Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, School Business Partnership Executive Council, Thursday, September 17, 2026

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 2m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1228821273?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.

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[00:00:00] Good morning, everybody. We're going to get started. We were delaying for a few minutes for our, not guest of honor, but our head superintendent. He's on his way. So we're going to go ahead and get started. So I'm going to call us the order. And Renee was going to take the first part of the meeting, but she's there. I'm going to go ahead and do the minutes and I'll switch to you.

[00:00:21] So, you guys, everybody has the minutes in front of them. Please take a look at them from last month. And I just need a motion to approve. Last month's minutes, please. So moved. So moved. Is that Dory? Yes. Take a second. I second. Tasha, all in favor, aye.

[00:00:38] Aye. Opposed. Extensions. All right, fantastic. Now I will turn it over to Renee. Okay, a little surprise thing that's not on our agenda. But one of the things that we're really proud of is going on three years ago, Dr. Spence had this wonderful idea and vision to create the Division of Family and Community Engagement.

[00:01:02] And this is all the work that you get to hear Sarah talk about, all the work that we do as a team. And so we like to do an impact report that is not just about the numbers, but tells the wonderful stories of the work that happens with the Division of Family and Community Engagement. So if you all want to take a look at this, this is our annual report about the great work that has happened over the past year.

[00:01:25] So that's the first thing. This is all for you all. So thanks, Dr. Spence. The other thing I wanted to share was one of our members who has not been here has two additional members to her family.

[00:01:42] And so I reached out to Tiffany and she, her and the babies are doing great and they are so cute. So next time I'll show pictures, but she should be joining us. I think at the next meeting, but she and both babies are wonderful and happy.

[00:02:01] And big brother is just loving being a big brother. So all right, we'll move right into committee reports and we'll start with Natasha. Thank you, everybody. I did mention last month about the membership that for this year, we won't be adding any more members, but if someone is planning next year to don't continue with us, please let us know as soon as possible in the next two months. Please reach out to Sean or Renee or myself and let us know.

[00:02:41] all right perfect uh school business partnership awards breakfast renee all right so i have an update and i know carrie's going to help me out if i missed something we're very excited about this year's breakfast and i think our challenge is going to be we're going to have to cut it because i think we're going to we're going to reach our 800 people really quickly so in terms of sponsorship uh we do have our signature sponsor which is the national electric electrical Contractors Association, NECA. We have secured both of our platinum sponsorships, which is

[00:03:18] fantastic, Microsoft and Guernsey. We have one or two gold? Two gold secure. Two gold secure. One is Kaiser. Yay. And Marvin Park. And Marvin Park. Thanks, Stacey. So we still have three more left for gold sponsorships. We have one of our silvers, Amazon. So thank you. So we have nine left. And then I think we're going to be able to have about 22 table sponsors. So we'll

[00:03:53] get more information, but we are well on our way for not even rolling out our advertising and campaigning. So thank you, Carrie, for doing that. So we should have a flyer next time. man, man. It is the place to be. It is definitely the place to be. Fantastic. Can we get the link to buy the table sponsors? You can in December. We are upgrading our system. And so you can commit

[00:04:23] now. You can send your money now. I could give you the general LEF donation link if that's a preferred way to pay and i know if you put in the memo or you email me or text me or call me um i will know to restrict that money to school business partnerships so there's no concern about it going into lef general fund it would just be a mechanism in the meantime to to accept your

[00:04:56] donation or your sponsorship okay great thanks though for asking yeah of course um and then um i'll do the job for a day update uh stacy isn't able to do this this morning i'm here i'm here can you hear me i'm here hi everyone can you can you hear me yes all right great i just we're all going to stay after class hopefully or those who want to be involved with job for a day um we'll have a session after this meeting but i did want to confirm that everybody received the email we

[00:05:32] want you back for job for a day um it came out over the last two days and really the links are so easy get it out to like if everybody could just get it out to four companies that they know and ask them to bring multiple students on board we're going to be in really good shape all right awesome stacy are you going to stay on for us after the meeting yes i emailed i texted you that this morning. Great. A lot going on. All right, great. Well, so for everyone else that's here, we will have our committee meeting for Job for Day immediately following the regular meeting

[00:06:10] today. All right, and then I guess we'll go right back to Carrie for LEF. Wow, we are rolling this way, guys. Good morning. Again, for those of you I have not met, my name is Carrie Murphy. I serve as the Director of Development for the Loudon Education Foundation, and I gave you a sneak peek last month about our new, an announcement about our new colleague, Rebecca, and she's live and in person today, so this is Rebecca Flick, I don't know if you want.

[00:06:38] Oh, sure, I'm the Director of Projects and Impact, and I work as a liaison between LEF and our funders and LCPS staff, among other things, so. She has over 20 years of nonprofit experience, so we are thrilled and so excited to have Rebecca on the team.

[00:06:56] And just to allow that, again, a really smooth process, and as we obtain more grants, which we're very thankful for, just to make sure that everybody feels comfortable with the deliverables on both sides.

[00:07:12] So that's Rebecca's main job, and she's a lot of fun to work with. Anyway, so I wanted to highlight in FUELD. FUELD started, this is one of our proprietary programs at Loudoun Education Foundation.

[00:07:29] Sometimes we will, most of the time actually, we will accept funding to help other programs within LCPS, but that we don't manage. FUELD is a program that LEF actually does manage.

