Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 50m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1223119435?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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[00:00:10] Good afternoon. I'm calling this meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee to order. My name is Dena Griffiths, and I'm joined by my colleagues, Ms. Riccardi and Mr. Pepper. Is there public comment? Okay. So no public comment today. We'll move on to the minutes.

[00:00:27] May I have a motion to approve the minutes of August 4th for the Finance and Operations Committee meeting? So moved. Second. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the August 4th Finance and Operations Committee meeting all those in favor say aye aye we will now move on to the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda aye madam chair I move to approve the consent agenda for the September 1st 2026 finance and operations second all those in favor thank you both and all

[00:01:05] those in favor say aye aye I don't believe there are any action items for today so we'll move on to information items, and we will now start with 5.01, Business and Financial Services Renewal of IFB No. 126100 Wind and String Instrument Repair Services. This item will be presented by Ms. Andrea Filla, Director of Procurement and Risk Management. Thank you, Ms. Filla. Good evening, and thank you for having a meeting this evening so I could get all these items started on your agenda. The first one, as mentioned, is the Wing and

[00:01:42] the wind and string instrument repair contract. This contract, we actually have had in place, the current contract we have expires November 30th, 2026. This is the first renewal for this contract.

[00:01:58] We have an agreement with Brenda Schaap and Dave Islands to do these repairs for the instruments. And we bring it before you this evening to be considered to move to either action or consent item on your September 15th meeting with school board on September 22nd.

[00:02:17] The amount of this contract is approximately $260,000. The vendors did maintain their current pricing for the repair services. - Thank you, Ms. Villa. I just wanted to point out on board docs, I'm not able to pull it up.

[00:02:33] I noticed that earlier today, the documents are there and some you can pull up and some you can't. I do have the information, I've seen it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. Did we have any questions on the, you guys were not able to pull it up as well, is that why, oh, you do have it, okay.

[00:02:52] Do you have any questions on the contract? - Chair Griffiths, I did want to share that there's only a couple, one item that has backup. All the other backup items are in the executive only section of board docs.

[00:03:09] - Oh, okay, that would explain that, okay. All right, thank you. Did you, yes, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Ms. Filia. I'm assuming this is pretty straight, a pretty straightforward contract is just a renewal. These are for instruments that LCPS owns and the students borrow or rent from us.

[00:03:27] Is that correct? That is correct. Mr. Pearson is here in the room. Okay, he's nodding. So yes, that is correct. That these are for the school-owned violins, cellos, bass, the wind and string instruments that we LCPS purchase. And is there regular maintenance that occurs at the end of each year or is it when an item breaks? Yes, both. Mr. Pearson actually does an end-of-year process where we will get invoices for his end-of-year repairs as well as ongoing repairs if something should break or need maintenance during the school year. Okay, I don't

[00:04:01] think I have any more questions. I think this is a pretty straightforward one. Thank you both. This is a straightforward contract and again, Mr. Pearson, thank you so much. It means a lot to me and the students that there are extra instruments at the schools if they show an interest to try another instrument or try an A instrument that they have that opportunity for a lower cost.

[00:04:30] So I appreciate that. And with that, no other questions, right? So no discussion. Based on the discussion, is the committee comfortable in putting this on consent? I am. We'll go ahead and do that.

[00:04:47] Thank you. Now we move on to 5.02, a Business and Financial Services Award, IFB number 127100, Custodial Supplies and Equipment for Ongoing Needs. This will be presented by Ms. Philaw, Director of Procurement Risk Management.

[00:05:04] Thank you. This is a contract that we bring to you annually. Every year we issue a new solicitation for the purchase of our custodial supplies. Two of the biggest items on here would be your toilet tissue and your paper towel. So very important things, which also you will see, the estimated value of this award is $1.4 million.

