Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting, Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 46m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1213365920?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 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:02] - All right, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back. For me, this is my first committee meeting of the academic year. I'm still mentally in the summer, but that's okay. I know you guys are coming back. Some of you guys have already attended some committee meetings, but for me, this is my first.

[00:00:18] I love the new microphones. I feel like it's more, you guys can hear me more. It's nice, it's good, it's good. And along with the monitor, the monitor looks great also. So welcome back, and I'd like to call this August 5th, 2026, meeting of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee to order.

[00:00:35] And you guys know I'm Dr. Rasheed, I'm the chair of this committee, and I appreciate you all being here today. All right, so we have a couple of things that we have to look over. One is approving the draft minutes for our June 4th, 2026 meeting that we held. And then we'll have an update from the science office.

[00:00:54] And I understand that there is no public comment that has signed up. We could scratch that, okay. So we need to approve our minutes from our last meeting, which was June 4th. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes? And are there any corrections or additions to it? I'm going to look around. There are none.

[00:01:10] Okay, so then I entertain a motion to approve the minutes from June 4th, 2026. I move to approve the minutes for the June 4th, 2026 meeting of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee. Okay. Second. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Spenson.

[00:01:28] And thank you, Ms. Chernoff. - All right, okay, so the minutes have been approved. Oh yeah, that's right, all together. All together now, for those of us that approve, say aye. - Aye. - Okay, so the minutes have been approved now, great. Yeah, still in summer.

[00:01:43] All right, let's go ahead and move on to our first agenda item, which is 4.01. I will go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Jeff Roundsley to present and subsequently to maybe to Dariel Timothy. Okay, all right, thank you.

[00:02:02] We are still trying to resolve the connectivity, but we'll dive into the presentation. You all have access to the slides, and the slides are in board notes. It's possible to use an error. There you go. All right. Well, while we're getting that set up, welcome, or thank you for having us here today and for our first meeting of the academic year.

[00:02:25] I just want to introduce some of the great members of our science team who have joined us here today, and you'll get to hear a lot about what these people already do as amazing team members. So I see Devin Simmons there, who is our coordinator for Propell and Level Up, and Dr. Stephen Burton, who is the Secondary Science Outreach Content Specialist.

[00:02:42] I see more of our Propell and Level Up team in the back, Nicole Boyette and Allison Leydig, one of our science resource teachers who are in the presentation, Lydia Quinn, and Jennifer Gardner, Science Outreach Specialist. And Matthew Thompson, who works with our geospatial program.

[00:03:07] And all of these people will be highlighted tonight for all the contributions they make. But I'm going to turn it over to Darielle Timothy, our science supervisor, who has done an amazing job trying to capture the great work that our science office does and let you know some of the exciting work that is about to take place.

[00:03:26] All right. I think I got this. All right. Good evening. Thank you, committee members, for inviting me here today. I'm really excited to share a lot of the great work that I will say my team makes me look really, really good. All the work is really attributed to them and their expertise in the way they engage LCPS students.

[00:03:43] So we're going to go ahead and start with some program highlights, and I definitely want to bring forward some great work that's happening across, particularly with curriculum and some of our courses. So let's dive on in. - All right, so we're gonna first start with two courses that we have been fortunate to really see some big development in terms of student participation and enrollment numbers.

[00:04:07] So first I'll speak to our independent science research, or as we like to call it, ISR. And within that course, it's heavily focused on exposing students to research methods, high quality research, and students also have the opportunity to explore a research question of their choice.

[00:04:27] So what I really love about it is students have lots of voice and agency and they work really closely with their ISR teacher mentor or other mentors in some cases as they're developing their research projects. And so as you can see based on the numbers that are presented here, independent science research has really seen amazing growth over even just last three years and so and similar to GIS I will get into that a little bit more but I do want to start off off hand saying that we really also feel that schools have leaned into these courses because it helps to also bring some metrics for their three E's framework

[00:05:07] as well because of the high level coursework that students are engaging in I also want to highlight that independent science research is also offered as a dual enrollment course through George Mason University. We've actually had that partnership for quite a number of years, but it wasn't until recently that we've seen this amazing growth in terms of participation and students really expressing high level interest in conducting research.

