Coraggio Consulting Loudoun County School Board, 4th Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, September 22, 2026 Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2026 Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV) Length: 7h 5m (video) Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1229286967?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 2026-10-09. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:03:59] - Good afternoon, I call to order this September 22nd, 2026 Loudoun County School Board meeting. This evening we'll start with item two disclosures. I'll start as I typically do. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:04:29] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. [00:04:48] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Next up, Mrs. Griffiths. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and our health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:05:14] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in the excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which I am included. [00:05:29] I can and will participate fairly, objectively and in the public's interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the school board for five years. Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. [00:05:45] - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:06:04] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. In addition, as a former LCPS employee, I, as well as my spouse, receive Medicare Advantage insurance benefits through LCPS. [00:06:21] These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statuatory three employees whose interests might be affected, of which my spouse and I are included. I can and I will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. [00:06:36] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. - Thank you, Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:07:02] Specifically, as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. [00:07:17] I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. - Thank you. Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:07:43] Specifically as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in the excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. [00:07:59] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries, the budget and/or health insurance, and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees. [00:08:21] Specifically, my spouse, my minor children, and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and/or health insurance. Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me. These subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse, my sister-in-law, my minor children, and I am included. [00:08:45] I can and will participate fairly objectively in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the Clerk of the School Board for five years. - Thank you, and with that, we will move on to agenda item number three, approval of the consent agenda. [00:09:00] Are there any changes to be made to the business consent agenda? - All right, seeing no changes, let's move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. [00:09:16] Oh, yums, thank you. I know, but we had a change, point of order. We need a motion. I'm trying to rush through. I will now entertain a motion to approve the business consent agenda. - So moved. - Thank you. - Second. - Did I hear? [00:09:32] That was moved by Vice Chair Donahue and I believe seconded by Ms. Riccardi. All right. With that, it has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we'll move forward with the vote. [00:09:47] Looks like some people already have. All right, thank you. And clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present voting yes. Now, we will move on to our item number four, the proclamation consent agenda. [00:10:09] We will start with hearing our proclamations beginning with our first proclamation item 4.01 Nash. Oh, well, I should say, are there any changes to the proclamation consent agenda? [00:10:25] We should hear the proclamations first. This is definitely the first time we're doing this, right? Okay, so with that, Dr. Rasheed will read the national farm to school month proclamation. - Thank you, Chair Chandler, welcome. [00:10:40] Whereas October is recognized as Farm to School Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the education around food, school gardens, and lunch trays filled with nutrient-dense local ingredients, and whereas Farm to School programs support the connections among students, schools, and local farmers throughout Loudoun County, empowering informed food choices while strengthening the local economy. [00:11:03] And whereas Farm to School activities, such as inclusion of locally grown ingredients in school meals, The cultivation of school gardens and educational farm visits can help instill lifelong healthy habits, fueling the young minds of Loudoun County. And whereas supporting local farms and food systems promotes agricultural literacy, increases economic opportunities for local farm businesses and builds strong regional food networks. [00:11:29] And whereas Loudoun County Public Schools is committed to promoting wellness, sustainability and student engagement through education and local food initiatives. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board officially recognizes the month of October as Farm to School Month, and encourages all students and families to celebrate and participate in activities that support local food systems, healthy eating, and agricultural education. [00:11:56] - Thank you. Next up, we have item 4.02, Disability History and Awareness Month Proclamation, which will be presented this evening by Ms. LaBelle. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate you signing this one to me. [00:12:12] whereas the Virginia General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution 321 in 2009, designating October as Disability History and Awareness Month in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and whereas the General Assembly recognized the importance of increasing public awareness and respect for people with disabilities, informing the public about the many contributions to society made by people with disabilities, [00:12:40] And emphasizing the abilities of people with disabilities, and whereas the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was enacted to end disability-based discrimination and promote full inclusion, full participation, economic self-sufficiency, and equality of opportunity for all people with disabilities, and whereas Loudoun families include one or more family members with a disability who meaningfully contribute to and enrich the lives of their family members. [00:13:10] as well as the Loudoun community, and whereas in the 26-27 school year, Loudoun County Public Schools is serving approximately 10,444 students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, whereas Loudoun County Public Schools, teachers, and related service providers, administrators, and staff are working collaboratively to use effective teaching approaches and related educational intervention strategies to support the unique learning needs of all students with disabilities and whereas [00:13:46] research has shown that students with disabilities encounter more difficulty being accepted by their peers making friends and being involved in school and community-based clubs to compare to students without disabilities And whereas in Loudoun County Public Schools, more than 72.88% of students with disabilities spend more than 80% of their time in the general education setting, where inclusive practices [00:14:21] are promoted, and whereas the Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, an important blueprint for all schools, educators, and leaders, includes the expectation that students with disabilities pursue high academic standards, which is reflected by the greater than 95% of students with disabilities graduating on time and with more than 88.6% of the students continuing on to gainful employment, college, or other post-secondary educational opportunities during [00:14:56] the 25-26 school year, and whereas all Loudoun County public school students with disabilities need, deserve, and have the potential to excel by receiving support, understanding, acceptance, and being meaningfully included in the life of their school community, and whereas Disability History and Awareness Month is an opportunity to acknowledge educators specializing in the effective teaching strategies and to celebrate the perseverance and many achievements of [00:15:29] adolescents students adults with disabilities now therefore be it resolved that the loudon county public school board does hereby complain come proclaim the month of october 2026 as disability history and awareness month and resolves to support increased appreciation respect and inclusion for people with disabilities and be it further resolved that loudon county Public Schools supports informing the school community and the public concerning the many valuable contributions to the school environment and to society made by people with disabilities [00:16:07] and be it further resolved that Loudoun County Public Schools principals, administrators, and educators are encouraged through education and other appropriate activities, programs, and events to promote and highlight Disability History and Awareness Month in the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as the value that people with disabilities bring to their specific schools and communities and in witness thereof that a copy of this resolution will be sent to each Loudoun County Public School so that it may be discussed shared and prominently displayed online and in the school [00:16:44] during the month of October and so that principals administrators and educators may plan disability awareness activities to increase inclusion and acceptance of students with disabilities throughout all of Loudoun County Public Schools the resolve resolve finally that a copy of this resolution will be sent to each Loudoun County Public School so that it may be discussed and shared and prominently displayed online in this school during the month of October so that principals administrators and educators may plan disability awareness [00:17:19] activities to increase inclusion and acceptance of students with disabilities throughout all LCPS. Thank You Ms. LaBelle. Our next proclamation is the Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month proclamation presented by Vice Chair Donahue. Thank You Madam Chair. Whereas October is Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month and calls attention to the fact that dating and domestic violence are widespread and their effects impact our community and whereas domestic violence affects one in three women and one in four men in their lifetime. In addition, one in 12 high school students has experienced violence in a dating [00:17:56] relationship. Domestic violence and dating relationship violence cause harm to thousands of Virginians regardless of their age, race, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity, or socioeconomic status. And whereas during Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month, we honor survivors and provide public awareness on this violation of the basic human right to be free from violence and abuse, removing the stigma and shame surrounding such violence, expanding support for survivors of sexual violence and strengthening our response. [00:18:26] And whereas, although progress has been made toward preventing and ending domestic and dating violence and providing support to survivors and their families, important work remains to be done. In particular, a focus on teaching the community about healthy relationships to help reduce the likelihood of dating partner violence. [00:18:43] And whereas Loudoun County Public Schools and Laws Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services work together to name the current challenges to addressing violence, identify strategies to address risk factors, and implement solutions to stop violence before it happens, and whereas recognizing that the trauma sustained from experiencing domestic or dating relationship violence is not something that someone gets over, it is something that someone survives, Loudoun County Public Schools is committed to raising awareness about healthy relationships and body safety, taking ownership in prevention work and creating a culture where violence is unacceptable. [00:19:19] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes October 2026 as Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month, a time in our community to create safety for children, youth, faculty, staff, and families in Loudoun County Public Schools. Working together, we encourage our community to share information about domestic and dating violence prevention, support survivors, and speak out against harmful attitudes and actions, joining advocates and communities across the Commonwealth and the country in playing an active role to prevent domestic and dating violence. [00:19:52] - Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. Our last proclamation is item 4.04, School Bus Safety Awareness Month and Transportation Employees Appreciation Day proclamation. This item will be presented by Mr. Pepper. - Thank you, Madam Chair. [00:20:08] Whereas every day students are transported on school buses by professional school bus drivers who are entrusted with their safety, care, and wellbeing, and whereas school bus drivers complete rigorous training that includes student management, classroom instruction, and behind the wheel preparation, along with thorough physicals and background checks to ensure they are ready to support and protect the students they serve. [00:20:32] And whereas school buses are designed and built with safety in mind, including features such as the federally recognized yellow color, interior and exterior cameras, eight light traffic control systems, and crossing stop arms, all to safeguard students on their journeys to and from school. [00:20:49] And, whereas the yellow school bus is a trusted and visible symbol of access to education, and it is essential that all drivers in the community respect traffic laws and stop for buses as students board or leave. And, whereas Loudoun County Public Schools operates more than 750 buses on over 500 routes, covering nearly eight million miles annually to ensure that every student has a safe, reliable, and caring ride to school each day. [00:21:17] And whereas school transportation plays a vital role in a student's daily experience, supporting their readiness to learn by providing a safe, consistent, and nurturing start and finish to the school day. And whereas school bus drivers and transportation staff are recognized not only for their skill and diligence, but also for the care, patience, and commitment they show to the students of the Commonwealth of Virginia. [00:21:40] Now therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes October 19 to 23, 2026 as School Bus Safety Week and October 22nd, 2026 as Transportation Employees Appreciation Day in Loudoun County Public Schools. [00:21:58] - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Now, I will appropriately ask, are there any changes to be made to the proclamation consent agenda? Seeing none, I will now entertain a motion to approve the proclamation consent agenda. [00:22:13] - So moved. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue, is there a second? Second. - Oh, did I hear Mr. Pepper? Okay, it has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Mr. Pepper. Is there any discussion? [00:22:31] All right, seeing no discussion, let's move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. And clerk, please close and display the vote. All right, that motion passes with six board members voting yes, including Mr. Svensson, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and three board members abstaining, including Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, and Mrs. Griffiths. [00:22:55] All right, thank you, everyone. With that, we will move on to our work session. Our work session tonight is on Intentional Instructional Technology in LCPS. This item will be presented by Mr. Slevin, our Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, and Mr. Aaron Smith, our Chief Information Technology Officer. [00:23:18] Thank you for being here tonight, gentlemen. When you're ready, the floor is yours. - Thank you, Chair Chandler and board members, Dr. Spence. [00:23:35] Mr. Smith and I are thankful for the opportunity to provide the board and the public an update on some work that is happening around intentional instructional technology in LCPS. Starting tonight, we are here together as the Departments of Digital Innovation and Teaching and Learning work together to deliver on this vision. [00:23:59] Our work bridges instructional strategy and technical execution. The Department of Teaching and Learning leads our curriculum design and teaching integration, while our dedicated technical teams across DDI manage the underlying systems and resolve support issues. [00:24:14] I'd like to take a moment and recognize a number of members of the team joining us this afternoon. First, our Director of Professional Growth and Innovation, Nicola Goni. We also have Instructional Technology Supervisors, Mike Henriksen and Hannah Prebeck. And I'd also like to recognize Lori Sink, our Program Manager in Teaching and Learning, helping with much of the lift in this area. [00:24:35] and I know there are members of DDI here as well. Thank you Mr. Slevin. So DDI's role is really to provide that technical support to support the instructional vision of our teaching and learning team. So our team is here to really provide that sustainable framework that we can rely upon every single day to ensure that instruction is delivered using technology. [00:24:54] And I would just like to recognize Mr. Justin Donovan here who is our director of digital experience. Today's update centers on four core areas. What's new this year in our approach to digital learning environments? what data is available to guide decision-making related to these environments, and then an update on two steps we are taking to pilot what our classrooms might look like in the future. [00:25:19] The overarching thread connecting all four is intentionality, ensuring technology is used when and how it truly enhances student learning. First, to align our efforts division-wide, we published our instructional technology guidance, establishing a clear vision for how tech supports student learning. [00:25:41] This document serves as a foundation for staff development days, anchors our leadership and ITF training and support, and is shared on our public student tech site so families have full visibility into our beliefs and philosophy around instructional technology. It outlines the division-wide vision for how technology supports student learning. [00:26:00] It establishes the why behind our use of technology, whether it's for access, differentiation, or learning and support of the LCPS profile of a graduate. It shares guidance on how to think about screen time and sets expectations for it in our elementary classroom. [00:26:16] It provides public transparency for families and resources available via the student technology website. And it guides training for school leaders and instructional technology facilitators. This document's also available to each of you in your board packet for tonight. [00:26:32] Second foundational approach that we are considering is to provide consistency across our schools. Our library media services and instructional technology office partner to update our digital citizenship and AI literacy scope and sequence this year. [00:26:48] Each grade level uses targeted common sense media and LCPS created lessons, while dedicated school implementation teams meet regularly with division staff to support planning and implementation of these lessons. So we have updated our digital citizenship and AI literacy scope through a joint effort between our teams. [00:27:07] We have standardized grade level lessons to make sure there's consistency and we know what is happening at the school level. And we've also established school-based digital literacy implementations teams to support school leadership in meeting this goal for our school system. [00:27:24] Accessibility continues to be a focus for the division as we help teachers and staff create accessible content through instructional technology. We launched a new required module for staff to learn about accessibility requirements under Title II of ADA. We are adopting new tools to make workflows easier, including integrating an accessibility tool into Schoology. [00:27:45] Staff can also use these tools as a standalone accessibility checker to remediate PDFs and other common file types while sharing with the community. Division staff are continuing to build out resources to support teachers and staff with creating accessible content. [00:28:01] We will now transition to changes or refinements that were implemented for the start of this school year. So this slide outlines some changes that were implemented before the start of school. These include Chromebook Carts. The school board directed DDI to provide Chromebook Carts to grade one classrooms. That was completed before the start of school. [00:28:18] So as of now, all kindergarten and grade one classrooms have Chromebook have carts in those classrooms for those devices to stay at school and have a place where they are managed away from the student. We also remove direct access to YouTube and Gmail for our students in grades three through five so students in grades K through two already did not have access to these resources and after review Gmail was not heavily used by our students on grades three through five so that was disabled and really based off of feedback that we received to help provide additional focus and reduce distractions in the classroom to remove students direct access to YouTube [00:28:56] content students still have access to instructional content that the teacher can provide access to or direct them to or show them but they do not have that direct access to kind of just watch any video that they would choose we adopted note as a division-wide study and practice tool so previously we had several available or freemium versions where we did not have licensing or contract contracts in place that included tools like Quizlet if the board had received any questions or comments about that Quizlet did not meet our data privacy standards so we have a we have embraced note as a division and we have contractual and data protection agreements in place to ensure that it is [00:29:33] used appropriately the last item on the list here is the adoption of apto G rooms in Phoenix pass really the goal of reducing application sprawl making sure that our dollars are being used as as appropriate as possible and leveraging existing functionality inside of platforms that we already own and use throughout the division. [00:29:57] Next, we'll get into screen time. I know this has been a very popular topic. So this report here, which is pulled from our Lightspeed Content Filter, so every device across the division, staff and student, has an agent built into it that tracks what they do on the internet, and then this is kind of that back-end report that we're able to pull. This report shows, it's from August 17th, which is the first day of school, through September 11th when I pulled the report and really just want to make sure they understand what it's showing if a student uses a device in on a day this is how long they've used that device for so you see here kindergarten is [00:30:34] 22 minutes that doesn't mean a kindergarten student uses advice 22 minutes every day it means on the days when they use technology they have used it for they average 22 minutes total and that is a daily use metric so if it's seven minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon it's 22 minutes for the day um so the way the vendor has developed this report is so that screen time doesn't get diluted by student absences or school closures or days when students aren't in school that it really is when they use the technology how long are they using it for and how long are they engaged with it on the next slide this is the same report pulled but limited to only the 13 [00:31:12] schools that are in the smart start k-2 pilot so you can see here about a 28 to 32 reduction in screen time use at those schools so kindergarten is at 13 minutes first grade is 21 minutes second grade is 33 minutes again that is only when they engage with technology so we see reduced devices at those locations but also more intentional use of that technology when those devices are in use this slide shows our top apps so far over the past 30 days really class link is lcps go as everyone knows it. It is our portal to launch. So every student goes to LSBS Go and then they [00:31:52] go to another application. So it's always the number one and it far exceeds everything else. But then from there you can see Magma Math, Lexia Core, Epic Books, Clever, which is another rostering integration that we use. And this is only for K-2 showing those usages really of instructional applications. So breaking this further down by gray level, these apps, this table of apps helps us get a small window into the types of classroom activities where students are using technology, referring back to the instructional technology guidance. [00:32:28] We could see examples that would indicate a range of the three different levels I had mentioned previously. Tools like Epic or PebbleGo might indicate that students are leveraging the technology to access resources and information like e-books or content. Tools like Zurn or Lexia show us how students might be using technology for differentiated instruction, targeted specific needs, and readiness levels. [00:32:50] And tools like Google Drive or Wixie might indicate that students are using technology for collaboration and creativity, two of our five Cs. The availability of tools and resources is an important conversation and one of importance to our teachers and staff. [00:33:10] As such, LCPS is implementing a new software management platform to help teachers and staff identify and select appropriate instructional tools. Helping teachers identify and select appropriate instructional tools and then determining how best to implement those tools in the classroom is a core function of our instructional technology team and school-based instructional technology facilitators. The new catalog is a built-in platform that allows us to have a more tailored experience for our staff when they're seeking out information. It includes better controls about what information is shared in a specific audience, better searching and filtering features, and options for sharing resources and support materials. The goal [00:33:47] is to create a hub that can not only help teachers know what tools are available, but also to get a leg up in learning how to use these tools in the classroom. Ultimately, we We want to drive use of existing tools and help teachers recognize the extent of options already available to them rather than them having to find and use new or unreviewed resources. [00:34:08] But Mr. Smith, I know and I know this is an important thing for schools and teachers, they like what they like. But as we are trying to support and maintain this environment, we need to think at our level around protecting student data and privacy. [00:34:25] You know, the more our data is out there amongst different tools, the more risk there is. We want better value and outcomes for the dollars we spend. We're very fortunate in Loudoun to be supported with a diverse set of instruction materials. We want to make sure teachers are using what has been selected through our policies and processes. [00:34:44] We want to make sure technology access is simplified for teachers and students. They know what to use and when. And we want to improve instructional quality and consistency by the support, through the support we provide for the tools that they have. And at the end of the day, we want to reduce cybersecurity and operational risk. [00:35:04] Moving on to two areas where we have an opportunity to be thoughtful but also to innovate. First, we'll start talking a little bit about where we are when it comes to student use of generative AI and AI generally in Loudoun. We know this is another topic very near and dear to our families and our teachers. [00:35:22] And second, we're going to give you a little bit of information on our smart start tech pilot that we've talked about. Recent research shows, from Common Sense Media, shows that 86% of students age 9 to 17 have already interacted with AI in some form. [00:35:38] The critical question for us as a division isn't whether or not students will encounter or use AI, but how are we proactively equipping them to use it safely, ethically, and responsibly as a part of their learning. [00:35:54] Again, 86% of youth ages 9 to 17 have used AI tools. We want to shift the conversation from completely avoiding the technology to thoughtfully and actively guiding student exposure if that's the case. [00:36:13] Why is this important? AI literacy is becoming a part of basic literacy. Our responsibility is not simply to give access to AI, to simply turn it on, but to teach them how to use it responsibly, critically, ethically, and effectively. [00:36:31] The goal is not to replace student thinking, but rather to strengthen it. Students should learn when AI can help them brainstorm, investigate, revise, communicate, and solve problems, and also when they need to be thinking independently and by themselves. [00:36:49] We know students are already encountering these tools. Avoiding Gen-I in school completely does not prepare students to navigate it. Explicit instruction gives us an opportunity to establish expectations around academic integrity, privacy, attribution, bias, accuracy, and appropriate use. [00:37:08] AI makes critical thinking more important, not less. Because AI can produce convincing but inaccurate information, students need stronger skills in evaluating claims, checking sources, recognizing bias, and verifying evidence. An AI-ready graduate, as this vision up here shows, is more than someone who knows how to write a prompt. [00:37:30] As the ISTE-ACSD framework illustrates, There are enduring skills that can extend well beyond any particular AI product. Human skills still need to remain at the center of anything we do when it comes to student use of generative AI. Collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, contribution, communication, those should all be familiar to us, our profile of a graduate. [00:37:51] Those are essential and increasingly valuable as this powerful technology becomes more and more ubiquitous and available to our students. This is also an equity issue. If schools don't deliberately teach AI literacy, students whose families or communities already understand these technologies will have an advantage. Schools can help ensure that every student learns how to use AI thoughtfully and safely. Our question shouldn't simply be should students use AI and that's a question we're having like this is like we're discussing about how and what that would look like. A more useful question is what do we want our graduates to be able to do in a world where AI exists so when they leave our school system. Our curriculum and [00:38:30] classroom should prepare them for that world. So in that vein to lead in instruction while keeping pace with this technology, LCPS has established a clear and proactive positive framework when it comes to genitive AI. Early on, a number of years ago, we launched the LCPS genitive AI guide to support safe classroom integration alongside an official gen AI policy that defines clear division-wide standards for responsible use. LCPS has had this policy in place since 2025, and many other school divisions are looking at Loudoun as a model in terms of how we're [00:39:06] approaching this and some are still in community conversations in developing a policy the policy establishes clear proactive guidelines and frameworks to keep face with the technological advancements includes the philosophy emphasizes the importance of keeping that student human in the center it offers do's and don'ts for the use of technology and we have accompanying regulation for appropriate use and data privacy knowing that and to operationalize responsible use we have launched an opt-in pilot for secondary schools using [00:39:42] Gemini Notebook, a tool specifically grounded in LCPS data protections. Eight participating middle and high schools will engage in targeted professional learning covering digital literacy, communication planning, and classroom integration strategies. We do not have this turned on right now but when this when we go through a series of meetings and the schools are feeling ready we plan on turning it on at some point this year. LCPS already has access to generative AI tools in more limited ways in instances where vendors have added generative AI features we evaluate to ensure student safety and adequate oversight and we have enabled [00:40:20] access for students were generate only where generative AI tools are heavily guard railed or narrow in scope when teachers have direct insight and oversight of how students are using these tools moving on to our smart start K2 tech pilot in LCPS instructional technology must serve as purposeful support for learning which is why we are partnering with elementary schools to evaluate our current k2 device models based on recent data regarding screen time and application usage the Department of Teaching and Learning and [00:40:59] Digital Innovation are partnering with elementary schools to rethink the traditional one-to-one device deployment in grades k2 instead of assigning individual devices to every student participating schools are exploring alternate alternative models the goal is to promote purposeful engagement designing active learning experiences that emphasize tactile learning and peer-to-peer interaction while making very intentional choices about when technology meaningfully enhances the instruction happening in the classroom this pilot is being fully co-created between our central office teams and school leadership the primary requirement for to participation was and [00:41:37] is strong teacher buy-in we want to work alongside our schools and our school leaders and our KT teams to gather honest reflective feedback on how reduce devices instruction devices impact instruction assessment intervention learning outcomes and teacher workload on the screen are our 13 partners I do just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to principals who took a risk and having this conversation with their staff the teachers the CLT's and the ITS are leaning in on this work in terms of helping us work through some of the speed bumps that have come along with trying something old but new in terms of [00:42:17] how we're approaching instruction in our classrooms as mr. Slevin said we really wanted to partner with these 13 schools and not have something prescriptive that everyone was going to do the same so each of these schools have kind of reviewed what they think would work best for them and we have different deployment models that we're evaluating so some of them are using a shared cart say three first-grade classrooms are sharing a single cart some of them are doing smaller classroom sets say six devices in a classroom versus versus the cart being shared there's a combination of both of those we have different sized schools so we try to choose schools that had many different classrooms those were smaller schools with maybe a single first-grade and [00:42:56] kindergarten classroom and really get an idea of what that would look like at the school level and we're continuing to collect that feedback so we are beginning to gather some feedback and all of our schools are still in the pilot so appreciate appreciate that and some positives and there is there is positive feedback from our teachers and our principals in terms of having them rethink creative solutions and new ways of organizing resources around technology and their time in time is the number one resource in an elementary classroom there is strong collaboration amongst the teams we have regular [00:43:33] check-ins with the ITS and the principals and optional calls where teachers and principals can voice what their needs are and there is a real commitment to supporting the intentional use of technology and our principals are really demonstrating they understand the moment we're in and the conversation that we need to be having at the school system there have been challenges as we We are relearning some of, like I said, old habits in terms of shared devices, scheduling carts. [00:44:02] There is a certain level of efficiency that comes with the deployment model that we currently have. And that has centered mostly around delivering intervention and personalized practice. And