[00:05:24] These items are all delivered centrally and then provided out to our schools as needed to replenish the inventory at our schools so the custodians are able to do their jobs within our schools. We bring this item before you this evening as our current contract is set to expire October 31, 2026, and we bring it before you to be presented at your September 15th item, meeting as an action item or a consent item and then move to the school board consent agenda on September 22nd 2026. The attachment you will see there are several vendors awarded these items this was an IFB so it was the lowest price on

[00:06:00] the specified item or acceptable substitute. Thank You Ms. Fallaw. Any questions? Yes Mr. Pepper. Thank You Madam Chair and once we approve this are these prices locked in for the 26-27 school year? These prices are locked in for the school year unless something very strange happens with paper but we don't generally allow them to increase our IFBs because this is a one-year contract and if a vendor were to come back and do that we would go to the next slow bid on the specified item so these are prices for a period of one year. Okay I'm just asking because of the expected increase in the cost of paper goods due

[00:06:37] to the tariffs on Canada was the only reason I was asking that. Yes we are seeing some of that coming through as we speak thank you um that's interesting how much paper do we get from canada i'm curious i do not know where our paper comes from but generally when there's a paper increase it's a paper increase thank you i just want i was just thrown by that okay um so if there's no more discussion if we could uh go ahead and put this on consent how does everybody feel i'm okay with that all right great we'll move that to consent and thank you very much

[00:07:14] business and we're moving on to 5.03 business and financial services renewal rfp number 232 268 tree services this item is also being presented by miss villa director of procurement risk management thank you thank you this contract is being brought before you as the estimated value is 580 000 this is a contract for our facility operations team and this contract is for tree services the vendor is Brightview landscapes of Bluebell Pennsylvania with the next contract starting December 1 2026 this is the third renewal option on

[00:07:51] this contract and being brought before you this evening to either be moved to action or consent at your September 15th meeting and school board consent on September 22nd thank you Miss Villa any questions there no oh you do I'm sorry Thank you madam chair is there a per project limit on this contract no this contract would not have a per project limit as it's not construction related so this contract is for down tree removal tree trimming dead trees those

[00:08:27] types of things so there would not be a pure prod a per project limit on this contract and then what was so this is the fourth is this the fourth year this is the third renewal option we would have one more renewal with an optional fifth year renewal just out of curiosity kind of what's the largest size project that we have in a year under this contract do you know mr woehead is coming up to address your question good evening in general these are ad hoc so last year we had some large ones to remove the invasive trees the tree of heavens it was i think in the 80 to 90 thousand dollar range generally it's between five

[00:09:07] and thirty thousand dollars to remove what we call declining or dead trees on the campuses that are safety risks or we when we move around the campuses to trim low hanging bushes trees and things of that nature if there was a larger endeavor like if say we had to go in we would investigate you know hey what we could break this into one smaller section so we're not for lack of a better term affecting too much of a campus at one time but for the most part they're smaller and smaller efforts centered around safety or I guess beautification of the areas does this

[00:09:44] also include like invasive i had a i had a constituent asked me that lives next door to one of our schools so we share a property line with it with one of the neighbors that had some invasive poison ivy actually on on her fence that was coming from the school side so is it to like remove those kind of things and it can be um generally we reserve this for for trees or worth i guess from a risk perspective it's um we want a professional if it's a large diameter tree or it's leaning on something where we need a crane or specialized piece of equipment if it's smaller things like that our in-house teams take care of those great thank you so much um i also had a

[00:10:23] question on that oops sorry sorry um invasive i thought you were going to mention invasive species um destroying the trees as well so some trees have to be removed um are you seeing that more we work with some of the partners in the area like the tree of heaven is a host for the lantern flies we've taken out hundreds of those over the last several years um in certain instances the bradford pear or the calorie pear that's um we'll take those out to try to limit the spread of those but for the most part um the there's the techniques for that are done in conjunction with you know

[00:10:57] we're not aggressively trying to um remove invasive species we're just trying to host of those species that help if that answers your question it does um it's just something everybody's aware of right now. So I thought I'd ask. Thank you so much. Um, how does everybody feel about, uh, going to consent? Okay. This will go to consent as well. Thank you very much. Um, we will move to now item 5.04 business and finance, business and financial services renewal of RFP 252, 274 playground equipment and related product services. Again, uh, Ms. Uh, presented by Ms. Andrea

[00:11:35] Phil Law, Director of Procurement and Risk Management. Thank you. Thank you. This contract has an estimated value of $4.4 million. This is related to the projects that were approved to have another playground added to the sites. You will see within the item a list of the schools for this year's projects. You will see that in the background paragraph there it lists the various schools that will be benefiting from this contract the current contract does expire October 31 2026 and the new contract starts November 1 2026 through October 31 2027 this is actually the first renewal for

[00:12:14] this contract last year was the first year we put out the solicitation and all recreation of Virginia is being renewed for another one year to do these projects for Loudoun County Public Schools and work with our staff on the implementation of these playgrounds.

