee's names. That is, personally identifiable information is any information that a reasonable person can link together to pinpoint an individual student or employee, and where that individual student or employee is known to others in their school and surrounding community based on the context that is shared.

[02:36:33] The school board welcomes you to share your concerns, but asks to the extent that you have prepared remarks that target, criticize, or attack any individual students or employees, you generalize such remarks to ensure compliance with the board policy. For example, comments that target, criticize, or attack a student or an employee or a student or an employee from a specific named school or a student or an employee with any characteristics where the information would personally identify that student or employee to others in the school

[02:37:07] 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 the school board chair am charged with the responsibility to remain to maintain order during the school board meetings accordingly when reasonable i will warn of breaches of decorum civility and respect and ask speakers to redirect your comments prior to possibly discontinuing individual speaking

[02:37:46] 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 or restore order. If speakers fail to comply with board policy regarding public participation, you will receive a warning and a request to redirect or generalize your comments. Should you fail to redirect or generalize your comments after that warning, you may be asked to yield the microphone, at which time you should yield the microphone as well as the floor and take your seat. I will then call the next speaker.

[02:38:22] To the extent necessary, I will also warn of breaches of decorum, civility, and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly conduct of the meeting. Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board.

[02:38:37] Per School Board Policy 2520, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting.

[02:38:55] Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in on the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or public comment period ending for the evening.

[02:39:16] Distribution of materials to school board members. Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais.

[02:39:34] The public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through LCPS-TV on Comcast Channel 18 and 1070 HD and Verizon Fios Channel 43. The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website.

[02:39:50] We look forward to hearing your comments. We will now start with our virtual public comment. Our first speaker is Chris Stevenson, followed by Meredith Ray. Madam Chair, members of the school board, I am Chris Stevenson, LCPS parent.

[02:40:09] Six of our children have gone through elementary, middle, and high schools here. Our last is a senior at Loudoun Valley, a member of Civic Ground, a Loudoun-based group challenging the president's assaults on our children's education and their future. LCPS, thankfully, teaches that bullying is unacceptable and harms people.

[02:40:30] Unfortunately, the president is a bully who uses public shaming and ridicule against those with whom he disagrees, verbally and emotionally abusing them and dishonoring and harming the office of president. For example, he called Colorado Governor Jared Polis a scumbag and said he should rot in hell. The president posted a video of the Obamas as apes. His attorney general, Pam Bondi, responding to a question by Representative Jamie Raskin, said to him,

[02:41:06] you don't tell me anything, you washed up loser lawyer. On behalf of LCPS students, including all of my children, will you please issue a statement asking the president respectfully to apologize for his bullying, especially to our children who are disoriented and damaged by this.

[02:41:29] Be brave and have courage. Thank you. Thank you. Meredith Ray followed by Wayne Smith.

[02:41:36] Hello. I am a parent of two LCPS students, and I know that it was not actually that long ago that I spoke to the school board asking you to not increase the number of SROs in our schools, and I want to thank you for doing the right thing at that time.

[02:42:10] Unfortunately, the sheriff now thinks that he can just force this into practice without a request from the community or the schools or the school board, which is honestly just really weird. In addition, the sheriff went before the Board of Supervisors and had no answers to the following basic questions you would expect him to know as someone who wants to hire 61 new SROs.

[02:42:31] Those questions included, what data do you have to show that an SRO in every elementary school is best practice? What was the majority of the calls for? Do we have a breakdown of what they were for? How many students were arrested in prior years? He was also unaware that in the annual statewide school safety survey, which he cited in his own report about adding SROs to elementary schools, more SROs was something that almost no school staff surveyed said that they needed for their schools to improve safety. As far as the arrests go, according to the sheriff, there was only one arrest from the SROs last year, so absolutely no

[02:43:09] one should be concerned about a school-to-prison pipeline. But then he admitted there were 39 petitions. A petition is a formal written request to initiate legal proceedings for a juvenile and is still legal charges and can still also lead to them being taken into custody.

[02:43:26] So really, the difference is just that legal proceedings against a minor or an adult gets arrested. Apparently, he forgot that he also provided prior year arrest numbers in 2024 to the press. He told Loudoun now that there were 31 arrests in the 2023-24 school year, 22 in 2021-22 and 2022-23. So we went from 22 to 31 to 40 left. Thank you. Wayne Smith followed by Michael DeVille.

[02:44:00] Hello, my name is Wayne Smith and I am a LCPS parent. And I just want to say that, you know, along with other speakers, that I oppose the increase of SROs in our elementary schools. Children should feel safe when they come to school, knowing that the teachers and the staff are there to support them, not armed officers walking around the school. In addition, my son goes to Little River, and in Little River, they just spent a lot of money, and I'm sure other

[02:44:37] elementary schools as well to increase the security at the entrances. You know, so we haven't even had a chance for that expenditure to really take effect. You know, not only the infrastructure changes that were made on the school's entrances, but also the contract security officers who are there as well. So again, I think we've already spent enough resources to keep our children safe. In addition that, you know, within two minutes drive, we have sheriff's office and other schools, middle schools and high schools that do have SROs in them as well. So again,

[02:45:17] I just want to voice my opinion that I oppose increase of SROs in elementary schools. And with that, that's my time. Thank you. Thank you. Our last virtual speaker will be Michael DeVille. Good evening. My name is Mike DeVille. I'm a parent of two LCPS students who have attended elementary school here. I'm asking you to reject the proposal for adding SROs to our elementary schools. The plan presented is a poor use of resources with little promise of protection

[02:45:56] for our students during an active shooter situation. Numerous school shootings in places like Parkland and Uvalde have demonstrated that there is no clear evidence that SROs prevent school shootings. Instead, police in schools are associated with negative outcomes for children of color and students with disabilities, creating trauma for students rather than preventing it.

[02:46:22] The evidence we do have points to the following ways that do prevent violence. Threat assessment teams, more mental health professionals, early intervention for students in crisis, base firearm storage education, and common sense gun laws. The requested expenditure of $18 million dollars a year can be better spent on evidence-based methods to protect our children. Board members, please use your vote to support proven methods to protect our children during an active

[02:46:56] shooter situation. Thank you. Thank you. We will now continue with our in-person public comment. Our first speaker is Erin Kunkel, followed by John Leto.

[02:47:23] Good evening. My name is Erin Kunkel, and I serve as the current chair of MSAC. I want to acknowledge the concerns about school and student safety that are very real and very deeply felt within our community when our families speak about safety they are speaking from love and honestly from a place of fear and both deserve to be equally heard and very and taken very seriously. MSAC continues to be remains committed to the work of equity that is being done in our schools and across our division and we're asking to the school board please take the time to listen to the parents and families

[02:47:59] within the division as they express their concerns and to allow us to be a part of these conversations as they go forward. Thank you. Thank you. John Lito followed by Kerry Kidwell. Thank you very much.

[02:48:19] I'd like to start by saying happy birthday, school board member Pepper. I'll also introduce my credentials. I'm an educational psychologist. I have a PhD from Yale, 40 years of experience in over 100 publications. I've lived in Loudoun County for 33 years. And over that time, I've worked with thousands of Loudoun County students, helping them with their educations. And while many are very bright, there are those students who sometimes get stuck. They don't get it. They walk away from school. I'm not sure, you know, this material. And they go home, and they don't know

[02:48:59] what to do. Now, teachers have too many kids to address each child's individual learning needs. And lot of families just can't afford to hire private tutors. So there's an equity kind of challenge, something that we touched upon earlier. For the past several years I've been working on a self assessment method that teaches students to identify what they know and what they don't know about a subject area. And what's really beautiful about this is it only takes 10 minutes for a student to learn to do this and they can self-assess very accurately and we've done this with second grade

[02:49:36] to college-level students. Many students are Loudoun County students, and what they do is they self-assess, they see where their knowledge gaps are, and then they go back and they remediate. They relearn the material focusing on what didn't I get. And this is so accurate that we have 16 scientifically published papers that show that when students do this, on average, they improve their performance by one and a half to two and a half letter grades. We've done this in math, reading, science, history, and foreign language. I'm here today to offer my time free of charge

[02:50:14] to Loudoun County to implement a program here so that we can improve education outcomes for all. Thank you. Thank you. Carrie Kidwell followed by Donna Wadowski. Good evening. I'm here tonight as a mom, an active volunteer with Moms Demand Action in Loudoun. We focus on gun violence prevention work. We educate the community on safe storage and suicide prevention. We distribute gun

[02:50:48] locks, advocate for common sense policies, and more. As parents, we understand and we share the urgency the families feel trying to keep our kids safe from harm. This is why we do this work. But policy decisions should be guided by evidence, not our fear. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office has requested funding from the Board of Supervisors for School Resource Officers in the elementary schools. In a study funded through the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice examined decades of school shootings and found that the presence of an armed officer did not reduce injuries. In that data set, shootings where an armed officer was present were associated with higher

[02:51:24] fatality rates. There is no clear evidence that SROs prevent school shootings. In addition, national data shows that students of color and students with disabilities are disciplined and referred to law enforcement at disproportionately higher rates. As we consider school safety initiatives, we must ensure we are not widening existing disparities. Fortunately, research tells us what works. In schools, that can include prevention efforts such as controlled building access, threat assessment teams, mental health support, and nurturing communities. It also includes initiatives like the secure storage notification the board passed unanimously last year.

[02:51:59] In the community, prevention includes implementing and enforcing safe storage of firearms in homes and vehicles, red flag laws, background checks, community mental health support, and more. Keeping firearms out of the hands of children and at-risk community members is critical. We all want safe schools and communities.

[02:52:16] I ask this board to advocate for evidence-based investments that strengthen prevention and student support, rather than expanding law enforcement presence in schools with our littlest learners. Thank you for your time and for your important work. Thank you. Donna Wadowski, followed by Lynn Davis.

[02:52:37] Good evening. My name is Donna Wadowski, and I'm a former member of the United States Secret Service. In the event of an emergency inside an elementary school, you will need the training and skill of a sheriff's jeopardy, not an unarmed guard, as Superintendent Spence has recommended.

[02:53:04] Unarmed guards will have the same ability as a citizen bystander to call the police when time is of the essence. A sheriff deputy SRO as part of the emergency response team will have the ability to know who to call, whether you need fire and rescue, whether you have a medical emergency, and what kinds of steps will be taken to notify parents. Recently in Spotsylvania

[02:53:36] County. An elementary age student brought a loaded gun into the classroom and it discharged. Luckily no one was hurt. Superintendent Spence, I would agree with Sheriff Chapman in placing SROs in the elementary schools.

[02:53:56] Thank you. Thank you. Lynn Davis followed by Jane Jackson.

