Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 19m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1227202273?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 2026-10-30. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:00:01] 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 Ms. Riccardi and Mr. Pepper. If we could go to public comment. Do we have public comment today?

[00:00:16] Okay. We do not have public comment, so we will skip to the minutes. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of September 1, 2026, of the Finance and Operations Committee? So moved. Second. Thank you very much. It has been moved by Ms. Riccardi and seconded by Mr. Pepper to approve the minutes of September 1, 2026, Finance and Operations Committee.

[00:00:40] All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Now, if I can get an approval of the consent agenda, we will now move on to the consent agenda. Maya, I have a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved.

[00:00:56] Second. And thank you very much. It has been moved by Ms. Riccardi and seconded by Mr. Pepper. All those in favor, say aye. aye aye no action items today so we're going to move on to our information items uh first information item today item 5.01 business and financial services revised policy 4125 cash handling responsibility this item is being presented by susan gabany executive director

[00:01:27] of financial services thank you good afternoon we are presenting the revised policy which for policy 4125 cash handling responsibility which was last updated by the school board on january 11th of 2022 as part of the lcps policy review cycle this policy has been reviewed and suggested edits are provided by staff to capture the current practices changes or improvements that have occurred since the last adopted revision if you look at the red line version

[00:02:01] lines 5 through 12 added language to clarify responsibility and accountability in the following cash handling procedures also lines 13 through 20 language was added to ensure that cash is kept secure and properly accounted for in both school and non-school based locations unless otherwise directed policy 4125 cash handling responsibility will be posted on the lcps website for community input and distributed to school board advisory committees as appropriate for review any necessary changes from the public or committees as appropriate or advisory committee input will be incorporated

[00:02:40] into the red line version of the policy and then will be brought forward to the finance and operations committee as an action item thank you very much uh is there any discussion yes mr pepper thank you madam chair uh so in the section starting on the red line copy on line 13 the changes to school-based locations it looks like the section is just going to simply read responsible parties must turn funds over to the principal or designated school official it's all that's going to be there is my understanding does the title of that section as school-based locations make sense or should it be

[00:03:19] something like responsibility for the keeping of funds or something along those lines as to who's responsible for where the funds are going to be kept i also would say and i don't i think it's fine because we have the designated school official there i would assume most times that's the school bookkeeper of some sort who is really collecting and receiving funds that is correct financial technician so does the title of that section make sense or would it make sense as something else i think if you then look on row 18 we also identify for non-school-based locations where those funds must be turned in

[00:03:57] and so it's identifying between if you're a school or if you're not at a school where the funds would be turned into and then the other part of growth of line 13 that was struck out is really kind of captured in the additional red line on line 11 guess that's 10 through 12 about having you know the funds turned in at the end of the school day so section 1 has been revised to incorporate the timeline and then a and B is specifically to whom they turn it in based on the location so

[00:04:35] I just think it leaves a little bit more specificity for like even it's for like Activities at school-based locations activities at nonce like just the words activities at just makes a little bit clearer Because when I read it like just the cursory glance It's where do I store the funds at a school-based location?

[00:04:56] And my mind's like well, it's going in the financial technicians office. It's going in the safe. That's not whatever So that's just for me. It's just a clarity thing more than anything else on this policy. Thank you. Mr. Pepper any other Discussion? No. Are we okay with having this item come back for action?

[00:05:21] Yes? Okay. We'll have it come back for action. Thank you. Now we move on to item 5.02, support services grant of easements at Blue Ridge Middle School for the Percival G Street sidewalk.

[00:05:37] This item is being presented by Joseph Pasquarelli, Director of Construction. Thank you, Mr. Pasquarelli. thank you uh the town of perciville is seeking easement on this on the blue ridge middle school site uh to construct a sidewalk on g street so this is on the back side of of the school and they will have to remove a couple of trees replace a couple trees as well as some ballers we have back there although it doesn't connect directly to a walking path we have on the campus it will improve overall pedestrian walkability in the neighborhood so lcps engineering and Division Council Office has reviewed the documents and recommend approval.