[00:12:31] We're asking that you either move this to your next meeting as an action or consent item, and then on the school board consent agenda on September 22nd, 2026. Thank you, Ms. Mullaw. Any questions? And, oh, sure, Ms. McCarty. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:12:47] So how many firms were awarded this contract? The original award was two firms. We renewed with one firm. This firm has been doing a great job for us. Working with one vendor helps with scheduling.

[00:13:04] This vendor also has the staff capacity to do this many projects for us. They have proven that they were building up their resources to provide these services to us because there are a lot of schools on this list and we are confident that they can complete the work on time.

[00:13:21] Their pricing has been very favorable throughout the work as far as giving us good pricing on all the projects they've done for Loudoun County Public Schools during the past year. so this is 4.4 million so is this actually I'm good with it I think I'm fine thank you any other questions um if you are okay with it uh for consent I would like to move it to our September 8th meeting is that okay you guys okay with that oh sure go ahead Mr. McCarty

[00:13:59] this is all part of the CIP or the cap actually this is part of CIP and you would still need to bring it to your separate September 15th meeting to have it be consent or action and then you could put it on school board consent on September 22nd. Thank you. Thank you for that correction. I thought we were going to try and move it to the 8th. Okay so if you are okay with the 15th we'll move it to consent then. Okay we'll go ahead and do that. Thank you. Now we move to item 5.05 business and

[00:14:34] financial services renewal of rfp r25310 construction support services again miss phillaw if you don't mind director of risk management uh procurement risk management thank you yes this contract is for multiple vendors that are able to provide us construction support services at times of peak work or when we need additional assistance with managing projects the current value of this contract is $600,000. The contract did allow for multiple awards. The current contract expires October 31, 2026. You will see the vendors listed in the summary section and we are asking that you

[00:15:13] consider bringing this forward on your September 15th as action or consent and then once again to the school board consent on September 22nd. Any questions? Yes Mr. Pepper. Thank you Madam Chair. How do we decide when we need additional support which one of these firms we use?

[00:15:30] Is it by what their expertise are? Is it by cost of the contract? What's the determining factor? Yes, it can be their expertise. It can also be the cost. It can also be availability. Who's available? And Mr. Pasquarelli, if there's anything you'd like to add?

[00:15:48] I just know we have a bunch of different contracts. I want to see how we do this. Okay. I don't think I have anything else on this one. I do have a question on this. and I did have a little bit of a discussion with you, Mr. Traynor.

[00:16:05] The proposals are from 2024. So I'm looking for if we were to use any of these companies where the updates would be on costs. I don't think I saw that listed. There has been no rate increases.

[00:16:22] So the cost is contingent upon the work they are doing with us, but they have not increased their hourly rate to provide these services. It would depend on the number of hours that we need them. So there has been no rate increase. Oh, okay. Good to hear. That's what I was curious about.

[00:16:38] And I think that's it for my questions. How does everybody feel about consent? We'll go ahead and do that. We'll move it to consent. And then we'll move on to 5.06, Business and Financial Services Renewal of RFP R26014, Job Order Contracting for General Construction.

[00:17:00] Ms. Phil Law, Director of Procurement and Risk Management, again, thank you. - The estimated value of this work is $7 million. You will see there are multiple vendors awarded on this contract, which once again, as Mr. Pepper brought up, we distribute the work based on what we talked about during the previous item.

[00:17:18] This job order contract is actually, the current contract term expires December 31, 2026, so we're bringing it before you now to ensure it's in place for January 1, 2027. We would ask that you bring it forward at September 15th as an action or consent item and on the school board consent agenda on September 22nd, 2026.

[00:17:39] - Thank you, any discussion? I did have one question, general construction. Can you give me an idea or examples of what they'd be working on as far as general construction?

[00:17:56] - I could, but Mr. Pascarelli's right there, so I'm going to have him come up and give you some examples. - Hi, good afternoon. So we use this contract for summer work for the most part. So we may, there may be a storage room at a school that we're converting to, you know, an office space or something like that.

[00:18:14] It may be a painting project during the summer, sort of small to medium-sized projects. And the JOC program is, it's a pre-negotiated unit price contract, meaning we know what it's going to cost us per square foot for painting and for a lineal foot of pipe, that kind of thing.