[00:05:34] And for some of those students, those are ones, depending if they're selected by their school, get to move on to our regional science and engineering fair, which I think some of you have either participated or saw some communications. And in that experience, they are in a juried setting where they're able to present their research.

[00:05:50] And then some selected first place winners actually move on to the national level to our independent science and engineering, or excuse me, international science and engineering fair, which you'll hear a little bit more about in the coming slides. So I did want to quickly touch on our geospatial science.

[00:06:08] So yeah, if we could just hang tight there, mostly because as we can see, there was exponential growth. It truly just exploded in the last few years. And so I think some similar attributes a lot to some of the same things with independent science research.

[00:06:26] But it is a little bit different of a course. Whereas geospatial science really allows students to use data science, analytics, as well as national level software to develop what we call our story maps. And so projects very much will vary.

[00:06:43] There was one, we had students submitted at the national level at our Esri map gallery contest. They were even featured in their Instagram page, which was exciting. And so, but it was really great to see representation from LCPS students at the national level.

[00:07:00] Embryology. And so this is another amazingly existing program that we've had in the science office. But it is definitely one that we have seen expansion beyond just the elementary. So historically, we saw a lot of elementary schools that participated in this, but through different communication methods, as well as streamlining when we're getting in front of teachers, we've been able to really expand the program into middle and high school at a much higher level, as you can see there with the progression of schools that have been included year to year.

[00:07:32] And really this program is meant to serve as a life science experience in which, as you can see pictured there, students are actually incubating fertilized eggs. Sometimes we have good success rate, sometimes we don't.

[00:07:48] Students tend to get a lesson in here's biology. And so, but it's been exciting to hear stories of even high school football players that cannot wait to go and check on their chicks. So it's been a very impactful program that we have in partnership with the Virginia Tech 4-H extension.

[00:08:08] And as I alluded to, our regional science and engineering fair. So there you can see pictured our ISEF winners that won first place at our regional fair and then moved on to the international level. And of the five projects, while we still see eight students, we had five projects that were submitted at the national level.

[00:08:29] And we had two winners, which was very, very exciting. So Gwyneth Mayo from Woodgrove won a special award for translational medical science. And then Ishita Gould and Jessalyn Cower from the academies won in robotics and intelligent machines and earned a fourth place placement.

[00:08:46] So it was very exciting to see their work presented at the national stage. So new courses. I'm really, really excited that the science office, this is really the first time that we've been able to really take a look at our course pathways within our science disciplines and start to make some determinations on what are some additional experiences through coursework that we can offer to LCPS students.

[00:09:16] So new approved courses were voted on by the VDOE board and approved this past January 2026. And so through that approval process, I took a look at our course pathways and made some determinations that these were some essential courses that we felt that we needed to add into our course pathways. And much of it was driven by student and school input and reaching out to the science office whether it was email phone calls let's talks are now on flow a lot of student

[00:09:51] advocacy actually particularly with AP physics and electric electricity and magnetism but with anatomy and physiology that has been a really big ticket one we have some some access to it through our ham side program but I also want to to propose this course as well to increase access to this level of coursework to all LCPS students knowing that hamsi is a specific special program and so we're really excited for students that are looking at pre-med for college and or really just to expand their biology knowledge we'll be able to offer that and then looking at the earth science

[00:10:30] pathway oceanography has been a highly interested course as well that we are looking to add to really bolster some more niche experiences for students within the earth science pathway. And then AP Physics is adding another layer, particularly for students that are interested in engineering.

[00:10:50] We were realizing that there was a bit of a gap in terms of supporting engineering students and their exposure to various physics coursework. So school support models, really excited. So now I get to really highlight some of my team members.

[00:11:07] And so these are the amazing resource teachers, Lydia Quinn and Nicole Pacone. They just finished up their first year supporting Nicole at Meadowland and Forest Grove and then Lydia at Guilford and Frederick Douglas. And we have just been super excited through this partnership and starting to have some of these positions to support schools.

[00:11:28] They were very well received, a lot of emphasis on co-planning, co-teaching, data analysis and data dialogues to see where are we needing to support students. And they jumped in 100 percent, leading small groups, supporting teachers with planning, even a thought partner.