[00:07:45] we have two dedicated staff members for this program it was formerly called the backpack coalition for those of you that might remember backpack coalition but fueled started this week so the team over the month at the beginning of school has been polling each family liaison so working closely with the face team sarah and the family liaison polling each family liaison to say how can we help you these are the services that we offer we offer meal bag distribution we offer

[00:08:20] snack support that's kind of a tertiary if we did only snack support we we would have to raise millions of dollars um but we want to do more and we also have increased last year we increased our pantries in school pantry service to 21 schools and we started guys at four three years ago so the need is great. That's the sad news. But what I'm thrilled about is our team rocks it. Kirsten

[00:08:52] and Courtney have integrated new systems. They're engaging volunteers in the community. They are providing emergency support. I think I shared last year in almost a tearful a tearful presentation i think one of our shining moments last year was because of our fuel team when we could offer meals to students who had been out of school for so long school district came to us and said how can you help us because students need to eat they're not getting meals

[00:09:26] every day and that was an amazing collaborative effort between the facilities department and just really one of my, I'm not even part of the, I mean, I'm part of the team, but I'm not part of that direct service team. And it was literally probably my proudest moment of LEM last year.

[00:09:45] So these were our numbers from last year. We are so grateful to the LCPS data department and research department. They have worked alongside us so we can track our data even more closely. Look at that, guys, like 174,428 service instances between all three services.

[00:10:05] I can tell you specifically that last school year, our meal bag distribution, the number of meal bags that we supported was up 15.7% from the prior year. Given the news that's happening with SNAP benefits and just the economy in general, we're already anticipating an increase this year.

[00:10:27] In fact, this week's pack, our very first pack for the week was Tuesday night. Distribution was yesterday. And the numbers were already above last year's average. So we know that a lot of people in this room support Fueled, and we are so very, very grateful for that.

[00:10:47] And I just wanted to really highlight this program for Fueled. And I also love our Shine program. Do you have questions about Fueled? Any questions are good. It's pretty self-explanatory, but we're excited.

[00:11:04] Shine, this is another way that the community can engage with the school district by sponsoring a Shine Award. You see Dr. Spence supporting his safety gear. Good job, Dr. Spence. But we were thrilled to award Tim Bowers, who's a project manager.

[00:11:25] He is working on the addition and renovation of Banneker Elementary School and has just, you can imagine how disruptive that is to a school as they are trying to get through their day. And he has been overtly communicative and really brings people in and explains to the staff what's happening and really goes above and beyond rather than just coming in and swinging hammers all day.

[00:11:51] So it really provides that extra customer service and support to the school. So SHINE is a way that you can engage with the school district through LEF, and we are thrilled to be a part of that program.

[00:12:08] We're doing great on the balance. We're getting ready to spend some of that money, so keep it coming in, Even though the income looks low compared to what I just reported for sponsorships, that because invoices are out, grant proposals have been approved, but the money hasn't come in yet and I don't report it until it's in the bank.

[00:12:32] So, but I have a tracking sheet. And I just wanted to feature on the next slide a few events that we have coming up and opportunities for all your school friends, your classroom teachers, librarians. Innovation in Education Grants is open. Rebecca's helping with that program. The grant application is open until October 7th. Spread the word. We want to give out money. Last year, we gave out over $100,000 in grants, and we're positioned to do that at least again this year. Outstanding Educators Banquet. Yep, it's happening in the beginning of May, but we're already thinking about it.

[00:13:11] So that's another way to support our educators if you'd like information about sponsorship. I know, Carol, thank you so much. You've been a sponsor in the past. Raffle tickets are still available for the Golf Classic. That will happen in about 10 days.

[00:13:28] U.S. Open in Pebble Beach, we have a Topgolf gift card. We have an Outer Banks beach house with no restrictions on when you can go available. So for a $100 donation to LEF, you have an opportunity to win those prize. You don't have to be present to win and they will be open until noon on September 28th. We are a beneficiary of the Crossroads Music Festival benefit this weekend in downtown Leesburg. So go support your downtown Leesburg businesses and enjoy Crossroads. We have the Golf Classic I just talked about. We've been securing sponsorships for

[00:14:06] the car show on October 3rd in downtown Leesburg. And thank you, Natasha. I know you're a sponsor that this year. And we are, and Rebecca is helping to coordinate some really exciting opportunities with a mobile STEM lab at Harper Park that's collaborative with Equinix and Girls in Engineering Day for like the 10th time, I think, Ashley, with Microsoft. So we will be at Riverbend Middle School for that day.

[00:14:39] There's a few things going on, and I only just list all of this because I just want to spark your interest in, hey, these are different ways you can engage or the community can engage with the school district.

[00:14:55] So if you think of ideas of individuals we should talk to or that want an entree into working with the school district, this is another way to do that. And I want to brag on us just a little bit. It was just announced yesterday that the Loudon Education Foundation has won the Nonprofit Achievement Award for the Community Foundation.

[00:15:18] Along with the owners of Lark Brewery, which is some of the best of the year. And we joined great company because Carol's been and Morphin Park was the nonprofit last year. we just feel incredibly honored to be recognized by our community for the hard work we've done especially the last five or six years we're thrilled so we're gonna put on fancy dresses

[00:15:47] thank you carrie we uh when we were doing the agenda planning meeting i was like i want to make sure we give Carrie some extra time. I said, still, he did. He did. He said that. I was like, we're always like behind the clock board.