[00:18:31] So we use it for those types of projects. Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Pasquarelli. Did anybody have any questions after that? I think we can go ahead and move this to consent. How does everybody feel? Yeah, we're good.

[00:18:46] We'll move that to consent as well. Now we move on to 5.07, Business and Financial Services Revision of Policy 4330, Remedies and Bids and Awards. Again, Ms. Philo, if you don't mind. Thank you. Absolutely. So we're going to take you off of contracts now and on to the policies that help us with our contracts.

[00:19:07] The first one I'm presenting to you is policy 4330, which is remedies and bids and awards. This particular policy is really to clean up and align with the Virginia Public Procurement Act and also make just some cosmetic changes. The information within here is also included in each of our solicitations when they go out regarding remedies in bids and awards like the determination of non-responsibility.

[00:19:32] So these things are incorporated into our solicitations. And once again, this is just clean up to align with the Virginia Public Procurement Act, which governs what we do. - Thank you, Ms. Villa. Any questions, Ms. Riccardi?

[00:19:48] - Thank you, Madam Chair. So this is part of this whole group of procurement policies that we're in the process of looking through? - Yes, this would be my final two.

[00:20:05] - I have questions, I think probably more for the next one, but I think they're gonna wind up working for both or yeah. I really, this is one I would actually not like go to consent because i want to make sure i take a really good look at it um because now that we've got the with these two we'll have like the whole the whole package and i really want to take some time to make sure that all of the policies thread properly and that they there's no seams between or no gaps between the seams and some of these policies so what are the major changes that we've made to this one the red lines will just represent the changes that were made and once again as i

[00:20:40] shared it's just really to get it in line with the virginia public procurement act for example you will see that the policy related or the section related to a protest if a vendor doesn't agree with our award has just been moved down in the document to the more appropriate section you'll also see that it spells out that they have basically 10 days from the notice of intent of award to protest and what that process looks like the determination on the debarment process also says for unsatisfactory performance That is standard Virginia Public Procurement Act language, along with when is a vendor non-responsible.

[00:21:19] And once again, this is just to reiterate what we have in our solicitation documents and what's in the state code. - Thank you. - Yes, Mr. Pepper. - This is really, thank you, Madam Chair. This is really just a clarification question.

[00:21:37] How do we determine someone is a non-responsible bidder? - A non-responsible bidder is the bidder that you would determine upfront they're not capable of doing the work. You may have some way of saying, you know, they only have two staff and we need them to work 100 locations.

[00:21:54] Non-responsible is not used very often. And the main thing is with non-responsible, you must let the vendor know that they are non-responsible and give them an opportunity to disclaim that and say, well, I am responsible and here is why. But that is why it's written in Virginia Public Procurement Act so detailed as it is here in this policy to properly reflect if we were to make that determination.

[00:22:18] appreciate that clarification i was that was the one thing i was digging through this last night trying to figure out what it was talking about there but i appreciate that thank you thank you both um i had a couple things just verbiage uh well the first thing is verbiage issues um where you have he she his her you could put t-h-e-i-r you could put there that would fit um if you could just go ahead and do that rather than we have actually stricken his her in the red line yeah it's just the claim of right to withdraw there is no reference to a pronoun there well when I was

[00:22:53] reading it looked like you could put there if you needed to if you wanted to I'll also just share there's a division-wide approach to the policies that we're following related to the reference to pronouns I don't I don't see a problem with T-H-E-I-R I understand where that you're trying to follow something what is it called again it's something specific right I can't remember the reference I can't remember the reference either has mentioned it during school board meetings but again we are just following that direction well I really don't see an issue with T H E I R for every spot I

[00:23:33] don't see how that's a problem I will share what Miss Riccardi shared I'm going to show non consistency among us our other policies where we've done it this way I will add that so when Miss Riccardi when you brought up looking at all the policies this is going to be worded different than the other ones I have and we'll look forward to seeing that policy seeing the policy again but also I did have a question on and this kind of threw me off a little bit a bidder may withdraw his or her bid from consideration if the price bid was substantially lower than other bids due solely to mistake herein provided the