[00:11:47] And so we have really found that this has been a very valuable addition to our to our FTEs within the office. And the goal would be able to expand, but really our focus is thinking about how are we calibrating our resource positions across teaching and learning and ensuring that some of those standardized practices are in place to ensure that as we grow and expand, if we have that opportunity, we've got some really good structures in place to be successful.

[00:12:13] So I did kind of allude to some of the supports that they do provide at their schools. So I did mention the co-teaching, differentiated instruction was definitely something that we did focus on to support those schools, as well as aligning with a lot of their SIP's goals and strategies.

[00:12:33] So some celebrations. So we were able to get some preliminary SOL data. And as you can see there, for Guilford and Meadowland, just looking at over one year and two year changes, just amazing growth.

[00:12:48] Now, this is specific to science, my wheelhouse, but I did notice we were seeing really good growth across the board, which all subjects appear in science, which is really important to recognize. But we do attribute not only the support to the resource teachers, but also the dedication of those teachers at that schools and supporting those students.

[00:13:06] So we were excited to see these growth metrics. So I know you've heard a lot about sustainability in other capacities, and fortunately, I've been able to have some really close collaborations with Clark Seip, the director of sustainability, and we'll be able to highlight some of the partnerships.

[00:13:30] And environmental literacy has definitely been at the top of our conversations and leading a lot of the collaborations. I know environmental literacy is one of the major arms of the sustainability framework. And so Clark and I have worked along with my specialist, David Hitchcock, to start to elevate what does environmental literacy look like in our LCPS classrooms.

[00:13:53] And coupled with that, as you can see, a lot of students outdoors, which is a major pillar of our environmental literacy work. And we are still in the midst of drafting up a framework of what that would look like over time. But some immediate steps that we've had focused on is getting lessons that have been created by LCPS teachers that can be spread and used across the district to engage students in what we call meaningful watershed educational experiences, or like I like to call MEWEs.

[00:14:26] It's a fun name, but really in addition to exposing students to highly engaging project-based learning experiences, we just want them outside. And we know the research shows that that is highly beneficial in many aspects in addition to the educational experience that they are receiving.

[00:14:46] And so you get to see some of those bright faces as they get out of the classroom. And so here you can see some of the work that happened behind the scenes. So that far left photograph there, there's David Hitchcock along with one of the teacher writers.

[00:15:03] And that was part of our work with the MeWe development. We had a cohort of teachers that we had sustained professional learning. So embedded was MeWe education for the teachers. And then throughout that learning, they developed a lesson. And it iterated every time that we met together.

[00:15:21] We also had a great opportunity to connect with community partners. And we actually went to community partners locations so that they could also see what does a learning laboratory might look like depending where you're taking your students. And so we also had a global roundtable in 2024 there.

[00:15:39] And that was a really important part of the process as we thought about environmental literacy. It was really important to Clark and I to get a gauge on what is industry looking for? Where are their gaps? What skills and competencies do we need to keep in mind as we're thinking about environmental literacy here in LCPS?

[00:15:58] And then that far picture there, Clark, they're packing up kits. Part of the incentive of the lesson and teachers attending our professional learning on those MIWI lessons, they all left with a kit that they could fully implement. And that was fortunately through a grant from DCR.

[00:16:16] And coupled with that, now we get to move to high school. Woodgrove High School has been leaders in leading environmental literacy and making that happen and really putting boots to the ground. So Scott Fortney is one of the teachers over there at Woodgrove.

[00:16:34] He has been an amazing partner, along with his teammates as well. And we've even developed some pilot courses. So it's our foundational science discipline courses, but as Scott likes to say, we added in an environmental flavor. And so we kind of tweaked those core foundational science courses to have an environmental focus.

[00:16:55] And so here, this was an event that happened toward the end of this past school year where Scott was able to take students from the environmental literacy classes. And they rotated in different stations. They talked to different environmental experts.

[00:17:11] And they were really just able to be outside and engage in just different aspects of environmental education. And so and we're still leading that work and thinking about what else might we need to add to those courses or what other experiences might we want to build in that really round out environmental literacy and level up.

[00:17:36] So that is the amazing team. And we've got some of the members here. And so propelling level up has been great. I'm very fortunate that I started out as one of the teachers at Sugar Little Elementary leading propeller level up many years ago. But it's been a proud moment to really see the development of this program that services students in grades four through eight.