[00:16:06] Hey, wait, did I do okay? Did I do great? Oh, look. He's going over here on the head. We are still in the head. I wanted to make a quick addition to events. Today's the last day at the Academy's Aladdin for the fall plant sale.

[00:16:23] So you can go by the Academy's from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Get your mums and pansies and whatever else you might need for your fall plants, so keep that in mind. And then I will turn it over to Renee to set up our presentation.

[00:16:39] So we are incredibly excited to welcome two guests today to talk about a project that I am so thrilled and excited to see realized in our division. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Melissa Tello and Joanne Kim.

[00:16:56] Tell us a little bit about the Transition Academy. Melissa's going to kick us off, but let me quickly introduce myself. I'm Joanne Kim. I'm a project manager here with the Chief Academic's Office, and I've just been so privileged to lead this project for the Transition Academy.

[00:17:13] We started -- it's hard to -- you know, I can't believe this, but it's been like a year and a half in the works, just planning and working with this team, and Suzanne Birch over here is one of the pivotal team members of this project, so I will put her on the spot in case anyone has any questions afterwards or in coming meetings. She's your go-to person.

[00:17:34] Yeah, so happy to just briefly share on this project and give an update, and I'll turn it over to Melissa. Thanks for having us. I'm Melissa Tello. I'm the Assistant Director for Design in the LCPS Division of Construction Services, and as Joanne said, we've been working very closely with the transition team for the past year and a half on this really unique and special and hopefully flagship facility for LCPS and for our students. So without further ado, we wanted to just give you an overview, a little bit of a status

[00:18:10] update, and transition into objectives and how you join us. So the VIEW transition Academy is a new facility designed for high school students but will ultimately serve students ages 14 up until 22 so students that may be continuing kind of postgraduate or a longer cohort and the 14 is really geared around that high school but we also intend for there to be outreach opportunities visits for middle school students and the attraction is that this

[00:18:50] facility entirely is focused on job skills and independent living skills for students in the special education area so those middle schools middle schoolers having an opportunity to get a glance of what they might be able to do in high school is also really important the model for this school is similar to the academies of Loudoun run on kind of an A day B day where the students would have their home high school but also then come to this Academy for a day and we're

[00:19:24] really excited about the 15 pathways that we have developed and the transition team has flushed out with a lot of help from CTE it's been a great partnership with Dr. Grubb's team. We have, and this list is on your handout, but everything from automotive to skill trades to technology, entrepreneurship, cosmetology, horticulture, you name it. There's a really wide array of job skill opportunities and learning opportunities for

[00:19:58] students. This facility is an existing building located on Marwood Drive in the Aldi area. We're taking about two-thirds of the building and renovating it and demolishing a third and adding a pretty significant addition, which is the corner of the building that you see right now in this image.

[00:20:24] So, as we said, we've been working for about a year and a half, but it is all becoming very real now. We are in the final stages of preparing our construction documents for the project to go out to bid later this fall. We then are targeting a groundbreaking in January with about a year and a half of construction.

[00:20:46] Last major piece is being a pretty intense fit-out phase with fixtures and furniture and equipment. There's a lot of equipment and specialized equipment, not only for the job skills, but to really support students in all access to those job skill learning opportunities.

[00:21:04] And ultimately, an opening for the 28-29 school year. So coming quick, which we're very excited about. These are some images of the design as we are standing now.

[00:21:20] The top right image, I feel like, really embodies this amazing opportunity that we had. We had the chance to work directly with students and staff and get their input on everything, things they were interested, pathways, but down to like the feeling of the building and the colors and the textures and what was important to them.

[00:21:45] And I feel like that top image really describes it well in that the students wanted warm, organic colors to feel inviting and welcoming, but also something that was modern and fresh.

[00:22:02] And we feel like the team has created a really great balance of all that, and that input is directly from the students. So that image shows, once you've entered through our entry vestibule, this is a student-run welcome desk.

[00:22:18] So those customer service skill, learning opportunities start right here, right at the entrance. That little orange peak that you get beyond is the beginning of their retail space, where they will have the opportunity to sell the products that are made and grown in this building.

[00:22:39] The other top image is kind of looking back at the entrance, but it really connects the entrance with the beginning of the rest of the building. There's a career center, but this feature of this planter wall that is actually an opportunity for them to display potted plants that they have grown and possibly for sale.

[00:23:02] So every piece is really engaging in the design of this building. The bottom left, a view of the classroom, a classroom wing really supporting collaboration spaces and spaces that may give an opportunity for someone that needs a little quiet in this moment to work or just have a little pause moment.

[00:23:25] And then the multi-purpose room, which is, I think, we think a really special space. It's kind of the core areas of the building. In the distance, you see a meeting room for presentations. That glass wall opens up, and in the foreground, you see the cafeteria.

[00:23:41] The idea with this space is that it can completely be opened and provide an opportunity for the students to host banquets, lectures, instructional events, and they will do everything from run the audiovisual to prepare the food, to serve the food, the hospitality connections, everything.

[00:24:02] So this space has a lot of potential energy. It looks like tables and chairs right now, but a lot of energy in this large, really multipurpose space. Turn it over to Joanne. Thanks, Melissa.

[00:24:17] I can just sense the excitement in here with all these pictures. We certainly, once we got the renderings at every phase of design, we were just like oohed and aahed. And just seeing everything become a reality was something really special.