[00:24:12] bid was submitted in good faith and mistake was a clerical mistake. So basically what that's telling me is if they didn't win the bid and they want to, that would be a protest at that point, right? Or they won the bid, but it was lower than everybody else put in and they want to move the cost up. Does that make sense? During the 10-day protest period, which is after the notice of intent to award, vendors do have an opportunity to withdraw their bid if they have determined they made a mistake. That is when the opportunity presents itself for them to withdraw the bid. If they withdraw that bid because they can't hold that price

[00:24:50] or honor that price, we want them to withdraw their bid and not have them come back later and say, well, we need to increase our costs because we made a mistake. Therefore, that 10-day window gives them that opportunity to withdraw their bid due to an error in calculations or any other type of error that they have discovered. What we actually do is when we prepare to award, we send out something to the vendor that says, okay, this is what you bid. Can you agree to this? And they have that opportunity during that 10-day protest period or 10-day period to withdraw their bid.

[00:25:21] Thank you. That gives me more of an explanation on that because when you first read it, it comes across like, oh, wait a minute, all the other bids were more. I want to change it and charge more. So I just wanted to make that clarification. So per our discussion, we'll have this come back to finance and operations as an action item thank you thank you now we move on to 5.08 business and financial services revision of policy 4340 procurement procedures again miss phila thank you thank you first i would like to bring to your attention in the attachments i also included the

[00:26:01] current policy 4340 and the regulation 4340 what i wanted you to be aware of is in the regulation you will see where we have added those items that were stricken from policy 4340. The regulation actually identifies the things that can and cannot must be included in a contract or cannot be included in a contract.

[00:26:21] These help us make sure that we are in compliance with state code, once again, as well as any legal policies or internal policies. The procurement exceptions is being brought to align with the state of Virginia process. The state of Virginia gives basically this is the state of Virginia's document regarding what is exempt from the competitive procurement process up to a value of $200,000 or in the case of Section A it's specific items and then when you get down to the administrative exemptions it's up to $200,000.

[00:26:56] For example you'll see in that list memberships and dues if being a member of the Virginia School Board Association was more than $200,000 or less than $200,000, we wouldn't say go out and get three quotes and find the best organization to meet our needs. We pay that as part of being a school board or as I do as part of a procurement organization. In addition, you'll see postage.

[00:27:19] Postage is what postage is. We have to pay what it costs per stamp or to mail something. Travel, we use for travel, we use per diem rates. So we have an established process. We use the federal guidelines regarding per diem rates and you'll see various other things there on this list that are included and then there's other non-procurement transactions that may require requisition or purchase order but don't fall under procurement services or the requirements of this policy and you can see those there as well and I will open the floor for any questions you might have you will notice we have changed this title to be procurement

[00:27:56] procedure exemptions and as i had said this is in alignment with the state of virginia code and the practices that state of virginia follows along with the virginia public procurement act thank you miss phila mr pepper thank you madam chair um appreciate the hard work that went into this because we're basically uh rewriting this entire policy it's not if you look at current 4340 and revise 4340, they are 100% different.

[00:28:25] My question is some of the stuff in old 4340 that pertains, for example, to people who are awarded a contract and might have an employee who is a criminal offender in some way, is that found elsewhere now in our policy?

[00:28:43] Because some of this is still important. That is why I shared the regulation with you, because the regulation identifies everything that we should have included in a contract and those things we cannot agree to in the contract so therefore that section was moved to the associated regulation to better align with the other contract terms and conditions we must follow as a procurement organization in a k-12 appreciate that because thank you any other questions yes mr thank you for this i appreciate it and as i mentioned before i do have a small

[00:29:19] number of proposed changes i'll email those to you all so we can fold those into the next version of this or use it as a as amendments if we want to so it sounds to me like and just to make sure i understand so we basically took out items from 4340 that are part of the legally required procurement process and move them into a regulation is it a it's a new regulation or or has it been there and it's just, it was revised?

[00:29:50] This is a regulation that has been there and we revised it by adding these things in to go with the other things that were in that regulation. Okay, thank you. And then on the list of administrative exemptions, can you give me some examples? What are educational films?

[00:30:07] Like what's included in educational films? I would have to say educational films is probably a more outdated term, But educational would be, for example, if we adopted a certain curriculum or a certain leadership or something like that, it would be what goes with that.