[00:06:16] Thank you, Mr. Pascarelli. Are there any other questions or discussion? No? Okay. Does everyone feel okay with having this go on consent for the next meeting? Okay. Yes. Thank you so much. We will go to 5.03, Support Services Approval of Capital Improvement Fund Transfer and Supplemental Funds Request for View Transition Academy.

[00:06:43] This item is being presented by Mr. Pascarelli, again, Director of Construction. Thank you, Mr. Pascarelli. Thank you. As discussed at the school board work session last week, we were seeking funding to transfer funding to meet the needs of this project. Proposed funding is coming from completed capital projects as well as from the county-held LCPS contingency fund.

[00:07:07] The breakdown of the funding, approximately $4 million from several projects which were completed under budget, this will close these projects out approximately 20 million from the county held contingency fund this funding would allow us to keep this project on schedule and open in the fyi 28 29 school year happy to take any questions mr cory thank you madam chair so um can you explain to me a little bit more about the contingency fund thing because i get really nervous when we take money from contingency funds in general but tell me tell me more about this so yeah that's that's a great

[00:07:46] questions so a few years back the county acknowledged that we have situations like this where we may need additional funding for projects that are you know perhaps or insert early in CIP or they have gone over budget for a variety of reasons so at that time they set up a contingency fund for us where we could utilize it for for those situations and we try not to use it in in circumstances where where we don't have to it's it's one of these things in the county had said to us the agreement we have is before we use contingency funds look at existing balances you

[00:08:21] have first deplete those balances and then then look at contingency funding so they created this contingency fund for these kinds of situations that we have what's the total balance in that fund it so what I recall it it was 50 million dollars and it gets replenished every year so it's 50 million that we have in that account the budget funds it and then we use it as contingency correct so we get if I may I want to clarify these are

[00:08:58] funds that are managed and held at the county level so they're not within our budget at all as mr. practically was describing because they have oversight of that then this process in terms of having to request to tap into those funds and do a transfer out of the county held contingency that's designated for LCPS purposes over to LCPS is is required then typically what they have done at year-end based on their year-end fund balance they use

[00:09:33] those funds as one example to replenish the CIP contingency and that has been the practice so there have been other instances where we have had to request usage of the LCPS County health contingency funds and then after that at year in the county replenished it back up to its full amount I can't read I can't recall the exact amount it may be 50 I mean that's definitely something we can circle back and get you the exact amount but it is a designated amount that they have set aside for us I guess the question is then how I guess I need I kind of want to understand that that money flow a little bit better it's been

[00:10:09] a long day so I got to wrap my head around some of this okay so you're just asking for the 20 you're asking for almost 4 million of the 20 or you're asking for the the total ask is 24 million four would become from existing capital projects and 20 would come from the contingency fund okay any other discussion um how do you feel about having

[00:10:40] this on consent no okay um this will not go on consent and i'll come back to us thank you um we now move on to 5.04 support services town of leesburg uh proffer funds this item is being presented by Beverly Tate, Director of Planning and GIS Services. Thank you.

[00:11:02] Good afternoon. Thank you all. Today we are bringing forward an item about available cash proffer funds that have been collected by the Town of Leesburg to benefit public schools. The Code of Virginia allows localities to seek voluntary contributions to offset the impact of residential development on the county or, in this instance, the town area. To date, lcps has benefited by about 7.5 million dollars for projects that have been funded through these

[00:11:38] collected mounts that includes the renovation of the naval jrotc building at loudon county high school the design for the north star school three walking tracks in the town of leesburg schools smarts mill culbert and leesburg and seven of the eight elementary schools the town collects these funds from new development they hold those funds for lcps use and then we identify we collectively lcps but most specifically you the school board identify the projects that would

[00:12:15] we would seek reimbursement we do not get the monies up front we have to initiate the projects and then the town will reimburse for the full amount um i'm trying to think what i needed to tell you so what we are doing is we're bringing you a list of projects we've come typically it's every two to three years and we come before you with a list of projects what is included in your item are projects that we have identified from your adopted capital budget as well as projects that individual school