that, in many ways, is not only on the teacher teams or the CLTs, but also the guidance we're giving centrally, how we're working with them in terms of our expectations for use. [00:44:22] Most of the challenges, if I'm being, if I could summarize, are around assessment and working out the needs for intervention and some of the work that's happening around common assessments. There's also questions coming up with WIDA access in the future, Nagli area, Kogat, and grade two. [00:44:41] And so that's exactly why we're engaging in regular conversations with these teams so that we can anticipate needs and make adjustments as needed. Just to give a scope and scale those 13 schools grades K through 2 have about a 40% device reduction So they have really committed to this to really limit devices And we've really tried to help support them through that process and we have found some gaps We needed to address as they went maybe shrunk it very small And then we've had to build a couple capacity things for them to be able to do what they need to use But it's about a 40% device reduction across those grades and so we are committed to continuing to gather feedback and [00:45:18] Engage with the schools involved in this pilot. So like I shared we have open drop-in sessions on a regular basis We plan a thought exchange for teachers in October than another follow-up survey later in the school year And we are planning for classroom visits by instructional technology facilitators supported by the central support team We're also receiving many informal questions and feedback via let's talk and that has proved to be an effective way to address concerns as they're raised by teachers So I know at our school board budget retreat or your school board budget retreat lots of conversations around one-to-one device deployment and we plan on bringing back a much more in-depth conversation of that in our October 27th work session. [00:45:58] We're just kind of wanting to level set as we're having conversations. Yes, there's a 40% device reduction in those classrooms, but we are seeing unprecedented cost increases for technology across the board. Basically, this is being driven by generative AI. So, as generative AI has to buy chipsets and RAM and everything they need to put in a data center so that those tools can run, it's driving a supply and demand issue in the market that is making computer prices just go up and up. [00:46:25] So, this chart here shows what a Chromebook costs like a typical student device. So, in January of 2019, we paid about $291 for that device, and we kind of track it per quarter. And you can see over the last three, four quarters, we're now at $507 for that device. [00:46:43] and what we are forecasting keep in mind when we bring our budget conversation in that budget work session we're forecasting purchasing those devices 18 months from that conversation so we're we're not just looking six months down the road that budget conversation is really going to be what our vendors are telling us these device costs are going to be 18 months from now so on the next slide you kind of get an idea of what we're forecasting and what this looks like which is why we've been addressing this as a cost avoidance anything we do to move sliders or change device deployments is not going to fully you know when you have a 64 79 price increase a 40 device reduction isn't [00:47:21] going to encompass like all those increases so we bring this slide to kind of begin a conversation knowing we're going to have a much more deeper conversation and when you're looking at the scope and scale of the technology we purchase when you buy 25 000 chromebooks you know a 10 dollar price difference is 250 000 so it doesn't take much in those price inflections to really drive budget increases and cost increases. So the teams are trying to be very, we're working on different models and deployment strategies that we could use, moving sliders based off of different technologies. This slide captures Chromebooks, staff devices, lab computers, which we have in [00:48:00] schools for students, and then performance computers, which students use regularly for things like RTIS class or eSports or those type of initiatives that we have there. So we have all of these deployed currently. We're really working with our vendors in lockstep so we can be as ready as possible but these changes are you know industry-wide they're not just LCPS issues they're anyone who's buying a computer anyone who's buying a laptop whether that's a personal or a business purchase so this is just how the market has been and what we're trying to forecast and work through as we begin those budget conversations so in conclusion we know this is a [00:48:37] conversation of consequence and of high interest to both our families our teachers also our students in terms of the way they receive their education in the world that they're going into and they graduate from our school system so we do plan on continuing this conversation investing in continued professional learning support around intentional use of technology how do we actualize what's in our instructional technology guidance making sure when we use technology there's a purpose for it and it is giving us the outcomes that we're hoping that it does. [00:49:12] We want to refine our approach to utilizing data to inform decision making related to use of technology. An example of that is what Mr. Smith showed you about screen time. This is becoming a topic of interest to our principals. Like how do they monitor and support their teachers in terms of different uses of technology in their classrooms when it comes to screen time in their school. [00:49:35] We want to continue to curate digital resources in a thoughtful manner. We want to assess school readiness for future expansion of student use of generative AI tools. We're hopeful it goes well with our pilot, but we also don't wanna make any assumptions ahead of time. We want to really listen to our teachers about what worked and what didn't when it comes to Notebook LM, for example. [00:49:55] And then finally, as Aaron mentioned, we wanna monitor this Smart Start Tech K2 pilot to inform future deployment of devices with continued pressure and interest in this conversation. We know there likely will be some kind of thoughtful change that needs to be made. [00:50:11] So we want to do that the best way we can without having a negative impact. So with that, Chair Chandler, that concludes our presentation. We're happy to take any questions or comments. - Thank you both for the presentation. School board members, do you have any questions or comments? Mr. Svinson. [00:50:28] - Thank you both for the presentation. I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions and comments on this hot topic and appreciate y'all's attention to it. I just had a few questions on the Smart Start K-2 pilot. really great to see that intentional approach already paying dividends with that with the screen time numbers and i'm excited to hear you know the lessons we're learning over the course of the year one one question i had in terms of timeline assuming we're we're drawing on our lessons this year from these 13 schools is the idea that we would um then roll the you know assuming goes [00:51:02] well roll it out to additional schools next year or is the timeline a bit longer um in terms of expanding out the changes that have been part of this program so from a timeline perspective as long as we're able to capture requirements specifically when we bring the one-to-one conversation in that in the budget work session that's those decisions and the funding levels are really going to drive some of the timelines about when we're able to do some of these things so I know from a technical deployment the teams are ready to do this when schools are comfortable and when we have kind of like a finalized direction and we also need something that is repeatable so when you're supporting an organization [00:51:42] that has 60 elementary schools and you know making sure that we can be consistent with that and have some approach that really works for schools but also something that is supportable at an enterprise level so I think that that's really where we're looking to get that feedback and find something that we can you know hopefully meet 90% of the needs and then build some other pieces there so it is a possibility it could be implemented this summer as long as we have all of those pieces that fall into place. That makes sense. Thank you. And naturally the conversation on screen time and intentional use of tech has really started and concentrated on [00:52:15] the younger age group. But seeing these numbers, I imagine that this kind of intentional approach of rethinking how we're using devices and programs kind of added on over the years could be really beneficial even at the older level. So maybe this is planting the seeds a little early, but you know, the idea of doing this for three through five or at the secondary level for our middle and high schools, obviously it's going to look really different. We need, you know, our high school students to be using devices, obviously, but thinking through the intentional approach to it seems like it'll be a really positive benefit to the students and [00:52:51] educators. So if you have any thoughts about any actions, steps that have been taken on the secondary level, short of a pilot program, or if you've thought about a pilot program for additional grade levels, that would be helpful. - Thank you for that. [00:53:07] I would say this is, while we're focusing on K2 for our Smart Start Tech Pilot in the device deployment, the intent of this presentation is a K12 look at our use of intentional technology. I think I would lean into two things. [00:53:25] One is the professional learning and how we're supporting our ITFs and having conversations about how technology integrated into the classroom and how it can be used that's something we're spending a lot of time thinking about and working with our ITS in the secondary and elementary level I would also point to our instructional technology software review most of those titles are I don't have the exact numbers so I don't want to make up numbers but they're a large number of them are at the secondary level and many of the requests we get are from the secondary level so how do we support our teachers in knowing what's already [00:54:03] available how do we tell them why it's available and what our intent is and why we either spent money or went through the approval process and how we could get that particular tool to meet the need that they they they have or is there an alternative that's a non-tech tool so the conversation on the instructional technology software catalog is probably something that's going to be of interest of our secondary schools I agree thank you mr. Riccardi thank you madam chair Thank you both for this is always really fascinating so I think I I look at this [00:54:41] whole issue of AI from the collegiate perspective right now and dealing with as an instructor at George Mason and then as a student as well and then also just general you know tech ed tech stuff I think is really interesting so I would really I think like to see us think about differentiation of AI from like K at three, four, and five, six to eight, nine to 12, and look at how we're slowly implementing AI usage throughout the K through 12 experience. [00:55:16] I agree that our students need to have exposure to it, and I'm really excited, especially around things around creativity, being able to use these AI tools for those kind of things early, I think is great. I think the concern that I have is when you start getting into using AI for the thinking piece, when you haven't even taught students how to really think critically and effectively over a long period of time is where things get really interesting and not in a good way. [00:55:41] I say that only because I have had, you know, we're struggling, and I'll just speak for myself as an instructor, but our university in general is struggling even to figure out how we're using AI with our college level students right now, and even in my PhD program, the guidance is good, but it's still evolving, and I'm really worried about us getting too far ahead before the technology has really evolved as well. [00:56:11] I'll tell you from a pure research perspective, I'm a very avid user and daily user of AI for a lot of different things, and I am still shocked at, no matter how many times I say no hallucinations, don't make it up, here's the source document, use this only, it still will come back with false information, and I'm not even sure that young minds have evolved enough to be able to really be able to sort those things out. [00:56:41] So I think from a creativity perspective, I think it's really exciting. I think kids are enormously creative and you give them technology, things to do that, it really is pretty amazing what they can come up with. I'm really worried about when we're introducing it from the learning research perspective before they've learned the skills to think critically ahead of time. [00:57:02] So I think I'll just say those. And I would say then, and as well from a teacher perspective. Love the fact that I have access to AI to help me rapidly develop course content, creatively create case studies and things like that, and I'm sure our teachers are using that every day for prep, and I think it's enormously helpful and very time-saving. [00:57:22] I just wanna make sure that our teachers have all the newest skills and research available to them as this world is evolving, 'cause it's evolving quickly, but it's pretty significant and there's a lot of pitfalls around it that I'm nervous about and I don't want us rushing into creating a policy ahead of where the technology is for kind of age appropriate education. [00:57:51] Does that make sense? I just threw a lot out there but I just wanted to share that with you guys, thanks. - So first, one of the things that we really needed to do before we even started a generative AI journey with students is make sure that the tools could be used appropriately and safely. So we didn't want inappropriate conversations, we wanted to make sure those guardrails are there, but that was one of the first things we did is to make sure we have tools in place that monitor them because we don't see that natively built into these tools 'cause they are evolving so quickly and it's been such a quick emergence of them that we felt that was our responsibility. [00:58:24] And so we implemented some tool sets to make sure that we're able to, if something is going down the wrong road, that we're able to get notified on that and schools are able to take action. The second thing is that's one of the reasons that we chose Gemini Notebook. team because it really isn't just an open-world GPT like that just you know there's five or six major ones out there it is a controlled environment where either a teacher can create based off of resources that they upload so if they have ten resources that they upload that's all that that content could be generated from so it's not hallucinating based off of two billion websites that exist it's it's really controlled in that way and so if students are making a [00:59:03] podcast or they are creating flashcards it is really based off of the content that has been uploaded. And so that's some of the controls that are in place, along with some other guidelines and guardrails that are in place to help them make sure that it's an instructional-focused tool. - And I would just add many good questions today that make me think we need two or three more work sessions on this in terms of some of the other work that's happening, but your question makes me think of the work happening around digital citizenship and AI literacy. [00:59:31] And what I'm really thankful for from that team is the thoughtful K-12 approach that you mentioned. And so just at a high level, our K-2 digital citizenship and AI literacy really focuses on the whole idea of being detectives in predictions. [00:59:49] Like how does machine learning work? What are smart machines? What are some logic? Because at the end of the day, that's what much of this is, right? And then when you progress further, like say in middle school, you start getting into like recommendation algorithms and chatbots and how those work in terms of predictive text and how they predict preferences and use data to make decisions. [01:00:12] And then this isn't the first time you're talking about this, but really going deep in high school around ethics and algorithmic bias and like plagiarism, gender of AI, real world consequences and getting a little bit deeper. And so that is an integral part of our approach. [01:00:31] It's not just like turning it on and guiding them side by side. It's really changing the way we talk about this tool and that could be a whole nother conversation about unpacking that curriculum. I just can talk about it at a high level tonight. [01:00:47] - And I think the accountability piece, especially around the plagiarism part, is gonna be really important for our students as they're choosing to go to college because the universities have gotten really serious and I've already had to deal with that already in this last series of terms. [01:01:03] So, I mean, it's a real issue on the campuses too. So I appreciate you guys thinking about this. And I don't want you to assume, I know you all are doing this in the most safe manner possible, so I don't want anybody to assume that I'd think otherwise, but I really appreciate the thoughtfulness behind all of this that you all are using. Thank you. [01:01:21] - Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as many of you know. So appreciative of the teams who have taken on the feedback and are really stepping, and like you said, leaning into this moment in time where I think there's a real reflection happening on the use of technology and its appropriateness schools I did just want to shout out a couple of thank yous because you breezed by a couple of things that are pretty important in my opinion and one thing I wanted to commend especially the team for is the work around the ADA compliance that was not a small task it continues to be a large task from what I hear [01:01:58] getting all of that in compliance I mean I don't know if the public really has a grasp I don't even know if I do I mean I've seen it just a little bit in terms of getting that work into alignment making sure everything that we're putting out a division this size is ADA compliant so hats off to you I know it was one quick slide but it it matters and it's really important that people have the right access and you guys were so ahead of the game in terms of that so I just wanted to take a pause and really really shine a light on that work because I see it I know our schools see it and it's really important so thank you for that another yay is the carts the one-on-one in first grade I think my colleagues [01:02:38] for supporting that budget amendment. I know we kind of nudged there, but I'm hearing a lot of positive things. The Gmail and the YouTube as well seem to be very positively received. We kind of expected that there would be some pushback in terms of using it as a learning tool, but they're really, it's been crickets. [01:02:54] So I think that that's exciting. I think that that was an appropriate move. So I'm grateful for that. And the pilot, obviously. I mean, that's been a huge conversation through curriculum and instruction and just behind the scenes. and so excited to see that the usage is down, but beyond that, just being out in the schools and anecdotally to some of the schools that are doing this pilot, it's really, you hit on it. [01:03:19] It's really encouraging the collaboration that it's creating and really what it's doing right now in these early phases is helping us identify just how much we were reliant on technology in even in the younger grades. And I think there's some real ownership happening around honesty about looking at whether that did have it, was it serving its purpose or not. [01:03:40] And so I'm really grateful. One thing I continue to be perplexed about, and I will also mention this, so I'm giving Mr. Sutton in the back a heads up when we get to the legislative agenda, 'cause I know it's kind of pieced into that as well. We cannot minimize technology use in grades K through two when you are requiring us to do intervention and assessment for these young learners on a Chromebook. [01:04:04] I don't know what to do about it. When we have the Virginia Literacy Act coming out, you have to do this curriculum. Now we have to have these interventions. And they're on a device. And we know that that's not developmentally appropriate. And I know we've worked around it as much as we can, doing the one-on-one lessons, doing the small group work. [01:04:22] But when you look at the charts here and you see where the usage is happening, these are mandated things from the state. So that's gotta give if we're gonna fully embrace where we are with the need to reduce technology. So that is not directed at the team, that is directed at the larger picture, but I'm becoming increasingly more passionate about pursuing this at the state level to make sure that we have that. [01:04:48] Also from a financial perspective, if we have to have devices to run assessments, but there's no funding to back that up, that puts us in a really bad spot. And it's frustrating me. So that's kind of a sidebar soapbox, but I think it's an important conversation that needs to start being had, not just within LCPS but beyond. [01:05:09] And I'm appreciative for you bringing light to it 'cause it is gonna bring some challenges for us in our budget. Additionally, I am really embracing the questions that you're asking about AI. I think that we are asking the right questions. [01:05:26] I think it is about balance. We're sending a lot of our strategic plan work that we've been doing with the new one is about how we're making our students ready for the world that they are gonna face, not the world that we're facing. but the world that they are going to face. And a lot of that has to do with AI. [01:05:43] So I think we're asking a good question. I did have one question about the pilot. I'm wondering if how you're gonna include parents in this because a lot of the feedback I get about AI that's rooted in the fear comes from the parent community wanting to make sure that it's not being misused. [01:06:01] So how are we gonna be transparent with parents about turning on Gemini Notebook, equipping them with being able to see what's going on. I'm also gonna assume that gaggle and all those things will be enacted in that as well. I see you nodding. So just have we thought that through about how we're gonna engage our parent community and bring them alongside in this journey? [01:06:23] - So part of the support that we're providing to the school, so the structure of the pilot is that each school has an implementation team. In many cases, it's the principal, along with ITF and teacher leaders. All schools have an administrator and an ITF, and part of the conversation is how are we communicating this to our parents, and we're providing them resources, talking points, as we're going throughout the process. [01:06:52] So that is definitely a big part of the implementation, and frankly, part of the reason why we wanted this to be something schools chose to do, and not something we told them to do. So, you know, our principals engaged with their staff, They understood the moment we're in in terms of making this important decision about student access to generative AI. [01:07:16] So we're hopeful that our teachers and our school leaders in this pilot will help us communicate the why, like why are we doing this? And so to summarize, yes, that's a big part of this implementation phase. Similar to the first when I was listening to your question, I was thinking about the K-2 tech pilot. [01:07:35] still there's still some thoughts in terms of how we're getting feedback from an impact on families but we haven't made firm plans on that but that is part of the conversation that's one of the reasons the team will be at leaf tomorrow night to have a similar conversation with us so we are trying to participate with our advisory groups and have a conversation here but also have those conversations there as well so similar team that is here tonight will be here tomorrow night to have those conversations as part of leaf we're appreciative of all of that. Thank you guys for the work. Like I said, anecdotally, we are hearing [01:08:10] a lot of great things about this shift and I'm really grateful that LCPS is embracing it. Thank you. Well, I will take a stab at this. I will be the first to admit this is something that I struggle with. In sort of thinking through the entire tech picture and looking specifically at AI, as a steward of LCPS and a representative of my community, I really want to take the opportunity to learn from some of our past mistakes, right? So I think about, I mean, [01:08:48] maybe mistakes is mischaracterization, but our past enthusiasm for jumping into something before we actually knew what the cost was, per se. So I think about that as a parent, as a parent of a senior who because it was very normative at the time gave both of my children cell phones smartphones in that time between fifth grade and sixth grade because they were going to walk and it felt like a safety measure to me and now looking back at that I wouldn't make that decision again [01:09:26] and then in looking at the Chromebooks and I'll be the first to acknowledge right the Chromebook implementation was a necessity but i do believe that it before the pandemic hit we had started implementing or had distributed to some grades and that might have gone to elementary first and we were hustling to get it to the high schoolers after we shut down correct our original implementation plan was one to one three through twelve and so we were about 75 through that deployment when then we also had to shift and include really pre-k through two as part of that so that was never intentionally a part of it it was a reaction to the kind of [01:10:05] situation we're in absolutely and I think that is a really important clarification but and now after we've had these devices at a one-to-one from pre-k since that time and and now we're hearing parents say hey you know what slow down maybe we don't want this and it's an interesting conversation I think In reflecting on how some of these processes have worked, I find that I too wanna say, okay, hold on, slow down. [01:10:39] And I've already gone a couple rounds with Dr. Spence on this. And I was lucky to go to the regional school leaders network on Friday and have the opportunity to discuss this with other school board leaders and superintendents. [01:10:56] And I really feel like I'm caught in between on a couple issues. And I will say, when I think about AI in particular, I reflect on some of the worst case issues and how we would assume, if or how we might be assuming some liability because there are documenting cases where people have committed suicide and AI has been at least an issue in that. [01:11:24] And I can also acknowledge the fact that there are some special education teachers who have shared with me directly how they're using AI to empower their students who couldn't communicate without devices to share their thoughts and do book reports and incredible things that we haven't really thought about. [01:11:42] And so I'll acknowledge it could be my OCD, I definitely have some control issues, but I personally am not super interested in AI. And I come at it from a perspective of, I'm very cautious about the information that I consume and I try to be aware of the bias that could be embedded. [01:12:03] And I don't necessarily want anything to filter information for me. I want to process the information myself. Now, that's not to say I love the Internet. I love to do research, but I'm very cautious about assuming that what AI offers me is accurate. [01:12:20] And I try to dig in to the sources. I also attempt to look at everything through an ethical lens or consider how my choices could have an impact on the world. And I'm just not sure, as of right now, that the use of water, land, and power that's around this issue is something that I'm committed to doing myself. [01:12:47] Again, all of these things are things that I'm wrestling with. Sometimes it feels to me like it's a resource grab, and when I look at the file, like when I look at your slides and see that the cost of computers are expected to increase by 60 to 80 percent, that reinforces that fear for me. [01:13:08] And, you know, there are some underlying conversations that may not be perfectly germane to this conversation. But we are hearing the industry talk about some doomsday scenarios. And my read on that is probably maybe they're going to the worst case scenario because they need to put the brakes on it. [01:13:29] Because, frankly, it has not yet been profitable. And maybe they're looking for somebody to say, hey, slow your roll. All those things being considered. There's no way that you can look at the fact that students are using it already and the number of students in the data that was shared by Common Sense Media and the fact that they're using it at great levels and not look at this and say, well, if we're going to learn from our past mistakes, what's the best thing to do? [01:14:03] And all I come back to is I have to look to the places where I have a great deal of trust. And for me, I have a great deal of trust in the school system. I trust LCPS. I'm glad that we're talking about doing it in a cautious, implemented, intentional way. [01:14:21] And I appreciate the fact that you also have spoken to the responsibility that you feel around this issue. So I guess we're left at this place where we have to lean on the trusted adults to teach responsible youths. And I do hope that we take a slow and intentional approach because I'm not sure that our students are truly ready to Ms. Riccardi's point to make those critical thinking decisions and to be able to differentiate between what's reasonable and trusted and that that's our job to help them learn. [01:14:55] So with that, school board members, I'll see Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you both for this presentation. I'd be remiss to start without a qualifier that for my full-time job I'm incredibly reliant on students being on technology the entire time running a digital curriculum. That being said I have a few questions then I'll dive into kind of the AI stuff I and one of this I had already approached you know Mr. Smith with beforehand but we switched to some new things this year and for the right reasons for data for student privacy for data collection purposes what evaluation tools are we using on some [01:15:34] these new tools you mentioned note for example that might not have all of the functionality that some of the the previous things is there a way that we can either provide feedback to these companies or evaluate if there's other tools that might better fit our needs after running it through this year so we every software title that comes in is routed through what we call onboard and that is our internal process it basically is someone is requesting software and then they fill out a form and multiple teams look at this whether So that's student data privacy, accessibility, basic content, and what's appropriate, instructional use. [01:16:13] So there's multiple teams that then build probably a 16 to 20 page document about that. And then if it's approved or denied, all of that is outlined in that document. Now that process is kind of homegrown, and what we're hoping, like once we get this new application in place, kind of automate that, and then also help provide some transparency there. [01:16:31] So right now it is a very manual process to get that transparency out and publish on on our webpage and make those changes when you have 700 applications. So this new application will hopefully expedite that and provide, you know, we won't have to source all that information ourselves as well. So as those things are reviewed, I will just also add that that's one of the reasons we only want to work with people that we have contractual partnerships with, because that's what drives that vendor. [01:16:54] If it's a freemium version or something you can find online, there's no buy-in and nothing is ever free. Like if it is free, they're either advertising to you, collecting your data, something there. You're the product if you're not paying the product so we really want to drive and we have some non-negotiables as part of that so and those are the reasons why some of those decisions are made i know that everyone has their favorite tool and sometimes we just can't use it because it's not going to meet these non-negotiable requirements that we have are we also soliciting feedback from parents and students within that kind of evaluative framework so as of now all that feedback has come through let's talks [01:17:30] or different feedback areas we haven't done a dedicated feedback gathering like per application And one of those is based off of the application sprawl that we have. So when you have, I think the last report, we have about 2,000 or something on applications that show up in some sort of flavor. So how we would get feedback on each one of those. [01:17:47] Mr. Sullivan and I are really trying to work on how we shrink that and really focus in so that we can really have some good feedback on the tools that we care the most about. I would love to say, sorry, I would just add, it would depend on the tool and the level of interest in the tool if I'm being. [01:18:03] So, for example, we start at the highest level with our textbook adoption. Many of those are digital resources, even though we also buy in print. That's a very transparent public process where we're seeking multiple points of view. There have been times where, for example, we had half our schools using Nearpod and half our schools using Pear Deck. [01:18:24] And we wanted to consolidate our support for those tools and the budget that we're spending on them. And so we went through a collaborative process to get feedback, and we ended up picking Nearpod, much just to grant many teachers who like Pear Deck. And so there are times that we do solicit feedback, and there are others where there are significant other concerns, like Aaron mentioned, around data privacy, advertising, and things of that nature, where as much as we may like it, it's not going to meet our expectations. [01:18:55] So we just have to make a decision or a recommendation. I appreciate that. I would love to see some sort of, and I know this is kind of big, and it's gonna kind of explain it with the kind of wide net, but I can envision particularly as you add things and take things away, there's some functionality that, maybe the question is what functionality are we missing or what's not being used, right? [01:19:15] They can save us money, and to that point, I just wanna, and I had asked you this earlier, the slide that you had that showed the app usage per grade level. I would love to see that at the secondary level as well, just to kind of see how the apps the students use to change as they go through LCPS as another budget consideration 'cause I'm sure they cost money. [01:19:38] The other thing I wanted to briefly ask, what's the typical lifespan of a Chromebook? - Depends on the grade and the level. Middle school students are very rough on their devices, so they're-- - Shocker. - Two last three years. I've seen many of them held together with all sorts of contraptions to make sure the screen's not falling off, but we do a three-year refresh right now. [01:19:57] So we buy in kindergarten, and that device is kindergarten person second, then we buy in third, we buy in sixth, seventh, eighth, and then ninth graders carry it through. So between three and four years for a Chromebook and about four years for a staff device. - Basically about four Chromebooks per student K-12, which you wanna think about the math on that. [01:20:15] All right, and then finally for AI, I think I wanna echo very similarly to what many of my colleagues have said, and I'm saying this from a parent perspective, but also from an educator perspective. I have a very hard time with AI. [01:20:35] Versus from a teacher perspective, I have many colleagues who swear by it, right? They use it for everything from lesson planning to grading. I don't use it at all for that purpose. I don't necessarily feel that the feedback that AI is giving right now is as authentic as a seasoned educator could give. [01:20:55] It also doesn't work as well in chemistry as some of the other subjects. but the student side of it is what often shocks me. And what I would love to see is a way for us to find a way to incorporate AI that also builds in that authenticity, right? [01:21:16] What I'm always looking for is what's the authentic student voice? And I know that we've transitioned over time from kind of a knowledge and fact-based role of school to a content and concept-based role of education where