[00:17:58] And it's a STEM focused after school program at the elementary level as well as some middle. But we also have during the day resource blocks at two of our middle schools where students are able to also engage in the program during the academic school day which is great to increase access.

[00:18:16] So we can move on to the next slide. So there's a little bit of a smorgasbord there of all of the different work. But hopefully these photographs are helping to capture some of the day-to-day. So I'm sure you've heard a lot of our big events.

[00:18:33] We'll touch on that in a moment. But really, those big events are really informed by the daily work that the content specialists, Allison and Nicole, build from the ground up. They write the entire curriculum for the program. They come up with the materials and they've also spent a lot of time having direct alignment as well as to the LCPS curriculum.

[00:18:55] So even though we have it as a STEM afterschool program, students are still getting exposed to the five C's from portrait of a graduate, as well as informally interacting with different aspects of our instructional framework. So it was really important that while it is an enrichment opportunity that students are exposed to, we also want them to see the connections to what they're learning in the classroom as well. So the content specialists have done a really great job of even updating curriculum as we write it to ensure that continuity and alignment to things happening in curriculum and LCPS. So here you can see that they were engineering. It was a focus on animals as well

[00:19:34] as ecosystems. And they really dug into a specific animal that had some type of usually an endangered problem, and they used drone technology to come up with solution on how to reduce the impacts of those endangered animals. And students used straw bees. You see their multimedia. And it was highly collaborative, and students led it. The teachers that run the program, they are true facilitators, and it's the students that are really doing the thinking and the working. And as I mentioned, all of that hard work, the Innovation Day, which, as I mentioned, was the ecosystem project. That's

[00:20:14] or innovation project, but they also engage in robotics through VEX Robotics, and so there was a BattleBots competition that they were able to, it was very, very exciting, very, very exciting. Lots of balloons, haven't pumped that many balloons in my life, but it was really great just to see how students were able to use strategy, working together, and really see the culmination of all the work that they did over the course of about 18 weeks, which is the full length of the program over the school year. And so there on the right-hand side, you can see some of our team winners and

[00:20:48] then our overall winners listed there. And it's an amazing event. We look forward to it every single year and we'll keep inviting you if you're able to come. So it's amazing. All right. So this is our newest position that we have. We are so excited to have Jennifer on board. For me, this is just another layer of innovation in science, as well as how are we expanding opportunities and dynamic learning for students.

[00:21:23] So really Jennifer's position is meant to focus on how are we going to connect students with what they're learning in the classroom, which we know is valid, but looking at making some real world connections. How are we connecting with experts in our community? Organizations that can help elevate or even align with lessons that students are engaging in.

[00:21:43] and we also have a vision as well as building in some experiences that students can expect at some point in their school career and so on the next slide we can actually segue over to that. So looking at through some of our partnerships part of the vision of the position is not only having these partnerships to say that we've connected with them but that they're an integral part of the process of learning. One example, we're on the precipice of our Northern Virginia Science Center. I am so excited. 2027 is going to be a great year with that opening. But through

[00:22:23] that partnership, we're already starting to pilot what the structures are going to be needed to ensure that all students are able to have some access to the center. So this fall, and we actually did it this past spring as well but we've already been piloting a field trip opportunity for some of the title one schools. The center received a grant from a funder of theirs and in which they were able to take fifth grade all fifth grade students. We started out last year I believe it was about six schools last year and we were able to increase it to between eight and ten. We're still trying to

[00:22:59] get some other schools to jump on board and secure some dates. But through that pilot opportunity, we were able to understand on a smaller scale, what are the logistics that we need to keep in mind? How does this align to the learning that they're doing in the classroom? And helping students to understand the why of those partnerships. And so we're really excited of where this is going to go. But we've got a few others there as well. All right. I feel like I rip through that but questions might you have thank you so much it's a quite a loaded presentation and

[00:23:35] great accomplishments and you know it's great to see people on the board or on the screen and then in person as well so this is quite exciting and um with especially with the numbers it's it's it's quite a jump it's quite a jump like i i know that in the first slide or in the first few slides you had mentioned or the table showed that it went from i wrote it down uh 336 to 515 with independent science research and GIS went 368 to 1017 that is incredible incredible.