[00:30:29] And it's basically what you're getting into is because you've aligned with that, you've put yourself in a sole source situation, right? Because every vendor is going to say, I can only provide you this. I can only provide. And that's what this has done here with this list.

[00:30:44] so are these educational like training videos for our adults like staff or is this educational videos also for k-12 educational purposes i believe that would be you know educational for us would be the student staff classrooms because down below on uh on the red lines or item 13 on that list you'll see tuition and training so when you're talking about training for adults tuition for adults um that's where i would say your training would fall okay and is this list the

[00:31:22] same list or are there any items on this list that are new or that were added or this is the same list as the state yes it's pulled straight from state code and then as far as legal services go is that always been i believe it has been but it's always been on this list too yes you're absolutely correct the virginia public procurement act has actually excludes legal services from the procurement threshold or the procurement competitive requirements and then I see yeah and I see the number three on the front of this on page one it says they approve textbooks that is correct if they are on the VDOE list and we make a

[00:32:01] decision that's what we're going to utilize we can purchase them off the video through video because a video we adopted and approved and well I'll go through and take a look at this is one I definitely want to come back for action next time so we can really get through this but thank you for that did you go ahead Ms. Willoughby just to sum up regarding both policies both policies will now go through the public comment period where you know they'll be out there for public members to share any questions or concerns as part of the

[00:32:37] process this would automatically come back as action and that as Ms. Riccardi referred to earlier in advance of our next meeting on the 15th if you could share what amendments you may be entertaining that will help us facilitate an efficient meeting on the 15th.

[00:32:59] I think at this point, yeah, we'll have it come back as action to finance and operations. So thank you. Is there any new business? I wanted to just take some time just to-- and I did speak to you a little bit about this, Miss Willoughby-- just take some time to discuss the PTSAs and the-- the PTAs and the PTSOs.

[00:33:25] First off, I would like to thank them for all their support, and we're talking booster clubs, PTSOs, PTAs, and school support organizations across Loudoun County for their extraordinary dedication and hard work.

[00:33:40] These volunteers provide countless opportunities, programs, and resources for our students that would otherwise not be available through LCPS funding alone. I think there's an issue that it appears like things are changing, we'll need explanations as to why it's changing, but I understand and appreciate the division's desire to strengthen accountability and ensure consistency in fundraising practices.

[00:34:07] I believe the discussions that took place on August 13th warrant further clarification and additional stakeholder engagement. My concern is that if we proceed with the proposed memorandum of agreement, the MOA, in its current form, we risk discouraging the very volunteers who contribute so much to our schools.

[00:34:27] This is a 501 made up of volunteers, parents that want to see their students enjoy activities at their respective schools. Ms. Willoughby, I understand you are now in possession of the proposed agreement developed by Riverside High School.

[00:34:45] - I'm in possession of feedback. - Feedback, okay. It's more of a negotiation, proposals and negotiation. That's something that they'll want to use division-wide. So we'll have to continue those discussions.

[00:35:03] I am aware that you're having a meeting with Ms. Chernoff this Wednesday. I have not been privy to the details on that or included in that upcoming discussion. I would encourage LCPS administration to review that document that I just mentioned carefully and engage in discussions with our school support organizations to determine whether it could serve as a model for division-wide agreement.

[00:35:28] That's why I mentioned it, because we're looking for it to serve division-wide. One other area it appears to be we need clarification for is parents, or actually LCPS employees, Will they continue to be permitted to hold leadership or volunteer roles with the PTSOs, PTAs, and booster clubs while maintaining their employment with LCPS?

[00:35:54] So these are all things that I don't know what's going to be discussed on Wednesday, but we need to continue this discussion. It will be on the agenda for our September 8th meeting. And in the interest of time, that was all I really wanted to bring up today about that subject.

[00:36:11] Unless you wanted to add something, Ms. Willoughby or Ms. Fullaw? Yes, I appreciate the opportunity to provide some additional context and clarity. We also share the similar sentiment that we value our partnerships with our school support organizations. As you are aware, as I had shared over the past couple of weeks, when you've shared the feedback that you were receiving, I am still available to me at any time to have a further discussion.

[00:36:39] Similar to Ms. Chernoff, she reached out, and so I have set up a meeting with her. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you individually as well to address your specific concerns. Related to the SSOs, you know, we developed this policy 80-20 back in 2022.