[00:12:50] administrators have sought to seek if they were potentially eligible from prior processes what we have done this time to kind of expedite the process is we've reached out to the town to confirm if the projects are in fact eligible for funding the proffer funds collected by the town cannot be used for maintenance they cannot be used for repair and they cannot be used for technology thus you when you look on the list that they've indicated that school marquees are not eligible because it's a technology the intent of the town collected monies is to increase capacity so with the ROTC

[00:13:29] program it offered a new program to the students who live within the town with the walking tracks and the playgrounds these were inclusive playgrounds so they offered additional opportunities for all of our students more physical activity it made our playgrounds inclusive for all students so those are the kinds of projects that the town has indicated it's all guided by code of Virginia code 15.2-2303 i know that um ms shirnoff i will speak to her as the town representative she's very much

[00:14:05] interested in the school marquee signs but the town's review said that they do not include technology the ask of you today is to consider all of the projects that are here some of them are not eligible harper park asked for benches smarts mills for a covered courtyard so that they could have their children who are dropped off kept out of the rain those are ineligible but outdoor classrooms and the classroom addition which are listed on the attachment is potentially eligible the town has since confirmed since we posted this item that they would be eligible but our ask of

[00:14:43] you is to consider the items and then to recommend the projects to proceed to the school board for their action there the town has approximately three million dollars available and if you wish to consider as an example the richard and mildred loving playground that's the only school that has not benefited benefited from town proffers for an inclusive playground that could be something we've given you an estimated cost if following up on our conversation last week if you were interested in pursuing the addition at leesburg elementary you could designate that some of those

[00:15:20] proffers go towards the design of that if you were interested in the outdoor classrooms again we're happy to answer questions but that is the ask of you today and then we would come back for action on the 6th of October ideally thank you miss Tate questions mr. Courtney thank you madam chair so I would love I already pinged a mission off about this too because I'd love for her feedback on these items and kind of the prioritization of these items because she would know best i think for that so i definitely would like to see this for action next time with the understanding that we'll get some feedback from miss shirnoff on which of

[00:15:59] these things from her schools and she thinks would be the priority so proper funds are amazing it's amazing to have access to them we're really blessed here in laudan to be able to have that so for the towns that can that do that so i'm all i'm fully in support of this but i want to do it under the guidance of miss shirnoff's recommendations for where she thinks those those priorities should be. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Riccardi. I'd like to just, it does say at the bottom, no school identified classroom addition. It has to be a classroom addition

[00:16:33] for whatever school is identified. So that was just an inquiry when we reached out to the town with the request. We asked if in fact the funds could be used for a classroom addition and they did respond back, yes, because it's adding available capacity to the school. Yes, ma'am.

[00:16:52] Of course, I need to advocate for my school. So I know that Stonebridge is having the ROTC program come in. And I assume that was all worked out or, you know, did we come up with anything?

[00:17:08] They need another classroom or they need anything to help them with their program. But also, I have to advocate for Broad Run as well. Anything that they need as far as any renovations. Can we do renovations or add a classroom for them or an addition?

[00:17:28] Anything like that. I'm just curious to know if either one were considered. So thank you for the question, and I should have clarified at the outset. The town of Leesburg collected proffer monies are for those schools physically located within the town of Leesburg.

[00:17:45] So there are 15, I believe, including North Star. So Stonebridge and Broad Run are not in the town, so they would not be eligible for these. That's my error, so thank you. Well, at least I got it out there. Just if I may, they're going to have the new ROTC program, so I want to make sure they're all set.

[00:18:06] And as you know, Mr. Pascarelli, I'm real big on getting some renovations for Broad Run. So I put it out there, even though they're not Leesburg. So thank you so much, and I guess we'll wait to see what Ms. Chernoff comes up with. Thank you. If we're all okay, or actually we're going to wait, so it's not consent yet, right?

[00:18:27] Action. We're going to have this go back for action. Thank you so much. And then we're on to new business. Anybody have new business? No? Okay. And so I guess we'll adjourn for today, and thank you, everyone.

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