[02:54:14] Good evening. Thank you Chair Chandler. Every time there's a mass shooting we hear the same lines. This isn't about guns, it's mental health. If that's true, where is the funding? You can't claim mental health is a problem and then vote against it. You can't say the answer is treatment while cutting the very systems that provide it. If we believe mental health is the center of this issue, then let's act like it. Let's invest in care, early intervention, and support families. But we have

[02:54:49] to be honest, mental health cannot be just about talking points after a tragedy. It has to be a commitment before it, because if we're not willing to fund the solution we're naming, then we're not serious about solving the problem. The sheriff thinks adding SROs to elementary school is a solution to a problem that he can't even clearly defend the data for. The study has shown that educators list 11 other supports they need before they ask for armed police. So why don't we respect

[02:55:26] educators and give them what they need? The only tool in Chapman's arsenal are cops and guns. But sometimes a hammer needs to realize that everything in their path is not a nail. And just because this is the only solution the sheriff can provide, it doesn't make it the right solution. I ask that if If a vote ever comes before you, you will vote no and keep SROs out of our elementary schools.

[02:55:56] Thank you. Thank you. Jane Jackson, followed by Caitlin Lozinski. Hello.

[02:56:14] I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak with you tonight and to thank you for all that you do to support our public schools. I didn't know we were celebrating the school board, but I'm so happy to do so. I've been attending school board meetings and school board committee meetings for the last, I think, four years. I've seen the extraordinary commitment by this school board and former school boards to do what is right for the students of Loudoun County. It is a lot of

[02:56:48] work. As a community member, a grandparent of three kids who, well, two have graduated, one is a junior. I've been looking, you know, as I'm attending these meetings, I'm looking at the policies and procedures and seeing what you have to do just to prepare for these meetings and to get the work done along with the superintendent and the staff and teachers.

[02:57:20] It's a lot of work, and the compensation is, I'm sure, not what you do it for. It is your public service, and also I think it may be a labor of love. I am looking forward tonight to listening to the presentation the board receives as a summary of the safety and security measures currently in place in Loudoun County Public Schools, elementary schools, in order to better understand why the Sheriff's Office and the Leesburg Police Department are proposing to install police officers

[02:57:57] in more of our elementary schools when the data continue to confirm the disparities in discipline wherein students of color and disabilities are statistically higher relative to their enrollment. We need to provide an equitable and equitable environment for all students. Thank you. Thank you Caitlin Lozinski followed by Ryan Hoover Ryan Hoover

[02:58:32] Followed by Delegate Gary Higgins. I'm Delegate Gary Higgins.

[02:58:59] Good evening Madam Chair members of the board My name is Gary Higgins and I have four grandsons in Loudoun County Public Schools I'm here to speak in favor of school resource officers in elementary schools as per Sheriff Chapman's proposed four-year plan to phase them in. This is not a new proposal. It was actually made previously by Chair Randall in March of 1999 when I was on the Board of Supervisors. At that time, Chair Randall spoke of the urgency of protecting our children starting then and following the Sheriff's

[02:59:34] recommendations at that time. No action was taken. Came up again in 2024 in your own LCPS Blue Ribbon Panel Report. Again, no action was taken. And here we are in 2026, and the issue of school safety is all that much more pressing than it was seven or even two years ago. In life, we protect the things that are valuable or precious to us. We have security and protect our airports, shopping malls, sports stadiums, music and art venues, museums, banks, armored cars, churches.

[03:00:06] We even protect our public servants like yourself. In this building, the County Government Center, in the General Assembly Building and the US Congress. Closer to home here at LCPS, we have SROs in our middle schools, high schools, football games, basketball games, and sporting events and fine arts productions.

[03:00:25] I would ask you a question. What is more valuable or precious than our elementary school children? Nothing that I know of. Please get on board with Sheriff Chapman's SRO proposal. These are professional law enforcement officers. We have been waiting since 2019.

[03:00:41] Let's not wait until we have a tragedy that could have been prevented. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Susan Cox, followed by Andrea Weiskopf. Hello.

[03:00:57] Consistency, safety, community building. SROs have that ability. An early experience a young child in public school may have is with the crossing guard. We rely on crossing guards who work under the sheriff's office for our child's safety. We want to foster a community where our children can trust law enforcement.

[03:01:17] SROs is the next step. We are privileged to live in a community where a sheriff has made it a priority to have outreach and well-trained personnel. Did you know that our very own Sheriff Chapman was named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff's Association, which is one of the largest non-profit associations of law enforcement, just a few years ago?

[03:01:37] Sheriff Chapman was also voted Best Public Servant and Favorite Public Servant for many, many, many years in a row. Did you realize that he put out a comprehensive study on the value of the sheriff's office over the police office and his outreach is top notch?

[03:01:56] Are you aware that when Sheriff Chapman first took office, he made mental health training a priority for his deputies and he established the Crisis Intervention Team Training Program, CIT is its abbreviation.

[03:02:15] It trains in mental health, de-escalation techniques, first aid, and REVIVE. REVIVE is opioid reversal training, and it is available to the public. DARE is another notable program under the Sheriff's Office, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

[03:02:32] SROs are trained in CIT, active violent incidents, fair and impartial policing, verbal de-escalation techniques classroom instruction internet safety building bullying prevention alcohol and drug awareness gang awareness and personal safety if the sheriff thinks it's a good idea to phase in sros i suggest we might want to listen to him thank you andrea weiskopf will be our final speaker

[03:03:02] this evening perhaps the worst duty for middle school teachers is lunch duty you stand in a loud cafeteria, watch kids dunk chicken nuggets and carrots in swimming pools of ketchup, clean up spilled chocolate milk with school paper towels, and help kids find their retainers in the trash.

[03:03:31] The only good part of lunch duty was getting to talk with the seventh grade counselor. But then she stopped talking and narrowed her eyes. I followed her stare. She was looking at a child on the other side of the cafeteria my colleague said that child hasn't eaten anything from her lunch today and yesterday she only ate carrots while I was complaining the counselor was watching and while I will never stop hating watching ketchup drip from celery sticks my perspective

[03:04:04] changed that perspective is what schools need schools don't need an armed uniformed police force patrolling the halls. Schools need counselors armed with insight. Why does that student always have her arms covered, even on hot days? Why does that student cower when his friend's antics become too rambunctious? The answers require empathetic listeners and problem solvers, like school counselors. The answer does not require a heavy belt with a taser, cuffs, and lethal weapon.

[03:04:44] Most SROs will tell you that they love working with children and families. I would hope so, but that isn't the point. In fact, I am willing to bet that in the absence of toxic masculinity and gun culture, many of those armed patrollers would be school counselors. Do you want each and every child to belong and feel safe. Hire counselors. Black lives matter. Thank you. Thank you all for coming out today and for providing your public comment. With that, we will move on

[03:05:21] to our next item, item 12, our action items. First up, we have 12.01 Department of Academics action plan to support targeted support schools. Dr. Rasheed, do you have a motion? Yes. Yes, Chair Chandler but before I speak to the motion can I give a summary or should I just give directly well actually I would like could you please start by making the motion and then I'll ask you if you'd like to speak to the motion sure I'd like to make a motion that the Loudoun County School Board approved the TSI multi-year school support plans to be submitted to VDOE for state approval

[03:05:59] thank you Dr. Rasheed Dr. Rasheed has made a motion that the Loudoun County School Board approve the TSI multi-year school support plans to be submitted to VDOE for state approval. Do I have a second? Second. Thank You Vice Chair Donohue. It has been properly moved and seconded. Dr. Rasheed would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you chair. The VDOE identifies 11 LCPS schools as TSI or targeted support and improvement schools and two LCPS schools as being comprehensive support and improvement. So LCPS is required to submit some sort of

[03:06:35] multi-year school support plan for each of those TSI schools so that we can address those learning gaps for students with disabilities the TSI action plan was already drafted and well rather already presented at the February 10 school board meeting that we had and it's been drafted and placed as an attachment in board docs I don't know if I left anything out I'd like to ask dr. Ashley Ellis if I left anything thank you dr. Rashid thanks nope I think you did a great job nothing else to add I will just add that I have no new information to share but as soon as the board does approve this item staff will

[03:07:12] proceed with submitting the targeted support and intervention multi-year so school support plans for the 11 schools as well as the school improvement grants that accompany that and are mentioned in the plans and then in a couple months once we have the more detailed comprehensive support and improvement plans for the the two CSI schools we will bring those back separately thank you school board members is there any discussion miss Riccardi thank you so much madam chair I appreciate all the work you guys have done on these and

[03:07:49] these reports and I've had my conversations with the team about these already but one of the things I would just say about the reports in general is there's a lot of repetitive they're basically the same report and I'm concerned about that in a couple of ways I'm also kind of concerned about the fact that every single one of the schools has a hundred percent of the goal is 100% competency in the subject matter and while I love that that's the the aspirational goal I would really like to see those plans a little bit more

[03:08:25] customized for the schools and the issues that the schools are really trying to focus on I would hope that video we would you know in theory accept the the reports but are the plans but I'm not really sure you know who's reviewing them so I'm curious I'm gonna be very curious to see how that plays out again I'm I understand the thinking behind this because we've had these conversations and I appreciate the time that we spent doing that but I just raised some questions about and concerns about just the fact that they're all very similar and not very it doesn't seem to be very customized thank you yeah mr. pepper thank

[03:09:04] you thank you madam chair I believe that at the our last meeting during our information item on this actually asked the same question that miss Riccardi was asking I believe dr. Ellis explained if I'm not mistaken please correct me dr. Ellis that because the goals have to be very specific to reading and science and then also very specific to mathematics that the goals were already very similar and that we had a list of specific options that we could really just choose from strategies that video we presented am I correct in that and so we were pretty limited in what we could do as strategies yes sir that's correct and

[03:09:39] And Ms. Riccardi and I have talked about this before, so nothing that you said or I say will be a surprise to her. But I do appreciate you bringing up what we did discuss at the last meeting. And I'll just reiterate that these new plans, these multi-year support plans, are new and separate from the annual school improvement plans that schools work on and are very specific and individualized to each and every individual school.

[03:10:10] And it was very intentional that the goals and strategies in these specific support plans are similar. We plan to use, if we receive the SIG grants, for, as I mentioned, teacher assistant training and consistent practices across the schools to address the needs for students with disabilities.

[03:10:33] Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, the motion was properly made by Dr. Rasheed and seconded by Vice Chair Donahue. Clerk, please open the vote.

[03:10:53] School board members, please record your vote. Ms. Chernoff, please state your vote. Yes. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Yes. Clerk, please close and display the vote.

[03:11:09] That motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. All right, thank you. We'll move on to item 12.02, Policy 2310, Committees of the School Board. Vice Chair Donohue, do you have a motion?

[03:11:26] Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the proposed amendments to Policy 2310, Committees of the School Board. Vice Chair Donohue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed.