[00:24:06] I had just a few questions and they're kind of out of order when it comes to the slides but I just wanted to know with that jump are we doing anything proactively in terms of staffing since we have an increase and any type of resource needs for that growth? Yes and so Actually, starting in the 23-24 school year, when we started to see the trends moving towards growth beyond what we had seen historically, Matthew Smith was very pivotal in organizing communication office hours.

[00:24:43] So we had notified schools that were seeing this jump, and we knew that there were some impacts in terms of space at schools, particularly computer labs. And so we hosted multiple office hours in which we invited principals, counseling directors, as well as teacher leaders.

[00:25:01] And we really felt it was important to start getting ahead of where we saw the trajectory going. So that was one strategy that we put in place to ensure that schools were aware of the required resources needed for expansion. As well as Matthew did a really great job of drafting up scheduling guidance for schools as well.

[00:25:23] So that was another measure that we provided to schools and counselors to ensure that they understood really what are the section numbers that you want to keep in mind relative to who you have in your building. Fortunately, staffing, we have found, wasn't really too big of an impact, mostly because of the nature of the GIS course.

[00:25:44] It really cross cuts across disciplines considering the projects that they engage in. Now, not to say that it did not invite some challenges that we also had to anticipate. So one that I can highlight was thinking about the annual symposium.

[00:26:04] So the students that are in the course, they present their final project at the end of every year via a symposium. And we used to take them down to JMU, which was always great, but it's a little difficult to try and do that with 1,000 students. And so we also realized that we had to make some adjustments in terms of finding a proper location.

[00:26:23] So that was something we definitely had to anticipate and get ahead of. And luckily, working with different departments, procurement and budgeting, we had many conversations with them as well to ensure that we're staying within best practices in terms of how we're looking at event spaces to help support.

[00:26:42] But really, I would say the best strategy that has worked is staying in communication with counselors and principals to understand where your student interest lies. And fortunately, we're able to have some ebb and flow within the numbers. And we're very fortunate to HHMI that really does help support the tuition that goes along with the dual enrollment for the course as well.

[00:27:05] So if I could jump in, and I appreciate Daryl's answers, but specifically over the years, what the school board has done to support the growth of opportunities in science and GIS in particular. Daryl mentioned the HHMI grant just now.

[00:27:22] It's important to note that many of the positions, like I know the people are here, but I'm talking about the positions, there's a mix of funding locally and within grants. And so even within the support for the GIS program, half of the FDE that supports that is grant-funded, and the other half is local.

[00:27:39] And frankly, that has been grant-funded for a number of years, and one of the things our partners expect is that we use their money to innovate, and then eventually it becomes part of the base. We've moved positions over the years in the science office into local steadily.

[00:27:55] Like, we're not doing it all at once. We did have to pause last year just because of competing priorities. But that's one example at some I don't know the exact fiscal year But the GIS program actually was only supported by half of that to half of an FTE that eventually expanded to a full FTE Like we had a teacher part-time supporting it when program originally started The board also has approved local funds for tuition unlike our relationship with Northern Virginia Community College JMU and JMU and GMU charge us tuition for these credits

[00:28:29] So that, I don't have the exact number, but you can imagine the cost of that tuition has really increased exponentially. It's hard to say no to a principal who's also being held accountable for the three E's in terms of getting credit for students taking dual enrollment.

[00:28:46] This is a great opportunity, and it's very accessible to kids. So you'll probably, you may hear us in the future talking about taking funds out of the grant. That's really where the ask is going to be. Not to say that's limited, but that's what you'll hear me talk about. Does that capture that, Dariel?

[00:29:04] Jeff, were you gonna add anything? - I was just gonna add that I think one of the key things to your question of supporting teachers and staffing is the role that Matthew Smith, I got it, Matthew. I'm not gonna mess that up again, I'm sorry. That Matthew Smith plays, you know, Matthew is present in these classes, he's working with teachers and students on these projects.

[00:29:22] And one of the conversations that Dariel and I have had about this growth is that we wanna make sure we keep those things that make these programs unique, that we're still able to do that. And so one of the limiting factors is Matthew's ability to be in this many classrooms and support this many projects in a meaningful and supportive way.

[00:29:40] But he is one of the primary ways that we support teachers in approaching this content. One of my favorite things that I've done since I've been in this job is to go to JMU and see these students present those GIS projects. They are an awesome example of real-world, authentic learning of things that are of interest to students.