[00:24:33] and we're just so pleased to be here to share that with you all today I chuckled a little bit earlier when Carrie said just a few things going on I feel that way also as you can see from our you know objectives and and happenings just the next two years when we start thinking about you know what else do we have left and you know construction yes but also a lot of curriculum right developing with the team I want to highlight I guess on the right hand side under business and community integration just our goal to build out kind of

[00:25:07] founding set of partners to walk alongside with us on this journey prior to opening but also after opening and especially with that inaugural graduating class we'd really like to secure some business partners in the local industry special you know 15 special pathway areas to support our students. And so, you know, I think about how Dr. Grubbs and Carrie and Renee have really just stood next to us and planning this and connecting us with business partners. So that's really why

[00:25:42] we're here today to share this, but also, you know, pique some interest and support going forward. And you'll see in the next slide just, you know, how we kind of see that mutually beneficial partnership play out and you know it could happen in the form of you know recommending some business partners and businesses in the area and also hiring you know thinking forward and thinking about hiring those students also informing maybe you know because you guys are experts in your various

[00:26:16] different industries just equipment and outfitting of these spaces if you saw some of the pictures in there what's missing because they're still being worked on are the actual classrooms so if you can just kind of visualize the supply chain room having you know your typical warehouse setting that's really what well that's what it will look like and so you know we we only have our internal right experts but looking to our external experts getting that input is something that we would really appreciate the next two years about the FF&E, right, the furnishings inside.

[00:26:53] So that's kind of what we're thinking. We can kind of get support. Lastly, how to get that, how to kind of connect with us. We have that flyer that Melissa alluded to here that you can take a copy of.

[00:27:08] You can go to our website, and shortly, soon, our communications team will have the interest form on there. We'd really like you to visit that website and kind of, you know, sign up to stay connected. connected get updates in the next two years um we've got hopefully if all goes as planned um we've got groundbreaking in january um this january and then um again all goes well after that we'll have ribbon cutting in august of 2028 so we're really working towards those dates and big events but

[00:27:42] we'd love to have you guys stay connected and get those updates and be part of those occasions as well. And I will put a plug in for our roundtable that's happening on October 2nd. Dr. Spence opening that event for us. So thank you so much. But I know that actually several of you have already been invited to that because you've been identified as very closely aligned to some of these pathways. So we really encourage you to check your emails if you haven't noticed that invite from our Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Tedra Richardson. And please you know, mark your calendars, RSVPS, we'd love to see you guys there to support us in, um, kind of,

[00:28:21] you know, um, more tightly, um, formulating our curriculum on that course, courses, so, yeah, thank you so much, um, and again, Suzanne Birch is over there, so please, um, utilize her, she's our expert, um, uh, for any questions on, on the academy, so thank you so much, um, just, you know, so many of guys have already been supporting it so much thanks for right yeah no thank you i have a quick question um i saw one slide you said like there's a living quarters area is that going to be like for like the 18 to 22 year olds or like what is that going to play out as an independent living

[00:29:01] lab go ahead you answer oh well yes but as you say i love working with so many different groups because we learn so much so um it's an independent living lab actually a one-bedroom apartment so it's an opportunity for students to learn life skills and hone in on those life skills. So everything from just housekeeping to maintaining a kitchen, how to use all the appliances, how to, you know, run a washer and dryer. It also has, you know, kind of a living and working zone.

[00:29:35] So life skills management, financial management skills, etc. And we're actually also implementing those um in all of our high schools and middle schools right now too so we just finished the four high schools this summer we had an opportunity to talk about that last week at the school board um and so it's another connection with the transition team um and this work very cool and do you expect each pathway to be a one-year rotation yes it's going to be a one-year program however if a student applies one year or not it's not an application it's actually an iep team decision. So if they attend one year and they want to explore another pathway, the IEP team

[00:30:14] can decide that they can come back for another time. Great. Well guys, thank you very much for the presentation. What really role this morning? Yes, Monique. For the name, it says VIEW Transition Academy. Is VIEW an acronym? It is. And what does that stand for? Very sharp.

[00:30:32] Okay, I'll tell you that too. It's vocation, independence, employment, and workplace readiness. How many students will be able to attend academic year?

[00:30:48] 500. 50 every day. And then just two comments. I was looking at the lobby space coming in. It looks like a blend of the academies and the science center that's opening up. So I like that and how it's modeling. So as kids are going around the county, they get familiar with these kind of visions around the county, reminding them of other things. And for the 15 areas that you have, it would be helping for this group since we have a diverse industry stuff and that fits into those.

[00:31:20] if you have needs of things that for appliances, chemistry stuff, as you're outfitting this building, you can ask us for more that you're looking for. Our circles can help get some of that stuff to you at an affordable rate or even some stuff that you might not be using anymore that we can reappropriate to you that would help.

[00:31:42] We'll take that away, seriously. All right, great, thanks Bonnie. All right, let's kick it off We'll move to Dr. Spence and good news. Yeah, good morning, everybody.

[00:31:59] So, first of all, thanks for the offer of equipment because we doubled our budget for this program as we programmed it out. So, we're excited to be able to do that. And I love hearing about these programs that we're implementing.