[03:11:45] School Board members, is there—oh, I'm sorry, pardon me. Vice Chair Donohue, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, please, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. I brought this policy before the Board at the previous meeting as an information item for the purpose of extracting the audit functions out of the L.A. and P. Committee and establishing a standalone committee to oversee all of the internal and external audit functions at LCPS.

[03:12:13] After our last meeting, this was posted for public feedback, And there was some feedback received from MSAC, which I just wanted to briefly address. MSAC had a few proposed edits, which in my understanding, all centered around the idea of wanting to ensure that individuals appointed to particularly advisory committees are people who are supportive of furthering the mission of those advisory committees.

[03:12:48] I Understand MSAC's concern and and appreciate where they're coming from But I I would say I am not inclined to support making their proposed edits at this time partly because The edits or the amendments that I'm proposing to 2310 right now have nothing to do with advisory committees they have to do with standing committees, but probably more importantly because the I have a concern that MSAC's proposals could be construed as viewpoint discrimination and in

[03:13:25] addition would be, in my mind, potentially too subjective to add into our policies. So again, understanding MSAC's, the origin of MSAC's concern, I don't feel that I'm in a position to support the recommendations at this time. Thank you. School board members, is there any discussion dr. Rasheed thank you chair as the MSAC liaison myself I do want to point out the recommendations that MSAC has proposed for 2310 for the board's consideration and they came in last night and a lot of them do deal with I

[03:14:04] believe if I'm not mistaking the duties of the board member liaison and you know and it specifies which line numbers but like the first recommendation is to include language that speaks to the eligibility requirements of the liaisons and committees and so you know I'm sacked it you know would like to see language in the policy that members of liaisons will support the work of the committee and then the second is really specific in that same in that same policy for lines 206 and 207 of the red line copy they would like to see an insertion of the qualification of the members specifically dealing with

[03:14:40] subject matter experts to an advisory committee and then the final MSAC recommendation pertains to duties of the liaisons to the advisory committees and I believe they reference specifically line 228 to 230 and I do recognize that these proposed recommendations are beyond the scope of what Vice Chair Donahue's specific amendments to have the audit committee be set a separate standing committee rather than as part of the LA&P committee but I do want to share these thoughts you know with you guys my colleagues to do due diligence as the MSAC liaison. I do want to hear you know if they're just the

[03:15:18] appetite from everyone here and I am prepared to make any relevant motions for consideration if any. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. So thank you Chair Chandler. So I appreciate the work of MSAC as always in making these recommendations. I just feel that with we're talking about policy 20 to 310 in this context, the purpose of the motion made by Vice-Chair Donoghue was to create a new committee and not really to alter some language in here. So as much as I like these, I don't think I'm going to support them at this point. Thank you.

[03:15:57] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree that I want to focus on this on the creation of this new one tonight, but I actually do think that there's some really valid points in MSAC's feedback particularly you know as it goes yeah I think that if we're making appointments up to school of school board members to committees we got to make sure they're we're gonna those are sort of on those committees and doing that work are gonna back up the work and support the work of those committees directly or otherwise so I agree that we should do that I don't

[03:16:36] know if tonight is the night and I think we need to work through it but I wouldn't I would actually really welcome break putting that part of it back into committee for discussion goes with that LA and P well L&P LA and P I don't know which one we're gonna be at but it would go back to that committee correct it would okay so I think maybe that part of the discussion I think would be a very valid discussion for the committee to explore because I think I generally I would support that thanks thank you yes dr. Rasheed thank you chair again thank

[03:17:13] you I appreciate the discussion and hearing that that's not ample interest from my colleagues here on the dais I I won't be making any amendments but again I do appreciate your willingness to consider MSAC's recommendation thank you thank you I'm mr. Spenton future Chandler I just wanted to add as the chair of legislative audit policy committee that you know we would be we would welcome these recommendations at the committee level to discuss thank

[03:17:42] you yes dr. Spence so just for clarity for staff did you want us to bring that back to the committee for further discussion I don't believe I've heard a motion okay thank you thank you okay is there any further discussion no okay I'm

[03:18:17] seeing no further discussion a motion was properly made by vice chair Donahue that the Loudoun County School Board approved the proposed changes to policy 2310 and that motion was seconded by dr. Rashid we'll now move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Ms. Chernoff, please state your vote. Yes. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Yes. Clerk, please close

[03:18:52] and display the vote. The motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. And we will move on to our final action item for this evening, item 12.03, policy 3410, Office of the Auditor General. Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the proposed amendments to Policy 3410, Office of the Auditor General.

[03:19:20] Vice Chair Donohue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Svensson. The motion is seconded by Mr. Svensson. Vice Chair Donohue, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. This policy I'm putting forward these amendments to go in conjunction with the changes that we just approved to policy 2310 to make the To make policy 3410 now in line with the standing committees of the school board. I am going to be proposing a couple of minor

[03:19:57] Kind of cleaning up amendments, but that is that's really all I wanted to say Okay. Thank you. School Board members, is there any discussion? Yes, Dr. Rasheed.

[03:20:13] Thank you, Chair. I know I'm very verbal today, but so, again, the MSAC liaison, I do like to raise the recommendations that MSAC has proposed for 3410 for the Board's considerations. These, again, came in last night, so I don't know if everybody had a chance to review them.

[03:20:29] So, specifically, I believe one of the questions was defining internal auditing. There is no definition for defining auditing. And maybe Mr. Woods can comment on this. But MSAC would like to see some sort of definition or clarity among that definition of internal auditing.

[03:20:50] And that's one part. I do have other recommendations. But maybe we could tackle one by one. Chair, thank you. Thank you. Dr. Rasheed, did you want Mr. Woods to-- If it's possible and if there's time. Mr. Woods?

[03:21:07] Yes. The definition of internal auditing is in lines 4 through 10. It does not specifically reference internal auditing definition, but it is the definition of internal auditing.

[03:21:23] I would understand if one were to look at it, if it wasn't as clear, but that is the definition, which is the purpose. And so we put that in as a purpose, and it is the definition of internal auditing. You could decide to add language to clarify that, but the language is in the policy.

[03:21:46] Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also wanted to just add briefly in response to to this MSAC suggestion and Dr. Rasheed's point. After reviewing the MSAC feedback, I did discuss the concerns that MSAC raised with Mr. Woods. And particularly in regard to this first question about the definition of internal auditing, Mr. Woods referred me to the Institute of Internal Auditors International Professional Practices Framework.

[03:22:14] which defines internal auditing as, quote, Internal auditing is an independent objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve the organization's operations. It helps the organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of governance, risk management, and control processes.

[03:22:35] So Mr. Woods states that the definition of internal auditing is already in the policy at lines 4 through 10. that's what he means. It's my understanding that is what he means. That is correct. Dr. Rasheed.

[03:22:53] Thank you, Chair, again. And I just wanted to, you know, show the other, show the board members something about their second recommendation in regards to the redundancy of the word policies written twice. And then their last recommendation, it specifically references 38 to 39 that MSAC would like more clarity on the reference self-evaluation. And again, maybe I can reference to Mr. Woods to provide a little bit more clarity on the reference self evaluation as currently written it seems like the auditor general provides input to a draft evaluation which is then updated for a final evaluation by the audit committee and I believe the issue

[03:23:32] was that if it's not a true self evaluation then the there needs to be more clarity in regards to what's being evaluated like the office of auditor general audit plan etc. you. Mr. Woods? Yes. If I were to submit a self-evaluation, that would be the first step, and it would be a self-evaluation. The language in there provides for the next steps after I provide a self-evaluation, but the self-evaluation would still hold true, that language would still hold true, as I would submit that self-evaluation, and then the next steps would be for the audit

[03:24:09] committee to review the self-evaluation and move forward from there. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. And to Dr. Rasheed's point about the second proposed MSAC recommendation, I would like to propose an amendment on line 20 of the red line for 3410.

[03:24:36] I propose that we remove, after LCPS regulations, that we remove the comma and the word policies. So the line would then read, adhere to relevant school board policies and accompanying LCPS regulations and procedures.

[03:24:54] Thank you. Vice Chair Donohue has made a motion on line 20 that we remove the comma and the word policies. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. It has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Ms. LaBelle.

[03:25:12] School board members, is there any discussion? Madam Chair, I just wanted to- Would you like to speak to your motion? I just wanted to thank MSAC for pointing out that grammatical correction. Thank you so much.

[03:25:28] And Dr. Rasheed, thank you. Okay. Is there any further discussion? All right. School board members, we will vote now on Vice Chair Donahue's amendment on line 20 to remove the comma and the word policies.

[03:25:44] This amendment has been seconded by Ms. LaBelle. Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Ms. Chernoff, please state your vote. Yes. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Yes.

[03:26:00] Thank you. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with all nine school board members present. is there any further disco yes Vice-Chair Donohue Thank You Madam Chair I I may ask Mr. Allen for some guidance here but as to whether this needs to be a motion but I also noticed in reviewing again the red line that was posted on board docs on line 42 of the red line at the end of that line there appears to be an extra set of quotation marks so I don't know if we can call that like a scrivener's error and just get rid of it or if I need to formally propose a

[03:26:40] motion to get rid of it. Thank you Vice Chair Donahue you can refer to it as a scrivener's error that would not require a vote it's a technical change. Thank you Mr. Allen in that case I just wanted to raise the scrivener's error at the end of line 42 and ask if staff can take out that that stray quotation mark before the revised policy gets posted. Thank you. Any further discussion school board members okay so we'll move forward with the vote the motion as amended that the Loudoun

[03:27:19] County School Board approved the proposed changes to policy 2310 3410 yeah thank you for the clarification so just to be clear the motion made by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Dr. Rasheed is or no by Mr. Svensson is that the Loudoun County School Board approved the proposed changes to policy 3410 office of the auditor general all right uh school board members please record your

[03:27:48] vote uh ms shirnoff please state your vote yes mrs griffiths please state your vote abstain thank you um clerk please close and display the vote that motion passes with eight school board members voting yes including ms ricardi mr svensson ms shirnoff myself vice chair donahue mr pepper dr rasheed and miss labelle and one school board member abstaining mrs griffiths all right with

[03:28:27] that we will move on um to item 13 our information items the first item is is item 13.01 curriculum and instruction committee new policy 5140 advanced or accelerated mathematics presented by dr samir Rasheed, the Chair of Curriculum and Instruction Committee, and Mr. Slevin, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. So Virginia House Bill 2686 introduced some sort of new guidance on mathematics acceleration in middle school and it included automatic enrollment based on state assessment scores. So the Department of Teaching and

[03:29:07] Learning developed the draft policy of 5140 to ensure compliance with legislation and also to support access to accelerated math pathways. So I believe on January 16th Division Council made their final review of the policy and so the CNI committee approved to forward the policy to the full school board on February 9th and hence we are here. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Simon.