[00:29:56] And so we want to keep all of those opportunities present and available for students, but also make sure they have the support and the resources they need to be able to continue doing that work. You know, one of the things on the highlights of this meeting is I will never forget Matthew Smith's name.

[00:30:14] I will not forget your name. I don't know. It's just like that was one of the highlights. I just won't forget it. And that's a good thing. That's a really good thing. Thank you for that. And thank you for answering my question. I had another one with the slide about Guilford and Meadowland. How are we measuring the impact of the student achievement?

[00:30:33] I wrote down, are there any plans to expand the support model to other schools? So we, this particular slide is based on SLL performance. The science SLL in elementary schools has been a growth area for us.

[00:30:51] And so what I really like to say about the science resource teacher, and I'll let Darielle take it from there, is just that this is really a school-level innovation. Like, we actually had a number of our schools in Sterling the Sterling area use for their title one and differentiated funds to create STEM science resource teachers and so we learned from their success tried to be more intentional about the support.

[00:31:16] So we're still in the early stages of deployment here but I think Darielle mentioned we're evaluating resource teachers across the board working with the school improvement office thinking about school needs. So Darielle would you add anything. Yes, certainly. So I will say that some of the in addition to these metrics, a lot of impact we are also measuring, which is really down to the classroom level.

[00:31:41] So they've been really instrumental in supporting teachers in the implementation of assessments in which they can gather data to inform instruction and inform learning for students. And so they've also been really pivotal in supporting CLT teams and having those conversations and understanding what does this data mean?

[00:32:00] What is it telling us about our students, and how is it informing our next steps? But I also love that these positions have also reinforced our commitment to also co-teaching and co-planning in the classroom as well. And so that, I would say, is a majority of their time, which is a lot of the vision that we had for those positions.

[00:32:18] Thank you for that. Thank you. And forgive me if you guys already mentioned, in the slide about physics and oceanography, what's the anticipated timeline for rolling out to students of this, and what's the expected demand? if we have assessed that. So we do have some preliminary kind of expectations around that.

[00:32:39] So as I mentioned, the board had just approved the formal standards for those courses this past January. Now, before that, I was getting lots of interesting questions and wonderings about the offerings for those courses. And so very specific schools, but as I mentioned as well, students actually reaching out and just asking about the expansion of certain discipline pathways.

[00:33:00] And so I've submitted a course review request so that we could have the course review team and panel review these courses to determine if we would want to then, if approved, we'd be able to offer them during the 27-28 school year.

[00:33:16] And I do anticipate that we're going to have a lot of interest in these courses. Oh, definitely hands down. Hands down. Thank you for that. And then how are we going to ensure, my next question is about equity, we mentioned Janelia, we mentioned NBSC. So how are we going to ensure equitable access to these real-world science opportunities in the district?

[00:33:41] So as I mentioned, along with the collaborations with Jennifer, a lot of it's being really imagined through some of these smaller-scale collaborations that we have. So, for example, the field trips that we've already started building in for some of our schools, which has helped us to understand some targeted aspects of the curriculum and or grade levels.

[00:34:02] And so it's helping us to flush out a vision of what grade level, depending on what's offered at the center, a lot of that's going to be continued conversations as they're developing programming at the center. But once we have those conversations, it will help us to create some direct alignment with specific grade levels and or specific experiences that we would be able to then plan for every LCP student to be able to engage in at some point in their K-12 career.

[00:34:27] And so a lot of those logistics will be worked out as the plans get firmed out with the center. But Jennifer has really been instrumental in auditing the curriculum and already identifying some intersection points that we might want to start fleshing out a little bit more.

[00:34:42] And so, but really just thinking about reducing barriers for schools is one of the first steps. And so we're really fortunate. my office is fortunate that we're able to reduce the barrier of transportation for a lot of schools which we know can really be a challenge and I've already started working and how can I both be fiscally supportive with that as well as developing the logistics because transportation also has a lot on their plate as well and so that's definitely been an integral part of the conversation.