[00:32:18] Isn't LCPS cool? Yeah. LCPS is cool. And also, look at the, just look at this. I know. Come on. school is open we have been in school which is our fifth week if you can imagine that already we're in our fifth week of school and i've had the opportunity to be out and about and see kids like this every week and it's just it just reminds us why we get up in the morning and do what we do so good things happening in lcps i'm gonna balance good with some some some other things this morning

[00:32:52] unfortunately. But let me start with a great. So if you noticed our test release came out and the scores came out and I will just brag a little bit about LCPS, things you can share with your friends who ask why you want your students and your community involved with Love County Public Schools. We outperform the state on every test. Our student reporting groups have outperformed the state on every test, and we have outperformed every comparable school division, and we have

[00:33:27] outperformed every school division in Northern Virginia, with the exception of Falls Church, and I don't know if they count. So, and so, you know, we're doing good things. We've seen growth in every area, and we're really seeing significant improvement in a number of schools that are impressing us and making us proud and um as a result of that we we love to brag a little more lcps schools uh niche rankings just came out with their list of the best public schools

[00:34:02] in virginia and uh of of those schools eight of our high schools were ranked in the top 25 three of our high schools were in the top four so that was uh independence and lightridge and rockridge in the top four and john champ came in seven and so I'm really excited about that our elementary middle schools hit the hit the lists in the top 25 in Virginia as well particularly noteworthy I think is wax pool elementary school ranked number two amongst Virginia's 1170 public elementary schools and for Hamilton no ranked number nine amongst

[00:34:40] all of our high schools middle schools so 15 of our schools in the top 15 in their category so that's just a great again recognition for lcps and the work that our schools are doing and i like these rankings because they're based on not only uh that organization's review of your academic offerings but also feedback from that school's community about their experience at those schools so we're really really pleased to to see that as well so i'll mention a couple of other things i'll brag on uh renee and also a little bit on work with

[00:35:17] our partnerships with lef our school board will be hearing a presentation from renee on tuesday about another new initiative underway in lcps called the face hub the family and community engagement hub our goal and our aim there is to open a central point for our family and community engagement office to gather a kind of collective impact model where we can bring supplies we can bring food we can bring services together in one place and then our family liaisons can make

[00:35:51] requests to access those things from the hub and then we will have a distribution network that will then be able to get those things to our schools and to our families that need them very quickly right now renee and sarah are the distribution hub um and uh grateful for that but we know that they need help. And so the plan is to do that. And since we were doing that, we've had some good conversations with the LEF about that. We know they need space as well for their fuel program. And so our intention is to co-locate the fuel program in that space as an

[00:36:28] in-kind gesture on the part of LCPS to post their work for what they do for our kids. So we're excited about that. That's going to our school board on Tuesday. So if you see a school board member pass along your kind support project because it is it is a new project that's in the works um also on tuesday they will hear our legislative agenda um and so that will then go live after we've presented that to them and i'll be happy as the session comes up to come back and talk to you a little bit more about our legislative agenda but that'll be discussed if you're

[00:37:06] interested at Tuesday's board meeting and of course it will be not unexpected things that we will be pushing for things like make sure that appropriate funding remains a priority and all of those wonderful things and then the last thing I'm going to mention and I apologize for those of you who were in the LEF board meeting the other day you're going to have to hear me say this twice I want to talk about a program called e-rate which a lot of people aren't familiar with. So E-Rate is a funding mechanism through the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, and it funds internet access and public

[00:37:46] education. So since the E-Rate program started, we've gone from about 12% of the nation's schools having internet to 95, 96% of the nation's schools having access to the internet. And so it's a really important program. For LCPS, it's sliding scale reimbursement program for lcps about 50 of our technology costs that we invest in excess are reimbursed on an annual basis for us that's about a million and a half to two million dollars a year for a lot of school divisions it's a hundred percent reimbursement it is the way that

[00:38:21] they pay for access to the internet it's hardware it's the broadband services and i tell you all of All of that is context to tell you that right now they are in a proposed rulemaking to either dramatically narrow that funding or eliminate that funding.

[00:38:39] And so I mention that to this group because I want to pose the question to you, what would it look like in a world where our graduates were coming out not ever having had access to the internet? In terms of workforce readiness, workforce development, to have graduates who don't have access to technology I think is going to be a major issue.

[00:39:00] I'm not under projecting the impact of this if this were to sunset and so I have submitted comment on behalf of LCPS and I want to raise awareness about this issue in our community and in other communities because I think it's been under observed as an issue in education circles we know about it and we're talking about it but outside of those I'm not seeing really any discussion about it and I think it's as much a workforce preparedness issue as it is any other issue.

[00:39:32] So I want to encourage you all to think about being engaged. What I can do if you have interest, Sean, I can send you the letter that I submitted for comment, and if you folks want to take a look at that to get further context of what some of the concerns are, it might be helpful for you all to take a look at.