[00:36:57] A lot of the concerns that are being shared now were also shared back then. Anytime we're implementing something new, you know, there can be a fear of the unknown or a fear of change. However, back in October of 2024, at the Finance and Operations Committee meeting, during that time when we were revising this policy, we publicly shared and had a lot of discussion how our next step was to develop this MOA.

[00:37:27] And actually, there was discussion about even creating a regulation. We have not created a regulation, but we did proceed over the last two years, essentially, to develop the draft MOA. as part of that process we were actively seeking feedback and we are happy to see that we are generating the feedback that we desire we've had one initial stakeholder meeting with booster clubs that has generated some of the feedback that the board is also receiving where really the process would be of sharing that feedback with staff so that we can take that feedback and look for those

[00:38:06] opportunities to provide additional clarity to the agreement that we are wanting to put in place we have we are working to schedule meetings with PTOs and then also with the PTAs so we there's multiple organizations that we are looking to get feedback from I'm not so sure I would call it a negotiation I think that sets it up as being adversarial where really we're wanting to develop an agreement that best protects not only the school support organizations but also the school division. The close relationship that those SSOs have naturally give the perception that the school

[00:38:43] board and the school division has oversight and liability to some of the activities that these SSOs undertake and that is not the case. So we are really wanting to clarify the roles and expectations who is responsible for what in this MOA. I know there's a lot of a lot of questions a lot of concerns one of the feedback that we have received was can we publicly share what is being presented to staff and the team has already set up a web page there's not a lot out there yet but

[00:39:20] we have a web page set up under the business of financial services area under the procurement there's a a specific radio button for school support organizations and we're looking to mirror the budget in question process that we use during the budget development with this so as we get gather questions and feedback that will publicly put that those out there on the webpage along with the school divisions responses as I mentioned earlier also we have identified on our own and also driven from the feedback that has been generated areas where we can further clarify

[00:39:59] the moa so that there is no confusion in terms of what the requests are beyond that as you reference this will this is planned to be a discussion item on the september 8th school board meeting and so we will be prepared to address any other questions that school board members have at that time and additionally as i had shared with you when this all started appearing in school board members email inboxes that we are preparing an information only item for the F&O committee

[00:40:34] on September 15th the goal of that presentation is to inform this committee a little more of the history of the school support organizations the roles and just information just some more background information about how how we work together and also why you know this is really important we believe to put in place and so other than that I think we're just continuing to prepare for the December 8th meeting I mean September 8th meeting and September 15th meeting thank you thank

[00:41:08] you so much Ms. Willoughby yes Ms. Riccardi thank you Madam Chair um you know I think I guess I'm going to ask a question first and then maybe I'll maybe that'll influence what I say but was this ever brought to the school board as an idea or a concept before it dropped in our inboxes this last week and the reason I ask that I don't I've been to a lot of school board meetings for many years I don't remember this coming up so I guess that would be my first question is was the school board ever was this ever brought before the school board as a conversation so specifically we were able to go back and listen to the audio of the October meeting I will share

[00:41:48] when we initially brought forward the creation of the new 80-20 policy it generated this type of of response um so there was a lot of discussion not just at the committee level but at the full board level um so beyond just the discussion that we i can specifically point to i know that at a minimum that october meeting at the finance committee meeting there was a public discussion i can't say my my memory is not going to remember beyond that um if there was a more public

[00:42:21] discussion at the school board level but i wouldn't be surprised just because of the nature of the discussion that was occurring at that time yeah i mean i guess i'm you know you i can appreciate the fact that nobody likes to be caught off guard but i had no clue that we were um looking at um this moa and all of the elements of it in order to in in essence um i'm not gonna say take over but assume you know a lot of the financial management of some of these things or whatever

[00:43:00] it is that we're doing and to be honest with you it just hit my box this week so i have not had a chance to dive in it but it certainly has gotten filled with a lot of people and a lot of not so positive comments about this whole process and i'm concerned about that so i if i'm so please obviously i said something that isn't right so please correct me on that um and i'm fully admitting i have not had a chance to do a deep dive on this yet but the blowback on this right now in my inbox is I wasn't expecting it number one and so I guess what I would say is that from the very get-go here it would have been really good for us to have had a conversation about this