[00:35:11] Can I just add not to get ahead of it because as we get closer to the Northern Virginia Science Center opening there are going to be some very specific expectations in terms of partnerships between Latin County Public Schools and that that center it's gonna be very exciting for our elementary students there's expectations about access for all students about transportation about experiences we're in the early stages with the Science Center and working working that out Mr. Rounsey has attended meetings Dr. Ellis works very closely with the Northern Virginia Science Center so that will come back when we have a more full fully developed comms on that but we're gonna have a we are we're all looking forward to the

[00:35:49] relationship we're gonna have with the Northern Virginia Science Center and the impact it's gonna have on our students thank you for that I'm a big science girl and now I hogged up a lot of time I will turn it over to my colleagues if you have any questions or comments yes mr. Spencer thank you dr. Rashid I just wanted to follow up on the science resource teachers in terms of the scope and it was really impressive to see the impact that those resource teachers have had and I know that we've had similar success with math resource teachers for instance so I was curious about the timeline for thinking about resource teachers generally

[00:36:25] but specifically the science resource teachers in terms of expanding the the scope and coverage if that's you know what the what folks think is in the best interests of the different schools. So this is this it's well it's always budget season as you've probably know but we are at really at the heart of budget season in terms of staff taking input considering needs looking at school-based needs so across the board we have had success with you know our reading specialist our math resource teachers or science resource teachers or coaches and that's

[00:37:02] just within teaching learning there's behavior resource teachers was a topic of performance monitoring last night so part of it is just going through the process of developing the superintendent's estimate of needs we're definitely taking a look at our science office holistically we know there are constraints on the budget this year so we're taking a deep dive into our base budgets looking at our programs so this is the time of year where input is received so it's a priority to the board that we expand on this and we see it in our data then it's it's the likelihood that will show up in our budget if not growing but definitely maintaining depending on where we land thank you

[00:37:41] appreciate that yeah exciting budget season upon us constantly but especially now and then you had mentioned the environmental literacy framework that you all are developing what is the timeline for that you know getting further along and then being being rolled out at a more general level so this year because a lot of other initial things that we had put in place are starting to gain a little bit more momentum momentum for example thinking about like our green teams that through Clark's office she's been able to expand that through more schools as well as we really want to look at how the rollout of those me we's

[00:38:20] are going. So our goal is really to firm out the draft for this year. We also think it's really important when I say we, Clark and I, in addition to science office team members, also think it's really important to also gather feedback and seeing what does that feedback loop need to look at, needs to look like, as well as what are the key stakeholders that we want to have involved in that feedback process. So our hope is really to firm out a more final draft and get some more voices at the table to help us fully flush that out.

[00:38:51] Great. Thank you so much. I'm excited to see that and expand environmental literacy. And on the environmental science point, the pilot courses at Woodgrove sound amazing. Is there, what does the process look like, assuming everything goes well with the development of those courses and implementation to expanding that to other high schools, for instance?

[00:39:13] So we're really starting to have those conversations. And so really we're navigating how we want to ensure access to those courses. and what's going to be the best way to ensure that LCPS students can have access to those courses. So Jeff and I have had a lot of conversations on what might be the best way.

[00:39:32] We don't know if that may be a pathway or really just opening up environmental pathway courses that then students can access via our course planner. Got it. Thank you. And thanks so much. This is an amazing presentation and great work from the whole team. Thank you, Mr. Spencer.

[00:39:50] Ms. Cherno. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. And thank you to the team and, you know, Darielle, Ms. Timothy, you are incredible. We are so blessed to have you and your energy and your expertise. And I can honestly say that when I'm out in the schools, these things all shine through.

[00:40:06] It is apparent that the work is happening at a high level. It is apparent that students are engaged from K all the way through 12. I have had the privilege to see many of these things in action. And thanks to you for always being open to partner with us and invite us to everything. It is very exciting, and I have two questions.

[00:40:26] One is, and I may have missed this in just the last conversation, but how many schools currently offer the ISR and the GIS? Is it scattered, or is every school offering that now? I believe we have it currently at 17 of our 18 high schools. Wow. Yeah, so it's pretty comprehensive, and really the goal is to expand it across all of those, but it's really grown just even in the last few years.

[00:40:49] It's amazing. The science fair, the regional science fair is one of my favorite days of the year. I love wandering up in the bleachers and just digging in just informally with the students. They are so brilliant, one, and two, they're just so equipped and eager to continue research.