[00:39:52] Comment for this proposed rulemaking closes on October 13th, so we don't have a lot of time left to get comments in, but I'm happy to answer questions about that, but just know it's it's on my radar and i'm advocating and i'm getting other folks involved in my circles to advocate so that we try to keep open it yeah please send it to me and we'll also send it to our chamber members as well for help and share on social media and whatever we can do yeah and we've shared it we've shared it with uh tony and so yep we'll do that well i think that's it so

[00:40:28] that wasn't necessarily great news but everything else is great news uh and and really good things happening in LCPS, and we're really just grateful for this partnership and the work that you all do with us, so thank you. Fantastic. I was going to actually say that. I was going to say, great news, except the last piece. That's right. I was more of a downer at the LAF. I tried to keep this a little lighter. Well, let's get an outreach update from Dr. Boyce. All right. Good morning, everyone. So, I'm here to give an update about the work that our school-based family liaisons have been doing the last five weeks and leading up to the start of school. And just since we have some new faces

[00:41:05] in the room today, just super quick recap. Our family liaisons are essential school-based staff members who work in every single one of our school buildings in LCPS to help families removing any barriers to their child's academic success. So I always like to say that family liaisons are the bridge between our families, our school, and our broader community. So they're there to support all families with family engagement, getting tied to their schools and their resources within their school and LCPS and then also to community resources that may take care of basic needs or other challenges and barriers that the family may be facing at home. So to share some numbers

[00:41:40] with you all, we did change our reporting structure a little bit this year to try to get some additional data points from our family liaisons. So we asked them to do a monthly report to share just about the work that they're doing at each one of their respective schools. And so for the month of August and a shortened month, right? So remember that we had about 3,500 families that were served by our family liaisons and about 5,385 students individually who were served in that kind of half month of August. So we've had 83 family liaisons respond to our survey for August and out of those, just to kind of give you an idea of the work that they're doing on a regular

[00:42:20] basis. About 81 of those helped our students with school supplies. So again, things like this space resource hub are really going to help streamline family liaisons being able to get school supplies into the hands of our students who need them to start off their school year with success. 61 of our liaisons helped with McKinney-Vento applications. And so McKinney-Vento is for students who are experiencing homelessness. We had 54 liaisons who helped families with clothing, 50 who made referrals to women giving back. A lot of that was for the clothing assistant.

[00:42:52] 54 of our family aizons supported back to school night events so that's really important for them to be present at the beginning of the school year meeting new families welcoming them into the school sharing about resources both in the school and in the broader community and 77 of our family aizons help families with free reduced meal applications so again these things like free reduced meals mckinney vento all these services that are available are incredibly important for families but also sometimes a little daunting quite honestly to you know to know how do i fill the application? What information am I going to be sharing? What does that process look like?

[00:43:27] So the family liaisons are able to sit down with the family one-on-one, walk them through the process, kind of have a guiding, helping hand in ensuring that they know that there's support out there available for them. And 37 of our family liaisons made referrals to HealthWorks, 30 made referrals to Innova. And so that just helps to show that there is always a need for affordable, health care. And we're so thankful to have partners like Anova and HealthWorks and Loud and Free Clinic in the community that our family liaisons are doing great work connecting them to. And so this is a picture we had our first staff meeting on Monday of this week. And so Renee forced us to

[00:44:05] the broad team of family liaisons for you all. And I just wanted to share two quick stories that came in through our responses this month from family liaisons. The first one I think really just paints a good picture of what their day-to-day looks like. So one of our high school family liaisons shared, every day as a family liaison is centered on removing non-academic barriers to our students so that they may focus on learning. Lately, that daily work looks like walking a new student through their lunch benefits, helping a parent download their room's application on their phone, or partnering with St. Teresa's Catholic Church to pack our

[00:44:45] weekend food packs. It's active hands-on support, sourcing a bike for a student who needs transportation, securing prescription glasses so a student can read in class, or stocking my office with snacks and school supplies so any child can drop by. Working side by side with our principal, our counselors, and teachers, we also identify families facing food insecurity, guide them through essential support forums, and make sure that every family knows that they have a partner at our school. And then one other quick story from one of our elementary school family liaison shared that a mom came into our school this month asking if our school had a free preschool program.

[00:45:21] As we talked, I ended up discovering that she lost her tech job in May and had many interviews over the summer but no offers. I was able to share with her about the Loudoun Workforce Resource Center and she signed up for some of their seminars upcoming. I also gave her flyers about Head Start and our SEP program and the link for free school meals that same day. She was very grateful and I've now added her to my distribution list so she'll be able to hear about future resources as they come available throughout the year two examples of the great work awesome um i want to take the

[00:45:56] chair's liberty here and report out something really quick so um monday we have our uh broadens rotary golf-a-palooza that supports this this year going to family liaisons um we'll we'll have a check for alia for at least 10 000 hopefully more all right this will be great dr grubbs is Thank you, Dr. Rupp.

[00:46:16] And Renee is volunteering, and so one of our holes is called the heckler hole. And Renee and Sharon Wright will be at this hole, and their job is to yell at golfers. To swing at the entire time of the 20s.

[00:46:35] So we're very... Any of golf outing has no heckles. Very exciting. So that'll be a good time. So thank you guys for your support. um and then also our new interact club at academies allowed we'll also be doing a fundraiser in the fall for family liaisons so we're very very excited about that supporting them um all right well let's move on to transition services with suzanne well thanks to the team over here for presenting on the academy i've been talking about it for several months now but seeing that

[00:47:10] we saw the images the other day and our whole team was so excited just to see it all come together So glad y'all were able to do that. Thank you. I talked a little bit last time about what career and transition services are. So I'm just sharing a little bit more, going a little bit more in depth. We do have the 17 high schools. We have a transition teacher and a job coach in each high school, and we are supporting every student with an IEP. So we're not always focused on those students who might have a more impactful disability. So we have students who are college career bound everything so we need to we are always thinking globally for them as well and they

[00:47:47] utilize these services just as much our specialized programs this year we have a new teacher who is working specifically with north star rise tape and our vdl and we have seen that that is a need for several years because those folks who are in those special programs really when they're talking about transition that is crucial they need that extra support um we have opportunities for workplace readiness in addition to the view academy so always be thinking of view but then we have nine cast sites we have one new one at douglas community center this year we have a project search site at lansdowne we have our sos paid internship program at anova and then we have our

[00:48:25] cii we have our cii programs in all of the high schools so when we're thinking about this we're not just talking about places where students can go and get some work experience but also guest speakers, internships, site visits, coming to speak to the team or speak to the students, anything like that.