students are weaving concepts together. History is not just the rote memorization of facts anymore, as much as I would love a good multiple-choice test. [01:21:38] But how do we go about working with this AI pilot? Because I will tell you, Gemini Notebook's great. It's fantastic. I use Notebook LM. Colleagues that use it does amazing things. How do we go about ensuring that the work the student is providing-- maybe they use AI to brainstorm, but it's actually their own authentic voice. [01:22:01] It's their own authentic ability to write. It's their own authentic ability to synthesize ideas. think and so that's the overarching question that I have as we kind of go through pushing AI out into our school community. So this presentation wasn't meant to encapsulate everything we're doing around this conversation and one worthy of a slide in this slide deck were our conversations we're having with our high school ELA teachers they're probably real most I don't want to I don't want to rank anybody but they're really interested in this conversation when it comes to teaching students to to write at the high school level and we do have I [01:22:39] want to emphasize we are we are doing our best to approach this shoulder to shoulder with our teachers as much as we can and that's where the feedback is coming from that's where the interest is coming from so Dr. Picard or secondary ELA supervisor has been working with the ed tech team with a cohort of the LA teachers to develop guidance talking points framework for teachers to approach the teaching and writing. [01:23:04] It's probably worthy of a future CNI update at the discretion of Dr. Rasheed. If there's interest in furthering this conversation or in just in general a board update on what's happening at that level. Because the teachers I think understand the moment we're in in terms of some of the changes that are coming their way and they wanna be proactive and solution oriented. [01:23:26] I'm so I could get you more information on that if you're interested. - Thank you guys both so much. I know it's a tremendous amount of work you put into this and I love that you guys are collaborating together on this. - Thanks, Chair Donahue. - Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Smith and Mr. Slovin, for the presentation. [01:23:44] I will be the first to admit that I'm not great with computers, and I have a hard time wrapping my brain around a lot of the concepts that you're talking about. And as some of my other colleagues have said, I don't particularly like AI. I understand what y'all are saying, that it is a thing that we have to contend with now, and I see that in my day job, like most of the rest of us do, I think, in our daily lives. [01:24:12] I have some significant concerns about how we're going to treat this in our school system, and I know that y'all are being very sensitive to trying to be very responsible about how we regulate this topic and introduce this topic to our students. [01:24:30] I wanted to raise a couple of questions that I don't expect to have answers now, but for future conversation. And one is also for my colleagues that I was thinking that there used to be some kind of like ad hoc tech advisory group, or maybe I'm misremembering, but I had been wondering about that, if it would make sense to put together some kind of ad hoc committee, select committee, advisory group, something to talk about some of these tech issues. [01:24:59] Like should we have one-on-one devices for our K through two students? What programs should they be having access to? How should we be introducing AI? It's one thing for us to have these conversations up here on the dais, but if we had a more structured way of gathering feedback from other stakeholders, maybe that could help guide some of these conversations. [01:25:20] And then my other question/thought was, I would like to hear a little bit at some point about how you plan to contain or control AI and not let it break out of the sandbox. [01:25:36] I'm told that's an industry term. I don't know what I'm saying. But as other people have said, we've been hearing reports in the news, especially lately, that the giant companies are having trouble waiting in their AI. So that's certainly a concern. [01:25:54] What measures, and maybe we can't have this conversation in an open setting anyway, I don't know, but I will want to hear a little bit about what steps are being taken to protect the LCPS community from those kind of dangers of AI? [01:26:10] - So for the first question, yes, we did have a technology steering committee at one point. It was disbanded in sunset as, I think there were a couple years where it was only met twice and there was just not a lot of interest. So if that's something that is interest, then we can have those conversations, but it did exist for eight years or so, if I remember correctly. [01:26:29] And then on the second point, think that's really where we're focusing to we're really trying to go slow to go fast we have other organizations who have already opened up tools to students and then are trying to put those horses back in the barn and so we're really trying before we release anything to do our due diligence that's one of the reasons we really wanted to put those student protections in place where we can monitor that because even if we can't control what's inside of those big boxes inside of the data center we can see how students are interacting with that tool and if there is something inappropriate you know there's a staggering amount of reports of young adults having you know building personal [01:27:08] relationships with these tools and then becoming you know friends with them so we want to make sure we're having protections in place and that's one of the reasons we really didn't deploy anything until we were able to have visibility into that and that is something that schools get reports on regularly and if there's a possible student situation you know we have health wellness visits that are done regularly you know 3:00 a.m. in the morning so we really want to make sure those protections are in place so that's how I think we can control it as of right now because we don't have a lot of insight into you know the other side of it as these companies are developing these and then as quickly as the tech is changing and evolving the second you know it two days later it has all whole new feature set that you weren't you have no idea [01:27:48] about so I think that's really what we're focusing on is protecting the students from our network from our devices from the things that we have disability into and that's really was a non-negotiable before any tool was deployed to a student board members any further questions or comments all right well thank you so much for the conversation and the presentation it was very engaging and with that given the late time we will receive recess this [01:28:22] meeting for dinner and reconvene at 6:30 the board is now in recess good [02:02:45] - Good evening, everyone. The board is coming out of recess at this time. Next up, we'll continue with item number eight, the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Tonight, the National Anthem will be performed by the Heritage High School Guitar Ensemble. [02:03:02] The Heritage Guitar Ensemble is honored to perform for us this evening. This group is comprised of students from the advanced and artist level guitar classes. Last year, the ensemble performed for the Virginia Board of Education, the school board and the Appalachian Guitar Festival. [02:03:18] They receive superior ratings in the BGDA Ensemble Performance Assessments. This group is directed by Mr. Kevin Vigil. Welcome everyone and thank you for being here tonight. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [02:03:33] and remain standing for the national anthem. [02:05:28] Well done everyone, that was absolutely beautiful. [02:05:30] Thank you for being here. [02:06:15] All right, thank you everyone. With that, we'll now move on to our item number nine, student school board representatives comments first up we have linda lamb from parkview high school linda is in her fourth year at parkview high school and serves as the student body president linda is involved in many clubs honor societies and school activities she is a proud advocate for her community and always when willing to lend a hand welcome linda the floor is yours thank you madam chair good evening family friends administrators community members and everyone who who came to support us tonight. [02:06:52] My name is Linda Lamb, and over the last four years, I've been fortunate enough to attend Parkview High School, where I've grown into the student I am throughout my time in student council and as a varsity athlete. When I tell people I go to Parkview, I face negative comments. [02:07:09] I'm sure you guys can think about a few. But when I think about Parkview, I think about home. Not the home with the home-cooked meal and the Lamb family waiting for me. I mean my other home, Parkview. The home filled with people who allowed me grow into the person I wanted to be. So when people comment on Parkview, I hear them differently now because they may know Parkview's name, they may know what they've heard, but they don't know my home. They don't know the teachers, coaches, friends, and people who have poured into me. They don't know the memories I've made here, they don't know the person I was when I got here, or even [02:07:47] the person I'm becoming because I went here. No matter where that path takes me next, Parkview will always be a place I can call home. Parkview is a title one school but that is only our designation not our identity. We are a community that cares and one that works hard. Our hard work has earned us the honor of being named one of the 63 schools nationwide as a National Elementary and Secondary Act Distinguished School. Parkview was honored for category 2 closing the achievement gap between student groups which recognized the school's [02:08:21] significant academic gains across multiple student populations. This award shows us that our circumstances never have to limit what we can truly accomplished. Now we're preparing for a new school building opening in the fall of 2027 for returning Patriots and the class of 2031. This year Parkview has continued to grow. We've expanded our dual enrollment opportunities, held a Leadership Development Day with Emmy Riccardi, our Sterling District Chair, and had over 15 students participate in our summer graduation. Each of these moments remind us that every student has their own path and their own reason to be proud. [02:08:59] But what makes Parkview truly special is how we bring people together. Each Each October, we have our Hispanic Heritage Month Parade celebrating the cultures and contributions that make our community what it is. And as we look toward the future, our new school building will become our new home. [02:09:17] With space for 1,800 students, new labs, state-of-the-art athletic facilities, a commercial kitchen, and our IB program, it will open the door to many new opportunities for students. The building may be new, but the Parkview's heart will always remain. [02:09:34] On November 19th, we will begin a new tradition with a holiday dinner for the entire Sterling Park community, doing what Parkview does best, bringing people together. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths, with families representing countries and cultures worldwide. [02:09:52] But we also recognize that some of our families are navigating through incredibly difficult circumstances. Recently, some of our Sterling Park families are facing difficult immigration situations, including deportation and family separations. [02:10:09] Some of these families include parents from El Salvador who have relied on a temporary protected status. These aren't just headlines or numbers. There are families, students, parents, and genuine human beings we see every single day. We partner with outside organizations in the greater Sterling Park community to support families during very difficult times. [02:10:31] This is something I know we'll never lose at Parkview, the ability to see each other as people first and to stand together when someone needs us most. Before I finish, I want to recognize the people who helped me become who I am today. To my siblings, Daniel, Lonnie, Lena, and my other family members, Teresa and Lowell, my advisors, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Primus, my principal, Dr. Jefferson, and all of the staff and administrators who have supported me, I'm so grateful for you all and you guys are like family to me. [02:11:07] Thank you, Dr. Spence and fellow school board members, and most importantly, to the Sterling Park community. You guys have shaped me into the person that I am today. I'll always be proud to call Parkview home and especially Sterling Park. Thank you. [02:11:32] - Thank you, Linda, for your meaningful comments. It's so lovely to hear what makes Parkview home to you. And with that, our next student school board representative is Tony Wiley from Riverside High School. Tony is a senior at Riverside and currently serves as co-president of the Student Council Association, the president of the Black Student Union and captain of Riverside's varsity cheerleading team. [02:11:55] She is also an entrepreneur and the founder of Planet Canine, a pet sitting and dog walking business she started in 2021. Toni has been recognized for both her leadership and her accomplishments, including receiving the Northern Virginia Business and Professional Women's Club Young Entrepreneur Award and earning multiple academic and athletic honors. [02:12:16] Welcome, Toni. The floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Toni Wiley, and as a senior, I've spent the last three years at Riverside seeing firsthand what makes our school special. At Riverside, being a Ram means more than just representing our school. [02:12:34] Each letter in RAMS represents a value we show throughout our community. The R in RAMS is for respect. Last school year, Riverside was recognized as the safest high school in the county, reflecting how seriously our students and staff look out for one another. [02:12:52] We also celebrate the people who make up Riverside through more than 10 culture and identity-based clubs and our annual culture night where students share food, music, performances, and traditions with our community. The A in RAMS is for advocate. [02:13:09] At Riverside, advocacy means turning what you care about into action. Just two weeks ago, two Riverside students organized our annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in honor of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives on September 11th. [02:13:27] More than 160 people participated, raising over $25,000 for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and making this our most successful stair climb yet. The M in Rams is for Motivate. [02:13:44] Three years ago, Riverside had a critical absence rate of about 23%. Today, for the first time in our school's history, We are a number one in the county for attendance. That same drive showed last school year when both our boys and girls lacrosse teams won state championships. [02:14:05] The first time both teams won in the same year. On the girls team, our very own Kate Broad was named State Player of the Year. But that success goes beyond athletics. Riverside Theater earned its first National Capital Area Cappy Award in eight years, with Megan Sawyer and the Grease publicity team bringing home the honor. [02:14:28] And that momentum carried into this fall. In Loudoun County's first season of girls' flag football, Riverside remains undefeated. Finally, the S in Rams is for serve. Just last week, our Student Council Association, National Honor Society, and Key Club came together for our Help Hawaii Heal fundraiser. [02:14:51] Students donated before school and during lunch, raising more than $1,000 to support relief efforts in Hawaii. When you put all of that together, that is what it means to be a Riverside Ram. We respect the people around us, advocate for what matters, motivate one another to succeed, and serve when others need us. [02:15:12] Those are the values that define Riverside, and I'm proud to be a Ram. Thank you. - Thank you, Toni, for sharing with us what made Riverside such a special school. [02:15:30] It's so nice to hear from you both. And honestly, I will just say, it's so nice to see your family's reactions when they watch you, too. But thank you for being here. And with that, we'll move on to our superintendent's report, which will be presented, of course, by Dr. Aaron Spence. [02:15:48] - Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. As always, it's my pleasure to share some good news from around our school division. Starting with a congratulations to the 54 LCPS students who have been named National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists. These LCPS students were among the 1.2 million high school juniors who entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 PSAT, which serves as an initial screen of scholarship program entrance. [02:16:14] National Merit semifinalists are eligible to compete for one of three National Merit Scholarships, which will be announced in phases next spring and summer. Next, we want to congratulate Project Manager Tim Bowers, who was named this month's Shine Award recipient. Mr. Bowers has played a key role in keeping the Banneker Elementary community informed and excited about that school's renovation and addition project. Nominated by Principal Robert Carter, Mr. Bowers was recognized for his responsiveness and clear communication. His efforts have helped build excitement among staff, students, and families as they look forward to the renovated Banneker Elementary. SHINE, which stands for Spotlighting Heroes in Education, is a joint [02:16:50] Loudon Education Foundation and LCPS initiative designed to recognize LCPS employees who go above and beyond in the support of students and staff members. LCPS is currently developing its 2027-2032 strategic plan. This plan will be a road map to help focus the division's priorities over the next five years. To ensure this plan reflects the voices and experiences of those that serve, LCPS is inviting families and staff to provide feedback and share their perspectives. Hearing a wide range of perspectives is of course essential to creating a strategic plan that meets the needs of our students, staff, families, and communities. An email [02:17:28] was sent to families and staff last week, and a text will be forthcoming with a link to participate in the Thought Exchange, which is an online platform allowing participants to share their opinions. The Thought Exchange link is also available on the website shown on this slide. And we encourage all families and staff to take part in this process and make your voices heard. [02:17:49] The LCPS Family and Community Engagement Team recently announced the release of its annual report, which highlights a remarkable year of connection and impact. S-FACE completed its second year of operation in 2025-26 the team strengthened relationships across the school division and expanded opportunities for meaningful family engagement the face office continues to coordinate and provide leadership for the family liaisons who are at every school and ensure that families have strong connections to the resources and supports they need through community building events such as the upcoming interfaith luncheon and the school business partnership breakfast in April face brings together community partners [02:18:26] from across Loudoun County and the region in support of LCPS students and staff. Looking ahead, the momentum continues as the FACE team, as we will hear later tonight, advances planning for the centralized resource hub, which is a key initiative to further strengthen support and accessibilities for families throughout our school division. [02:18:47] LCPS and the Office of Special Education will host the VIEW Transition Academy Roundtable on Friday, October 2nd. The VIEW Transition Academy, scheduled to open during the 2028-29 school year, will be a state-of-the-art vocational training facility where high school students with disabilities can develop work readiness and independent living skills through hands-on learning experiences. The Transition Academy will offer courses aligned with 15 career pathways with the goal of preparing students for employment and opening doors so authentic experiences and greater independence and belonging. The roundtable will provide an opportunity for community partners to share ideas, discuss needs, and explore how LCPS and [02:19:26] and its supporting partners can work together to strengthen opportunities and outcomes for all of our students. And then finally this evening, I'd like to highlight the 2026 Workforce Summit, which will be held on Friday, October the 16th. This event will bring together local business and industry partners, educators, and students to strengthen connections between classrooms and careers. [02:19:47] This year's theme is Explore, Connect, Prepare, with a focus on moving business partnerships from interest to action. Through design labs, breakout sessions, and direct interaction with our students, Business partners will be able to explore ways to work with LCPS and identify opportunities that fit their interests. [02:20:04] These partnerships give our students amazing opportunities to explore careers and make connections that are helping to prepare them for life after graduation. And we still look forward to connecting with our partners at this event. And then Madam Chair, that concludes my report. - Thank you very much, Dr. Spence. [02:20:20] And that brings us now to item 11, public comment. I'm gonna share with you the procedures for public comment. Thank you engaging with the school board the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from loudon county residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers in the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted one minute each for public comment please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time decorum and civility all audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect [02:20:59] for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving departing or speaking at the podium or during a break violations of civility decorum and respect include shouting heckling jeering applause and other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa interrupting speakers attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees. Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, [02:21:37] profanity, and other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, attack individual students and or individual division employees during public comment. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board per school board [02:22:15] policy 2520 members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period to the extent necessary i will also warn of breaches of decorum civility and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly conduct of the meeting. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in on the decision of the [02:22:52] chair. Public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during the public comment period for safety reasons or public comment ending for the evening. Distribution of materials to school board members. Copies of materials for school board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of the material. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that Access to school board meetings is available through LCPS TV on 1070 HD and Verizon Fios Channel 43. [02:23:32] The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. And for the crowd, just as a point of clarification, although we were clapping for the student portion of the meeting, clapping is not acceptable during public comment. And traditionally, community members will share they support an idea by doing jazz hands. [02:23:53] So I think there are several new community members here. We're happy that you're here, but we just wanted to make our norms more comfortable for you. So with that, we do look forward to hearing your comments. And we will start now with our virtual public comment. [02:24:09] Our first speaker is Elaine Hussain, followed by Abdul Majid. The speaker is unmuted. [02:24:37] We are verifying audio. [02:24:51] Yes, hello. Good evening. My name is Elaine Hussain, and I'm the parent of a third grade student in the dual language immersion program at Sanders Corner Elementary School. Could you please pause the clock? Are we able to address the volume and maybe allow the speaker to restart, please? The volume has been turned down and we can restart the clock, whatever the chair directs. Could you please restart the [02:25:29] clock? Ms. Hussain, the floor is yours. Okay, great. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Elaine Hussain and I'm the parent of a third grade student in the dual language immersion program at Sanders Corner Elementary. My daughter was part of the first DLI class at Sanders Corner. When our families chose this program, we committed to years of learning in two languages, knowing that the true learning proficiency takes time. These students have spent years building those skills, and along the way, they've built an incredibly close community. DLI has become more than just [02:26:04] an academic program. It's a community our children have grown up into. But for that investment to truly pay off, they need to have somewhere to go next. For my daughter and the other students who started this program with her, middle school no longer feels like something far in the future, and our families need to know that there will be a pathway forward. I'm asking the school board to prioritize extending dual language immersion into middle school. LCPS has invested in building the program, and these students have done the work. Please give them the opportunity to continue what they've started. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Abdul Majid, followed by Troy Harry. [02:26:48] The volume has been adjusted additionally, and we are ready to try and take the next speaker. [02:27:31] Mr. [02:27:52] Majid, the floor is yours. [02:28:10] Sir, are you able to speak? Please go ahead and call the next speaker. Okay, thank you. We'll just say for the audience and the families at home who might be watching, we have just upgraded our technology systems, and this is the first time that we've had virtual public comments since that time. [02:28:35] So thank you for your patience. Our next speaker is Troy Harry, followed by Natasha Phillips. [02:29:01] Hello, am I audible now? [02:29:33] Yes, thank you. Please go ahead. Yeah, this is Abdul Majid. It looks like I was not being unmuted before, but I can speak now. So good evening. My name is Abdul Majid. I'm a Loudoun County resident for 45-plus years. My kids attend the Rockridge High School, and I'm here to extend my support in recognizing the major religious holidays in the LCPS calendar. [02:29:54] So far, many Loudoun families, religious holidays are among the most meaningful days of the year. Students shouldn't have to choose between celebrating an important religious holiday with their families and missing a day of learning at school. So recognizing religious holidays is about recognizing and respecting the diverse community that LCPS serves. [02:30:13] It sends a powerful message to our children. You belong here. Your traditions are respected and your community is valued. Our children will be tomorrow's leaders by embracing their diversity today. We teach them the values of inclusion, mutual respect, and understanding that they will carry into the future. [02:30:31] That is why I respectfully ask the school board to vote yes to recognize the major religious holidays in the LCPS calendar. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. And with that, our next speaker is Troy Harry, followed by Natasha Phillips. We do not have a speaker by that name. [02:30:51] Thank you. Our next speaker is Natasha Phillips, followed by Jacqueline Porter. Hello. Good evening, everybody. Yes, my name is Natasha Phillips, and I am the mother of an elementary school student at Sterling Elementary. [02:31:09] She's in kindergarten, and it's my first year experiencing what public school is like here. And I've learned to my dismay that there is excessive technology use at such an early age. My daughter is already bringing home a laptop every weekend and asked to work on it for 30 minutes a day. [02:31:29] And that is in addition to every single day during the school day. I feel that this is detrimental to her attention span and her learning. And I would like to advocate for the elimination of ed tech use at the elementary school level, especially in K-2. [02:31:47] Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. And our last virtual speaker is Jacqueline Porter. It's not letting me. Oh, hi. My name is Jacqueline Porter. Can you hear me? [02:32:03] Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. Great. I have a first grader at Ashburn Elementary they're part of the low tech pilot program and I greatly appreciate the board and leadership being willing to implement this pilot program and I will say that I believe it needs to be extended throughout all of elementary and some things need to be going into middle school and high school such as YouTube ban. [02:32:29] One of the issues is leadership reports only 22 minutes on a computer but that's not including what's shown to our children on the smart board via the teacher's computer which includes lots of YouTube videos. And this can be detrimental to our children's development. [02:32:45] It's also not very transparent. So the screen time tied to the Chromebook may be 22 minutes but it is excessively long considering how many other technological issues there are. um please be on youtube thank you thank you we will now start with our in-person public comment [02:33:04] our first speaker is masrur abdul abdullah followed by zachary schneider could you please [02:33:26] turn the microphone on there you go thank you good evening my name is masrur i'm a ninth grader at loudon county high school i'm here to ask you to protect eid diwali and yom kapoor and all major cultural holidays and religious holidays on our school calendar. When Eid falls on a school day, Muslim students shouldn't have to choose between observing our main holiday or stressing over [02:34:04] missed tests and makeup work. Keeping these holidays shows that every student's faith matters equally. Please keep Eid and all cultural holidays on the calendar. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Zachary Schneider followed by Carmen Pohn. My name is Zachary Schneider and I'm a junior at Broderon High School and the president of our Jewish Student Union. Through my years as a student in Lownden County Public Schools, I've had the privilege of watching this school system transform [02:34:44] itself into a more equitable and inclusive environment. While today we may take for granted the opportunity to have days off for religious holidays, it was not long ago that I and students like me had to weigh the decision between missing school and attending religious services. Every year the question came around, will my academics suffer because of my religion? That is a question that no students should be forced to ask themselves. That is why preserving religious holidays in the LCPS calendar is so important. It gives students the opportunity to pray and properly observe their religion without the fear of academic penalties. The mission statement of LCPS is empowering all [02:35:19] students to make a meaningful contribution to the world. A school board that makes students choose between their religion and academic success cannot claim to fully empower their students. By removing religious holidays, LCPS would undermine its mission statement and the inclusive environment. It has worked so hard to build. Thank you. Thank you. Carmen Pawn, followed by Melanie Carreras. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm Carmen Pawn. I'm a LCPS. I'm the mother of an LCPS elementary student on special permission, so you will guess what I'm here to talk about, and I also have a rising kindergartner at home. Just because I have one minute, I have a lot more [02:35:58] to say, but just because I have one minute, I am here to kindly urge you to do two things tonight. Support board member Pepper's amendment on the continuity of out-of-zone school transfers. This would allow my kid and many other kids to continue at their current schools and please introduce language in mr. Pepper's amendment on siblings allowing them to go to the same school if the capacity allows it the current amendment unfortunately what I highly appreciate it would not all families like mine to solve the problem of having two elementary school kids in two separate schools with two separate pick up and drop-off times one thing that I wanted to say to put things into perspective special permission students this year [02:36:37] account for three percent of all lcps students so it's a small minority but your vote tonight will impact deeply families like mine thank you thank you Melanie Carreras followed by Jennifer Ashford good evening madam chair members of the school board and superintendent Spence thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Melanie Carreras and I am an lcps parent I am [02:37:13] speaking in regards to policy 8155 special permission my children are currently thriving under this policy and deeply attached to their school and friends. I would like to request that if the policy is changed, that the small number of current special permission students and any sibling or siblings that have yet to enter kindergarten are allowed to continue at the same school. [02:37:38] This will avoid disruption for current students and prevent families from being split between two different elementary schools at the same time. Including younger siblings would only apply to a few extra kids. but would make a world of difference with how supportive and involved families can be at their school. [02:37:56] Thank you very much for your consideration. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Jennifer Ashford, followed by Natalie Porter. [02:38:14] - Good evening. My name is Jennifer Ashford, and my son is a sophomore at the US Naval Academy. His grandfather served, but the LCHS and JROTC program took his vague motivation and honed it into purpose and leadership. I have serious concerns about the new lottery system and the ease with which students can apply to the program. [02:38:35] Unlike the academies, the most important developmental opportunities in JROTC occur outside of a classroom while participating in extracurricular events and teams such as drill and orienteering. Students show up before school and on weekends, first as freshmen learning to follow and eventually as seniors learning to lead. [02:38:55] To succeed requires a serious commitment by the student and their family, especially if coming from outside of the LCHS zone. Checking a box to apply isn't sufficient. It is imperative that the program instructors be able to evaluate a formal application with references early in the process to determine the motivations and sincerity of the applicant. [02:39:16] Thank you, thank you. Thank you and go Navy. Natalie Porter, followed by Rob Russell. Good evening, I'm the parent of two recent graduates of Loudoun County High School, both of whom were special permission program placement and JROTC cadets. [02:39:39] They both developed into strong leaders and reached goals our family didn't realize possible, with NJROTC as the catalyst. With this program historically being such a huge asset to LCPS due to the high caliber of cadets along with the high program expectations, I'm troubled by the recent admission changes and dwindling numbers. [02:39:57] This program is unique in the type of dedication required and should be treated that way. It's more than just an academic program. A lottery admission system is negatively affecting the program and should be reverted back to the former process. Interviews allow unit leadership to familiarize potential candidates' families with program expectations. [02:40:14] Additionally, increasing the cap to 40 students with the removal of the lottery system will solidify the program's future for our future leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Rob Russell, followed by Jody Markwith. Good evening, Madam Chair, Board Members, Dr. Spence. [02:40:37] My name is Rob Russell. I am the head varsity girls soccer coach at Tuscarora High School. This is sure enough, we look forward to the opportunity to host you in the spring. I'm here to support the proposed reclassification of assistant athletic directors, and I'm here to do that for a couple of reasons. One, when the position was created 20 plus years ago, our division was a very different place. [02:40:58] The division made really, I think, important decisions to expand activities, expand opportunities for our kids to compete. But in doing so, we've created a lot more work for our athletic directors. 