[03:29:31] Thank you. Thank you Dr. Rashid. I do have a brief presentation this evening to share with the board regarding the development of this policy. As a reminder of our timeline this policy was developed in response to state legislation we presented it as an information item at the curriculum instruction committee on november 5th and shared it at a full school board work session on november 11th we then opened the policy up for public and advisory committee feedback from november 7th through november 21st before bringing it back to cni as an action item earlier this month on february 9th i would like to acknowledge the work of miss

[03:30:11] juliet kenney our math supervisor as well as mr roundsley our director of teaching and learning k-12 in in the development of this policy the foundation of this policy stems from state code requirements the policy includes four main components first automatic enrollment students who score in the statewide upper quartile on their grade level or end-of-year sol math assessments will automatically be enrolled in accelerated math second it requires a parental opt-out provision so parents per policy will have the opportunity to opt their child out of this automatic

[03:30:46] enrollment three multiple pathways we must offer pathways other pathways for enrollment beyond the sol scores such as teacher or parent recommendations student preference grades portfolios and other standardized tests and finally a section for annual notification we are required to inform parents annually about the enrollment criteria the importance of middle school math its impact on high school math sequences and specific courses available during the public feedback window we we received several thoughtful questions and recommendations from the community.

[03:31:21] I'd like to walk you through the key themes of that feedback in the order we received and reviewed them along with how we responded. The first piece of feedback requested that we make the policy's language more adaptable in case the specific state law changes rather than looking into the specific house bill.

[03:31:39] In response, we updated the language to reference the Code of Virginia rather than House Bill 2686 and both the legal references in the introductory paragraph. Next regarding supporting student success parent education we received a question about how we will support students who are automatically enrolled but end up struggling and how we will educate parents to make informed decisions about opting out to address this we have updated the LCPS secondary math course selection information on the math website to increase transparency for student support we are launching a math summer boost program in summer of 2026 building student-centered supports

[03:32:17] directly aligned to our math curriculum also offering aligned MDS interventions for tier two and tier three needs and highlighting flexible course options like algebra functions and data analysis and algebra one double block we received feedback regarding defining accelerating math a community member recommended clearly defining what advanced or accelerated means within the policy itself we agreed and added a new definition to lines three through five which now states for the purposes of this policy advanced or accelerated math is defined as a course one year beyond the student's current grade level additionally our secondary

[03:32:57] math course selection website links to the gifted office for students seeking additional or single subject acceleration. Another piece of feedback related to clarifying other standardized testing, the same parent asked us to list specific examples of other standardized testing in this policy such as AP or CLEP exams. We considered this but ultimately chose to maintain the broader language of other standardized testing. This preserves flexibility and encourages schools to look at a full range of multiple data points rather than limiting eligibility to a strict set of specific

[03:33:32] tests. There was feedback regarding proactively opting in. Some families asked if they could proactively opt their students into their classes, even if they didn't meet the automatic SOL criteria. The answer is yes. Section C of the policy addresses other criteria that may be considered and cross-referenced the math course selection information outlining multiple data points families might consider when making this choice. We also received feedback regarding clarifying course availability. A community member pointed out that the phrase available,

[03:34:08] advanced or accelerated math courses and express concerns over the word available we decided to delete the word available from lines 26 and 30 because all lcps middle schools currently offer the accelerated and advanced math course ways covered by this policy and then finally i believe this feedback was from seac it was recommended that the annual notification explicitly state that student accommodations are available in these advanced classes we fully agree and we added a statement to the annual notification section clarifying that accommodations provided in any LCPS classes are also available in these courses. We believe that these revisions reflect a

[03:34:45] collaborative process that honors the state requirements while being responsive to our Latin County community and I'm happy to answer any questions the board may have about this policy. Thank you Dr. Rasheed and thank you Mr. Slevin. School board members do we have any questions?

[03:35:01] Yes Mr. Spenson. Thank you Chair Chandler and thank you Mr. Slevin. This is not a question but Just a comment and thank you. And Mr. Slevin's already heard me and Ms. Chernoff and Dr. Rashid say this, but we really appreciated how this presentation laid out, how public feedback was taken into account and kind of walks us through it.

[03:35:21] And, you know, this week I was reminded of how important this kind of presentation is. You know, we had a survey in LEAF where folks said we find our meetings very informative, we're getting a lot of information from staff, but we don't always know how or if our feedback is being incorporated. And this style of presentation really shows the work and it shows folks that they are having an impact by providing the feedback.

[03:35:42] So really appreciate the teaching and learning team doing this. And I think it's really helpful for the public to see how this is an iterative process. Thank you. All right.

[03:35:59] Any further discussion? Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. Slevin. And we'll move on to item 13.02, Department of Teaching and Learning, Social Studies and Global Studies. Instructional Resource Recommendation, which will also be presented by Mr. Slevin.

[03:36:20] Thank you again, Chair Chandler, members of the board, and Dr. Spence. I'm here tonight representing the Department of Teaching and Learning to present our recommendations for the Social Science and Global Studies K-12 Instructional Resources. This process represents a comprehensive effort to ensure our students have access to high-quality, aligned materials for the upcoming years.

[03:36:40] I'd like to thank Daniel Graham, our Social Science Supervisor, as well as her team, David Holt, our textbook specialist, and Alyssa Moritz, our library and media services supervisor. Our process began in August of 2025 with an RFP to vendors. Throughout the fall, content review committees scored materials and identified finalists. Following presentations and a public comment window in January, we are here today to present these recommendations as an information item. We anticipate this coming before you as an action item on March 24th, as following one more period of public comment.

[03:37:18] We prioritized a balanced and inclusive review process. Our committee was composed of 72% teachers and 24% community members. To ensure geographic and diverse representation, we screened nearly 250 community applications and engaged with advisory groups.

[03:37:33] On the teacher side, we were able to place all secondary applicants and the majority of elementary applicants. It is important to note that the VDOE has yet to release an approved textbook list for the 23 history and social science standards. To maintain high standards, we integrated VDOE's criteria for high-quality instruction materials directly into our own review rubrics to ensure full alignment.

[03:37:56] We surveyed 95 social studies teachers regarding their preferences for digital or print materials. A clear majority indicated a preference for a hybrid of digital and print resources. This feedback directly informed our decision to recommend digital platforms supplemented by print sets for use in our schools.

[03:38:18] Beyond the committee, we partnered with the Office of Family and Community Engagement to invite 14 community organizations to provide formal feedback via one-pagers. This ensured that diverse cultural and historical perspectives influenced multiple subject areas rather than being restricted to a single committee seat.

[03:38:39] Our final recommendations were based on consolidated data. While we followed content review committee rankings in almost all cases, the adoption team occasionally made adjustments to ensure consistency in course progressions or to address specific accessibility or other considerations. for our elementary students we are recommending studies weekly for kindergarten through fourth grade for fifth grade which focuses on regions of our country we recommended tci's social studies alive for middle school we recommended savus my world interactive for u.s history both beginnings

[03:39:12] 1877 and 1865 to present for civics and economics we recommend five ponds press our government third edition in the high school space we recommend imagine learnings traverse world history for both World History 1 and 2. For AP World History, we recommend BFW's Ways of the World. World Geography and AP Human Geography will utilize Cengage resources. For U.S. and Virginia History and Government, we recommend McGraw-Hill. Our AP U.S. History and AP Comparative Government courses will use W.W. Norton's Give Me Liberty and Essential Comparative Politics, respectively.

[03:39:50] For our electives, recommendations include TCI for Semester Economics, McGraw-Hill for AP Economics, and BFW for our psychology courses in AP African American Studies. Every digital platform was vetted by DDI and instructional technology. All recommended resources can be supported in our network and offer Schoology integration. You can see the interface scores here with TCI and Imagine Learning receiving the highest marks for user friendliness. During the public comment window, we received 15 comments from teachers. Elementary feedback was particularly

[03:40:27] favorable towards Five Ponds Press for its layout. We also received specific secondary feedback regarding our AP and introductory world history courses. Following this evening's presentation, the school board is scheduled to vote on these recommendations on March 24th, 2026.

[03:40:44] Between now and then, there will be one more opportunity for the community to provide feedback. The resources will be online and available here at the administration building. Once adopted, we will immediately begin the process of ordering materials and planning professional learning for our educators going into next fall. At this time, I'm happy to address any questions you may have regarding the selection process or specific resources recommended.

[03:41:06] Thank you, Mr. Chandler. Thank you, Mr. Slevin. Board members, do you have any questions? Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Thank you so much.

[03:41:23] Mr. Slevin, can you provide a list of the 14 community organizations that were invited to share formal feedback? I believe you can send this to me or the school board on a one-pager. Yes, I could share that with you.

[03:41:40] So some examples include the Adams Center, the Black History Committee at the Thomas Bulch Library, the JCRC, the Latin Freedom Center. But I could send the board the entire list. But those are just some high-level examples. Thank you so much.

[03:41:58] And if we're going to see this presentation again, maybe attach it to the presentation or, you know, make sure it's on the agenda. Yes, I will include that as an information item when this comes back to the board at the end of March. Thank you so much.

[03:42:17] Board members, any further questions? All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Slevin. And with that, we will now move on to item 14, our discussion item, 14.01, safety and security measures for elementary schools.

[03:42:37] To ground us in this conversation, I thought it would be helpful for us to pull a baseline understanding of what LCPS currently uses in terms of protocols for elementary school safety. And to that end, I'd like to ask Dr. Bergen if you could please give us an overview.

[03:42:58] - Yes, ma'am, and thank you, Madam Chair, for adding this important discussion to tonight's agenda and allowing me an opportunity to share with the board and our community some of the safety and security measures that we have in place across all of our schools in the school division.

[03:43:14] Let me begin by emphasizing there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our students and staff. The Division of Safety and Security, in conjunction with local law enforcement and other public safety partners, has created a comprehensive safety and security plan to protect all of our students, our staff, and our visitors.

[03:43:36] This plan contains visible personnel and technology, along with behind-the-scenes security monitoring and rigorous visitor management protocols, all designed to protect our students, staff, and visitors.

[03:43:53] Following an evaluation by a blue ribbon panel of security experts, we're very proud to share that the panel identified our plan as a national gold standard for K-12 safety and security.

[03:44:08] To ensure the integrity of our efforts, we cannot publicly discuss all aspects of our security plan. However, we have uploaded today a new graphic to our website underneath the tab for safety and security.

[03:44:24] As shown on that graphic, we implement many layers of protections that include the following across all of our schools. First of all, all of our doors are locked and visitors can only gain access to our schools through a secure vestibule that utilizes enhanced security technology.

[03:44:46] Next, all visitors must comply with a visitor management protocol that requires thorough vetting by our contracted security guards as well as LCPS office staff.

[03:45:05] There are literally thousands of security cameras installed across the school division in both the interior and exterior of all of our campuses. These cameras are continuously monitored by both school staff as well as dedicated security personnel within our own security operations center, otherwise known as the SOC.