[00:48:45] We're always looking for connections in the community, mock interviews, stuff like that. So if you have an interest or you have an idea, just let me know and I will connect you to the right people. And then some pictures here on the right. So we have our CAST program. One of our CAST programs did some travel training.

[00:49:02] So I think that's the, I don't think that's the metro. I think that's the bus. So they took students out learning how to use the apps to use the public bus routes. They used the metro to get around because some of these students will not drive. So they need to know how to access their community. Another picture here of them going out to eat and learning how to tip, which is very important.

[00:49:22] So they were using their calculator trying to find the correct percentage. There was a visit to the safety center, shopping for or mock shopping for interview clothes because our students, when we see them at school, sometimes they're in sweatpants and hoodies and things. So they need to remember how to dress for an interview.

[00:49:39] The last thing up there, please follow, our Cruising Cafe Instagram account. Cruising Cafe is here. It runs from 10 to 1. They're amazing. It's our cast program. If you're ever here for a meeting, just go. They're so great.

[00:49:55] I mean, they'll sell you anything. We're also selling 3D items now. So they have a 3D printer business. So you can also go by. They have trinket boxes for sale right now. The Instagram account will just tell you things that they're doing right now.

[00:50:13] It's fun. And I do the Instagram account, so I really like it. The dirty soda bar in the spring was top-notch. The teachers there have all kinds of great ideas. They're really working hard to get the students thinking outside the box and have some unique opportunities.

[00:50:32] So it's great. Oh, great. Fantastic. Thank you. We'll turn it over to Dr. Grubbs for CTAE. Well, that's a great segue. I'm going to give three updates. One of the projects that we're working on is renovating all of our school stores, which run our school business enterprise.

[00:50:49] We have done a few schools already. So we did Loudoun County last school year. And you can see on the far right, Captain's Corner, we're not only updating the flooring and the paint and the facade, but the students are designing the space. And we're also changing out our point of sale system so that it's upgraded.

[00:51:06] more realistic to the systems that they'd be using if they're in this industry we have a few additional schools we're doing this year we're doing briarwoods high school potomac falls the north star and we're planning for parkview high school so the goal is over the next three years all of our school stores will be completely upgraded and the students are in part of that process with the branding the color choice they're working facilities on materials and the flooring and all those things. So just a really, really fun project we're working on. The next slide is another project that we are excited to get off. Well, that's just a quote from the teacher.

[00:51:43] This one is exciting because the students are partnering with SR Coffee, and that's a partnership with the CTE team and the Work-Based Learning team. And SR Coffee has been partnering with the students, and they're calling it Roman Roasters. And so they're serving coffee and really giving students that authentic work-based learning experience. But I just want to highlight that one because it's a really a great partnership with our work-based learning team, with our current technical education team. So not only are we upgrading our curriculum and our program, but we're also giving students those real authentic work-based experiences with, for example,

[00:52:19] a coffee company. I do have to say, Dr. Grubbs, that every time I go into a school visit in a high school, I'm hitting those stores. So I've spent quite a bit. You don't see those sales going up. They're funding the next renovations. I'm hoping the school chooses Grubhub for the next.

[00:52:41] No one's fighting. Our next, we're really excited to share this. The school system is trying for 15 to 20 years to have a second JRTC program. For those who are not familiar with starting a JRTC program, there's sometimes a 20-year waiting list.

[00:53:00] We used a really creative approach to start an Army program, and we were officially approved just a few weeks ago. We will be starting at Stonebridge High School. It will be our second program. It will mimic our Navy program that's at Loudoun County.

[00:53:19] If you look at a school system this large, typically a school system this size has five to six programs. This is a really big win for our school system. We were able to really fast-track this and get this approved over the last year and a half, so we're really excited.

[00:53:35] It will launch in 27-28, and we are hoping to hire an instructor in the next few—we'll hire two instructors in the next few months. So, really excited about this program. And then our last big update is at the Adult Detention Center, we are starting a GEV program.

[00:53:52] We just had an MOA signed and approved by the Sheriff's Office about a week ago. We are hoping to get that off the ground officially in October. Actually, today, our instructor is walking the adult detention center. If space and everything works out, we will start that background check today, and we will take our first inmates at the end of October to take them through the GED program.

[00:54:18] Some really cool stuff happening, Susan. This is really interesting, and we've been working for quite some time to get something like this. Is the training, are the learning taking place on-site there? Are they coming to an LTCS?

[00:54:35] Yeah, great question. I was being mindful of time, and I want to save some time for Christina, so I apologize for flying through that. But it's a really great question. And really, Dr. Spence, I work with the Sheriff's Office, this came to fruition through him. And then with adult education on our side of the house, it fell under our umbrella.