[00:41:06] It's like research begets research. They want to do more. They want to learn more. So I think that that is so exciting that 17 of our 18 high schools have that. That's incredible. I love seeing the growth there and being recognized at the national level as well. My question for Propel and Level Up is can you just review for me what the enrollment process looks like for that and about how many students have access within our different programs?

[00:41:31] I know it's elementary four and five and then six through eight and middle, correct? Yes, that is correct. And so currently we actually collaborate with the research office and they've helped build out a click app for us in which we're able to capture all of the students within the pool of eligibility.

[00:41:49] And so we've been historically looking at, we've used map data. We definitely use teacher input. And we also look at what enrichment opportunities are students having access to or not having access to. They're primarily at our Title I school.

[00:42:04] So it's definitely within that cluster of schools that we have. And this past school year, we've been averaging on about a little over 600 students that are actually participating in the program. varies grade level to grade level, but thinking about holistically in the program, that's about how many we've had. That's awesome. Thank you so much. And I actually did not know that you are writing the curriculum and you are doing all the things. And so that is a whole nother level of my mind being blown tonight. So I am appreciative to you and your, and what you do. Um, and if ever you need to walk into a classroom and have someone go, Ooh, what's this? Like that is those

[00:42:44] It is amazing. It has been, it's very, very fun and kids are so engaged. So I don't really have anything else except to say this is fantastic. I will say that I've been back for three days and I think I've had a dozen budget requests in the three days since I've been back.

[00:43:01] So the season must be upon us. All of these things are equally important. I know that these resource teachers, you're moving the needle. You're in there moving the needle directly affecting results, results which is something that I have spoken to as one of my priorities since I've been on the board especially after working at Guilford myself so and I know Leesburg is a buzz because of your work at Frederick Douglass they're like when are we getting an SRT and I'm like what what's SRT again oh yeah science okay yeah so I know that there's need and I know it's been a focus for our division across elementary so noted is what I will say and we are going to be weighing some

[00:43:40] some tough decisions, but I have a hard time not acknowledging the direct impact that you're having. And so you are seen and we thank you for that. And it's really, really meaningful. So thank you all for this wonderful, wonderful evening of success. And I look forward to hearing more in the future. Fantastic. All right. And with that, I'm going to ask, does anybody have new business?

[00:44:06] Okay. I had new business. And I mean, we've, yeah, this is like the first time, right? In such a long time. So new business just until we see a lot of awareness when it comes to e-bike safety and e-bike education. So I just wanted to see if there was any type of e-bike education or awareness. I'm sure we do some, but if there could be some sort of information that could be related to us in regards to that awareness and that safety. So it's a timely topic. I have a couple high schoolers

[00:44:42] myself in my house and sees plenty of the e-bikes and see the news story so we have been thinking about e-bikes and it's actually a timely new business topic as we do plan on having the health health and PE office in at CNI next week to give kind of an overview so we'll include a section on what we do when it comes to bike safety and what has changed with e-bikes more comprehensively across the curriculum but Mr. Roundsy could speak a little bit to our curriculum and some of our partnerships when it comes to bike safety just to respond for now but more information

[00:45:18] to come in September. Yeah this is definitely a timely topic and it's something that I know is on the minds of a lot of people. I'm the father of a middle school e-bike rider myself and so I think a lot about these things but we do have times in our SOLs for health and PE where we do talk about bike safety and general um bike safety guidelines we also have a part-time health and pe resource teacher who's really focused on safe routes to school and providing education around safe pedestrian travel um and so she does uh host the bike and um bike and roll to school or walk and

[00:45:55] roll to school events you might see those promoted every year just talking about safety and interacting with cars on the on the road we also partner with bike loudon um and the loudon county sheriff's office and the leesburg police department on different initiatives supporting e-bike safety that's definitely become of interest but one that is growing and we know this on the minds of a lot of people so there are some kind of developing partnerships there that we might be able to share more about in the next uh in the next cni meeting when we talk about health and pe thank you for that thank you so much and uh anybody have any comments all right all right so our next meeting

[00:46:31] is scheduled for September 2nd, 2026 at 4:30. Mark your calendars. And if there's nothing for ado, so we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting. So adjourned. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Smith. I appreciate you.

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