[03:45:29] This occurs around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is assisted or augmented by newly purchased AI software that lays over top of the cameras. Next, the outer perimeter of all of our schools and our school grounds are regularly patrolled by law enforcement, as well as by our own LCPS safety and security personnel.

[03:45:58] And lastly, our SROs, or School Resource Officers, are assigned to all of our middle and high schools, and these officers also regularly check in on our elementary schools to which they have been assigned by clusters. There are other safety measures that include the use of a multidisciplinary threat assessment team at every school to evaluate all potential threats, as well as school-specific crisis management plans that are consistently tested through training, exercises, and drills.

[03:46:32] Some of the newest security initiatives in this year's budget that are specific to the elementary schools include funding to purchase wearable devices for all staff that will allow any staff member to instantly, by touching a wearable device, contact law enforcement for immediate assistance.

[03:46:56] Also in this year's budget is the placement of contracted visitor management guards inside of every one of our elementary schools. And lastly, new this year, we hired a dedicated group of additional SSO patrols specifically for our elementary school campuses.

[03:47:18] Lastly, I'd like to emphasize the importance of the entire community in being an invested partner in our work and keeping our schools safe by reporting any and all suspicious or concerning behavior, either anonymously through our Safe to Talk app, or by speaking directly with a school administrator or with law enforcement.

[03:47:39] We are very grateful for our community's steadfast commitment to the See Something, Say Something principle. In summary, we are continuously assessing our security plan and incorporating nationally recognized best practices, including modernized technology and protocols to strengthen our capabilities.

[03:48:00] We're very grateful for our partnership with local law enforcement and through our collective efforts with our school resource officers, as well as other sworn law enforcement officers, working alongside together with our own school division safety and security personnel, including our school security officers, our patrol officers, our contracted visitor management guards, and the rest of our staff.

[03:48:25] We are able to safely and securely monitor our campuses so that our teachers and our students can focus on the most important business of the day, which is teaching and learning. The implementation of this plan is a team effort that includes experienced leadership from our Director of Safety and Security, Mr. John Clark, as well as our Chief Schools Officer, Mrs. Ray Mitchell.

[03:48:50] They are here this evening in the meeting, along with myself, to address any questions that board members may have regarding our safety and security efforts. That stated, I would like to caution the board members that we would prefer not to engage in any Q&A that would unwittingly expose potential security vulnerabilities to any potential bad actors who could then subsequently use that information and attempt to exploit any weaknesses.

[03:49:16] If needed, we would be happy to go into closed session as appropriate to address any confidential matters that the board may wish to discuss. And with that, Madam Chair, I turn the discussion back to you and the rest of the board members. Thank you, Dr. Bergen. Board members, let's open the floor to discussion.

[03:49:33] Ms. LaBelle. I'd like to know what the AI components on our cameras do. Do they recognize dangerous weapons, knives, guns, whatever? Yes, ma'am.

[03:49:50] I'll take a first crack at answering your question, and Mr. Clark, who was instrumental in evaluating various vendors, may wish to elaborate on that answer. But the cameras look for things that are out of place. That could be in the middle of the night a car that drives onto the campus when there usually are no vehicles on the campus.

[03:50:10] It will alert the individual in our SOC who's there to pay attention to that particular camera angle that something is out of place. It will notice if a person has fallen and it will alert the individual within the school to pay attention to that camera angle because someone may have slipped.

[03:50:26] And the camera will alert our staff that there is a potential medical situation. I'm sorry, Dr. Bergen, I'm so, so sorry to interrupt. thank you I believe if we need to go any further we might need to go into closed yes ma'am okay thank you board members and miss Riccardi if we need to go to

[03:51:03] close to answer this question then just feel free to let me know I'm not sure where our lines are here on this on this kind of thing but I'm just trying to I think just from a big-picture perspective working our way down into the into details which we can't discuss here I guess so we have SROs in our middle schools and high schools. And so what's different in the posture in elementary schools that we didn't start integrating SROs into elementary schools? I know we've taken a different security approach, I guess, with them, but what's different between kind of the elementary school

[03:51:39] environment and the middle school and the high school where we've got SROs already? I'm not privy to the previous report, so I'm not sure kind of where, how that decision was made or how we came to that? Dr. Spence, that may be more for you. I don't know. I'm not aware of any previous report.

[03:51:58] I mean, we had a Blue Ribbon panel. Blue Ribbon panel did not specifically suggest we should have SROs in our elementary schools. The Blue Ribbon panel discussed security in general. And I'm not aware prior to that of any reports or any conversations with the school board specifically about SROs in the elementary schools. I wasn't, that would have all predated me for sure. And I'm not even familiar kind of in the historical context of conversations

[03:52:26] internally that that that's ever occurred thank you mr. pepper so I don't know if this is gonna answer a little bit of kind of what miss Riccardi is asking but I'm probably the only one on the school board who's had deep experience working with SROs and I think the key the key letter that is in that

[03:53:01] acronym is the R letter which is resource they are really truly a resource for the school I know that when I was teaching physical science to eighth graders I would bring our SRO into the classroom and he would help us do a lesson on we actually was really cool this is not going to be a safety thing but you put the radar trailer up and then we would time cars and they went to two ends of the parking lot and calculated speed and distance we also help them do coefficient of friction and When I was an assistant principal, he was the one in our division who looked at the cameras for us and was able to give us our camera work.

[03:53:41] But there were a lot of things that he wasn't going to do and he wasn't supposed to do. He was not there to break up fights. He was not there for student discipline. He was only there when a student discipline matter got to the point where a legal reason would be involved, a.k.a. we found a weapon on a student of some sort.

[03:54:07] And in no way has any SRO I've ever worked with been involved in prevention of any kind, right? They are really a resource for the teachers and the administrators to lean on to get kind of questions answered And to be just completely truthful, and the SROs I met in Loudoun have been wonderful, so I'm not picking up any individual SROs here.

[03:54:31] Please don't get me wrong. A lot of the time for SROs was downtime. It was a boring job. They filled in the gaps by maybe playing in student faculty basketball games, although the 75-year-old SRO we had where I was was not doing that.

[03:54:48] But at the elementary level, there really isn't a need because there's not the same level of resource that's there, right? You're not having students with, nearly at the same high school level, drug issues, weapon issues.

[03:55:05] I know we heard stories tonight about a student in Spotsylvania County who brought a gun in the backpack and the gun went off. No, whether or not an SRO is in the building is not going to prevent that because it's hidden in the student's backpack. The SRO is not there to be like, what's in your backpack?

[03:55:22] They're not running a metal detector as a kid is walking into a school building. We know the story in Newport News, right? we all know that story. An SRO is not going to prevent that. What's going to prevent that is an assistant principal doing their job, right? And the SRO can be brought in afterwards. But when we, all of this safety and security discussion I think that we're trying to have is about the presence and the need for an kind of immediate response to the SROs. And one, data doesn't back up that they're doing anything. And two, the incidences in our elementary schools are so few and far

[03:55:58] between that it doesn't fit with that R in school resource officer. So that's where I am both based on my experience and knowing what an SRO truly does. Thank you. Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you Madam Chair. I wanted to follow up on one thing since Mr. Pepper referenced the incident in the recent incident in Spotsylvania County to point out that yes there was a student who brought a

[03:56:34] loaded firearm into school which happened because that firearm was not secured safely in the house where that child lived so as to the people who have said before why did the school board vote to communicate safe storage firearm information to the community last year this is why because this is one of the ways that we reduce instances of firearms in our schools firearms being held by children, and the potential for intentional or unintentional shootings is by making sure that

[03:57:09] children cannot access firearms in their homes. And I would rather see us, LCPS, spending our efforts supporting safe storage firearm information, providing information to the community about how to obtain gun locks, and other less invasive means to work on securing our schools. Thank you.

[03:57:35] Thank you. Chair Chandler? Chair Chandler? Yes. Mrs. Griffiths? Thank you so much for that, Ms. Donahue. This is just an extra layer of security. We did put that information into the packets for the beginning of the year through ParentVUE regarding safe storage and locks. But I will tell you, it just takes one time to have an incident. And just to reiterate, speakers today. These SRO positions have been budgeted. The funding is there. As you have heard, this is not a question of whether we can afford it. It's a question of whether we're going to

[03:58:14] follow through. This building that we have our meetings has extensive security measures. Our elementary school students deserve at least the same, I think. Every school should have at least one SRO. These are our youngest, most vulnerable students, and their families send them to us every day trusting that we do everything in our power to keep them safe. So with the positions being budgeted I think this is a real tangible gain for LCPS and for the families we

[03:58:49] serve and I strongly support moving forward with placing SROs in every elementary school and I encourage my colleagues to also support. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. LaBelle. Thank you Madam Chair.

[03:59:07] Yes, they are resource officers, and yes, they are in the building, and I have worked in many buildings where they were. They develop relationships with students. They help keep some of the students from going the wrong way as we talk about things. I've heard people in the audience today talk about their children being frightened of guns and all this other kind of worry. Having an SRO that's going to be there, going to be friendly, going to be developing

[03:59:40] relationships with the children might help them when they move into a middle school where there is an SRO. In addition, I did some research. Surprise, I like research. There have been 647 deaths by guns in various schools in the last 10 years. There have been 1,600 requests for services

[04:00:12] from Sheriff Chapman's office to elementary schools, only elementary schools. I mean, if we count that up, that's a lot. It wasn't just for possible guns in the school. Threats around the school, parents coming in, bomb threats. There are lots of reasons that we have SROs at our schools. And lastly, I keep telling everybody at Western Loudoun, we're different.

[04:00:46] We don't have, except for the new high school that was built, Woodgrove, we don't have elementary schools or middle schools within walking range of our SROs. If you were to have a problem at Lovettsville Elementary. It is 18 miles away from Woodgrove and takes 20 minutes to get there. If we have an active shooter who is shooting through the door and into the building, enters the building and is running around in the halls, 20 minutes,

[04:01:25] how many people are going to be killed or injured in 20 minutes? Waterford Elementary is 24 miles, and that would be 28 minutes. If the Woodgrove team had to go to Luckett's Elementary, that's 33 minutes to get there. Okay, well, let's say we're going to ask Tuscarora's team to go, because that's another one out there. If they go to Luckett's, it is still 20 minutes. And I need to add that Luckett's has work going on on the road. It's often backed up, often clogged. It is

[04:02:02] right there on Route 15. Getting in there is not easy. If they were to go to Waterford, that's 24 minutes. Same problem, only we have dirt roads in that condition. And if Loudoun Valley responded to Waterford, it would be 15 minutes. That's probably the best one that we have there.

[04:02:22] So if we're looking at having that kind of response time, if we were to have a shooter outside the building I wouldn't want to be the board member that voted oh no we don't need SROs in our elementary schools especially if the children were injured or killed so think about that before you vote you know against it we really do need that kind of protection thank you I'm vice-chair Donohue thank

[04:03:00] you madam chair I wanted to respond to a few of Ms. LaBelle's points for example Yes, there have been, unfortunately, a significant number of school shootings and fatalities over the last 10 or so years.