[00:54:53] We will pilot this with about six to ten inmates. They will sign up if they're interested in obtaining their GED and it'll happen on-site in different spaces in the building based on the inmates' status.

[00:55:09] It's a very exciting program, special education does have a program already over there. That takes for inmates up to 22 and so this will be for any age for inmates that want to get their GED should they exit the facility.

[00:55:28] you. I have three small but large updates. So the Workforce Summit we talked about at last meeting, but definitely if you haven't registered, please register. I do want to put a plug out there that we are offering an opportunity that you can connect with our 11th and 12th grade students.

[00:55:47] We're going to do like a rotation of employability skills, mock interviewing and networking. So we really want to push our business partners to get out there and connect with our students. to give you an update because updates are changing like every couple hours but we have over 115 students signed up for the student portion so if you aren't signed up please sign up for the workforce summit it will be an amazing opportunity for not only to connect with colleagues but also with our students and learning about the amazing things that they're interested in as it relates to their careers and workplace skills so please sign up i know that renee will send out this so

[00:56:27] please sign up um the next thing is um our IECC uh if you go to the next slide so our IECC pre-apprenticeship um actually I created this slide yesterday and I just checked we have like we have 65 students interested in the IECC pre-apprenticeship program for 15 spots so um 13 of our schools are representative and had signed up for our virtual sessions.

[00:56:57] We had virtual sessions yesterday and today. It just speaks to the volume of our students' interests and careers and understanding the importance of getting those experiences before graduating high school. So this is a free opportunity for all our graduating seniors.

[00:57:15] This program will start January 26th through May 27th. students will earn their OSHA 10 credentials, CPR, and first aid. So next week we will be doing virtual parent sessions. So the way that we're communicating to parents is those students that express interest, we're reaching out to their parents so they can come to our virtual sessions as well. But if you know any graduating seniors that might be interested in electrical engineering, Definitely have us connect with them.

[00:57:47] Students are able to apply up until October 5th through the 9th. So that's IACC. And then another, we're going to talk about job per day next. But if you are able to stay for our subcommittee later, here's the link to register for job per day.

[00:58:04] Our work-based learning team, I saw them. They are patiently waiting to connect with you all. So we're very excited. November 18th and businesses have up until October 20th to register. So yeah, that's it for me. I'm so excited about that. I can go back just two slides. Christine is so humble.

[00:58:26] The IEC one, this is just such a win. I've worked with IEC in a previous state and they've been trying to get into Northern Virginia for years and we are one of only three counties in the entire state that's offering this pre-apprenticeship program and to just out of the gate having 65 students it's just a testament to the work to work based learning team is doing to grow pathways into workforce development so Prisina just really kudos on this is a big win for the school system. Is that a during a school day program or after school? It's in the evening it's on Mondays through Thursdays I'm sorry at the academies of Loudon Monday through

[00:59:03] Thursdays and they will be taking off for like spring break and like all the different breaks that we have so um so yeah 5 30 to 8 30. um and i want to tee up i appreciate carrie dropping that in there this is hopefully the start of additional evening program with the academies a lot um i think that is such an amazing space and i think there are we can utilize it a little bit better having evening programming so we have some other areas we're exploring like culinary in the evening um but we're really hoping this is a start of offering that building in the evening for advanced workforce development training.

[00:59:40] Fantastic. And I'll say the OSHA 10 certification, that's great. That applies across all skill trades, not just on the electrical side. That's great. Have students been notified that they can sign up for CHOP for a day? Is that available? Yeah, yeah. Yep, they've been.

[00:59:56] We haven't really done a big push yet, just because some of our schools have said, like, this is a lot at once. But, yeah, students have been finding it on schooling. So, yeah, we can definitely talk through that, too. I know that we're running late, but I just wanted to make the room aware, especially after Dr. Spence talked about advocacy.

[01:00:15] The Chamber's hosting the Virginia 10th Congressional Debate next Tuesday with incumbents Suhas Subramanian and the Republican challenger, Dave Beckwith. Tickets are available. Really great opportunity to come and learn about their platforms and ask questions. So that's at the National Conference Center, 8 o'clock next Tuesday. Registration online.

[01:00:35] There's an independent candidate, too. Yes, he did not make the debate. He did not make the debate. Okay, all right, very well. I'll be there with Natasha. Thank you, Natasha. And you have something to announce to you, right? That's the one. Oh, that's the one. All right. Well, if you look, you see the calendar of events that are all there.

[01:00:54] One more shout-out for the First Responders events. I would love to have a lot of people from the council attended next year. And if everybody's hearts and minds are good, we'll adjourn. So, Sean, just real quick, is this body, I haven't perused the bylaws, is this body able to make collective statements on behalf of LCPS?

[01:01:18] If so, I would encourage us to consider a statement in regards to the Internet access and signed by each of the members. I would say that if Dr. Spence and Renee allows it would be the answer to the question. We have in the past, but we're more than happy to do so on e-rate.

[01:01:35] yeah so what uh i will shout out again lef so i did discuss this with them as well and i sent the letter and i just sent it to renee so she'll get it to you um and lef provided a template to their members to do comments um and or if you wanted to just do one on behalf of this organization i think too like i said the letter that i did it's a long one i'm sorry you're gonna have to read it's like five pages but it does give a lot of additional context okay i think it's an end

[01:02:05] fantastic thank you val all right well we are officially adjourned and uh stick around for the job for day committee oh i like it

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