[00:43:34] coming before this happened instead of now in retrospect now having a meeting in a couple of weeks about it because we still now have to you know be responsive to our communities about it and it's just one of those things that you guys don't like being getting caught off guard we don't like that either necessarily and this is one of those that definitely has so please clarify what I said so we get that clear no I appreciate the opportunity to clarify and I did kind of have a reaction so absolutely because it is absolutely not our intent these school support organizations

[00:44:09] are fully independent organizations which is why we really want to have this MOA to very clearly define the roles and expectations and who's accountable for what um mrs griffiths had shared what i will deem a rumor because we have not been able to find where it generated from or originated from but i know one one rumor that was circulating was that lcps wanted to to take 20 percent of all fundraising proceeds no very clearly no um the fund per our policy and as that is echoed in the

[00:44:45] MOA. And again, we've identified where we could be more clear in that in the MOA. But per our policy, our principals do have the authority to approve SSO fundraising activities on school property. And that's it. Any fundraising activities that an SSO may perform outside of school property is solely on them. Now, when they turn, if they were to donate funds to the school, Then we have another policy that governs donations of funds and equipment or items.

[00:45:22] Then we need to follow that policy related to those donations. We are not governing what donations the school support organization may receive. They are their own individual organization. One of the big positive feedbacks we have received was a lot of these SSOs not fully appreciating the liability that they assume with fundraising activities or other activities that they may conduct.

[00:45:56] And one of the requirements that we are asking for is for each one of those organizations to have liability insurance. That was news, again, to a lot of the organizations. I don't think they fully appreciated. Again, if you're an independent organization, then you're also fully independent when it comes to liability.

[00:46:14] We are not there to cover if something was to happen, if there was a mishap. That is not our liability. That is their liability. So, again, that was one area where we wanted to really identify who's responsible for what.

[00:46:31] But, again, truly when it goes back to the dollars, it is not wanting to provide any. We're not trying to tell them what to do, what not to do. but there are requirements and best practices and because they do carry the banner, as I kind of call it, of LCPS to generate these funds, we want, there is a certain level of oversight that the school board does have the responsibility for to protect the division.

[00:47:03] - If you don't mind, Ms. Willoughby, you said October 2024, so I was on the, I'm trying to think, I was on the committee then, so I'm trying to understand what came across that day and because I don't, or that meeting, I don't recall PTA or PTSO issues at that time.

[00:47:24] If you could just refresh my memory. And also I wanted to clarify the 20%. It was clarified to me that it's percentages taken out of tickets to football games and other activities. So you're saying that you're not taking, you're not looking for percentages out of that, correct?

[00:47:44] If you could just tell me which meeting it was and then, you know, correct the percentage. But that's the rumor. Ticket sales, I wonder if there's, well, there's still, again, no 20%.

[00:48:01] Ticket sales. Not 20, just a percentage. Let's just say a percentage. Regardless, there is no school support organizations for our activities do not collect the revenue for those activities. So there is no percentage to be taken because it's not their revenue to begin with.

[00:48:23] If they're having their own separate activity and it's not on school property, then it doesn't require the approval. And again, they generate those funds and those funds are theirs. The October meeting was we had brought this policy back, 80-20, back for revision.

[00:48:41] I don't recall what the revision was at that time. It probably was because it had only been two years since the policy was first adopted. It may have been an opportunity to provide some clarification. Beyond that, I know though every time we have talked about school support organizations, it definitely perks those organizations ears up.

[00:49:03] And so there was discussions at the committee level regarding the policy and then again of our next step of wanting to further have structure governing our partnership with them with this MOA.

[00:49:20] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam. Just for information, it was the October 22nd, 2024 school board meeting. It was item 3.05. It was on the consent agenda, just so you know. Thank you, Ms. Riccardi. And I think it was probably just a small revision to the policy.

[00:49:40] I don't recall any of the PTAs or PTSOs having an issue at that time. I would have remembered that, but there's an issue now. So I want to thank you so much. I just wanted to be transparent about it, that it's out there, and that we're having the discussions.

[00:50:00] And they're also working hard on their end to come to an agreement that works for everybody. So I just wanted to put that out there that we are having those discussions, and it will be on the agenda for September 8th.

[00:50:16] So thank you so much for all that information you provided today. Unless anybody else has anything, we'll adjourn. Or did you have new business? Nope. I guess we'll adjourn for today. Thank you, everyone.

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