[04:03:22] And this is despite the fact that many districts, including ours, have been adding school resource officers. In 2023, there were 349 gun violence incidents at schools, which was the highest number in a single year. and that was two years ago despite increased presence of school resource officers in various school districts across the country. The documented incidents including Parkland and Uvalde have shown that the presence of an armed school resource officer at a school does not necessarily mean

[04:03:57] that a school shooting is not going to happen or is going to be foiled. But what evidence has demonstrated is that once you start adding SROs into your school community, you see dramatic increases in the number of arrests and law enforcement referrals, expulsions, and out-of-school suspensions in the student population, especially among students of color and students with disabilities. And I think it's a little troubling for me to hear my colleagues talking about

[04:04:31] But the presence of a friendly police officer, because at least as I am not a person of color, I have the privilege of being able to view police as a presumably safe space.

[04:04:47] But not everyone does. And in addition to that, some of my concerns here, which Mr. Svensson touched on in our earlier conversation, is if we were going to add additional school resource officers, I would want to know if they've received training for de-escalation, training for dealing with special needs students, neurodivergent students, students with mental and physical disabilities and other special needs, knowing if they have had training on restorative practices and culturally responsible policing.

[04:05:27] The sheriff, I don't believe, tells us whether he trains his SROs with this kind of training, but as we learned from our staff, we have offered that training to them, and it's been rejected. I also am concerned that LCSO is starting to wear body cameras, and if they are doing that in our schools, I would like to know, what control do we have over who is viewing that footage and what is being done with it?

[04:05:54] Because that is also something that I don't, I have not had any indication that the sheriff is going to be willing to be cooperative with us around those issues. I would like to see if we are serious about reducing gun violence and overall violence in our community, I would like to see the sheriff enforcing red flag laws, providing gun locks to our community, promoting and providing safe storage education to the community supporting the school's effort to do that which he did not do when we were looking at that measure last year i also frankly

[04:06:30] question his motivation by saying that he's concerned about the safety when he stopped providing safety at these meetings since that was also brought up that we have security measures here in this building yes we do and we pay for it through private security because the sheriff does not provide security here anymore. The other point I wanted to make was on the, or two points I wanted to make was the night that we had our joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors when

[04:07:10] the sheriff presented his ask for agreement to fund elementary school SROs. There had been a shooting in Maryland that same day, which was raised. Again, that school had an SRO and that shooting still happened it does not mean that the presence of SROs does not mean possibility of school shooting goes down to zero and my memory of that meeting was that the sheriff said at that time his officers were responding to 4,000 calls a year at elementary schools and that is not what

[04:07:46] Ms. LaBelle said as far as numbers and my understanding is that he has walked that back that's all thank you thank you Mr. Chair Chandler just a second Mrs. Griffiths Mr. Pepper oh sure Thank you, Madam Chair. And I also want to respond to one of the things that was said about the calls for SROs at the elementary school.

[04:08:14] One of the things that the sheriff did supply our superintendent, Dr. Spence, with was the reason for the calls so far in 25, 26, but also over the last, I believe, five or six school years prior to that. When I look at this list, I see directed patrol and there was a description of directed patrol that was shared with us.

[04:08:33] it's a just it's a follow-up call they're just walking around juvenile complaint crossing guards threat assessment which is actually handled by an administrator suspicious incident project lifesaver follow-up information only calls 9-1-1 open line those are all the top lines in fact that is the vast and i mean vast majority of the calls here right you have we're talking um you know two for suspicious vehicle two for a weapons violation that means the weapon was found by presumably an

[04:09:08] administrator and the officer is following up you know assault with injury one one one so the 848 calls that have happened here when I look at this list these are not urgent we need an officer stat calls these are let's bring the SRO in because it's something that an officer might want to follow up or let's bring a member of the sheriff department in because that's something we want to follow up it is not the immediacy of good thing we have the officer here or this wouldn't have

[04:09:43] happened i i don't see any of that in this data thank you thank you mrs griffiths thank you madam chair um just to clear up um our previous board uh decided uh no more uh officers in the school board meeting after an incident that happened in June 2021. The previous board decided not to have them in the school board meeting. So that was not Officer Chapman's, you know, decision. I also

[04:10:23] wanted to mention around the storage, the safety storage we were working on and locks, I do recall that Sheriff Chapman did provide information on safe storage and where you could pick up locks at the time. So I just wanted to correct the record on that. But also, and one more thing, as far as the Maryland incident, I was following that incident and the SRO was there, but had to leave to take care of another incident at another school that didn't have an SRO. So I don't know

[04:11:01] if the situation happened just because they knew he left. I don't know what happened there. And of course, you can't control every incident that happens. But I think he, I believe he did leave to go to another school to take care of a potential incident there. So in regards to Ms. Donahue's comments, I understand we can't control everything, but I think in that situation, if he was there, you know, honestly, we don't know what would have happened. Maybe he could have

[04:11:37] helped out in that situation. So I just wanted to give a little more context to those three items as far as LCPS or former school board cutting the contract with Sheriff Chapman as far as having officers, but also he did provide storage and where he can get locks. I recall there was an exact address where you could go to pick up a lock for free. So I just wanted to bring some more context to that going back. I think that was a year or two. Thank you. Thank you. Is there

[04:12:14] anyone on staff who has the ability to confirm what happened in 21 because I believe there may have been a letter on record but I don't have access to that at this time I'm not sure good evening everyone I'm not sure which letter you were referring to if you could be more specific was there any I and again that was five years ago but I believe there might have been a letter from

[04:12:44] the sheriff's office that was specific to what happened at the June meeting? There were multiple pieces of correspondence between the sheriff and the superintendent at the time. Yes, I'm not sure about a specific letter, but there were several different pieces of correspondence. Do we know if there was a specific action by the school board that made a specific decision in regards to how security is handled at this building, or are you able to offer us any more context?

[04:13:22] I do not recall any action by the school board in terms of security with LCSO. Okay, so thank you. Vice Chair Donohue? Thank you, Madam Chair. I hate to belabor a point, but I was in a meeting with Sheriff Chapman in 2024 and asked him if he would consider providing security at these meetings again because i was interested in saving the funds to the division of the contract that we

[04:13:56] pay to private security and he said to me no thank you chair chandler uh yes thank you so much um i really just wanted to take time to listen tonight to my colleagues i mean obviously this was presented to us um from chair randall and i appreciated the way that she brought it to us in a context where we were all hearing it together. I think that that was important.

[04:14:32] It has become a little bit muddy to me about what the timeline here is and what the need for the response from the school board is, but I know that it is definitely a subject that we should be talking about as we are the ones that make decisions for the schools. Additionally, the thing that I feel like is most missing from this conversation, a piece that will begin tomorrow night in Leesburg with the Sheriff's Department is the public feedback piece. I have heard, you know, over the last couple of weeks that we've been tackling this anecdotally from my community

[04:15:07] and from teachers, you know, through shorthand conversations and questions, overwhelmingly that people want this, that they want SROs in the elementary schools from the community members that I have interacted with. But that is a limited number in terms of having a wide reach. So what I would really like to see LCPS do is take a step to really engage our communities. I mean, to me as an elected official, that is the most important part of the job is hearing from the people in our communities and our families. And I, you know, I would really specifically like to

[04:15:42] hear from our LCPS parents that have kids in schools. And I would like to hear from our educators. And I appreciate, I know LEA worked with, you know, a limited survey to teachers about this and they had some nuanced questions. For me, I'd really like to see some clarity here. So if we were to do some kind of survey, and I know we're in the middle of another family survey, so I think that that makes things a little bit more complicated. But I would like to see, you know, basically a yes or a no. Would you like to see SROs in our elementary schools, yes or no, and then maybe an open text box for why so we could analyze those responses. But I would like

[04:16:20] to see some clarity. There's a lot flying around in terms of research. There's a lot going on in terms of it's hard to separate out feelings when we talk about safety, you know, and I have tried to play the feelings versus facts argument in my own head. I mean, from a feelings perspective, I taught in elementary school. I was a kindergarten teacher when Sandy Hook happened.

[04:16:41] It was a very impactful moment in my career. I remember coming in the next day and being shook by seeing their little faces, just wanting to do everything I possibly could to make sure that each and every one of them knew that we had a safe space and that they were safe. And I want that for every single student in LCPS. And I think that we do wonderful things in terms of safety.

[04:17:07] I am having a hard time personally seeing a side where this isn't an added layer of protection for our elementary schools. And I support that. But I think the important part here is to hear from our community. So I'm asking for that. I don't know if that's doable. I know that the Sheriff's Office is holding the town hall. And I believe, I think there will be subsequent town halls. But I think that's an important part of this dialogue as we move towards clarity in a timeline for getting this feedback back to the Board of Supervisors.

[04:17:43] Thank you. Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. I'd like to echo Ms. Chernoff's sentiments. However, I'd also like to point out that we did receive a lot of on-flow messages or let's talk messages. We did receive a lot of emails in regards to how a lot of public feedback, how a lot of people in public felt about this matter.

[04:18:07] I do hope for, and I like how Chair Chandler has suggested the Board of Supervisors meeting for a town hall, for Sheriff Chapman to bring about a town hall. Also, I would like to formally hear more public feedback in all areas of Loudoun County.

[04:18:26] However, the majority of the Let's Talk, and I know that's not the final result, but the majority of the Let's Talk and email messages that we received and you all received were saying that they were not for SROs. Thank you, Chair. Thank you.

[04:18:43] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, really appreciate everybody's feedback and thoughts on this. I'm, you know, I am very curious about the data as well. I will be attending the town hall tomorrow because I want to hear from the public. I've heard, as Ms. Chernoff had also mentioned too, I've also been talking to a lot of people, teachers, principals, and parents in Sterling across the political spectrum, which I think is also very important, is to hear from everybody across those issues as well.

[04:19:15] I've had an overwhelming response of people that are in support of this, And I'm just being very measured and just truly honest about that. I think, and somebody else had mentioned earlier too, is I am not going to be the school board member that has to apologize to parents because we didn't do everything we possibly could to keep our kids safe.

[04:19:38] So I'm just going to be really honest with you about that. I watched what happened in Montgomery County very closely. Mrs. Griffiths is correct that the SRO that was at that school, at Wooten High School at the time did leave to go to to deal with another issue that is very troubling to me in hearing that and understanding that that could be in the case and I am very concerned one of my elementary schools has a sheriff's office right next door so they're you know their response time is literally milliseconds but I can really respect the fact that in Western Loudon that distance is far greater and far more difficult roads to trespass

[04:20:17] in order to a traverse in order to get there so I am very curious to hear about hear from the public I also understand that a lot of the feedback that we've been getting in let's talk has been urged by one one group of folks and so I really want to make sure we're hearing from everybody in the broadest way possible I think that's very important in this matter it is incredibly it's incredibly emotional issue I think for a lot of people as well and I honor that but at the end of the day this is not money that's coming out of the school board budget this is money that the county has and I think it's a resource

[04:20:56] really worth spending I've had a lot of conversations with parents and students and teachers at my sterling schools who have really positive relationships with their SROs they're viewed as very very valuable members of those school communities and they provide a lot of different things besides a security presence it's a lot of community building and as somebody had also mentioned earlier there's also some really great relationships with kids that are really troubled and really need a good positive role model in their world and I also I also appreciate the fact that you mentioned about the training aspects and in the MOU we can certainly require in those negotiations

[04:21:33] the additional training that we want to see from the those deputies when they're put into an SRO position so I don't think there's anything in here that isn't you know is a not a positive is not a positive I mean I have ten schools that are minority majority schools and I have not had anybody tell me that they're having terrible experiences with their SROs I get that this is a political issue for some people as well and I just want to make sure that we're actually acting in the best interest of our students and our faculty and our

[04:22:12] instructors I think that's really important too I don't want to have to apologize to a teacher's spouse because we've lost them because we've had some really serious incident at a school when we could have prevented it by having this additional layer of security so I think that kind of hits my totality of things but I appreciate it thank you thank you mr. Svensson thank you chair Chandler and I appreciate my my colleagues comments about the importance of public feedback I appreciate mission off asking about public feedback at our board of supervisors meeting with Sheriff Chapman as a as a younger school board

[04:22:49] member I was a little bothered that the at that point the the scope of the public soliciting public feedback was limited to local news and Facebook because a lot of people my age who are parents of kids in elementary school are not on Facebook and don't watch local news so I'm glad there will be a town hall I think that's a good first step to start to get folks from all walks of life who consume media all sorts of ways involved in the process I also want to say that I appreciate that you know my colleagues on on the board here you know

[04:23:25] with varying perspectives are all coming at this valuing the the importance of our students safety our teachers safety and have the best interests of our schools in mind and folks have different opinions about how we can accomplish that but I think I do really appreciate that everyone kind of has the the best interests of the school division in mind and at heart even if folks have maybe different ways to get there and I just wanted to kind of end and on a note about the process I think this process is a bit backwards because as the conversation has reflected there are a lot of unique you our schools are unique

[04:24:05] environments in which law enforcement would be operating and we have a lot of specific concerns and questions that need to be addressed by the school board and by the our staff here you know as just was illuminated by our discussions about the use of the use of handcuffs in the in the presentation about restraint and seclusion by an SRO and the fact that not all SROs are participating in training related to interacting with students with disabilities and I really appreciate the SROs who I presume some are taking up

[04:24:43] the ability to have that training it's disappointing that some would not and that so there are just a variety of unique factors here in the school context that make it more appropriate for the sheriff's office to be coming to the school board to discuss this discuss our MOU instead of going to the board supervisors first the Board of Supervisors is is not in our schools every day like our staff like our school board members and and I and I wish that the sheriff's office would be willing to engage here first to have these

[04:25:22] conversations in detail as opposed to you know kind of trying to skirt skirt around us at the moment thank you all right so I'll I'll jump into the conversation and just would like to, of course, state since we are not making a decision at this time and we have not made a decision on this matter, I'm speaking only for myself in the capacity that I represent Algonquian District. I want to start off by saying that as a mother and a former preschool and substitute teacher, there's nothing more important to me than keeping our kids

[04:26:01] safe. I feel this deeply. I consider it as an important, the most important obligation and try to center my work here. It really resonates with me when I hear Ms. Chernoff talking about what it was like as a kindergarten teacher on the day of and after Sandy Hook. That experience had a huge impact on me at the time as well. It happened, of course, we'll recall many years ago. In fact, my daughter who's a freshman in college was a kindergartner that day too um and so i know knew

[04:26:37] very um you know in in my soul what it felt like to hold a kindergartner's hand and um i knew and and in that time as a preschool teacher and as a substitute teacher have had the experience of doing the drills and being in situations where um the school is on lockdown and not necessarily knowing in that moment why but continuing to make sure that the kids are focused on and what they

[04:27:09] need to be focused on and safe. This is a very important conversation and it's a conversation that should include many voices and many perspectives and it's not a conversation that should be made by one person. We know that the law dictates that our arrangement with SROs and maintaining the program in our schools is established by code and is also an agreement between the school board

[04:27:42] and the law enforcement agency. Last year, our division representatives were involved with the law enforcement agencies in negotiating around the MOU. And that process occurred over a long period of time and yet this issue didn't come up and in our item that was brought forward to the school board parents in our community submitted a great deal of feedback I know I've

[04:28:19] I've mentioned this several times we got 36 pages of feedback but we didn't know that we were having it going to be having a conversation about elementary schools so we didn't get any feedback through that process. I also have mentioned this before and will mention it again that I feel that the alignment in this process is not appropriate. I don't understand how the decision could be made by the board of supervisors. I understand that they are the funding source

[04:28:51] but the agreement is between our school board and the law enforcement agencies and you know I am perplexed at how this has come about. When we were in front of the school board I mentioned that this is the idea of having SROs in elementary schools is not typical and at that time I cited all the places where they don't use SROs at the elementary school level. All of these are neighboring school divisions and like us use tactics like secure vegetables, visitor protocols,

[04:29:29] emergency alert systems threat assessments and staff training and I know we heard a speaker tonight mention the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services survey where only 15% of the schools identified that more security personnel was a priority. You know none of this conversation really should be about an either-or proposition. And I have mentioned over the course

[04:30:03] of my time on this school board that I really try to frame my work here on who I serve. And I mentioned it even earlier tonight, right? We are a school division that serves a majority of students of color. And in citing, as I have many times cited, 27 years of national data and academic study that has taken place, there are some issues with SRO programs. Now, does that mean the issue

[04:30:39] exists here? I don't know. It's not meant to be a criticism. It's an invitation to collaborate in a better way and to make our relationship stronger. And let's ask some questions to make sure that we're serving our students the best we can. And I think we would be better off if we had that discussion in a meaningful way around revising the MOU. When it comes down to it, the reason why I keep coming back to this is because there have been many studies that show that the presence of

[04:31:17] SROs can lead to adverse and severe consequences, not only for students of color, black students, indigenous students, Latinx students, Hispanic students, but also with students with disabilities. And all I am asking in this conversation is that we ensure that we are framing our relationship in an appropriate way that serves our students. And it truly is an invitation to collaborate in a better and more meaningful way I don't think ultimately that this decision should be made

[04:31:55] quickly with one government entity acting in a unilateral way I think we need to be more collaborative and work on building more trusting relationships and I certainly don't think this decision should be made without first consulting with the school board and with that I'll ask is there any more discussion well I know all of my colleagues on the school board will be quite excited that we do not have a closed session and at our work session we discussed changing the

[04:32:31] agenda so that we do board member comments and committee reports and new business before any proposed closed meeting so now we actually do have time for board member comments and committee reports I would like to start with our board members to the right so Mrs. Riccardi you're up

[04:32:50] Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. I appreciate the accommodation and rearranging the agenda for this. So with that said, February has been a really busy month. I'm excited to be the chair of our performance monitoring committee. We've met twice this month on February 5th. We reviewed the strategic plan metrics and student achievement trends. We saw a solid uptick in English learner proficiency, which is great, but we still need to focus on chronic absenteeism.

[04:33:13] It's still a priority for us. On February 12th, we dug deeper into assessment data and intervention results, and my big push right now is to take all the data that we've been looking at for the last year or so and actively start building out a school board dashboard for real-time transparency and also as a way for us to have key data and metrics that we're looking at across the width of LCPS.

[04:33:44] So I'm going to be seeking feedback from everybody in that process as well. As your representative on the Career and Technical Education Committee, I'm thrilled that February is CTE month. We had a great meeting last week reviewing the strategic planning process and discussing CTAQ events.

[04:34:02] And you need to mark your calendars for this Thursday at 530 right here. We're going to be holding the CTAQ expansion plan roundtable to talk about how we can grow continuing education options for every kid in Loudoun, which is going to be a really interesting session.

[04:34:17] On the ground, I visited Rolling Ridge Elementary School this month. I got to read to some eager first graders, which was a lot of fun. Their curiosity was really inspiring, and a huge thanks to Principal Michael Bird and Executive Principal Chantel Simon.

[04:34:35] I also went to Sterling Middle School with Lauren Chernoff, and Principal Fitzroy Frew, who has a personality as big as his awesome name. He is so amazing, had pretty much every adult in that building running reading circles for about 35 minutes.

[04:34:52] And I was joking, that's probably the quietest a middle school ever is in a day, is during that time. But it's a really amazing experience, really getting targeted reading interventions for their students exactly how they need them. It's just really an amazing opportunity for those kids, and the reading improvement scores, I'm sure, are going to be tremendous.

[04:35:11] I had two more visits planned for yesterday, but since it was a snow day, those are going to get rescheduled. So we'll be visiting Rosalie Carter in Forest Grove in the coming weeks. I have a 90-day plan, a start plan, that includes visiting all of our Sterling schools by the end of March, and so I'm on track to meet that goal.

[04:35:30] I want to say congratulations to Parkview High School, who just earned their national honors, National Honors for the 2025 ESEA, ESEA Distinguished School Award by Closing Achievement Gaps. And then as Dr. Spence had mentioned, Sterling, Sully, and Guilford were also recognized this year as a Virginia Community School designation, which I think is great.

[04:35:56] I'm also getting ready to start doing some town halls here in the coming weeks, and so I'm really excited about getting out into our community. So thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Spence. Thank you, Chair Chandler. I wanted to highlight some of the work from Legislative Audit and Policy Committee.

[04:36:13] I guess we should say the Legislative and Policy Committee now, LNP. That's one update that audit is now its own standalone committee. So currently we have one policy that is up for feedback until Thursday, February 26.

[04:36:29] So we would encourage folks to submit feedback on policy 6330 by the end of the day Thursday. So this is the policy that governs the distribution of materials on school grounds, including political materials. And this is updating a policy that's quite old.

[04:36:49] So this is something that is really important to a variety of stakeholders, to staff in our schools, to our parents, to our students. And I want to make sure that the committee is balancing the safety of the school environment and keeping us focused on, for example, at a back-to-school night, focused on the subject at hand, which is getting parents into the classroom to speak with students' teachers,

[04:37:22] with balancing the democratic process and making sure that folks have the opportunity to engage civically. So I really would appreciate feedback from the community on the best way we can do that with this policy. So that's 6330.

[04:37:38] That deadline is this Thursday, the 26th, and we'll be continuing to discuss that in committee. And I would just like to say on a personal note, I really enjoyed attending the resource fair this weekend at Heritage High School focused on wellness.

[04:37:59] There are so many amazing mental health and wellness resources that LCPS staff and community volunteers and mental health professionals are offering. And it was great to spend time speaking with folks there at the high school about the various programs.

[04:38:15] I especially enjoyed speaking with LCPS staff who are working on our McKinney-Vento services and helping students who are experiencing housing insecurity and providing resources. and just a reminder of the incredible work that LCPS does outside the classroom as well.

[04:38:33] Thank you. Thank you. I see, I did hear from Ms. Chernoff that she went ahead and logged off, so we'll hear from her next time, and I'll go ahead. I have been very excited to jump back into committee work. It's nice to get ground, you know, to really jump into something new, and I've enjoyed our presentations in the PMC committee and our conversations.

[04:38:57] and our work in student services. It's very exciting to dig in. And it's busy all the time, but some of the best things that have happened for me personally lately are attending the kindness fair at Potomac.

[04:39:16] It was incredible, and I had the opportunity to share that day, especially with the principal at Potomac, how exciting it is for me as a parent and a school board member to see some of the kids that I remember in kindergarten and first and every grade now as seniors acting as peers to our younger students.

[04:39:37] And it was really such a nice event in memory of a teacher who had worked at Potomac for at least a decade, who had passed away recently, supported by her family. And really what we saw was the counseling teams had worked to give the students a grounding in all of these concepts.

[04:39:57] And then they had also worked to make sure that the high school students knew what their lessons should be. And then watching it all come together in the gym that day was just lovely. So every student got to learn about kindness and remember this wonderful teacher who had served at Potomac.

[04:40:14] I also really loved being able to go to the United in Wellness event this weekend. I attended two sessions, One on anxiety and one on that was really teenage anxiety, and then the second one was on belonging, but really in terms of reaching students who may not feel that they have a place in our community.

[04:40:44] And to hear from the Ryan Bartell Foundation on that issue was just incredible. I'm grateful to the team for making that opportunity possible. And I did notice, I believe, just based on my own perception, that the crowd was bigger this year.

[04:41:01] So I'll be excited to hear more about that. But it definitely seems like the word has gotten out and people are there to take advantage and to utilize those lessons and resources that we can make available. I guess that's all I have. Thanks so much. Vice Chair Donahue.

[04:41:18] Thank you, Madam Chair. I have also been excited to get back into committee work, especially because I'm on new committees now. So we had our first meeting of the special programs and centers recently, so that was interesting to start to get the background on what that committee does, because I still don't really understand, but I'm starting to learn.

[04:41:47] And we also had our first SBAC committee meeting and our first SBAC discipline appeal, both of which I loved and I am just as excited about that committee as I thought I would be.

[04:42:03] So I'm very happy to be on it. I'm looking forward to the work that we're going to do this year. I also went to the Health and Wellness Resource Fair on Saturday. I brought my third grader with me. We both had a fantastic time. She particularly liked all the swag that she got everywhere, and I had a good time meeting, you know, meeting people, and similar to Mr. Spenson, seeing all the vendors and opportunities that are out there to support our students and their families. We had the first, the very first Equity Council meeting last week,

[04:42:42] run by Dr. Ellis Williams as the chair of the Equity Council. That was very exciting to be part of that group. There were 35 people on the Zoom call. And we talked about what we're going to do going forward.

[04:43:00] And it was really exciting to see all the enthusiasm and the path forward. So I'm excited to be part of that. And a couple of weeks ago, I went to an event at the Hillsborough Charter School, which others here went to as well.

[04:43:21] And at the end, a group of children came up to Ms. LaBelle and myself with a piece of paper on which they had written, this is our petition to get a new music room with all these little kids' signatures.

[04:43:36] And I have that, and I scanned it, and I'm going to send it to everyone because it was the cutest thing I've seen in a very long time. And it was my first visit to Hillsboro. It was an interesting experience to see the school, and it was wonderful to see the students and how excited they were and all the things that they were working on.

[04:43:57] And then to be capped off by the intrepidness of this group of 4th and 5th graders who provided us a petition for a new music room. It was really cool. And last but not least, I am very grateful to the students at Moorfield Station Elementary who made these lovely ceramics for us.

[04:44:21] Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths? Thank you, Madam Chair. I want the people of Loudoun County to know I'll be on the following committees. I'll be chairing the Finance and Operations. I will be a member of the Board of Supervisors Joint Committee and also a member of the Legislative and Audit and Policy Committee.

[04:44:40] For advisory, I'll be on the School Health Committee, so please look out for those. I will be meeting with different schools and parent organizations throughout the year to listen to any concerns. I appreciate all the feedback I have received from parents with students currently in our schools and the taxpayers of Latin County currently.

[04:45:01] I'm getting a lot of feedback from those organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed All District Choir at John Champ High School and look forward to attending Grease at Riverside High School next month. I am also going to plug Little Shop of Horrors at Broad Run, and I'll probably mention it again because it's in April.

[04:45:23] There's a lot of exciting events going on. I ask that everyone please support the arts at our schools. And please note, we are still receiving information or feedback, rather, on redistricting. So there is still time for our constituents to fill out applications for special permissions to stay in their current schools.

[04:45:44] So I ask that the people of Loudoun County look into that option or to reach out to their district representative for assistance. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's interesting, being a new board member, to get into committee work right now.

[04:46:03] I am currently on the Specialized Program Center's SPC and learning definitely more about how they work as well as finance and operations. We've had a couple meetings with that already and really kind of sinking teeth into policy and the financial goings-on in the division.

[04:46:21] I am also lucky to be the chair of the Student Services Committee, SSC. We had our first meeting last week. It's all blurring together at this point. The biggest discussion to come out of it was we are working on policy 5340 about removal of students.

[04:46:37] That is going to a work group that's going to be made up of members of the SEAC and MSAC and GEAC. And so we're really trying to get this policy right before we move it forward to the full board. We also heard about new policy 5310 to kind of redefine special education, just a simplification, combining 5330 and 5310 together.

[04:46:59] as well as a new policy on how we can support pregnant students. And, of course, the most exciting part of the meeting was to learn more about our mobile medical service, which is going to be traveling around Loudoun County and providing medical care in all facets to our community, which is just absolutely fantastic.

[04:47:17] Over my past month, I've had the opportunity to visit several schools. I got to do a little reading time at Madison's Trust. I got to see a math lesson I had no idea what was going on with at Freedom High School. science teacher not a math teacher as well as um you know spending part of my day at lightridge and um gumspring and and lunsford so it was really really fun this past weekend i did not attend the wellness fair i said i was at parkview high school as a judge for the odyssey of the mind competition um i was judging the spontaneous problem and i want to say congratulations i'm going to run through this quickly but congratulations to hamilton elementary cedar lane blue ridge

[04:47:54] middle pine brick elementary sanders corner watson mountain goshen post elaine thompson and Smart Mill, Trailside, Roundhill, Ashburn, Hovatter, Stuart Weller, and Willard for all making the state tournament, as well as all the teams who were competing. If you've never seen Odyssey of Mine, it is super fun and super nerdy, but just like totally awesome. Creative problem solving at its absolute finest. I also had the chance to have my first community meeting last week. More members of the community. I learned a little bit more about our virtual learning program, as well as talked to one of our members of LEAF, which is exciting. And I have not had a chance to Go to the one meeting we've had for GIAC yet, even though I serve on it because it was the same time as our budget meeting, unfortunately, but excited to pass the budget.

[04:48:34] I'm also excited to work with all of you, and I do also want to give a shout-out to my friend Isaac at Moorfield Station Elementary, who made me this really awesome blue flower with a ladybug on it. So thank you, and also thank you for the birthday wishes. That's all I've got, Madam Chair. Thank you. Dr. Rasheed.

[04:48:50] Thank you, Chair Chandler. I think you forgot, John, that Mr. Pepper forgot to add. I think you went to Pinebrook for a podcast, I think, or you're about to go. That's on Friday. That's on Friday. I know I already went, and I know you're up next, so that's going to be fun.

[04:49:07] At this month's MSAC meeting, LCPS Ombuds Carrie Williams and Director of Strategic Communications, Joan Stahlgren, provided an overview of the Let's Talk messaging platform. This is a quick way or a simple way to reach out to offices and departments across LCPS website and you will most often see a gray contact us bar on the right side of an LCPS division level web page. So I do encourage constituents to use this platform to contact your school board members as well. Delegates were also able to use guided scenarios in a workshop to help them foster engagement through advocacy focused conversations with school administrators

[04:49:45] and nominations for the 2026 MSAC annual awards are open now through April 10th at 5 p.m. Each year, MSAC honors students, educators, administrators, and schools who are making meaningful equity-centered impact across the school division.

[04:50:01] So awards will be presented at the Equity event on May 9th, so mark that calendar. And families, students, staff, and community members can submit those nominations at lcps.org slash MSAC. Finally, the March MSAC meeting will be dedicated to the Better Together Family Dinner.

[04:50:20] yes our family dinner and social so check my MSAC social media for the QR code to RSVP and sign up for a big potluck dish then come and celebrate with us on March 18th at 6:00 p.m. and don't forget you could do a students can do a take-home meal for Ramadan because I understand that we have Ramadan this month and a little bit of a March as well so so February 18th to March 19th students can students can request this meal through the regular food service line or parents can contact the school cafeteria manager before lunch service

[04:50:56] thank you chair thank you miss LaBelle thank you madam chair s back has been snowed out twice now so our last meeting was in December 15th where we finished going over policy 80 to 20 which is student discipline then we finally did get to have a meeting on February 5th when we were doing an appeal. We had already had a slot for an appeal so we just slid a little SBAC

[04:51:32] introduction meeting in there and my colleagues Mr. Svensson and Ms. Donahue got to experience all sorts of stuff and Ms. Donahue was thrilled as I recall. and so we're looking forward to maybe having a meeting at the end of March I hope there's no snow I also had some things cancel on me but I did go to the Hillsborough 10-year anniversary celebration with Miss Donahue Miss

[04:52:11] Riccardi and Miss Griffith and we got to watch all sorts of interesting displays that were initiated and presented by students so that was a good one as well as the petition at the end of the evening that was a lot of fun so that's where we are at this point in time and maybe I'll have more to tell you all next time oh I also got to go to a SEAC meeting so there wasn't a lot going on for me since the holidays but we'll catch up thank you and I'm just gonna reclaim a tiny bit of my time since I don't think the buzzer went off but as

[04:52:50] the chair I wanted to go ahead and let you know that I've decided that for the new audit committee the chair will be vice chair Donohue and also serving on that committee will be mr. Carty and mr. pepper so I don't want to hold up any preparations you have for organizing by waiting to send you an email tomorrow and with that I will ask is there any new business seeing no new business we can move on to adjournment thank you so much for being here tonight this And February 24th, 2026, school board meeting is adjourned.

[04:53:29] Thank you and drive home safely.

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