56% of Tuscarora students compete or participated in a VHSL activity. [02:41:14] That's 700 kids. So in our classification for the athletic directors has not kept up with that increased workload. So I'm here to advocate for the classification so our kids can compete safely in an organized manner and learn beyond the classroom in a supportive manner. [02:41:31] Thanks so much. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Jody Markwith followed by Christine Konuki. - Good evening esteemed school board members. [02:41:47] My name is Jody Markwith and I am the parent of an out-of-zone naval science junior cadet and also vice president of the NJROTC Booster Club. I respectfully ask the board to consider two steps that would help preserve the strength and success of our NJROTC program. [02:42:07] First, please restore an interview process in the commitment so that we can better identify students who understand the commitment involved and genuinely find interested parties in leadership, discipline, service, and personal growth that NJROTC offers. [02:42:29] This helps ensure students that truly wanna participate can participate, and it's best for both parties. Second, please consider allowing additional out-of-zone students to enroll. There's many qualified students out there that haven't had the opportunity because of the constraints. [02:42:46] - Thank you. Our next speaker is Christine Kanuki, followed by Micah Wollum. - Hello, my name is Christine Koenicke and I'm here to advocate for assistant athletic directors being compensated as an administrator. [02:43:08] I've lived in South Riding, the Dulles district for over 27 years. I have a unique perspective as I can interact, I have interacted with assistant athletic directors in four different ways. 14 years as a teacher. I worked at Freedom High School as a math teacher and directly saw the increased responsibility of assistant athletic directors inside and outside the classroom. [02:43:34] Second, four years as Freedom High School's girls lacrosse varsity coach. I not only interacted with our assistant athletic director, but other schools. Three, as a parent, I had three student athletes to go through the school, all playing sports, 36 seasons worth of experience. [02:43:55] and now as a community member, seeing how the role has increased for assistant athletic director. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Micah Wollum, followed by Gabriel Arden. [02:44:14] - Good evening, esteemed board members and Superintendent Spence. I am Battalion Command Master Chief Micah Wollum, and I'm a senior in our unit's program. I'm deeply concerned about two things regarding our shrinking size in the unit. [02:44:29] So I asked two things of the board today. One, direct a two-year increase in our annual cap on program placement students to 40 a year, and direct the removal of NDRTC from the lottery system and return it to the fair application interview process in which our program, instructors, and school administrators have full input, as the way it should be, of the final decision of those in the program. [02:44:54] Please consider both these actions to be effective immediately for the 27 to 28 school year. Thank you for your time. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Gabriel Arden, followed by Lee Graham. [02:45:13] - Good evening, esteemed board members and Superintendent Spence. I'm Cadet Chief Petty Officer Arden, and I'm a junior at Loudoun County High School. I'm a program placement student in the zone for Loudoun Valley High School. I am deeply concerned about the shrinking size of our unit, as well as the transition to a lottery-based admission system. [02:45:32] So I asked two things to the board today. One, direct a two-year increase in the annual cap on program placement students to 40 a year. And two, direct the removal of NJROTC from the lottery system and return the application and interview process in which our program instructors and school administrators have input in the final decision on rollies. [02:45:53] Please consider directing both actions to be effective immediately in order to impact the 2027 to 2028 school year. Thank you for your time. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Leah Graham, followed by Abdullah Rahman Khan. [02:46:14] - Good evening, esteemed board members and Superintendent Spence. I'm cadet Petty Officer Third Class Graham, and I am a Naval Science 2 student at Loudoun County High School. I live in Leesburg, Virginia, and I am zoned for Lowndon County High School. However, I am deeply concerned about the shrinking size of our unit and transition to a lottery-based system. [02:46:35] I ask two things of the board today. Direct a two-year increase in the annual cap on program placement to students 40 a year. Two, direct the removal of NJRTC from the lottery system and return to the application and interview process in which our program instructors and school administrators have input and the final decision on enrollees please consider both actions to be effective immediately in order to impact the 2027-2028 school year thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is [02:47:08] abdul rahman khan followed by katherine pause hello my name is abdul rahman muhaiman khan today i am here because i'm concerned of a few things i want the eat already to be accessible for everyone that celebrates it and all holidays to be accessible for anyone who celebrates it. We don't want the people to choose between having a test and going and having the [02:47:43] holidays. We really want to make sure that we can all celebrate our holidays and follow our traditions. Thank you for taking your time to listening to me. Thank you. Catherine Paz, followed by Laura Thomas. Good evening. My name is Catherine Paz, and I'm the parent of a student who participates in the dual language immersion program. Loudon has committed to developing these [02:48:22] students' bilingualism through fifth grade, but currently there is no pathway to continue through secondary. From a language acquisition standpoint, proficiency does not stay frozen at the level where instruction ends. Without continued exposure and meaningful academic use, students may retain conversational Spanish, but they risk losing the advanced reading, writing, and vocabulary skills they have spent years developing. Our goal should not be students who once participated in DLI with some proficiency. Our goal should be graduates who are truly biliterate, and the current offering of only one Spanish elective class every other day [02:48:59] in secondary is not nearly enough to reach this goal i respectfully ask you to create a clear continuation pathway for dli into secondary so students have the appropriate opportunities to reach true professional fluency not just functional thank you laura thomas followed by syed ashraf my name is laura thomas i'm also the parent of a student in the dual language spanish immersion program our program is now in its fourth year they've spent years building language [02:49:37] proficiency, confidence, and cultural understanding. But right now, we don't know where that journey takes them after elementary school. LCPS has already invested in these students with teachers, curriculum, training, and resources. So shouldn't we not only ask what will it cost to continue, but also how do we maximize the investment we've already made? Research shows that DLI students can achieve strong academic outcomes while the additional cost is relatively modest. And there's very loud and reason to continue. We are part of a global economy and our own workforce strategy recognizes education as essential to preparing tomorrow's [02:50:15] workforce. These children started this journey in kindergarten. Let's not stop at fifth grade. Let's establish a pathway through middle and high school and give our students the opportunity to finish what they started. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Saeed Ashraf followed by Morgan Kabuzi. Good evening. [02:50:41] Good evening, everyone. Madam Chair and distinguished school board members. My name is Syed Ashraf. I'm the co-chair of Aram Civic Engagement, All Dallas Area Muslim Society. That's one of the largest mosques in this area and in the nation. And I'm here to advocate for the inclusion of religious holidays in the Loudoun County School calendar. And it's already part of the Fairfax as well as Prince Williams County School calendar. [02:51:08] Also, I have lived in this county for the last 24 years. I have two boys who completed their K-12 education through LCPS, and I'm very proud of that. They graduated from Stonebridge High School. So I'm really proud of this diverse and vibrant Loudoun community, and I want to make sure that it is respected and is reflected in our school calendar. [02:51:30] So I will request and urge all the school board members to please consider voting for the option that includes religious holidays, especially Dr. Rush's calendar. Thank you very much. Thank you. Morgan Kabuzzi, followed by Ineya Syed. [02:51:48] Good evening. My name is Morgan Kabuzzi, and I am a former high school English teacher and a local parent. I'm also the founder of the Loudoun County Chapter of the Balance Project, a nationwide nonprofit organization focused on ensuring technology is incorporated with intention across all ages. [02:52:06] I'm here to address intentional technology use in LCPS. I want to applaud the board for the low-tech elementary pilot program this year. While there is still room for improvement, my second grader is benefiting immensely from more age-appropriate paper-based projects and face-to-face interaction in school this year. [02:52:22] I implore the board to expand the program to grade 5, if not higher, next year and thank you for all of your work on this. As the board considers intentional technology use across all ages, I urge you not to overlook middle and high school students. Chromebooks are proving to be more of a distraction than an educational tool and it will behoove LCPS to establish a technology advisory committee, limit screen times in school, and ban YouTube from student devices. My sixth grader reports that classmates pull up movies, TV shows, and music videos on YouTube during class. I know that LCPS... Thank you. Anais Syed, followed by Kelsey Fogelman. [02:53:03] Good evening, Madam Chair, school board members, and distinguished guests. My name is Anais Syed. I'm a junior and the president of Muslim Students Association at Independence High School. When students walk into school, they should feel that who they are, where they come from, and what their families value truly matter. [02:53:24] Virginia has been strengthened by generations of people from different cultures, religions, and backgrounds. Loudoun County is no different. Our classrooms are filled with students whose families celebrate different holidays, follow different traditions, and bring unique experiences into our schools every single day. [02:53:40] For me, seeing an important cultural or religious day recognized on the school calendar is more than just having a day off. It tells me I belong here, my family matters, my tradition matters, my traditions matter. A culturally diverse calendar does not take anything away from anyone. [02:53:59] It creates space for more students to feel seen and respected. And our schools teach children about inclusion and community. Our calendar should reflect those. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Kelsey Fogelman, followed by Abu Bakr Sadiq Bibi Abdul Rama. [02:54:22] - Good evening, my name is Kelsey Fogelman. I'm the mom of three boys in Loudoun County. I'm here tonight to discuss the special permission and the possibility of eliminating. Our family's been with LCPS since 2021. We initially trusted the system and sent our children to their assigned schools. [02:54:40] Unfortunately, Countryside Elementary was unable to adequately support one of my children despite his documented emotional disability. There was multiple instances where his IEP was not followed caused significant emotional stress and harm, not only to him, but our entire family. [02:54:57] After advocating for our son, hiring an attorney, working with a special education advocate, he was ultimately moved to Algonquin Elementary. The difference was remarkable. He began to thrive, the staff understood his needs and supported him appropriately. We later moved our two other boys who also showed the same success. [02:55:15] Because of that experience, we now have special permission and we are willing to take on the transportation burden because we know our children are safe, supported, and are thriving. - Thank you. Our next speaker is Abubakar Siddique Bedi Abdul Rahiman, and that will be followed by Radina Maliva. [02:55:40] - Good evening, everyone. My name is Abubakar Siddique Bedi Abdul Rahiman. I'm a Loudoun County resident since last 14 years, and I have three kids in LCPS. They are from kindergarten, fifth grade, and ninth grade. [02:55:56] For me and my family, the religious holiday is very important. We celebrate it and we need it. And I request all board members to work for that and adopt that calendar. Thank you. - Thank you. Radina Mileva, followed by Avram Fechter. [02:56:22] - Good evening. My name is Radina Mileva and I'm a mother of two girls, one current sixth grader and one LCPS graduate. I'm also a member of the Loudoun chapter of the Balance Project, a non-profit advocating for the intentional use of technology in schools and at home. [02:56:38] I'm cautiously optimistic about the direction the school board is taking with using research to guide technology decision and introducing pilot programs limited tech in elementary schools. But we need to go further and carry this progress into middle and high school and we need to do it now. [02:56:56] I urge the board to do three things. Expand the low tech model throughout elementary school and carry its core principles into middle and high school. Provide teachers with evidence-based guidance on when and how technology should be used. Allow teachers, parents, and students to choose meaningful non-digital alternatives without isolating those who opt out. [02:57:20] And lastly, establish district-wide guard layer. - Thank you. Avram Fechter, followed by Laura Brownstein. [02:57:37] - Good evening. I'm Avi Fechter, a parent of two LCPS students. Published LCPS data show that its 70,000 students are roughly 40% white, 27% Asian, 20% Hispanic, 7% African American, and 6% are biracial. [02:57:55] LCPS has a significantly larger, diverse population than most other jurisdictions. Designing an LCPS calendar solely around the federal one ignores the fundamental reality of how Loudoun County has changed over the last 15 to 20 years. The substantial number of LCPS students who observe non-Christian holidays should not be forced to miss in-class instruction or after-school activities simply because they observe a religion other than Christianity. [02:58:20] We are better than that. Most Loudoun residents think that the county's increasing diversity is one of our strengths. It has made us the richest county in the country. It has made our school system the best in the country. Some Loudoun residents seem to view the increasing diversity as a threat, or at the least, something to willfully ignore. [02:58:38] Please don't make that mistake. Thank you. - Thank you. Laura Brownstein, followed by Chris Stevenson. - Good evening, my name is Laura Brownstein, and I'm a parent of a middle school student in LCPS. [02:58:57] I'm also a member of Moms Against Media Addiction and The Balance Project. I'm here tonight to advocate for more intentional tech use throughout LCPS. My seventh grade son broke his Chromebook the first week of school, and I want to applaud the teachers at his school for making it work, giving him paper and pencil for the past several weeks. [02:59:14] The school is also willing to keep his new Chromebook at school so he doesn't need to bring it home. And for this, we're grateful. Tonight, I'm requesting the district will first establish a collaborative tech advisory committee with parent and teacher reps to evaluate both existing and prospective ed tech products second eliminate one-to-one device programs for elementary schools and limit use in middle and high schools to times when screens provide a unique educational benefit third audit your ed tech contracts to ensure removal of gamified learning and passive learning in favor of evidence-based software for all subjects and grade levels fourth monitor the amount of time students spend on screens during the school day and establish specific limits and eliminate screen time on personal [02:59:54] devices from being used thank you chris stevenson followed by christopher martin good evening madam chair and school board thank you so much for your long hours of service i am chris stevenson a 24 year resident of loudon county i support dr rasheed's proposed 2028-29 school calendar most importantly because it acknowledges and respects the rich religious pluralism that now defines our county while i am an active member of the county's religious majority which says [03:00:31] nothing about my Americanness or patriotism. I value our minority religions and acknowledge how hard they work in teaching their children virtue, which is essential for our constitutional democracy. The school system, recognizing the religion of many students and their families, facilitates Christians' participation in important religious holidays, lessening the possible negative academic impact. It should do the same for our friends and neighbors of other religions. Dr. Rasheed's proposed calendar does this in a balanced way that reflects LCPS's dedication to the full education of all students. I hope you support Dr. Rasheed's [03:01:09] proposed calendar. Thank you. Christopher Martlou followed by Melissa Larson. Good evening. My name is Chris Martlou and my daughter is in the DLI program. [03:01:25] A recent Pew research study found a median of 92 percent of students across Europe were engaged in extensive foreign language education compared to a median of 20% in the United States. In an ever-growing global economy and global workforce, our children are at a disadvantage in a future where people from different places will work together more than ever. We have the responsibility to defy that trend and improve the odds of a successful future for our children. Our children are extensively learning a foreign language up through fifth grade. Beyond that, foreign language is elective and introductory in nature, making it ineffective for already advancing [03:02:02] bilingual and biliterate students. Without the continuation of the DLI program past fifth grade, our students' future ability to communicate in a foreign language will greatly be reduced. If they don't continue their immersion, then by the time they are graduating, applying for college, choosing a career path, that foreign language may be just that to them, foreign. The DLI program is a wonderful program. Please extend it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Melissa Larson, followed by [03:02:29] Melissa Sebeck. Good evening members of the school board. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of our elementary students and librarians who are facing constraints due to ongoing library staffing shortages. Inadequate library staffing is directly restricting student access to books and essential literacy programming. Because our smallest elementary schools rely on part-time [03:03:07] positions some school libraries are completely closed for book checkout on days the librarian is assigned to other another building and our largest school staffing limitations force and every other week schedule meaning students wait two full weeks between library visits and multi-part research projects stretch over months draining student momentum and engagement when these schools attempt to maintain weekly visits without sufficient staff libraries are forced into overcrowded double classes with over 50 students sharing the space at once. [03:03:43] Our students deserve consistent. Thank you. Patricia Savick followed by Chris Countryman. Good evening. My name is Patty Savick and I have been a librarian at Eagle Ridge Middle School for 15 years. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Rebecca Shannon who is a halftime librarian and halftime instructional facilitator of technology at Banneker Elementary School. I'll be reading her written statement serving in two roles i often feel that i do not always have time in my day to [03:04:20] serve my school to the highest level that i would like to achieve the instructional facilitator of technology position is now considered a coaching position and we are expected to coach teachers through coaching cycles while teaching library classes weekly managing the library attending all grade level clts being part of my school improvement team and attending all instructional technology professional developments and clts it is very difficult to find time for true collaboration and coaching with teachers i feel that small schools like mine that share itinerant librarians and ifts could greatly benefit from having full-time positions available to them while each [03:04:56] position is considered a half position thank you chris countryman followed by nicole corson first i want to acknowledge the heavy lift that has gone into developing the capital excuse me the calendar My comments tonight are simply to make sure employee voices are part of the conversation. [03:05:25] Last year, we went from one extreme to the other and ultimately adopted the least popular calendar. Tonight, I want to highlight just three things. First, a two-week winter break was supported by a significant majority of both employees and families. [03:05:42] Now, you could achieve this by limiting the calendar to federal holidays. However, you cannot include multicultural holidays without sacrificing the length of winter break, the one thing you have consensus on. But I believe there is middle ground. [03:05:58] In the LEA survey, a majority of employees supported a shorter school year and indicated they would be willing to work on multicultural holidays to achieve it. I am asking you to consider making those multicultural holidays remote workdays for employees. [03:06:15] Thank you. Nicole Corson, followed by Sabrine Baig. - I'm speaking tonight about the calendar as a teacher at Heritage High School, sponsor of the Jewish Student Union there, and founder of a group of LCPS Jewish teachers. [03:06:37] When my own two sons were LCPS students, we didn't have any Jewish holidays off from school. We had to choose to take the boys out of school on those days, and when we did, they inevitably missed assessments, assignments, instructional time, and even basketball practice. They felt like they were missing out, and they often became resentful. [03:06:56] As a teacher, I've always had to take the day off, sometimes two days, depending on how the holidays felt. That involved missing critical time with students at the beginning of the school year. So when LCPS added Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, it was a very welcome decision. [03:07:12] Having these minority faith observances on our school calendar goes a long way towards inclusivity and instilling a sense of belonging to those students and staff who might otherwise feel that their needs are unimportant. So please support Dr. Rasheed's version of the calendar. [03:07:28] - Thank you. Our last speaker this evening is Sabreen Baig. - Good evening board, my name is Sabreen Baig. I live in Loudoun County and a parent of three students who attend Loudoun County Schools. [03:07:44] I'm also a researcher that has spent the past decade studying how students learn in many different contexts. The lesson from my work is consistent. The single most important factor for learning is a teacher in a classroom actively teaching. [03:07:59] Nothing replaces that, not on a screen and not on paper. The wider evidence points in the same way. Two weeks ago, the OECD released the 2025 results of the PISA test, which is a global exam of 15-year-olds. American 15-year-olds' reading scores fell by 14 points, one of the lowest since the exam started. [03:08:20] Experts attribute the global decline, at least in part to technology. So my request is as follows. Make paper the default and screens the exception. Protect time for handwriting, printed books and teachers teaching. Hold every device and every app to two questions. [03:08:35] Does it improve learning and is there a drawback? Is there a trade off in terms of other things? - Thank you. Thank you so much for coming out this evening and for providing your public comment. Board members at this time will take a short recess and reconvene at 7:45. [03:08:52] The board is now in recess. [03:17:36] The board is now coming out of recess. We will start now with our action items. First up, we have item 12.01, Department of Business and Financial Services, Fiscal Year Budget Supplement for Workers' Compensation Fund. This item was presented by Ms. Willoughby, but I will ask Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? [03:17:57] - Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the school board approve an FY '26 supplemental increase to the Workers' Compensation Fund by $1.8 million to be funded by transfers from the school operating fund to maintain two months of claim reserve. - Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? [03:18:13] - Second. - Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. All right, Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to speak to your motion? - No. - Ms. Willoughby, would you like to speak to the- - Defer to Ms. Willoughby. [03:18:33] - While I don't have any additional new information to share, I'll just quickly summarize again. This was part of the, which is hopefully final FY 26 year-end action to help us close the books related to our workers compensation self-insurance fund the action is based on the actuarial report that we received indicating that we needed 1.8 million of additional reserves in the workers comp fund and beyond that happy to answer any questions the board may have thank you so much miss Willoughby and board members are there [03:19:09] any questions or discussion? All right, seeing no discussion. It has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donohue and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. Let's move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with eight board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donohue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle abstaining. [03:19:44] with that we will move on to item 12.02 department of business and financial services a school board calendar for the development of the fiscal year 2028 budget this item let's see well ultimately we'll start with the motion so vice chair donoghue do you have a motion yes thank you madam chair i move that the loudon county school board approve the proposed budget development calendar for the fy 28 annual budget thank you vice chair donoghue's made a motion is there a second second thank you uh mr spenson all right um vice chair donahue would you like [03:20:24] to speak to the motion no thank you madam chair thank you but i would defer to miss willoughby miss willoughby would you like to speak to the item i'll just draw the board's attention to the redlining of two dates that we corrected in board docs one is the october work session that will now occur on october 27th as well as the fiscal guidance update that would be planned for Tuesday, December 15th. [03:20:53] Other than that, similarly, happy to answer any questions. - Thank you. Board members, any questions or discussion? Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I've continued to kind of just state my concerns with the shortened timeframe of the budget review process. [03:21:12] And I think that, you know, we're reviewing close to 60% of the county's monies that are given to the school board. It's a $2 billion budget. And I feel like we need to have more than 17 or 19 days to review that, to really do our due diligence and be really responsible to the public. [03:21:33] I'd like to also make a motion to postpone the vote until the next school board meeting so that we have some time to explore the back end of the budget a little bit more of the budget review cycle. [03:21:49] I wanna see if there's any way that we can push this out at least a couple of weeks into February so that we can spend a little bit more time really reviewing in more detail the budget process. So I'd like to make that motion. - Thank you, Ms. Riccardi has made a motion to postpone this item till the next meeting. [03:22:11] - Is there a second? - Second, I'm sorry. - Second. - Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. Ms. Riccardi, would you like to speak further to your motion? - I think what I'd like to say is I've started having some conversations with some people at the county and they believe that there might be some opportunity for us to be able to move this back into February a little bit farther. [03:22:33] So I'd like to be able to have the additional couple of weeks to dig into that and validate that and figure out whether or not that's actually possible. And I don't see any harm in holding off for another couple of weeks on that vote. - Thank you. Board members, is there any discussion? [03:22:49] Vice Chair Donahue? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to ask from Dr. Spence or perhaps Ms. Willoughby if there would be harmful effect to staff if we were to delay the vote? [03:23:10] - Generally speaking, I'll defer to Ms. Willoughby, and I would also say, I think we can make it work. I think our concern obviously is we are mapping backwards right now. We're in the process of mapping backwards to a date so that we can identify, 'cause there's, as you all know, in a lot of steps that happen between now and when we present the CIEON, we've undergone a continuous process with our departments and that's ongoing, and of course, in the meantime, we're also trying to get the CIP prepared, so there's a lot going on with staff, and we're really just trying to get our calendars aligned, [03:23:49] particularly with the ERP going on. So the concern is just, we really need a target date to map backwards as quickly as possible in terms of when we need to produce the documents that are required to present the CIP onto the board. Does that mean two weeks will make that impossible? [03:24:05] It does not, it just strains our resources and capacity a little bit. - Thank you. Willoughby, would you like to add anything? Specifically to the question regarding staffing, we do already have a tight timeline the way the calendar is presented related to coordination with HRTD in terms of posting for recruitments and having qualifying language on those recruitments. [03:24:33] And so anything that adds to that delay I think just would put an additional burden on trying to recruit the best candidates. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. - I'd like to piggyback this on just a little bit further and really get clarification perhaps from Ms. Riccardi because it's gonna make a determination here as to how I would decide on this. [03:24:56] Do you have a general idea of how deep into February we might possibly be able to go? - Riccardi? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm gonna say two weeks is what I was originally fishing around for. [03:25:14] Like, would it be possible for us to move it down like two weeks? And I was told that that's possibly doable, but I need to talk to some more people and have some time to do that, so. - Okay. - Which would, by the way, also loosen up the front-end budget stuff for our staff over the holiday, over the winter break, a bit possibly. [03:25:37] - Can I ask a question for Ms. Willoughby as well, not for Ms. Farnardi, or do you have a question? - Mr. Pepper. - Or do you have a question, Chair Chandler? I was not trying to engage in discussion. Yes, ma'am. I was just seeking clarification. Question is also for Dr. Spence, Ms. Willoughby, whoever wants to jump on on this, knowing that our actual school meeting is actually three weeks from now because there's an extra Tuesday in between. [03:26:00] And is that going to be too tight of a timeline for you, knowing that this extra two weeks is up in the air, and/or is this something where we can approve this now knowing that should we get the change in between now and the next meeting, we can come back and perhaps adjust the dates. [03:26:26] - I would have no heartburn if the vote on the calendar is delayed to the next meeting. - Say that one more time, please. - I would have no heartburn if the vote on the adoption of the calendar is delayed to the next school board meeting. - Okay, thank you, no heartburn. [03:26:43] - Wait, so just for clarification, you said you don't have any heartburn if this vote is delayed? - Correct. - Thank you for that clarification. All right, Dr. Rasheed. - Thank you, Chair Chandler. [03:26:58] Just out of curiosity, if we delay this, does this cause more finances for our aides to follow up on with this item with the help of us looking into it? If we delay, I'm just curious, thank you. [03:27:15] - Thank you for that question. I would guess that would ultimately be up to each school board member's purview, although it is an interesting point. I find myself very interested in the conversation, very interested in what the possible outcome could be at the end. [03:27:33] But ultimately, in looking at the calendar, I think if we approve the calendar tonight and give staff the ability to move forward with any additional plans and an opportunity comes to amend the dates at a later time, I think the calendar could be brought back and amended. [03:27:49] We could certainly add more time if that time became available. I mean, ultimately, if staff is saying they don't have any heartburn, this is certainly not a hill that I would wanna die on. So it's up to the will of the board, absolutely. [03:28:05] But I think there are multiple ways that we could achieve the same goal. But ultimately, just my perspective. Any further discussion, Vice Chair Donahue? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be in favor of not pushing back the vote in the event that if Ms. Riccardi is not successful in her conversations with whoever she's speaking with at the county. [03:28:33] I don't want us to be in the position of pushing back the vote two weeks and then we can't move the final date and then we have even less time to prepare. So I would prefer that we follow the path that you just suggested Madam Chair, which is that we go ahead and proceed with this vote tonight. [03:28:49] And if there is a basis to extend the timeline later, we can extend the timeline later. Thank you. - Thank you. All right, is there any further discussion on Ms. Riccardi's motion? Okay, Ms. Riccardi has made a motion to postpone. [03:29:06] item 12.02, the school board calendar for the development of the fiscal year 28 budget until the next school board meeting. This motion is a motion that passes by majority. [03:29:21] Seeing no further discussion, let's move forward with the vote. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion fails with four board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, Mrs. Griffiths, and Ms. LaBelle, and five board members voting no, including Mr. Svensson, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed. [03:29:48] And with that, we return to the base motion. Is there any further discussion about the base motion? All right, seeing no further discussion, let's move forward with the vote. [03:30:04] Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with six board members voting yes, including Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and two board members voting no, including Ms. Riccardi and Mrs. Griffiths and Ms. LaBelle abstaining. [03:30:26] With that, we will move on to our next action item. This is the Student Services Committee, Revised Policy 8155, Out-of-Zone School Transfers. This item tonight will be presented by Mr. Pepper, who is the Chair of the Student Services Committee, and Ms. Richardson, the Assistant Superintendent, Department of Student Services, and Mr. Dolson. [03:30:51] Mr. Pepper, do you have a motion? - I do, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt revised policy 8155 out of zone school transfers. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper has made a motion. Is there a second? - Second. - Let's see, did I hear Dr. Rasheed? [03:31:08] All right, thank you. And Mr. Chernoff, we had it covered. Let's see with that. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further to your motion? - We discussed this quite a bit last week and said I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Richardson and Mr. Dolson. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. [03:31:24] Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, members of the school board and Dr. Spence. Staff are here before you this evening. We have prepared a brief presentation that provides you with some additional data points for your consideration as you consider policy 8155 school assignment, which is up for action with a newly proposed title of out-of-zone school transfers. [03:31:50] You could go to the next slide, please. Next slide, thank you. So here we are, here's our overview, Here's our current capture of the number of students that are in the special permission process for the 26-27 school year. [03:32:10] We have a total of 2,932 students that are attending schools that are out of their home zones. Next slide. This is a topic that always comes up, so we figured that we would provide the board with information on the number of students with disabilities across LCPS. [03:32:31] that are on special per mission. You can see at the elementary level, we have the highest amount with 215 students. At middle school, we have 36. In high school, we have 89 for a total of 340 students out of the 2,932. [03:32:49] And next slide, I'll hand it over to Mr. Dolson. - So Ms. Richardson and I collected as much additional data to share this evening based on the implementation possibilities and some challenges that might be present. [03:33:04] Next slide, please. This is the list of our LCPS schools currently over the 85% capacity. You will notice that there are a lot of these schools you see frequently when you talk about building level capacity. There are a lot of repeats from last year and previous years. [03:33:23] This list has not changed all that drastically. Next slide, please. This is the number of elementary schools with grade levels that are over 85% capacity. These schools are spread throughout the division. [03:33:40] Some are already reassigning students because they are at 100% capacity. So there is no space in current grade levels in our school division. So families that move in to the school division are then reassigned to another school. Also recall that schools who are in the class size reduction agreement through the Virginia Department of Education cannot exceed certain class size numbers or LCPS will lose its funding. [03:34:09] Next slide please. Students on special permission and siblings. Mrs. Richardson and I know this is a topic that you wanted more information on, so we did our best to supply you with this information. There are 1,300 students on special permission with at least one sibling. [03:34:29] There are 1,728 siblings of students with special permission. Of those siblings, 1,122 do not have special permission to the school that they currently attend, which means that they are attending their zoned school of attendance. [03:34:50] 606 of those siblings have special permission to the school that they currently attend. So they are currently not attending their zoned school of attendance. Next slide, please. This is just a pictorial representation, and I made this for you because this is important because of your districts as well as your clusters. [03:35:15] So this slide shows the impact by district and by a cluster of siblings who, given the opportunity, would be able to attend schools outside of those clusters and the districts. [03:35:33] As a reminder, 17 of our elementary schools currently feed to more than one middle school, and those elementary schools are off throughout our division. Next slide, please. [03:35:48] Ms. Richardson and I are gonna go over just some wonders that my partner in crime here and I have collaborated on to give you the opportunity to display and then we will certainly answer any questions. So one of the wonders that we wanted to bring to your attention is just the impact from whatever your discussions and decisions are this evening on school boundary and attendance zones. [03:36:11] Some of you have been through that process here in Loudoun before. It can be very contentious, it can be very passionate. So that is something to consider when you are making the consideration for how you move forward with policy 8155. [03:36:28] - Another wonder you might have is what might the transportation flow be at our schools that are impacted by the current number of students that are on special permission and the addition of over a thousand siblings? [03:36:45] - Another consideration is will they move out? So a student that is currently started the school year, give you my example. I might be a student currently at Riverside High School and my parents have moved into the Loudoun County attendance zone. [03:37:01] With move out, I am able to remain at Riverside for the duration of the current school year. But then I have to go through the process by which to continue, which would be old special permission, new out of zone school transfer. We know that Riverside High School was on the previous slide. [03:37:19] It is a school that is over enrolled. It's at the above the 85% capacity. So I would not be able to attend Riverside because my zoned school is Loudoun County High School. So that is another wonder. If we have move outs, will those students be able to remain for the duration of their time in LCPS in that feeder pattern? [03:37:46] - And when you think about the consideration of siblings, another wonder that came to mind is how will we consider the capacity threshold of 85% for our schools. [03:38:02] - How does the continuation and sibling provision impact grade level capacity for elementary schools and the need for regional assignments? Given what we have shared, I foresee with the provision of siblings that we would be reassigning students on a very frequent basis. [03:38:26] - And our last wonder for you is, how does the continuation and sibling provision impact schools with required reductions in class size next slide please we are happy to answer any questions you might have thank you so much for the presentation um mrs griffith thank you madam chair um i i put this question out to facilities or transportation today um last year i had [03:39:05] students moved from sanders to cedar lane and then from cedar lane to newton lee we're getting we have an issue with transportation now. They don't have busing. So maybe somebody from transportation can speak to that because I was told we were going to try and figure it out. It was too early at the beginning of the year but now maybe since we're getting almost into October we can figure it out but that's a huge issue for my district but also while I like [03:39:44] the idea of amendments for this policy many parents count on permissions into the schools with dropping enrollment I I do have a problem with phasing this policy out which is what I foresee so while I may vote for amendments to this policy today I just wanted to clarify that this is a special opportunity for the people of Loudoun County, and I do not agree with phasing it out, because that's what it feels [03:40:18] like every time it comes here to the board. There's always a change. There's always red lines. I think it's really upsetting the parents of Loudoun County, because as will come up later, siblings are separated. Hopefully, we can fix that issue, but just in general, when parents need that opportunity to choose another school that may not be in their district they really depend on this policy so with that if somebody wanted to speak about transportation that I just [03:40:55] mentioned I would really appreciate that if you have an update for me and I wanted to bring that out publicly so when you speak to it in case any of those parents are listening they'll have an idea of whether or not they'll be provided transportation thank you Mr. Mahmoud would you like to speak to that? I currently do not have an update but I can certainly respond back to the email that you sent. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper? Thank you, Madam Chair. Is it possible [03:41:34] to put the presentation back and go to the wondering slide? I can pull up on my laptop if it's too much work. By the way, thank you for this present. While we're changing the slides, I thank you for the presentation so much. It was quite a bit of work. There it is. There we go. Okay. Yeah, understood. [03:42:12] I was just kind of filling time. So my question really is right around this 85% sibling stuff, because I know there's, mine included, I know there's some amendments coming. If we put the sibling consideration in and siblings take advantage, because right now there's over a thousand kids that could possibly take advantage of this. [03:42:38] If they take advantage of this, and the school is, or grade level is, over capacity, and it's one of those situations where we have to have class size reduction because of the program, what might that look like? Would it be a situation where we have to send students currently enrolled at that school to a different school? [03:42:57] Would it be a situation where we have to add teachers in classrooms? What are some possible outcomes of that? - So, just to clarify, I don't think this could be something that we could implement until the 27-28 school year we cannot change how we have staffed schools currently um in order to facilitate a sibling provision in within this policy um that would be something that we would need to dive a little bit deeper so we um i met with um people from ddi as well as people from [03:43:33] the planning office just to sort of look at um you know how we have coded certain students and then looking at looking at who those students were do they have siblings are they currently um attending their zone school are they not so that's the step one step two would really be the what ifs um could be that even given the opportunity not every student that has a sibling would want to attend that that school so that's what there's also that possibility i would foresee probably us having to survey the families to find out and get more information about the possibilities [03:44:11] and then make some decisions based on on that i think the slide that precedes this one is the best forecast that i could provide you the the what if here though is so let's just say the 77 that are in the wood grove cluster and they are going to be elementary middle and high if given the opportunity i can't answer where they might go because they are they have siblings and you might make the assumption that okay those some of those students are in the loudon valley cluster so but yet we with you know the freedom John Champ Lightrich cluster many of you experienced [03:44:51] the attendance zone boundary change there and I think that also is is the challenge that we face with adding more students to a school that is already at capacity or a grade level that has a capacity but I answer your question I think we would have to do a lot of surveying and find out A, is their interest, and B, where they might want to attend. [03:45:18] According to the amendment that you wrote, it would be where the eldest student attends, so that does give us a little bit more guidance. We're just taking the best guess of what we were given based on the information that you all provided. Thank you. I appreciate that. [03:45:34] That's my kind of one fear with the sibling piece is that we suddenly have these people who are instantly required by a policy to go to a school that may cause us problems in a different way I think the best case scenario would be a lot of our siblings don't want to attend and so they're already getting trans they're already in transportation they're in their zone school the transportation provided we don't have to work with transportation to request other routes for them thank you miss LaBelle thank you madam chair I have several questions [03:46:12] One, my understanding was that if you had an IEP and were placed on special permission, that it wasn't like an ordinary placement. It was due to those conditions on your IEP and your accommodations and your needs. [03:46:32] Is that correct? So it's kind of twofold. So we have students that are placed in specialized programs. So students that require services through autism, multiple disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and emotional disabilities. [03:46:48] So we have a large number of those students that are program-placed. About 1,700 students are program-placed currently. Then we also have the process that is really open to anyone right now. And so we do have some families of students with disabilities that choose to enter into the special permission process. [03:47:09] The majority of those families are students that have high incidence disabilities, so they're served through cross-categorical services, which we have at all of our schools. From time to time, we do sometimes get a student that requires a specialized program whose parents request special permission, and we work directly with that family through that process. [03:47:34] Thank you. Having been there, done that with you. My next question is, if we are placing students in schools for instructional suitability, how did we get close to 1,700 students that were siblings, which weren't there because of instructional suitability? [03:47:56] That's one question. The other question is, well that's the first question and then I'm still in shock that we have some 1,300 or so placed legally and then we have 1,700 siblings that are such a large number over the number of students placed for special permission instructional suitability. [03:48:22] So those are two things that just shocks me to death. How did they get there? Some of them are there because they went through the process. what about the ones that you said do not have permission to go there right so we prepared these slides in anticipation of and with the knowledge of that as board members you all were going to have to contemplate some of the amendments that were before you and so knowing that we had met with mr. pepper and he had thrown out this idea of possibly siblings and certainly a continuation for students that were already under the special permission process that's why we [03:49:01] worked on gathering that data so that you all knew just how large the number was that you'd be considering with his amendment this evening thank you but you didn't tell me how they got there in the first place that's what I really want to know they're not on special permission so we have 932 students that are on special permission and then there's 1722 eligible siblings should the board [03:49:37] vote on the amendment as it is currently drafted that could possibly then be considered for the out-of-zone school school transfer process okay thank you so those are the students that would would be eligible there's the word that was missing correct thank you yeah mr. Cardi thank you madam chair and if we - I think you go, sorry, Sherry, go to the slide that we just had with the tables on it. [03:50:06] I think it's that one, yeah. Okay, so being in the Eastern Loudoun district, this is concerning. This is clearly the largest number in total here. What does this do to the large number of Title I schools that we've got and head counts and numbers and supports to all of the, in this case, the park schools, but then across the entire Eastern, it's Algonquian and Sterling what does this do to what impact does it have so obviously many of our class size reduction schools are in those locations [03:50:43] that you just mentioned they are so they are also in downtown Leesburg we do have a couple that are scattered in Ashburn but a majority of the class size reduction schools are in the park downtown Leesburg and that is because of the three-year average for students that qualify for free lunch and that's how the Virginia Department of Education quantifies that having spent most of my educational career in the park as both a teacher and a leader it it is where you have to then make very tough decisions about staffing obviously we are blessed [03:51:18] to be afforded great staffing standards here in Loudoun County but I would be remiss if I did not admit that a reduction of 257 students across the schools in just the eastern district you would have to do something with staffing because you're shuffling students which then is equated to numbers of teachers thank you and I mean I'm just gonna be really honest with you I am NOT gonna support anything that's gonna do that we have got to make sure that I mean I've been a huge advocate for putting as many resources into our into our schools over there as possible and if we start moving around around these students, I think that's a piece of it. [03:51:58] And I think Ms. Linda, who spoke so elegantly earlier about Parkview, I think a big part of this that we're really working on is keeping our families and our students in our park schools, right? And so I think that it's, yeah, this is, somehow in going through the documents, I missed this slide and I'm really glad that we came back to it because this could potentially have a lot of impact. [03:52:24] And it's not just families moving their kids, It's money for additional teachers to support, in my case, seven schools on that side, but all of the schools in Eastern Loudoun, right, that need a lot more support, a lot more teachers to help really close their reading and math learning gaps. [03:52:42] And so thank you for sharing that 'cause I think this is a great way to look at the information. Thank you. - Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I also have a couple follow-up questions, a couple for staff, maybe some for Mr. Pepper, based on his amendment, although I will maybe wait for that when that hits the floor, if it does. [03:53:05] I have been pretty clear about where I stand on the transformation of this policy. I'm very content with where we've gotten with it. I understand it's a big shift. I understand it's a big ask. I agree with Ms. Riccardi in a lot of regards. [03:53:23] There is a school in Leesburg right now that has a grade level that is over capacity, that has special permission children and their brand new kindergartners that are about to start school, whether they have a sibling or not, are being sent to another school, even though they are zoned for that school. [03:53:40] And that has been so troubling to me. That's the policy. Where else are we gonna put them? There's nowhere else to put them. So that's where the rubber really meets the road with this. And so while I understand that families are going to feel the hardship of a phased out approach if we were to go that way. [03:54:00] There are people feeling hardships because of this policy right now. Whether that is staffing in the Title I schools, whether that is a perception about our schools being better than another, and you spoke about it last meeting. [03:54:15] We either believe that all of our schools are great or we don't, and we're going to fight for that or we're not. And I want to fight for that. And I agree, Linda's comments tonight really were timely. they hit home because there are perceptions about certain schools and that impacts the kids in these schools. [03:54:34] And as a school board member who loves all of our schools and believes in our schools and believes in the system that supports our schools, I can't get there. I also, so that's my, again, soapbox that I feel like I've said for three years, but I'm gonna keep standing on it because it is important for the public to hear. [03:54:53] And I wish that the whole public, and it's on board docs, so you can go back and listen, could have heard from our principals who came to the committee meeting from Sterling Middle and from Light Ridge, two sides of the spectrum, same conclusion, how this has been a damaging policy for many reasons. [03:55:12] And so I will stand there. My question in regards to the system is I just wanna make sure I have clarity about where we are right now. So I'm gonna do a little case study back to you. So say there's a student who has been special permissioned in seventh grade to go to Belmont Middle, and then they get to ninth grade and they wanna go to Riverside, but this year it was 85%, so they were denied. [03:55:40] If they had a sibling at Riverside, special permission, this year under the current policy, not any amendments being considered, the current special student assignment policy, they were denied, regardless of their sibling, to stay in that cluster because there was an automatic rejection because of the 85% capacity, is that accurate? [03:56:05] - So the only word that was not accurate is denied. They were voided. The application was not even considered because of the 85% threshold capacity. - Can they appeal under the current policy because they're voided? - Because they're voided because of the 85% threshold that has been set by the board. [03:56:23] It was set by the board December 15th of 2025. - Okay, so that's a little bit of a rub for me with what's gonna be coming, because now we've told a whole group of people, it doesn't matter whether you have a sibling or not because of capacity, and now we're gonna go back on that, and so that creates an equity issue, and I'm not saying we should let more in, I think that's a tricky thing. [03:56:48] The last thing I will say is, this is sort of more towards the rezoning piece, but since I have been here, one of the things that has created the most consternation and strife for us that I hear time and time again from staff and from principals and buildings is this idea of grandfathering. [03:57:05] There has been in the past board members that have grandfathered in entire kindergarten through 12th so that they could stay all together in their cluster. And when you go then to rezone again, you do have a very difficult situation on your hand because the numbers really aren't true. [03:57:23] And we are getting ready to do a huge secondary rezoning. So thank you for answering my question. I think everyone knows how I feel. - I know everybody knows that I've struggled mightily with this and I think it's fair for the community to understand that we've tried to do this for three years and have ultimately made different decisions from where we are tonight. [03:57:59] I will say I am pleased with where the policy has gotten. I don't think it's perfect, But I do think that what we are proposing to move forward with into the future is more in alignment with what is normative for public school practices. [03:58:17] And I'm gonna be happy to support that change. In my work here on the school board, it has been incredibly important for me to listen to my community and to consider the impact on individual students. [03:58:36] and it is very difficult to sort of thread the needle on this issue, and I appreciate the challenges around the enrollment percentage at 85. [03:58:52] Ultimately, I think if we were in a different school climate, if we were in a different population climate than we are in right now, I wouldn't be open to this idea at all. If we were talking about how it was 12 years ago, forget it, but we're seeing a decline in enrollment, And so it feels to me as if there's an opportunity here to make a change and to offer our students some continuity because ultimately this policy existed for 56 years and it is a shame that that existed. [03:59:27] I'm happy to say that, right? Like, I don't mean that to sound like I'm judging anyone who chose to use it. I don't think people understood in the community what the legacy of the policy was, to be honest. I don't think people understand that this policy grew out of a resistance to desegregation. [03:59:44] And so in looking for what's right for our county and our school division, as we know that we serve one of the most diverse populations in the country, I want to have a balanced approach to this, which is why I am open to the idea of letting the people who are in the system now stay and finish, because ultimately we allowed that before. [04:00:09] And then it's a small percentage of the population. Some of the siblings, hypothetically, and I'm not going to talk about specific schools, but I'm just going to speak to this hypothetically, right? If I were looking at the schools in my district and the schools that I'm most aware of, I would guess that the problem solves itself at middle school because people are self-selecting to go to different elementary schools, but they're primarily staying within the cluster, right? [04:00:39] The high school that we have all feel very strongly about advocating for and protecting is about to undergo a great change. And people may self-select to go back to have that experience because it's probably the last mobile. [04:00:56] We might have one. We're going to have one more. But, you know, that new school experience is not going to be the norm for much longer. So for me, there's a little bit of space for grace in this. And I know it's not easy, but I'm open to the conversation because ultimately, we're hearing from our community that it is ultimately what they would hope for. [04:01:22] And there's some complexity in that, and I hope my colleagues will consider that. And let's see, Ms. LaBelle? Thank you. I was thinking about the sibling issue again. [04:01:43] If we let, we have one person approved because of need to be in a different school. Now, if we pass something that allows the siblings to attend, then we are, first of all, having students that don't actually have a need to go to that school. [04:02:02] And secondly, if we let them go all the way from kindergarten, let's say you have your seventh grade student, a fourth grade student, and a kindergartner, We potentially have students for another 12 years without any checks or looking to see if they need to go someplace else. [04:02:23] It's sort of like an open door and we're letting them come in and saying, here, you're here, we'll see a graduation. We're not doing anything to make sure that they really need to be there because they were never placed there based on need anyway. So I think that we need to look at this very carefully. [04:02:42] - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. - So I don't know where journeying around the amendments that are sitting out there. So let me begin, I'm not gonna introduce the amendment just yet, but let me begin by kind of talking about where it came from. And it came from this idea, really at the very beginning, that students in the new version of the policy, who had gone, who, because the new version of the policy is so much more restrictive than our current version. [04:03:09] In our current version, if there is space, you are allowed to go to that school. In our new version of this policy, there needs to be a reason. And so what I was trying to capture, and I talked about this at our last meeting, was this idea that if, because you met a qualification to go to a middle school, it's just so much easier to finish the continuation at the high school. [04:03:34] And that was my original thought. And then as I hear from the community, I hear, well, what about siblings? What we're trying to do, or what I think the goal of this policy is trying to do, is to eventually get to where 8155, the new version, is the policy. [04:03:50] and it's very difficult to go to a school outside of your zone. It's not a free-for-all based on capacity. The problem is we're trying to land a plane where people are already flying on it. So the question is, how do we want to land the plane? Do we want to bring it down very softly, or do you want to drive it straight into the ground? [04:04:11] And for me, what I was trying to capture a lot of events, and we can talk through each of them when we get there, is this idea that there's a lot of extra factors to consider, right? Parents of elementary school students who haven't gotten into the program yet, whose sibling may be in there, and now they've got two drop-offs at two different places at two different times, and it's all over the place, where students who want to continue on, and once again, the clustering thing really is more of a middle-to-high school than an elementary-to-middle. [04:04:38] So that's what I tried to capture in this idea of being an adult. And I know that each year we go through this, each year we step forward, that number of students is going to dwindle and dwindle and dwindle and dwindle till eventually we get to the point, might be a while, we have very large families, But there are no more students eligible, and we're living solely in policy 8155. [04:05:00] But to go from basically 56 years of free choice to nothing is a huge shock to the system. I'm gonna leave it at that. - Thank you, and Ms. Riccardi. [04:05:17] - Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I crack the net on the amendments? All right, I'm gonna do it. All right, so here I go. Mine is so simple. I feel like mine is like the least of the concerns, right? So let's just do the easy, I'm gonna say the easy one first. All right, so I'm gonna make a motion that we, on lines 158 and 159, and this point in time, I'm not even sure which version, I think it was the original red line, not the new red line, but if it was the new red line, I think it's line 166 and 167. [04:05:57] - Yeah, Ms. Riccardi, it is the new red line. - That is the new red line. - Yep. - Right, okay, so it's 166 and 167. - Okay, so I make a motion that we move to strike the proposed red lines and basically bring back the phrase that reads that we allow review by the appeals process captured in policy 2350. [04:06:25] So basically it's bringing back the appeals process that we have currently instead of striking it out, which is what the original change was. - Thank you, Ms. Riccardi has made a motion to amend the sentence at line 157 to 159 to bring back the language that would say if an out of zone transfer is denied any time during the school year, it shall be allowed to review by the appeals process captured in policy 2350. [04:06:52] Is there a second? - Second. - Thank you, John. Thank you for the second, Mr. Pepper. Ms. Riccardi, would you like to speak further to your amendment? - Just very simply, I feel like we really need give parents the opportunity to appeal the processes when it makes sense and that the school board needs to continue to do that I would hope that in this new process whatever we wind up landing on tonight we've made it more clear so that maybe we have fewer of them but nonetheless I feel like the public really does need to happen parents really need to have the ability to have a neutral third party being school board members in the appeals process should they get down that way and we had discussed earlier today too and I also feel like [04:07:31] as we're doing this we probably should think about coming up with some kind of rubric that we that the appeals committee is working within whatever the rules are that we wind up deciding on this evening so that it gives clarity to the school board about the parameters with which we're working and as we're in this now every two-year rotation of potential school board members it's just easier to get everybody on boarded in that process as well thank you thank you board members any discussion on mr. Riccardi's amendment miss LaBelle I i heartily endorse miss ricardi's motion i think that parents need to feel like their school board [04:08:09] members that they elected to take care of them are part of the process that is our job as well as working on policy and supporting the staff here at the school so i think that's very important that we be the last appeal basically thank you thank you um i'll just say on the record i I heartily support this proposal as well. [04:08:35] I think it's part of that package of landing the plane softly. And I could see this being changed at some point in the future. But as we transition away from the system, this feels like an appropriate transition. [04:08:50] Any further discussion? All right, seeing no further discussion, let's move forward with the vote. - Yes, so we're voting on Ms. Riccardi's amendment to add the language back and keep the school board as the, you all know, the only one. [04:09:08] Okay, thank you. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with eight board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rashida, Ms. LaBelle, and one board member, Ms. Chernoff, voting no. [04:09:28] With that, we return to the base motion. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Svensson. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to introduce two amendments, if I could take them in turn. So I move that the Loudoun County School Board amend revised policy 8155, red line version, by striking the language at line 60 to 63 that currently read, quote, this process is only available to students currently enrolled and attending their assigned school. [04:09:54] Parents may not apply for an out-of-zone school transfer for students who have not yet attended, set foot inside their future assigned school, end quote, and replacing it with, quote, this process is available to students who are registered at their assigned school and unless otherwise provided in this policy or regulation have begun attending their assigned school, parents may not apply for an out-of-zone school transfer for students who have not yet attended their assigned school except when the student qualifies for an early application or other exceptions specifically authorized under this policy or regulation. [04:10:25] - Thank you. Mr. Svinson has made a motion, is there a second? - Second. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. Mr. Svinson, would you like to speak further to your motion? - Yes, Madam Chair, thank you. I introduced this amendment to just recognize There may be certain situations where it may not make sense to hold off on the out-of-zone transfer process until a student is physically attending their assigned school in certain circumstances that could be laid out in regulation to come. [04:10:55] It may make sense to allow the family to go ahead and make that application. I think, for example, there could be a childcare situation where a student is assigned to a particular elementary school that has a specialized program for students with disabilities and then there's a younger sibling coming up and they know that they want their children to go to the same school together, it may make sense to allow an early application in that situation where it's not about the school environment per se for that particular child, it's about the family's circumstances. [04:11:33] And given that the criteria in this revised 8155 is much stricter in terms of the circumstances for which you can get an out-of-zone transfer. It seems like you could make this accommodation given that there's that stricter approach. [04:11:53] - Thank you, board members. Are there any questions or discussion? Vice Chair Donahue. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a clarifying question for Mr. Spenson, if I may. Mr. Spenson, looking at the new red line version, On line 63, there is a red line phrase for parents of kindergarten students see regulation 8155. [04:12:13] Would your proposed amendment leave that red line in place? - Yes, it would. - Okay, thank you. - Ms. Lovell. - I have a question for Mr. Stenson. If we have a parent who is moving in or trying to move into Loudoun County from outside of the county and they are having trouble with financing or whatever the problem may be, that they cannot move in, [04:12:50] but still want to apply for special permission to go to a different school to the one that their home is zoned to, how would that affect it? In other words, if we have a parent who has never set foot in any of our schools and wants to move into Loudoun County and asks for opportunity to go to a different school other than the one that he's buying the house in, how is that impacted by your motion? [04:13:20] - So I think the default still under my amendment is that the student would have to attend their assigned school before they can apply for the out-of-zone transfer process, but this allows for us in regulation, staff in the regulation or elsewhere in the policy to say circumstances where an early application is appropriate, so I would imagine staff would say that would not be an appropriate circumstance probably for an early application, but I would defer to Ms. Richardson or Mr. Dolson to add on anything. [04:13:52] don't think i have anything to add in that particular situation but i'm listening very intently and i probably will have a question of clarity when you get to some of the other amendments thank you any further discussion board members um i find this to be an appropriate amendment and i will be supporting it mostly because child care is one of the qualifying circumstances and it might be an additional hardship to expect a parent to have a student enroll if they have a child care [04:14:32] need and then have to apply so this felt like it might simplify the process to me any further discussion nope all right so we will now move forward with a vote on mr svensson's amendment the amendment would strike the language at line 62 63 and then add new language that replacing it that says this process is available to students who are registered at their assigned school and unless otherwise provided in this policy or regulation have begun attending their assigned [04:15:11] school parents may not apply for an out-of-zone school transfer for students who have not yet attended their assigned school except when the student qualifies for an early application or another exception specifically authorized by this policy or regulation. So it was properly moved and seconded. Let's move forward with the vote. Alright, Clark, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with eight board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donohue, Mrs. Griffiths, [04:15:50] Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. Labelle abstaining. With that, we return to the base motion as amended. And Mr. Svensson, would you like to present your second amendment? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I had contemplated a second amendment, but I see in the new red line version, the reference of special permission was changed to out of zone school transfer. [04:16:07] And the reason was just to make it consistent with the other language in the policy. So I will not be bringing that second amendment. I also am just double checking that I looked at the right red line numbers here for the first amendment. It looks like that's the case. [04:16:23] So I have nothing further. - Thank you. All right, returning to discussion on the base motion as amended. - Mr. Pepper, so much courtesy. [04:16:39] - Wasn't sure, there's several amendments out there, I was just checking. I would have several amendments, Madam Chair. I actually think I would like to take them individually based on the prior discussion. So let me go into the, let me go into the red line version so I can take them in the right order. [04:17:04] I'm going to save the first one based on how the others go. I am going to move to recategorize what is currently reflected as section C3, entitled Reasons for Out-of-Zone School Transfer as a new discrete section D, which will then result in the renumbering and re-lettering of subsequent sections. [04:17:37] - Second. - Mr. Pepper has made a motion that has been seconded by Mr. Svensson. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further? - Yes, this really is just clarity. Section C is kind of talking about the definition of an out-of-zone school transfer, and then puts a subsection of three to list the reasons. [04:17:57] I felt like this would be much clearer for anyone who's reading it as just a separate section. And then of course the renumbering of all subsequent, or re-lettering of all subsequent sections. - Thank you board members, is there any discussion? [04:18:13] All right, seeing no discussion, let's move forward with the vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. Thank you, that motion passes unanimously with all nine board members present. [04:18:30] then we'll return to discussion of the base motion as amended, Mr. Pepper. - Okay, I further move to insert a new section, bless you, with the following language after what is currently reflected as section D but is now going to be re-lettered to section E, so from the red-lined version. [04:18:54] And then this section is F, entitled Continuity of AutoZone School Transfers. I would like to take each one of these individually if that's okay, Madam Chair. - Go right ahead. - A new F1 would say students who were attending a school to which they were assigned outside of their attendance zone as a result of the former LCPS special permission process or as a result of a prior school boundary modification in the 2026-27 school year are afforded the opportunity to continue attending that school as well as the middle and high schools in the cluster to which that school feeds through graduation [04:19:32] So long as the student's approval to the school that the out-of-zone school transfer was granted has not been rescinded during the school year by the parent or legal guardian or LCPS, as contemplated below. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper has made a motion. Is there a second? [04:19:48] - Second. - Thank you, Mr. Svensson. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further to your motion? - Yes, Madam Chair. This is really a continuity piece. It is driving towards what I was seeking before with some of the discussion that we've had previously about when students are on this new policy, it's gonna be very clear as to the very small subset of reasons there. [04:20:15] And so this is affording that same continuity to students who are currently on that, basically for those students who are making the middle to high school transition. This also would encapsulate the elementary to middle transition, which I don't envision is as large a number of students because students typically will attend elementaries within the same cluster. [04:20:36] - Thank you, board members, any discussion? Ms. LaBelle. - Madam Chair, I think that this goes back to the discussion that Mr. Pepper and I initiated at our last time we went through this. At that point in time, I pointed out that I thought that we had to at least look at where the child was in his progress at the schools. [04:21:03] Sort of like, as I said before, We're not just gonna put him in there and say, bye, see you at graduation. We need to monitor how he's doing in this new school. Is it good for him? Is he feeling like he's, or she, is ready to go back to their cluster, their assigned school? [04:21:24] That may be something that happens. What I'm looking at is like we have our initial eligibility and we agree that yes, he has to go right now. But then, you know, before he goes from middle school, I'm sorry, from elementary to middle or middle to high school, I think that there needs to be a discussion and, if necessary, more assessment to see if where he is is where he should stay. [04:21:52] I don't think it's like a great big, it could be just a discussion. It could be talking to teachers. It could be talking to the student and the parents and then coming up with the best response. but i don't think that we should just grandfather them in and leave them there until they're gone thank you vice chair donahue thank you madam chair thank you ms richardson and mr dolson for your very thoughtful and deliberate presentation it's very helpful um as as you know special [04:22:28] permission is has been um a difficult process to wrestle with um as we've been trying to do with the last few years. I have concerns about this proposed amendment, somewhat similar to concerns shared by Ms. LaBelle. [04:22:50] My understanding on the language of this amendment is, for example, a student who is currently in kindergarten on special permission to a school that they're not zoned for under this amendment would be able to stay at that special permission school and in that cluster through to graduation. [04:23:12] And potentially, if we pass your other amendments as well, Mr. Pepper, the siblings who have been afforded, siblings, students who have an older sibling who has been afforded the opportunity to attend an out-of-zone school then may also attend out-of-zone schools. [04:23:31] I have concerns about that that is contrary to what I've been trying to do, what I think other members up here have been trying to do, which is to limit the impact of special permission process on our school system. [04:23:48] So I don't necessarily share Ms. LaBelle's concern about monitoring how the student is doing in a new school. To me, it's more of an issue of if we have said as a board, we want to get rid of special permission, then we need to get rid of special permission and not say, well, maybe we're going to sort of kind of get rid of it, but not really. [04:24:09] We have to actually get rid of it. And I'm not comfortable with saying, we'll say that for 12 more years we will, or possibly more when you include younger siblings, that we will continue to allow special permission to happen. [04:24:25] Thank you. - Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a clarifying question for Mr. Pepper, if I may. Mr. Pepper, in your mind, if this were to be adopted and other subsequent amendments, would this then nullify the phase out approach? [04:24:44] - I believe that it would nullify any phase out approach we're doing because what we're saying basically with this is any student who is currently on special missions gets to stay retroactively. I know it's worded with a lot of more stuff which I think is causing some consternation for some of my fellow board members, but what I didn't want to do is put in place this brand new policy and then wipe the slate clean of all the students who are currently on spousal permission sending them back to their zone school. [04:25:18] - I understand that and I just wanna be clear that I also do not wanna wipe the slate clean tomorrow. There were some nice phase out options that would have given families time to grapple with those decisions for their zone school. So I just wanna go on the record to say that. Also in here, you are not contemplating capacity as a factor, is that correct? [04:25:38] - That is correct. - Even though we previously have factored capacity to move through the cluster, which we established earlier. Thank you. - Vice Chair Donahue. [04:25:54] - Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, I also, I had intended to mention that I was not, I don't entirely understand why there's a reference here in this proposed amendment to students attending a school due to school boundary modification, because that we have a separate policy that addresses school boundary modification and impact on out-of-zone transfer. [04:26:20] So it didn't make sense to me to see that here. - Thank you. - Ms. LaBelle. - Just another thought, we were talking about having the student go in there, having his siblings follow him, even though they may not have had a reason to go there that was suitable. [04:26:42] One of the things mentioned is allowing students to go there initially is childcare. At some point in time, this child isn't going to need childcare, and yet we have him tracked into an area, a cluster or a school that may not be his own at the point where he doesn't need the child care anymore. [04:27:02] It's just, we have to look and see why he's still there. - Thank you. - Mrs. Griffith. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just thinking to myself that we're gonna be having redistricting and rezoning, and I don't, we're gonna have a lot of parents that want to keep their kids in those schools. [04:27:32] So I feel like that's a real issue. that's just gonna stir the pot when we do that. If we have kids in those schools and then we redistrict and they're happy where they are. So I think I'm in agreement with Mr. Pepper. [04:27:53] I personally, as I mentioned earlier, I don't wanna phase out permissions. I really don't, I hate to say this, care for what the history was at this time. I think a lot of people, a lot of Loudoun County residents depend on it. [04:28:10] whether it's to keep their siblings in the same school or they have kids that maybe they got special permission for and then they're rezoned or redistricted and they have trouble functioning at another school. So I just wanted to give my thoughts on that, but I will support Mr. Pepper's amendment. [04:28:30] Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Oh, yes, Mr. Spenson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a question for Mr. Pepper, perhaps for Ms. Richardson and Mr. Dolson about Vice Chair Donahue's question about the school boundary modification reference and just the interaction between the two separate policies. [04:28:50] It might be helpful to have some clarity about this provision in relation to the other policy. - So I will quickly begin with how I put in there and I'm gonna leave it to Ms. Richardson and Mr. Dolson. And it really was put in there because we've had a lot of students who didn't necessarily qualify under AD160, and then went through the appeals process and were then granted special permission to remain. [04:29:14] So I think that's why I included that piece in the amendment. But I'll allow our staff to elaborate further. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. So according to the current policy for A155, there is a provision that students that are placed in a school for an out-of-zone school transfer that are impacted by the boundary change, they would be able, it would not impact their ability to remain at that school. [04:29:44] So I believe what Mrs. Griffiths was referring to is you have students currently that are, you know, at Light Ridge High School, and Light Ridge High School goes through a boundary change. Again, it was just the previous board, prior to you all, put that provision in place. [04:30:05] And so it reads, I mean, I'm looking at the new red line. Yes, regardless of boundary adjustments or rezoning changes students place via an out-of-zone school transfer are permitted to remain at their assigned school for the entire duration of their placement. [04:30:27] So that currently is in, and that does go along as what Ms. Donahue was saying with 8160. - Thank you both for the clarification. Thank you. - Mr. Carney. - Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern with this amendment really is about that we're not factoring in the capacity issue. [04:30:47] And I think that's, as we're looking at the rezoning and all the other things too, I'm just really concerned that we're not factoring that aspect into this after we've been spending so much time looking and examining the capacity issues. So I'm just, I don't think I can support this. [04:31:04] Thank you. Ms. Arnaud? With that, I would like to provide an amendment to the amendment. I move that in section F from Mr. Pepper that at the end of the section where it says or LCPS as contemplated below, we add and additionally is subject to the capacity conditions set forth within this policy. [04:31:33] And wait for a second. Thank you. Mr. Nock, could you repeat your motion? Sure. At the end of the sentence in section F, number one, which Mr. Pepper just presented as his amendment, At the very last part it says, or LCPS as contemplated below in the section that disregards it, I would add, and additionally, is subject to the capacity conditions set forth within this policy. [04:32:07] Ms. Chernoff has made a motion to amend the amendment. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. That is seconded by Vice Chair Donohue. [04:32:23] Ms. Chernoff, would you like to speak to your motion? - Yes, and I apologize for not having this in advance. I'm sort of working on the fly as we are answering these questions in live time, getting clarity about them as we go. It's not usually how I like to operate. [04:32:41] This just addresses capacity as part of this consideration. It's something that we've always done, as Ms. Riccardi mentioned. There are significant staffing issues that this could have a ripple effect on, as well as class size for our Title I schools, our buildings, our CTE programming, are rezoning, yada, yada, yada, the list goes on and on. [04:32:58] There's a reason we've considered capacity, so that is why I'm putting this forward. Just as a provision, should this amendment pass, I want to at least have that provision in place. Thank you. - Thank you. Board members, is there any discussion on Ms. Chernoff? [04:33:13] No? So, given that this is not a friendly, we will move forward with the vote and return to Mr. Pepper's amendment. Is there any further discussion on Ms. Chernoff's modifications? [04:33:32] Are we all clear? All right, let's move forward with the vote. [04:33:44] Thank you. That motion passes with eight members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donohue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and one member voting no, Mr. Svensson. With that, we return to Mr. Pepper's amendment as amended. [04:34:06] So we return to the discussion. Is there any further discussion? All right. So, let's move forward on voting for Mr. Pepper's motion to include new language at section F1 with the addition of the language presented by Ms. Chernoff. [04:34:29] Please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with five board members voting yes, including Mr. Svensson, myself, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed. [04:34:51] And for board members voting no, including Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, Vice Chair Donohue, and Ms. LeBell. All right. Madam Chair, may I continue with the amendments? Please, Mr. Pepper. I'm going to do these next two together because I think they're pretty simple. I further move to insert sections F2 and F3. [04:35:11] F2 would read an out-of-zone school transfer is contingent upon the student being in compliance with school rules and regulations may be rescinded. failure to meet expectations following an out-of-zone transfer may result in a principal initiating a warning letter that the out-of-zone transfer may be rescinded. Prior to requesting that the out-of-zone transfer be rescinded, the principal shall provide notice to the student and family and afford the student and family an opportunity to address the concerns. Parents and students will be offered the opportunity to meet with school administration, IEP 504 case manager if applicable, and school counselor or request and IEP 504 meaning if applicable. [04:35:46] And then F3 would read, an out-of-zone transfer that is rescinded is appealable to the Office of Student Services, and an out-of-zone transfer that is affirmed by the Office of Student Services is appealable under policy 2350, Appeal of Administrative Decisions. - Thank you. [04:36:01] Mr. Pepper has made an amendment. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further? - I think this just clarifies the process that out-of-zone school transfers can be rescinded. [04:36:17] - Thank you. I have a clarifying question that might be best for Mr. Allen or to the team, Ms. Richardson or Mr. Dolson. Given Ms. Riccardi's amendment, is there a further need to call out that change here or would that capture the process appropriately as written? [04:36:43] - Thank you, Chair Chandler. I had the same initial inclination or question that you did, but because this is specifically speaking to rescission of an out-of-zone transfer. I think it is actually helpful to have this written to clarify that. [04:37:00] - Okay, thank you for that clarification. Board members, is there any discussion? No? Okay, seeing no further discussion, let's move forward with Mr. Pepper's amendment. Board members, please record your vote. [04:37:19] Clerk, please close and display the vote. Okay, that motion passes with five board members voting yes, including Mr. Svensson, myself, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and two board members voting no, Ms. Riccardi and Ms. Chernoff, and two board members abstaining, Vice Chair Donohue and Mrs. Griffiths. [04:37:42] Okay, so with that, we are returning to the base motion as amended. Is there any further discussion? We have more. - Madam Chair, I have several more amendments. - Let's go, Mr. Pepper. - We're going piece by piece. I apologize. - Let's go. - But I feel like it's easier to piece by piece. Okay, Madam Chair, I move that as a result of the passage of the prior amendments, I move to strike lines 186 to 189 of the proposed red line version of policy 8155. [04:38:06] - Thank you, Mr. Pepper has made an amendment. Is there a second? - Second, although I have a clarifying question. - Okay, thank you. It has been, the amendment was made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Mr. Svensson. [04:38:22] I'm gonna ask Mr. Pepper to speak to his amendment and then we'll have your clarifying question. - Okay, so lines of the red line version, Lines 186 to 199 are basically discussing what we just passed in F. [04:38:43] So it talks about, it's eliminating a line that says there's no requirement for these students to return to their own school of attendance, nor they need to submit a new boundary application to the board. So basically what it's saying is if they qualify for F1, 2, and 3 for students already on spousal permission, they don't need to reapply. [04:39:05] It's gonna change a little bit now that we put the 85% capacity piece in there, but I think it's still covered it and maybe that's a question for Mr. Allen. Then the other piece that's being struck is the appeals process that we just passed in two and three for rescindions. - So Mr. Allen, does this still make sense? [04:39:28] - Thank you, Mr. Pepper, I think it makes sense, but I think the proposed lines may have changed in the red lines, so there's a lack of clarity there. So I think for clarity, we'd have to look at the red lines that were proposed at the last board meeting in earlier September, because I think that's what lines you read are aligned to. [04:39:59] - Mr. Allen, which version of the policy are we looking at? What's the date on that red line? Is it the 618 or is it 820? - I think it's red lines from the September 8th, 2026 information item when this was taken up, which does not appear to be posted on board docs for this meeting. [04:40:40] Mr. Pepper. Yes, Dr. Spence. I'm looking at the new red line version that's posted in board docs, and I think the lines you're looking at is 184 to 187 plus whatever else. That's what I thought it was, Dr. Spence. So can we change that to 184 to 187? And I don't know how far down you were going when you said that. No, I read too far based on the original numbers that I was provided. So [04:41:15] let's, can we change, can I modify that amendment to strike lines 180, is it 182 or is it 184, - 184 is where it starts with, there's no requirement. And I think I heard you say, that's what you were looking to strike that language. [04:41:35] - Yes, 184 to 187. - No, but if you can actually continue to line to, I hate doing this on the fly. If you continue to line 207, it encompasses everything that was just in the new app that we have approved. [04:41:59] - Okay, could I ask someone who has appropriate version um to read the section that would be taken out certainly mrs chandler thank you are looking at the new red line copy which um had its final review by the student services committee on august the 20th i have the language that miss that mr pepper has has brought forward starting at line 183 with there is no requirement for these students to return to their zone school [04:42:37] attendance nor do they need to submit a new application boundary modifications then we have struck through lines 189 through 191 and then it picks up with section B of that section starting at 193 and out of zone school transfer is contingent upon the student being in compliance with school rules and regulations and may be re resended failure to meet expectations following an out-of-zone approval for the upcoming school year may result in a principal [04:43:11] initiating a warning letter that the out-of-zone transfer may be resended prior to requesting that out-of-zone transfer be resended the principal shall provide notice to the student and family and afford the student and family opportunity to address the concerns parents and students will be offered the opportunity to meet with school administration an iep 504 case manager if applicable and school counselor or request an iep 504 meeting if [04:43:47] applicable an out-of-zone transfer that is rescinded by the office of student services is appealable under policy 2350 appeal of administrative decisions that At paragraph B runs from line 193 of the new red line copy to line 206. [04:44:11] Okay, thank you for that clarification. That's very helpful. Mr. Pepper, I see your light is still on. Oh, yeah, sorry. Mr. Allen sent me the correct section, if that's okay. It is on the current red line version. It runs from line 194 to 207. We were using a previous version. [04:44:30] We made the amendments. It's the section B, just on the recension piece. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I apologize. Mr. Svinson, did you get your clarifying questions? - Yes, the line numbers are my clarifying question. - Great, okay, so we're talking, then Mr. Pepper has made a motion to strike lines 194 to 207. [04:44:50] - That is correct, Madam Chair. - Okay, would you like to speak any further to the motion? - I'm pretty sure we're good. - We're good, okay. Then board members, is there any discussion? Mrs. Griffiths. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Mr. Pepper chairs this committee. [04:45:08] Is it possible because of all the amendments send it back? It's not? I heard you, Ms. Chernoff, so that's why I was like, wait a minute. Is it possible, I mean, because there's so many amendments, maybe the committee should have the discussion again? I'm just throwing it out there. It is possible, but it would require [04:45:38] making a motion to do so. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to maybe send this policy back to, not maybe, sorry, take that word out. I'd like to make a motion to send this policy 8155 back to committee. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths has made a motion to send this policy back to committee. Is there a second? Second. Oh, I think I heard Ms. Riccardi first. Mrs. Griffiths, would you like to speak further? Well, I think that this policy still needs a lot of work, [04:46:16] and rather than take up everybody's time, I just think it's the best thing to do at this time, send it back to committee so they can work on it and bring it back again with a, I don't want to say a cleaner red line but more of a red line without so many amendments so we could just view it and then decide whether to vote for it or not. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Ms. [04:46:40] Riccardi? Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, you know, my concern is that this has been your committee's work for I don't know how long and now all of a sudden we're getting a lot of these amendments that were just dropped on us like in the last couple of days and I'm really concerned Now, I thought I had a grasp of the original red line, but now there's all these amendments, and we have to get this right. [04:47:04] We can't keep just reiterating this. So what I'd like to see in going back to the committee is all the amendments that everybody wants to do, except for the ones that we've already approved tonight need to just get folded in, but then we do need to see it clear. I need to understand the impact that these have. [04:47:22] I think we all need to understand. We need to, actually, I was just realizing, too, I don't know that we even have the SEAC feedback. Was that even posted? I don't think that was even posted on here, either. I think we need to do this right, and we need to put the right effort towards it. [04:47:41] And so if you've had a change of thought and want to rework this, that's fine. But I think the committee really needs to do that. Is there any time, I'm going to ask you all, is there any time? Okay, so tell me about the time issue going with that. so I'm just going to echo some of the concerns that I heard earlier when we were talking about the budget process staffing there's there are huge implications for what you all are considering no matter how you do this with staffing that is a it's an enormity you all you all are also considering [04:48:16] boundary changes which is another layer of staffing concerns having lived through this process for the past three years I'm just going to share personally that this experience about delaying and then us having at the 11th hour to make changes that implicate where teachers are are going to be teaching next year families not knowing when the timeline is going to start when the time so traditionally this timeline has started in January but if we change the proposed [04:48:53] policy which now it doesn't have a timeline attached to it I'm going to be very frank I don't know what that would look like mr. Cardi to be quite quite honest because traditionally we have had a january start for employees of lcps and then the time frame did open in january i'm sorry in february um however not knowing exactly what this would look like not knowing the number of amendments um we would obviously have to have this as an information information information item in the committee and then come back to action and then [04:49:30] bring it back to you all as information again um we could be looking at december again i think um to get it right okay can i then can i ask you another clarifying question then if um we just moved this to the next school board meeting which we have a couple weeks before that would that be workable as far as the time timeline goes so our next um committee meeting is october 15th so we would not be able to take it back to a committee prior to that so but what i'm what i'm thinking [04:50:07] about offering right now is a friendly amendment to do that just move this to the next school board meeting not going back to committee so if what do we have do we have three weeks now between the next now and the next because we have one so it would be three weeks from now how would that impact your timeline so that would give and again i appreciate um the comment that was made about just the amendments coming in um and and miss richardson and i did attempt to meet with everybody that had amendments we had great open transparent conversations with the board members that did have amendments we were able to answer questions it would give us a little bit more time to do that [04:50:47] to ask for clarity to possibly run some more scenarios about what impact might have specific to some of the amendments that were being suggested this evening so i think that would provide us at least more opportunity to give you all information okay then i i would ask miss griffiths if i could do a friendly amendment so instead of moving it to the next committee meeting that we move it to the next school board meeting mr carty yes i think that would work i think it would give us all time to review the amendments [04:51:25] that were provided um and i have a feeling we might want to add some more in between so um as miss ricardi said we have to get this right um i i gave my thoughts on this we have to get it right for the people of latin county thank you thank you and but i would like to ask a clarifying question i guess now with the friendly amendment is the intention that we accept the um changes that have been made thus far i think we have to we have a true perspective right [04:51:59] the thing everything is mr allen correct like everything that's already passed is passed correct yes that's correct okay just to be perfectly clear and cut our square corners now it's on the record thank you so much um so we have um a friendly amendment made by Ms. Riccardi to change Mrs. Griffith's amendment. [04:52:29] Is there any further discussion? Mr. Pepper. - Just a clarifying question for Mr. Dolson and Ms. Richardson. Is an October 15th completion date still give you all enough time to do everything we need to do to be ready by January to roll this out? [04:52:48] - Yes, it does. - I appreciate that. And to my colleagues, I understand there are a tremendous amount of amendments. Please understand that a lot of that came from community feedback because as much as we love our community, we post our community meetings, it's really when the items go onto board docs for the full school meeting that they're considering it. [04:53:11] So please accept the mea couple, but understand that it's community feedback. - Ms. LaBelle. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As we go through the process, I also have been working on this for three years. I understand Mr. Dolson's pain and Ms. Richardson as well. [04:53:31] And we have to keep in mind that the reason that we are working on this, first of all, is overcrowding of schools. Added to that coming up is the rezoning of middle and high schools. [04:53:49] And a lot more people wanting special permissions at that point from wherever they are. Or Western Loudoun also has to rezone its elementary schools. And that's going to add to the number of special permissions we're going to be asked for. [04:54:07] So realizing that when we started this process, we did this with the idea to balance out enrollment and now we are going to be actually involved in that process. [04:54:23] Do we really want to go backwards on what has already been looked at for over three years? And that's something, you know, that new people coming on the board have no clue what that was like yet. but you will so please keep that in mind thank you thank you any further discussion all right let's move forward this is on miss ricardi's friendly amendment to have this item return as an action item at the next school board meeting to give us more time to work through [04:55:02] the proposed amendments all right clerk please close and display the vote motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present all right that this item will return to the next school board meeting as an action item. With that our last action item for tonight is item 12.04 human resources and talent development school calendar options for 2028-2029 school year present this [04:55:38] has been presented in the past by Ms. Bolin. Vice Chair Donohue do you have a motion? Yes thank you Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt a calendar option for the 2028-2029 school year and specifically I moved that the Loudoun County School Board approved the Rasheed calendar for the 2028-2029 school year. Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. [04:56:05] Is there a second? Second. Oh, was that Mr. Svensson? Excuse me, everyone. That was loud. So, Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion that has been properly seconded by Mr. Svensson. Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to speak further to your motion? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. We all know and have discussed in the past that a significant number of people have put a lot of effort into coming up with different proposed calendar options we've received a huge amount of feedback from the community and i i think i hope we can all agree that there is no solution [04:56:41] that makes everyone happy um so that being said i i think personally i am guided in this by what i I think is the right thing to do. And here, I think the right thing is to keep the inclusion of the cultural and religiously diverse holidays in our school calendar, and also acknowledge the outreach that we have received, especially from teachers and staff, asking to move the end of the school year to be earlier in June because of the time after SOLs [04:57:19] that is described unfortunately as wasted. And those are two of my most important factors that are best represented in Dr. Rasheed's calendar option. [04:57:34] And despite my desire to see spring break not aligned with Easter, at least this year, the scheduling of spring break on Dr. Rasheed's calendar option coincides with the end of the third quarter. So I can live with the fact that it coincides with Easter because it is not scheduled around Easter. [04:57:56] And that's my, yes, that's my reasons for supporting the Rasheed calendar. Thank you. - Thank you. Dr. Rasheed. - If we have amendments, do we wait for after the vote for what Ms. Donnie has brought forward? - No, actually, if you want to present an amendment. [04:58:11] - Thank you, Chair, I do have an amendment. - Yes, Dr. Rasheed. - Okay, I'll go ahead and present it. I'd like to make an amendment to the base motion. I move that Edel Fitter observed holiday change from February 15, 2029 to February 14, 2029 on the proposed Rasheed calendar. [04:58:32] - Yes, could you please repeat that? - Oh, I'm sorry. I would like to make an amendment to the base motion. - February 14, all right. - I move that the Edel Fitter be observed holiday change from February 15, 2029 to February 14, 2029 on the proposed Rasheed calendar. [04:58:59] - Okay, second. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. So we have, on the amendment, it has been properly moved and seconded with Dr. Rasheed making the motion and Vice Chair Donohue seconding. [04:59:15] - Point of clarification? - Sure, point of clarification. - I just wanna make sure I'm working off the right calendar. So we're talking your newest version. - Yes, 922, 922, pardon me, one second, right here. - 9.22.26, 'cause the other one was when it was first presented on the previous day. [04:59:33] - I just wanna make sure we're working off the right. - No problem. - The same calendar, thank you. - Okay, would you like to speak further to your motion, Dr. McKee? - Yes, Chair Chandler, thank you. And I wrote it down. While no calendar option presented has received universal support, the calendar that I propose considers important factors like inclusive holidays, start time for AP classes, prep time for teachers, required contract days, five days, five day weeks and breaks tied to quarter ends. [05:00:04] I believe that this calendar is best suited to meet requirements and remain inclusive, upholding the needs and values of LCPS. This date was checked several times for the E-Delfitter calendar throughout this particular calendar process to ensure that the observance would occur after the sunset holiday begins. [05:00:24] Holidays like this one can shift depending on lunar cycles and there are years when repeated research is needed. Ms. Boland and HRTD were so kind enough to double and triple check throughout last week and it appears this holiday will line up with a February 14th observance. [05:00:42] And thank you HRTD and Ms. Boland, I appreciate you. - Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. - I would like to say that in exploring the calendars, I actually took every single email that we got up until last Friday and put them into a spreadsheet with accounts of who preferred what calendar. [05:01:16] I have to say that in my research and reading every single email-- - Ms. LeBell, I do appreciate your sentiment. I'm just not sure this is germane specifically to the amendment-- - Yes, it does. - Which is just to move the date from, the date on the calendar from the 14th to the 15th. [05:01:35] I do have some question about the calendar and spring break. - Ms. LaBelle, I absolutely appreciate that and I want your questions to get answered, but we have to address the motion on the floor, which is just to move the date from the 14th to the 15th. - Thank you, I will bring it up again in a few minutes. [05:01:53] - Thank you and I will be excited to hear what you have to say. So just specific to Dr. Rasheed's amendment, which moves the date from the 14th to the 15th, Mr. Pepper, I'm sorry, thank you for the clarification. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I am wholeheartedly in support of getting these holidays on the correct date. [05:02:12] I will make a note that when the initial LCPS calendar came out, the day that was given off for the Jewish holiday of either Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur was actually on Friday, September 29th, which is not a holiday at all, and was just a random day off because the holiday of Yom Kippur actually begins that evening. [05:02:34] So I appreciate the work of HRTD of getting this right. I appreciate Dr. Rasheed finding the correct date for Eid Al-Fidder. - Thank you, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I will be voting yes to make sure the dates are correct, but I am with Ms. LaBelle, the more discussion needs to be had on these calendars. [05:02:57] - Thank you. - Thank you. - Okay, any further discussion? All right, so moving forward to change the date so that Eid is recognized on Wednesday, February 23rd. - 14, correct, okay. [05:03:17] Please open the vote, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with eight board members voting yes, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Spenson, Ms. Chernoff, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed and Ms. LaBelle abstaining. [05:03:43] So that amendment is made and we return to the base motion, at which time I think it would be appropriate for Ms. LaBelle to take up her point. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I created this spreadsheet and I came up with totals for every one of our five options, not just the three board options. [05:04:03] I know Ms. Chernoff did the same as did Mrs. Riccardi. The numbers are on the chart that you have. Every single one of those reviews shows that Ms. Chernoff's offering was preferred by more people. [05:04:21] And then I went back and I looked to see how many were teachers. And I also noted that many of the people that asked for Ms. Riccardi's, not Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff's calendar crossed all sorts of cultural boundaries based on the numbers of days and how important instruction was and all of the things that we are talking about on this board. [05:04:48] But I did notice that Ms. Rasheed's calendar is missing some dates for a very, very large portion of our population. And that would be the Christian contingent. There are no Christian holidays on this calendar. And there are many Christian holidays that are not necessarily something we talk about. Right now we're talking about, oh, well, you [05:05:24] guys have Easter. Well, that's a Sunday. We get that off anyway. You guys have Palm Sunday. well look look at the name it's Palm Sunday we get that off anyway and then well you've got Christmas Christmas is a federal holiday we didn't do that it's not our fault that it falls where it falls now there are other things if you are not going to tie Easter and I say that meaningfully to spring break then you're going to have a whole host of other Christian holidays that up until now we have [05:05:58] all had to participate in before or after school. Things like Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. All of those days are Christian holidays. There are many, many saints days that we celebrate in the Christian religion. None of that is accounted for on this calendar. [05:06:21] We are not a religious institution. We are an educational institution. I think that if we are going to be talking about religious cultures we need to either include all of them or have the students come and learn about them here in school and that's what I wanted to know why are we leaving Christian holidays out thank you thank you madam chair to Ms. LaBelle's question we're not leaving out Christian holidays Christmas is the holiday and yes I understand it is a [05:07:01] federal holiday. But we are not, LCPS does not have a policy or regulation or any obligation to acknowledge and take off all of the federal holidays. And in fact, we do not take off all of the federal holidays. We have chosen to take off for some and not others. And we are choosing to take off December 25th, I assume, because it is Christmas, because it is a high Christian holiday. [05:07:28] So I frankly think it's disingenuous to suggest that LCPS is not acknowledging any Christian holidays when that is the reason why our winter break starts when it does, that every year we make sure that school is not in session on Christmas Day. [05:07:45] Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Rasheed? I copy or follow through with Vice Chair Donnie, who has mentioned I agree with her 100%. I was going to say the same thing, that Christmas is observed. and that's from day one, Christmas is observed, and our diversity is increasing. [05:08:06] We have a very diverse, which we celebrate all the time. We have proclamations. We talk about how many students we have coming from different areas. It is welcoming. Christmas, of course, is definitely important. So are the Jewish holidays, so are the Hindu holidays. [05:08:23] I mean, it goes without saying. So I don't wanna make this a long discussion 'cause there already has been, but I concur with Vice Chair Donohue. - Thank you, I'm gonna get somebody who hasn't gone yet. Mrs. Griffiths. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Ms. Labelle and Ms. Chernoff for telling the results of the survey. [05:08:42] The Let's Talk email that went out to everyone was titled 2028-29 School Calendar Feedback, was sent directly to parents with students in our schools. And I wanna thank the Department of Communications for sending that Let's Talk survey directly to all families with children in the schools across the school division. [05:09:04] It is really about hearing from the parents and the students who are directly impacted by the school calendar and ensuring that their voices remain at the center of this conversation. I had originally put out a calendar for a start after Labor Day and I was told that was not possible due to teacher, bus driver, cafeteria, and other contractual agreements. [05:09:26] Ms. Chernoff and I worked very hard to assess the needs both parents and staff throughout this process, putting out calendars months ago to get ahead of the issue. Staff members are on the front lines every day serving students, and their perspectives were all taken into consideration. I believe we should either recognize, as Ms. LaBelle had mentioned, all religious holidays equally and provide an excused absence for students observing them or refrain from designating specific religious holidays altogether. Public schools serve families from many faith traditions and fairness requires a consistent approach [05:10:05] that treats all religious observances with equal respect. Providing excused absences for religious observances regardless of faith is a more equitable solution than attempting to select which religious holidays are recognized on the school calendar. [05:10:22] When discussing enrollment for LCPS, school calendars influence family decisions and can cause lower enrollment. As Ms. Chernoff and I have found out, some families choose homeschooling because they are dissatisfied with the school calendar. For many families, the calendar is not a minor issue. It is a significant factor in planning work schedules, child care, family activities, and vacations. It's a big deal. I would like everyone to please refer to policies 8140 and 7730 that already addressed excused absences for religious observances for both [05:10:59] students and staff. As stated in the policy, absences for observances or religious holidays are excused. Students may not be denied the opportunity to make up missed work assessments, awards, or activities because of such absences when appropriate verification is provided. [05:11:16] The survey results are clear. The majority of respondents support a federal framework. A federal calendar offers the strongest balance between maximizing instructional time and maintaining reasonable start and end dates for students and staff. [05:11:34] Frequent isolated holidays throughout the school year can disrupt the continuity of instruction. Elementary students in particular benefit from these consistent routines. Per the feedback, the majority of our constituents want a federal calendar. [05:11:56] For all these reasons I just provided, I will not vote for a calendar that does not follow a federal model. I'm also open to Ms. Chernoff's calendar. A calendar that starts after Labor Day and provides a longer summer break remains my personal preference, and I will continue to share that perspective as a future goal for the county. [05:12:15] Thank you. Thank you. - Board members, before I go on to call on anyone further, I understand this is a topic that we all feel quite passionately about. I just wanna ask that as we engage in this conversation, that we try to remain respectful, and I'm not calling out anybody in particular, but I don't want this conversation to escalate. [05:12:40] I just think it's important that we remember that we are all here to reflect certain perspectives of the constituents that we represent and that none of this should be personal. So let's just try to stay down. I'm gonna let Mr. Pepper go because he hasn't had a chance to speak to this issue. [05:12:56] - Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to clarify something that my colleague, Mrs. Griffith said, and I'm actually using data provided to me by Ms. Chernoff. It actually states here that when examining community sentiment regarding holiday closures, such as Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Hada, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Lunar New Year versus sticking to federal state holidays. [05:13:20] The vote to keep full religious and cultural observances was at 42.5%, where the switch to federal holidays only was at 39%. And there was about 18.5. I know we all wanted to add up to 100, so 18.4% were neutral. [05:13:36] What this tells me is the majority of people with an opinion actually prefer the inclusive model. The inclusive model was preferred. Now, was that the ideal calendar of the majority of the people? Not necessarily, but I think there were some other factors involved besides the holidays. [05:13:55] And truthfully to me, whether or not I get to celebrate my holiday without having to have my kids miss assessments, without having to have, you know, to worry about my kids missing school or for a teacher making lesson plans, as I had to do yesterday, 'cause it was Yom Kiborah and Falls Church was in, seems just fair enough to keep these holidays in place. [05:14:28] And I'm gonna leave it at that. - Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. And just to clarify, Mr. Pepper, on what you're talking about, those were the comments that didn't specify an option. [05:14:44] So the comments that didn't specify an option had those sentiments of percentages. So that is actually separate from the percentages of the ones that did select an option. I'm really glad you chimed in, Chair Chandler. I'm really, the last thing I wanted when I created my calendar was for this to become a battle over whose holidays are more important and which people have more value. [05:15:08] That's incredibly divisive. That's not anything that I'm about. I don't think that's what this board is about. The goal of the calendar development, from my perspective over the last three years, has been to get a genuine sense of what the public wants. [05:15:28] And I think we have a value system here in LCPS that wants people to, wants every student to belong. I taught for 17 years. I certainly understand that. So what I do wanna say though, is we did for the first time ever put out to the public, the board options for feedback. [05:15:49] We've never done that before. We've always talked about them from the dais and the options that were by LCPS went out for feedback. This was unprecedented that we've ever done this, that we've put out feedback for the actual options that the board members had created, which I personally very much appreciated because I have a Facebook page. [05:16:09] I get a pretty good, you know, fair amount of hits on calendar responses. It's why I develop calendars time and time again because I feel like we just haven't hit that sweet spot yet. But this was the first time. So in order to pull away from a divisive conversation that I don't think brings value to anyone, we should be honoring all. [05:16:29] I'm going to stand on the data from the feedback tonight. I, if you look at the data, there were five options that were presented to the public. Mine and Ms. Griffiths were based off of a federal holiday framework and more condensed weeks, as well as, I mean more five day weeks, as well as a two week winter break. [05:16:54] I can speak personally, I put the two week winter break in there 'cause that was the one thing that had a majority year after year after year. That was the one thing people said that they wanted. Additionally, Dr. Rasheed's proposal and option three and four were more, they had the cultural observances. [05:17:14] Besides that, Dr. Rasheed's calendar and I are not that different. It's a half a week of winter break and cultural and federal holidays. So the frameworks themselves are pretty similar. So it was interesting to me to see what the feedback would come back as. [05:17:30] And if you look at the numbers, if you look just at the proposals, my proposal was 36%, Dr. Rasheed's was 31, so pretty close. And then if you look at a contingent though of the two different frameworks and the two different outlooks, if you add up Chernoff and Griffiths, which were more based off federal and a two week winter break versus the differences of Rasheed option three and four, It is 51% that want the federal framework and a two-week winter break. [05:18:02] That's the data. I'll be posting this later tonight so you can comb through all of it. And it was developed by AI, so I know we had some conversations about doomsday AI, but I do tend to think this is fairly legit based off the numbers and the pure feedback that we were given, we just ran it through. [05:18:19] So I wanna make this simple because I know it's getting late, but I would like to say that the person least surprised by the feedback data is me. I literally built the calendar not on my own values. I built them off of the feedback from the community that I have listened to cycle after cycle for three years. [05:18:42] I'm out in the community, I'm in our schools. So I am engaging in these conversations daily. So I am not surprised that the public feedback supports a calendar built on public feedback. That doesn't surprise me. [05:18:57] Additionally, this really isn't about me personally. I do hear that a lot, my values, my values. Listen guys, I want year round school. For my family, that's what I wanted. I was really excited to see that. But when the feedback went out, it wasn't supported. So I'm not bringing that forward tonight because the county does not want that. [05:19:16] And I was elected to represent the feedback of my constituents. So it's not really about me. So I'm not going to put that forward and I'm not going to vote for it. And we did ask our community for feedback And we did finally get it in pretty decent large numbers, 2,000 responses. [05:19:34] So I recognize the limitations of an open survey and having to analyze that, but I think it has value. And I also want us to understand that there is diversity of learning needs and diversity of family needs as well as cultural diversity. [05:19:50] We have lots of different types of diversity in Loudoun and all should be accounted for and celebrated. And what I'm hearing from families is very practical. They want predictable five-day weeks. They want continuity for students, manageable childcare, and a calendar that doesn't continually change and interrupt the school week year to year. [05:20:10] They want consistency. From a purely data-driven standpoint based off of the feedback in the last week, this is what we have heard. So I think we have an obligation to listen to that feedback, or I do. I feel that I have an obligation to that. [05:20:27] I think these concerns matter. I think they matter for our families. I think they matter in this economic climate when work life is stressful already. I think that we have an opportunity here to respond to community feedback. And I believe that we cannot ask the community what it thinks and then treat the answer as meaningful only when it confirms what we already wanted to do. [05:20:51] And so we may not agree, and that's okay. We're getting to a better solution. But I do think we owe our community a process that is genuinely responsive to the feedback that they took the time to give us, and if we don't, I think we risk losing their trust. [05:21:07] Thank you. - All right, I'd like to take a moment just to offer my perspective. I appreciate, and I asked for the feedback to go out to the community, because what I wanted to do more than anything was make sure that no one was surprised, because there were options that were not presented, They were options that differed from the staff's option and truly we were looking for transparency. [05:21:43] And I appreciate all the feedback that we received during this period. We did receive quite a lot. There were probably a couple hours where we received more than 200 emails an hour. And I think the experience is valid and I appreciate the feedback that we received. [05:22:03] That said, I asked tonight, and I wish I had thought to ask for it sooner, if anyone could tell me how many households we serve in LCPS. And I'm not sure that that number is available tonight. But if you ask AI, there are 142,642 households approximately in Loudoun County. [05:22:32] We know, as of today, I had the dashboard pulled up, There are 78,185 students currently enrolled. The feedback that we received is important, the feedback that we received this week, but it doesn't encapsulate the entire picture because the feedback that we've received is the feedback that we've received throughout the entire process, through conversations that we've had in the community, through conversations that we've had throughout our service on the school board. [05:23:04] We are all tasked in a representative democracy. Each one of us is tasked to represent the people in our district and Vice Chair Donahue is tasked with representing every single person in Loudoun County. I know and I hear in the community the frustration that exists over the calendar development. [05:23:28] I had the opportunity to meet with the Lansdowne parents who put forth their own calendar yesterday with Dr. Rasheed. we had a very interesting conversation. Thus far, we have based our calendar on two criteria. [05:23:44] And the question that the Lansdowne parents were asking is, is that necessary anymore? And one of the things that I was reflecting on in our conversation is that the cohort of parents is constantly changing, right? Students, I am a perfect example of this. [05:24:01] I've been in the school system. my child since 2011 i think i don't know i've kind of forgotten but my last child is going to graduate this june when we had i believe the most recent calendar committee miss bolin please correct me if i'm wrong that have we had a calendar committee meet we did in 23 we did and we did again this year as well and again this year as well okay before these calendars so it would have in last school year okay so in the last school year so um families are constantly moving out [05:24:39] um and new families are coming in so i think that committee piece is really important and i think it could be interesting if we explored some other ways to try to collect feedback one of the ideas that occurred to me was with leaf right there in theory leaf has a representative from every school that could represent a perspective. [05:25:01] But time and time again, in sifting through all this feedback and not just the 1,906 emails that were processed in time for us to count, because the cutoff was at some point earlier in the afternoon, we've gotten emails since. [05:25:20] We've gotten emails since we've been talking about this item on this calendar, right? Even though I accept the feedback, I need the community to understand that I have to at the totality of my obligation to represent the community and i i will say i wonder um given how our calendar is modeled how clear it is that some of the calendars were taking the inclusive holidays [05:25:51] away and some included them um because i mean i i it's hard to know um just given the way it's labeled as you look at it on face value. I am a member of the Christian faith. I have never had the experience of wondering whether or not my holiday would be recognized. It is a federal holiday. The schedule, the entire time that I went to school and most of the time that my children [05:26:27] went to school, has been modeled around that tradition. And I can never look past the fact that our community in Loudoun County is so beautifully diverse. And maybe we can't capture everyone's holiday, but it is a sign of neighborliness and respect to me that we have set aside and agreed on through conversations with other members of the community and other face faith-based groups to designate this respectfulness. [05:27:05] And I come back to an experience that I had with a constituent just last year who, even though we say we're aware of the cultural holidays and the complexity of the people that we serve in this community, on the second most important religious holiday in Islam at one of the schools in my district, there was a field trip scheduled on that day. [05:27:33] And in having the conversation with that parent, it was devastated to think about what that decision must be like to have to step away from your religious observation, to choose between school and your religious holiday. [05:27:49] And a field trip is maybe not as important as a test. And I know that this is how we've done it in the past, but I'm just not sure that it's been done with fidelity and my like deepest reservation is going back to that system where people are not going to be treated in the same situation. I like the fact that we honor these days and I am committed to continuing to do so. So with that Dr. Rasheed. Chair Chandler, [05:28:25] MSAC wanted to say a few, regardless of whatever calendar, they wanted me to say a few sentences that they brought forward from Chair Tyler? Yes. She said, Chair Tyler, on behalf of MSAC, I want the school board to recognize their final decision impacts the students and families LCPS serves, so their decision should reflect us too. [05:28:50] We are an extraordinarily diverse school division with students representing many racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and faith communities. That diversity is one of Loudon's strengths. An inclusive calendar recognizes that our students do not all share the same traditions and holidays, but that they are important and worth observing. [05:29:07] Ultimately, our charge at MSAC is to ensure every student is able to see that they and their community belong in LCPS. Any further discussion? Mr. Spence. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate my colleagues who have worked hard on the proposals for the calendar. [05:29:27] I think that each of the proposals takes into account community feedback that we received. I think if we look at Ms. Chernoff and Dr. Rasheed's proposal, the biggest feedback we got from teachers and parents was not shrinking the summer on both ends and making sure that we are ending the school year earlier, and both calendars account for that. [05:29:50] We also heard that there's important instructional time to be gained at the start of the year, particularly for AP classes. That's recognized in both of those calendars. There is a difference in terms of recognition of the religious and cultural holidays, of which there are four. [05:30:11] And I think that I know folks have talked about the disruption of a non-five-day school week, but given how diverse our county is, particularly my district, I just want to emphasize the operational concerns that I have if we don't take off school on those cultural and religious holidays. [05:30:32] Just to put it in perspective, my zip code is one of the highest concentrations of Indian Americans in the United States. If everyone in a classroom who was entitled to an excused absence for Diwali took that absence, you would have upwards of a quarter or more of a class that was absent that day. [05:30:52] Think about the impact on lesson planning and student learning. And so in addition to the values that were so eloquently stated by our public commenters and by people who have written in, I just wanted to highlight the operational concerns I would have. [05:31:13] And I think that it's important to recognize that Loudoun County is uniquely diverse in the United States. We have large numbers of community members from various religious and cultural groups. And I know that's not true throughout the county. Each of us have different constituents that we're representing. [05:31:31] But for me, this is really important to my constituents and if you step into my schools and to some of my classrooms, you would see how important this day is. So I think that that's a really important consideration for me and I think that Dr. Rasheed's option takes into account various aspects of community feedback we received throughout the entire year. [05:31:55] I did wanna highlight as well what I'm really excited about is ending the second quarter, the first semester before the winter break. That way when students go on their winter break, it's a true break. They're not working on projects or thinking about their tests coming up after winter break. [05:32:11] They're gonna be starting something new. So I think that there are various improvements to the calendar options of Dr. Rasheed and Ms. Chernoff's options over our current system that take into account the community feedback. [05:32:26] And there is this difference of the cultural holidays. And to me, recognizing these four cultural holidays is important. But I think we've also achieved some improvements at taking into account community feedback. Is it perfect? [05:32:41] No. As I was saying, we have a diverse county. People have different needs for their families, different desires for how they would like the school calendar to look. And we can always take into account more feedback, think about the process for creating these calendars, but I think that I just would like to commend my colleagues for putting these options forward and thinking through this. [05:33:05] And I do want to say as well, before it goes out, I appreciate my colleagues who have engaged in data analysis of the feedback we received, but I would just caution that it's very difficult to take this qualitative feedback and shoehorn it into some quantitative analysis. [05:33:21] I also, like Ms. LaBelle, read through each of the emails, alerts we received. A lot of them said they liked the Chernoff and Rasheed option. And I'm not sure how that's accounted for in here, but there were also people who said, I like the Rasheed option because it ends June 1st. [05:33:38] That's also true of the Chernoff option and vice versa. So I think it's really hard in this qualitative environment to kind of understand what's driving someone's particular pick of a calendar. And I think that what I gathered from the feedback we received is that the community was really happy with the school board member options that had taken into account feedback and made improvements. [05:34:03] And I'm really grateful to folks here on the dais and also to HRTD who worked really closely with the school board members to make sure that the calendars were compliant and met the various needs that we have in the school division. [05:34:18] Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, Madam Chair. and I appreciate everybody's feedback on this. This is, I think, probably one of, if not the most divisive topic that our entire community could have. It's been really fascinating to watch, and it's been really interesting to look at the feedback, too, over the whole, since basically the spring, late spring, we first started talking about the calendars and the process. [05:34:43] And so a couple of just quick observations, I would say, number one, we need to, the calendars that we've whittled down to now, right, I think are the framework with which I would like to see LCPS bounce from in the out years, right? [05:35:02] So there's some kind of starting as late as possible, ending as early as possible, the winter break, feedback and all that kind of stuff. So I think that's really the framework with which we really need to be looking as LCPS designs calendars moving forward, 'cause it's getting closer and closer to some kind of agreement. [05:35:22] I think the second thing we need to do and take a really strong look at is communicating around policy 8140, which allows families at any point in time during the year to observe holidays, and there's a process for that, and it does not penalize students in any way, shape, or form for taking those holidays. [05:35:42] I'm not sure parents understand that that policy really exists, and I think there's some more communication we can do around that, too. So that's another piece of it. I think when you're looking at receiving and getting feedback, And I've been pretty open-minded about the calendar process during this whole entire time to really kind of see where the public feedback would land because it's been kind of all over the board. [05:36:05] There's been a lot of data. There's been data for the federal holidays only. There's been feedback and data on the religious holidays. And then there's been that nebulous middle that it was, as you alluded to, that's just been kind of the hard to kind of figure out components of this. [05:36:23] But when you analyze and look at all of this, it's not a we respect or we don't respect the religious holidays. I think everybody on this dais has incredible respect for all of our families and all of the diversity and amazing diversity that our entire county has. [05:36:42] And we have so many different data points with which people engage with LCPS. I am truly blessed to be able to serve of the Sterling District, which has 10 highly diverse, I would say the 10 most diverse schools in the county. [05:37:00] And on both sides of my district, two very different kinds of learning environments. I will say that hands down when I talk in Sterling Park to families, they are most concerned about all of the random day, not random days, 'cause they're mostly the religious holidays, but all of the holidays that are being taken are not federal, because what that does is it impacts families at a very, very gut level. [05:37:31] These are mostly people that are working hourly wages, and on those days off, they can't work. The economy has not bounced back the way I think a lot of people had hoped it would by now, and you have families that are really struggling to make ends meet, and every day that their children are off of school is another day that their family's not earning income. [05:37:52] And so they want to keep the federal holidays because their employers are usually off on those days anyway and want to smooth out the learning environment as well so that there's five-day school weeks consistently throughout the year. And that is hands down the feedback that I've gotten in the largest numbers in Sterling specifically and I just want to put that out there. [05:38:17] I also wanted to look at the data very objectively because, again, I can see really great value in both formats of the of the calendar you know in my analysis of all the data from as far back as I could get I could grab it you know this is almost like a 60/40 issue but people are really leaning very heavily towards or on the 60% side not Wednesday heavily but clearly on the side of wanting a federal calendar and I am a woman of deep faith so I have incredible respect for all of our houses of worship. I think Sterling has probably, I would, I haven't done a head count, [05:38:56] but I mean, we have pretty much every faith group that I can possibly imagine housed in Sterling. And I have heard from those who have holidays represented on the calendar, and I've heard from many whose holidays are not. And I really feel pretty strongly that if we go to a federal calendar and we shore up the regulations around what our teachers are doing on religious holidays, no tests, no tests the day after, making sure that we're not doing field trips and things on those holidays. [05:39:28] There are ways that we can kind of level out and smooth out the learning environment for all of our children so that there's a real win-win for everybody as best we can serve it. And again, there's no win on this, right? Like either calendar is gonna work for the families that we've got, but I think my families in Sterling in particular have made it very clear, and I think our surveys across the county have made it pretty clear that the majority of people are really looking for the federal holiday calendar. [05:39:57] So that's what I'm gonna be supporting this evening. I'd like us to work on that and we'll get feedback throughout the year. But I also wanna create the stability for our teachers as well to have more five day weeks and get in and get out quicker. So thank you. [05:40:13] - Thank you. I don't know who had their hand up first. Mrs. Griffiths. - Thank you, Madam Chair, I'll be quick. I just want to mention that per the feedback for the federal calendar, a big complaint from the parents of Loudoun County is they keep getting these surveys, they give their thoughts, and they feel like they're not being recognized, they're not being considered. [05:40:46] And that is a big complaint we get. Why bother doing these surveys if you're going to ignore it? So that's the big issue with me. The data is there. It is clear. The parents of Loudoun County would like a federal calendar. [05:41:05] And, again, I do want to thank Communications for sending that survey specifically to the parents in the school division. And they all responded. I don't want to say all. A majority responded that they wanted a federal calendar. [05:41:24] And because of that data, if we go against it, they're going to question, why do we even bother? Thank you. Mr. Pepper? Madam Chair, I'd like to make an amendment to the Rasheed calendar. I would like to add January 4th and 5th as holidays to create a full two-week winter break. [05:41:49] Mr. Pepper has added an amendment to make January 4th and 5th a holiday. would they be marked as a student holiday? - They would be marked as, so what technically would happen, I apologize, let me clarify, we would do, trying to figure out the between H and SH. [05:42:14] I would make, yes, mark them as student holidays, thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper has made a motion, is there a second? - Second. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper has made a motion, Dr. Rasheed has seconded. [05:42:29] Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further to your motion? - Yes, Madam Chair, I would. And this kind of piggybacks of what we've been saying community feedback one of the biggest kind of shortfalls that I think many of the community felt about Dr. Rashid's calendar was that it just did not have the full two-week winter break that many asks now I had concerns about that as it takes 180 student days and drops them to 178 I know that we're well within the limit of state regulation within those days but my concern was more for our employees to make sure that this didn't affect their compensation in any way but but in some discussions, [05:43:09] I believe that we would still be okay. I do have some concerns about hourly employees, but I think that one of the big factors was this two-week winter break, and I would like to see that restored, particularly as many of our families travel. - Thank you. Board members, any discussion on Mr. Pepper's amendment? Specific to add the two days to have a two-week holiday. [05:43:28] Ms. LaBelle. - Thank you, nothing's changed. I was wondering how Mr. Pepper was going to account for the hours that we would be losing And as long as we're talking about adding days, don't we have to have the Friday before Labor Day off legally if we are starting school before Labor Day? [05:43:59] I saw a lot of policies mentioned from the state. Could you check on that? Thank you. Ms. Bowen, could you speak to the Labor Day issue, please? Absolutely. Thank you for the question. - Ms. LaBelle, the same waiver that allows LCPS to go more than 14 days before Labor Day to start school also allows us to attend school on the Friday before Labor Day. [05:44:28] - Thank you, Ms. Bolin. I know we had a lot of questions about that on the survey that we sent out. - Vice Chair Donahue. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping that Dr. Spence or someone on staff could address if adding January 4th and 5th as a student holiday would have any impact on teachers and other staff employees. [05:44:58] - So typically the way that that's worked for the winter break is that 12-month employees work those student holidays and then teachers would be off. Lisa, Ms. Bolton, do you wanna correct me if I'm wrong? [05:45:15] - So 12-month employees typically work those days On the calendar, teachers have historically been off, which would bring the 194 scheduled workdays listed on the Rasheed calendar back down to 192. [05:45:33] Thank you. And will it affect salary income for the hourly workers, the non-contract, non-classroom teaching staff? In theory, it could. [05:45:51] The board could also make a decision to hold those employees harmless for those days. I would prefer we keep the calendars on board docs as is. [05:46:08] I think that they've been vetted, they've been approved. I think we're in a pretty good place with where this is going to go and I think we're in a much better place than we were and we've got CBA implications, we've got teacher contract, we've got non-exempt, we've got hours. [05:46:26] You pull one lever, you move another. That's the one thing that I've learned from making calendars. So I will not support any changes on the dais in the 11th hour besides getting the holiday right, which makes sense. And I would like us to see, move forward, get a calendar adopted. [05:46:43] Thank you. Mr. Pepper. This question really for Dr. Spence or perhaps staff. What would we need to do to ensure that our staff are held harmless? Ms. Willoughby or Ms. Boland, would that be something that would need to be incorporated into an amendment? [05:47:04] I would assume yes, so that we have a paper trail that would identify it as coming from the board's direction. [05:47:24] Yeah, I think that's right. I think if the board could just provide that direction, clearly it would be. Would it be something to add to this amendment, or will we do it after, should this pass? I mean, maybe that's a question for Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Weber. I think it'd be cleanest if you considered including that in your amendment tonight, if that's your proposed language. [05:47:52] Madam Chair, is it fair for me to modify my amendment? Please. Madam Chair, I move that we include in Dr. Rasheed's calendar January 4th and 5th as student holidays and ensure that staff are held harmless salary-wise for the removal of these two days. [05:48:14] Second. Okay, thank you. Mr. Pepper has made an amendment to add two days and to hold staff harmless in the event that hourly workers would lose pay on those two days and that was seconded by vice chair donahue mr pepper would you like to speak any further to your changes uh no ma'am i just want to make sure our staff are compensated fairly thank you um miss labelle quick question instead of naming the dates since the uh new year's day floats around just like christmas does could we call it the two days following new year's [05:48:51] or three days if that's what it's going to take in other words you're saying for this year it is the fourth and fifth but next year or the year after it might be another day so it might be better to clarify it by describing it i i find your point very interesting and i appreciate it miss labelle i think one of the challenges and perhaps one of the reasons why in our initial discussions we were willing to take some of the time off was that it's particularly challenging with a Monday holiday, and so really it was looking to make sure that we were back at school, [05:49:30] but I don't, I would, I can't, my request for consideration as the board considers calendars in the future would be that this could go back to the two-week, or we could meet the two-week, I accept and support Mr. Pepper's amendment. [05:49:49] I think it might be more awkward to have a four-day week and a one-day week, so maybe this i mean i also think it's possible that people will be frustrated that their kids are home until january 5th but um i do want to acknowledge the fact that we did hear in the feedback that this is one thing that really matters to people um and for many different reasons and so i'm i'm open to this change personally well i'm not making a motion i was just questioning um i didn't realize as it was because it was a four-day holiday or a Monday holiday that Mr. Pepper was making the motion. [05:50:27] So, yes, thank you. - Okay, so moving on, any further discussion? Yes, Mr. Smith. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the addition of the two days and from a feedback perspective, contrary to some of my colleagues' interpretation of the feedback, my understanding of a lot of folks who opted not to choose the Rasheed option was because it was a shorter winter break, So I think that it did seem, based on feedback, that folks prefer the full two weeks, though we did hear from folks who don't like the full two weeks. [05:50:59] So as we've discussed, it's hard to have everybody's feedback incorporated. Generally speaking, I think it's a good idea to include the two days, and I appreciate holding harmless the pay to our employees. [05:51:17] I also think it recognizes the unpaid work that our employees do over the course of the year, that certainly would add up to two days. My question for Ms. Boland or for other members of staff, if there's anything that prevents us from moving from 194 scheduled days to 192 scheduled days per the collective bargaining agreement or any other contractual provisions that would cause any concerns. [05:51:46] - What I will say is that the contract is for this full year specifically 200 day contract 197 of those days are paid work days of which 194 are scheduled three are unscheduled work days and then as per the collective bargaining agreement the difference between the 197 and the 200 are the three paid holidays that were [05:52:17] negotiated in the CBA so it sort of depends on how we move forward because this does set a little bit of a precedent about how we determine calendars moving forward and in a collective bargaining and environment those things are typically negotiated compensation is a mandatory negotiation topic and this This would be going above and beyond and providing more and could set precedent [05:52:55] for future negotiations. - Thank you for that context Ms. Fulton, appreciate it. - Mr. Pepper. - I would propose, and kind of building off what Mr. Svensson said here, that in this particular calendar, we could be five non-scheduled workdays. [05:53:12] Truthfully, if a workday is seven and a half hours, I will personally guarantee you that if you multiply 7.5 times five, it comes out to slightly under 40, but I guarantee you that teachers do well more than 40 hours of work at home outside of contract hours. [05:53:32] - Thank you. All right, on Mr. Pepper's amendment to add two more days to winter break, is there any more discussion? All right, let's move forward with the vote. [05:53:50] All right, that motion passes with six members voting yes including Mr. Svensson, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, And two board members voting no, Ms. Riccardi and Ms. Chernoff, and Mrs. Griffiths abstaining. [05:54:10] With that, we return to the base motion as amended on the Rasheed calendar. Is there any further discussion? - Yes, Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, Madam Chair. So could, I know it's getting kind of late, could somebody kind of plain language and somewhat bottom line what this means financially to us for the two extra days? [05:54:30] Do we know? We're paying? - So what does it mean financially? It doesn't change our budget because we had already planned for those two days. So there isn't necessarily a negative financial impact, but to your point, we're just holding folks harmless who typically wouldn't be scheduled to work on one of those days who now, oops, I'm sorry, who typically would have worked on those days who now will not work on those days, but we're holding them harmless for losing those hours. [05:55:00] So they're going to get paid for not working. So that is a cost to us, right? I mean, it's two days of salary for the entire vision. Well, this would be for folks who would work hourly. [05:55:16] Okay. So do we have an idea of what that looks like? I'm making my team nervous. They're bouncing around back there. No, because I don't want to pin anybody down. I'm going to let them answer that question. But obviously, we have an idea ballpark-wise of what we're paying, you know, per day for hourly employees versus salaried. [05:55:34] So, I mean, do we have an idea of what that looks like for two days? Ballpark, back in the napkin, I will not hold you to it. Let me just clarify. So the ask is to hold individuals harmless for those two days. [05:55:52] So that would mean teachers would get paid for two additional days that they are not scheduled to work. So essentially two additional holidays. So that would be an amount also. And then on top of that, my understanding is we want to hold harmless any non-certified, non-exempt hourly employee that would have formerly been working, such as bus drivers, custodians, school nutrition workers, teacher assistants, and those individuals would be paid their hourly rate. [05:56:30] So that would potentially take some time. I'm not sure Ms. Willoughby is in a position to pull that. There are so many different ranges of rates and hours, and I don't know that it's fair for us to assume what that would be. [05:56:48] That's fine, but I just wanted to be clear about kind of what we're looking at for this. And then are we, okay, and then, but with this change, will we still be meeting our collective bargaining agreement requirements? [05:57:04] - I'm sure Ellie would be very happy with this arrangement. - She's like, "Thumbs up." Okay, yeah, all right, thank you. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to point out that both the Chernoff and Griffiths calendars also, as has been noted previously, they have full two week winter breaks, which include extra student holidays, which I believe would have the same result as what Mr. Pepper is now proposing, meaning it's not, Mr. Pepper's proposal is bringing Dr. Rasheed's calendar option [05:57:43] in line with all of the other options. Thank you. - I think the important contextualization, to be fair, and I'll certainly ask my colleagues to clarify if I get this wrong, the important piece to look at is on the teacher calendar because the scheduled workdays are 194. [05:58:06] And I believe with this change, that would make the scheduled workdays on the Rashida option 192. Mr. Pepper. [05:58:21] - Madam Chair, you are correct. Ms. Chernoff's calendar has August 7th and 8th as teacher workdays, which brings them back up to 200, whereas Dr. Rashid's calendar does not. That's really the crux, besides the federal, but besides the holidays, that's the crux of the difference. So it's not identical. However, going from the original calendar to this, from the original doctorate proposal, this proposal is really no net cost. [05:58:42] It's just paying the same, but we're basically giving people a little bit of extra time to work at home and making sure that our early employees who do so much for so little are held harmless. - Thank you. - Ms. Chernoff. [05:58:58] - Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just appreciate in the future, people are gonna make statements about my calendar that they present them as questions rather than statements because it's just false. So the work days are worked in a completely different way in my calendar to meet the 194, and my holidays, the days off, are worked in a completely different way. [05:59:21] So while they look like the same framework from beginning to end, the nuts and bolts of getting there were different. And so I understand that people want to look objectively at a calendar, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and there's a lot of different things to account for. So if you are going to speak on behalf of my calendar, I'm happy to engage in the dialogue, but I would appreciate the opportunity to have it as a question and not as a statement. [05:59:42] Thank you. - Thank you. Any further discussion? All right, so let's move forward with voting on the Rasheed calendar. Clerk, please open the vote. [05:59:59] Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. All right, the Rasheed calendar passes with five board members voting yes, including Mr. Svensson, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and four board members voting no, including Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, Mrs. Griffiths, and Ms. LaBelle. [06:00:22] And that calendar is approved as amended. With that, we will move to our information items for this evening. First up, we have 1301, our Legislative and Policy Committee Revised Policy 1010, School Division Legal Status, which will be presented by Mr. Svensson, the Chair of the Legislative and Policy Committee. [06:00:44] - Thank you, Madam Chair, and seeing the time, I will try to be brief here. This is a relatively simple update to the school division legal status just to align with BSBA model policy and I will welcome any questions. I would humbly suggest that this be, that our colleagues consider this for the consent agenda at the next meeting. [06:01:10] - Thank you, Mr. Svensson. Board members, are there any questions? All right, board members, is there an appetite to move this to consent? [06:01:32] Yeah, consent, okay. This item will come back on the next agenda on the business consent agenda. We will move on to 13.02, Legislative and Policy Committee Revised Policy 1035, School Board Norms, Protocols, and Violations, again, presented by Mr. Svensson. [06:01:50] - Thank you, Madam Chair. The revisions to this policy primarily relate to revisions to the professional development for school board members section, and also provide some clarification regarding school board member scheduled visits to schools just to keep staff in the loop. [06:02:09] So welcome any questions about the changes to this policy. - For members, are there any questions? Ms. Riccardi. - Yeah, I guess one of my questions is kind of what is the purpose of this and how is it gonna be enforced and what's the outcome if, I mean, we're elected by our constituents and so choosing to do professional development or not is up to us as individuals. [06:02:37] So I'm not sure exactly what the recourse is you don't and trust me I love my professional development so it's not it's not that I just I mean but but that but that's you know it's a personal choice and personal time and all the other things are involved with it so we we do our training that we have to do but I guess my question is what what where's the where's this coming from mr. Allen are you able to speak to that is it a of provision in code this tracks uh code language that board members should engage in high quality [06:03:13] professional development opportunities the addition here is not in code per se so that's that's discretionary i'm doing a follow-up yeah go ahead i guess okay so if it's not if the addition here is not in code then where did it come from just out of curiosity thank you mr [06:03:45] i lost my place here specifically the provision that was added um in lines 84 85 the school board shall hold such a session jointly for all members on an annual basis that that's the discretionary that the rest is in code and and this was pre-existing as well if you look at lines 184 or to 190, that's where this was captured previously. [06:04:27] - Thank you, Mr. Stinson. - Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you, Mr. Allen, and thank you for the question, Mr. Carty. Yes, just to elaborate, the prior policy had the professional development requirement in it, and I guess the violation of that requirement would be pursuant to any violation of our codes of conduct here. [06:04:52] But the addition that was made at the committee level was to say that the school division shall put on the professional development, at least one piece of professional development for us, which is new. That said, Mr. Allen, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think something like our school board budget retreat that we just did would qualify as something like that. [06:05:12] So I think it's just putting a little bit, it might require a little bit more work from our staff to line that up, but I think that's kind of already happening, that professional development that we're receiving. - Thank you, any further discussion? [06:05:30] Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to bring up a little bit of history from our days on L.A. and P. One of the discussions that had happened prior to the changeover of this committee was potentially adding school board chair and vice chair roles to this policy. [06:05:49] They're scattered throughout a number of other governance policies and when they were compiled graciously by Mr. Allen and his legal department, it accounted for seven pages of responsibilities. So I understand why we didn't necessarily wanna put that here, but I am taking this opportunity to sort of put a pin in that conversation and flag it actually as a potential for some work that needs to get done down the road. [06:06:13] I don't know if we need a separate policy to kind of outline that, or if we just need some governance work done in general. I know Ms. Chandler, you and I have talked about various ways that maybe we could accomplish that through a manual, a subcommittee, conversations that could go directly to LA&P potentially to streamline things. [06:06:34] But I do think that there is need for some governance tightening up, particularly when you look on lines 27 through 29 of this policy where it says, be focused on policy and governance work as a school board member and not impede the day-to-day operations of Loudoun County Public Schools long as they remain the delegated responsibility of the superintendent and there's some other references in here to how we operate to work with staff and different things and I think just given tonight and how much has happened on the fly on the dais, I personally would like to us to have a review of what our governance commitments are, what the use of committee work is, what our [06:07:12] roles and responsibilities are within that, what kind of timelines we want to set so that we're getting amendments in time to digest them to think about them to have clear thoughts about them when we come to the dais so i think this policy is timely i won't vote for it to go on to consent because i may bring forward some other things um or hopefully find another place to funnel some of these conversations thank you thank you any further discussion on this uh ms riccardi i just want to say that i wholeheartedly agree with mrs chernoff on this we have policies that we're not even following at this point, so I want to make sure we get these right. Thank you. [06:07:49] Thank you. All right, so this action or this item will come back as an action item next time. I am, as chair, having the authority to modify the agenda or control the agenda. [06:08:07] I'm going to make a change and ask, since we are having a legislative update that includes guests from outside of the division, and given the late hour, I would like to ask that we move to that item next and therefore I'll ask for Mr. Sutton and Mr. Andres to come up. [06:08:33] We're going to do item three, our 13.05 legislative and policy committee legislative update. First, Mr. Svensson, would you like to kick us off? Thank you, Madam Chair. At our last legislative and policy committee, we were presented with a look ahead to the 2027 Virginia General Assembly session and this came in the form of a set of proposed priorities that the committee voted to move forward to the full board tonight. [06:08:59] These priorities reflect LCPS's commitment to a strong state/local partnership and to ensuring that Virginia's rapidly growing and diverse school divisions have the resources and flexibility needed to serve all students. We're looking forward to working with the General Assembly to advance policies that promote educational excellence, equity, and opportunity for students and educators across the commonwealth um and i'm excited to hear from mr sutton our coordinator of government relations and joel andrus from kemper consulting um about these priorities tonight thank you mr spence i appreciate that uh good evening madam chair dr spence uh board members thank you uh again for [06:09:39] having us excuse me i'm i believe i'm starting a cold so forgive me for my voice uh mr like to thank mr joel andrus our legislative partner from kemper for coming tonight and we'd like to provide you with the loudon county public schools proposed legislative priorities for 2027 to the virginia general assembly this evening i'd like to cover three things first briefly explain how we arrived at our priorities second i'll walk through the issues lcps intends to emphasize [06:10:14] during the 2027 general assembly session finally i'd like to talk briefly about our upcoming legislative breakfast on october 6th and how this event fits into our broader legislative engagement strategy let's talk about how we arrived at our priorities i want to begin with the process for lcps developing a legislative agenda this year is not simply a matter of identifying issues that are important to the school division we wanted to make sure that our priorities reflected the experiences and needs of people who are directly impacted by education policy every day to help [06:10:51] inform and shape the 2027 legislative agenda lcps brought together 42 stakeholders representing a broad range of perspectives across the school division and community that group included parents community partners students principals cabinet members and departmental staff the purpose of the stakeholder roundtable is to create an intentional space for people to talk about what they are seeing and experiencing in our division identify emerging concerns or challenges discuss potential policy solutions and ultimately help us determine which issues should rise to the [06:11:28] top of our legislative priorities we organized the discussion around five key key areas that we anticipate will particularly resonate and be relevant during the 27 uh 2027 general assembly and those priorities are up there now five five priorities with one shared goal school funding work for workforce alignment student mental health and well-being intentional technology and safe and supportive school environments just a quick quick note i also wanted to [06:12:03] make sure that we also want to make sure that student voices were not simply included as an afterthought. We were very pleased to have our student participants and our student participants were given targeted questions designed to help draw out their experiences and perspective on these issues and we really really appreciate that. Following the feedback, following the roundtable, we reviewed the feedback and looked for common themes, areas of concern, and policy recommendations. That information helped us refine the post priorities that are [06:12:38] up there this evening and we're bringing forward and talking about those legislative agenda items tonight we're really talking about an agenda that has been informed by a cross-section of our school community and it's important because the issues we're bringing forward are interconnected they all come back to one fundamental objective and that is to ensure that every student has resources support and opportunities necessary to succeed slide please K [06:13:18] through 12 education funding and equity the first and perhaps a most foundational priority is this the K through 12 education funding and equity adequate and sustainable funding is the foundation that allows school divisions to provide high quality educational opportunities for LCPS this means supporting the day-to-day operation of schools maintaining and improving for facilities, attracting and retaining strong workforce, and providing programs and services that students need. [06:13:50] One area we will emphasize is high-quality and affordable pre-K. We know that early childhood education plays an important role in preparing students academically, socially, and emotionally for kindergarten and beyond. Expanding access to this high-quality pre-K requires sustained investment, and we believe The Commonwealth has an important role to play in making that possible. [06:14:13] We will also continue to advocate for increased support for education, learner education. Loudoun County continues to diversify, and our schools serve students and families with a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. [06:14:30] Supporting English learners requires qualified teachers, appropriate student-to-teacher ratios, instructional resources, bilingual and dual language opportunities, translation and family engagement services, counseling, and wraparound support. [06:14:48] Those resources are critical to ensuring that all students have access, again, to this high quality Loudoun education. Slide, please. Our second major priority is secondary and post-secondary access, particularly career-connected learning and workforce development. [06:15:08] LCPS wants to ensure that students have multiple pathways to success after high school. For some students, that may mean a traditional four-year college experience. For others, it may mean technical education, community college, military service, direct entry into the workforce, or registered apprenticeship. [06:15:30] Our agenda calls for increased support for dual enrollment, technical training, career readiness initiatives and most pointedly this year youth pre-apprenticeship opportunities these programs allow students to explore careers while they're still in high school they can develop foundational technical and employability skills earn industry recognized credentials and participate in meaningful work-based learning experience and there's a second benefit these programs help strengthen the connection between our schools and our workforce bringing together schools colleges businesses workforce partners [06:16:09] and community organizations we continue to create clearer pathways into registered apprenticeships and high demand careers and at the same time we're helping employers develop the skilled and work ready workforce they need so this isn't just an education issue this isn't just a legislative issue it's also an economic development and workforce issue slide the third priority is student mental health and well-being this is an area that's become increasingly important to schools families and communities across Virginia students cannot fully engage in learning if their mental and behavioral health [06:16:46] needs are not being addressed we will advocate for sustainable recurring funding to expand school-based mental and behavioral health services this includes strengthening staffing for school counselors psychologists social workers nurses behavioral specialists and other students support professionals we also support investments in prevention early identification and screening suicide prevention and crisis response mental health awareness and professional development for school personnel and we recognize that schools cannot do the work alone strong partnerships with families community [06:17:25] service boards health providers community organizations and our legislators are essential one point i want to emphasize is our position on new state requirements new state requirements are only meaningful if if new man if new mandates come with resources necessary to implement them successfully that means adequate funding workforce capacity professional development and implementation support if we want local school divisions to deliver these services effectively we need to make sure that they have the capacity to do so [06:18:05] slide the fourth area is intentional technology and digital access technology is now an essential component to education. We had a whole discussion about it tonight, but simply putting technology in the hands of students is no longer enough. Intentional technology integration and digital learning is important. Loudoun County Public Schools supports technology use that is intentional, purposeful, balanced, developmentally appropriate, and designed to amplify, not replace, effective [06:18:42] teacher-led instruction. Loudoun County Public Schools is committed to advancing technology integration and digital learning to prepare students for the demands of the modern world while still being intentional. LCPS highlights the importance of equipping classrooms with impactful tools, expanding access to high-quality resources that enhance teacher-led instruction and engagement. [06:19:06] We will continue to advocate for a balanced approach while supporting ongoing investments in infrastructure and professional development to ensure that teachers and students can effectively utilize this technology to support personalized learning collaboration and critical thinking skills by fostering a culture of intention digital literacy and innovation we aim to graduate students who are proficient in technology adaptable to future advancements and ready to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital economy part of this also includes the need for reliable broadband [06:19:43] we need strong network infrastructure we need the resources to maintain and continually upgrade those systems that is why LCPS is supporting efforts to preserve and fully fund the federal e-rate program this year which provides critical support for broadband connectivity telecommunications and network infrastructure in schools and libraries in our communities reliable and affordable connectivity is increasingly fundamental to education access our goal again is intentional technology integration legislation that supports that using technologies and ways that enhance learning expand [06:20:23] opportunity prepare for prepare students for a rapidly changing digital digital world slide our fifth priority is safe and supportive schools and school environments when we talk about school safety we often think first about physical security and that remains critically important but a truly safe school environment environment also includes the social emotional environments which students learn students need to feel safe they need to feel connected and they need to know [06:20:58] that adults in their schools will recognize when they're struggling and help connect them to the appropriate supports lcps will therefore advocate for sustainable resources to strengthen school climates student connect connectedness bullying and cyberbullying prevention behavioral supports threat assessments crisis response and evidence-based approaches to student discipline again staffing is again a critical component counselors psychologists social workers behavioral specialists nurses and other professionals are often the people who identify concerns before they become [06:21:36] crisis we also support mental health and behavioral health training for school personnel suicide prevention and crisis intervention initiatives and strong partnerships among schools families community services boards behavioral health providers public safety partners and of course our legislators and of course just as with mental health it is imperative that new state requirements that we will eventually get yet again related to school safety and student [06:22:12] support should be accompanied by appropriate funding training implementation resources and flexibility for school divisions so let's look at a common thread when you look across these priorities again there's a common thread we're talking about funding obviously we're talking about workforce mental health school safety we're talking about the appropriate use of technology and we're talking about preparing students [06:22:49] for life after high school but ultimately these are all pieces of the same larger picture we want every student to have access to safe supportive equitable innovative and high-quality educational opportunities and we want our legislative agenda to help create those conditions that make that possible one of the ways in which we do that is our legislative breakfast we have 78 rsvp so far it is it is one of the most highly anticipated uh events that i i've had the good fortune of trying to put together [06:23:27] with with the help of other people the the breakfast has become an important opportunity for us to engage directly with our state legislators our community leaders especially as we look forward to the 2027 general assembly we will have the opportunity to share our proposed priorities explain how we arrived at them and discuss the issues facing against students families educators and our schools but just as importantly we see this as an opportunity for dialogue our legislative agenda is intended to start a conversation not to end one we recognize that [06:24:04] legislators are balancing priorities across the commonwealth and we want to work collaboratively collaboratively to identify policies and investments that will have meaningful impact on our lcps students and our larger lcps community this also gives us an opportunity to strengthen relationships before the general assembly convenes effective advocacy is built on relationships communications and shared understanding of the challenges facing our schools we all know that and we want our legislators our parents our stakeholders and our student leaders [06:24:39] to directly to hear directly from us about what we're experiencing and also want to hear we also want to hear from them about the policy environment they're seeing locally and in richmond and the opportunities and challenges they anticipate for the upcoming session slide as we move towards the 2027 general assembly our focus is clear again we will advocate for adequate and equitable education funding we'll advocate for those high-quality pre-k and strong stronger support for English learners we'll advocate for career connected learning those technical training and pre-apprenticeship opportunities [06:25:18] sustainable investment in student mental health and well-being we will advocate of course for safe supportive inclusive school environments and we will advocate for the intentional use of technology and infrastructure and the connectivity necessary for our students and schools to thrive in a digital environment. [06:25:38] But most importantly, we will continue to make sure that our legislative priorities are informed by the people closest to the work. Those 42 stakeholders who have participated in our round table helped us do that. Their feedback helped us identify the challenges and opportunities that should guide this advocacy. And as we continue this process, we look forward to engaging with with all of you with our school community with our legislators our family our staff our goal is not simply to advocate for LCPS our goal is to advocate for the students we serve and the policies and resources that will [06:26:16] allow every student to reach their full potential thank you for listening thank you for the opportunity to provide this update we look forward to continuing our conversation at our legislative breakfast on October 6th and throughout the 2027 session. Thank you so much for the presentation. Board members, I see there are some questions to go. Dr. Rasheed. Thank you Chair Chandler and thank you Mr. Sutton and your team for putting this quite comprehensive update [06:26:52] together. That was a lot and a lot to absorb and you know and just to I know it's really late and just to get to my question previously an LNP discussion we talked about school safety and mental health sort of coming together or converging this year is there any way could speak to that and I know you mentioned a little bit about it but maybe I missed some of the information that you know thank you appreciate it appreciate that and you brought that up at the LMP meeting we spoke about we spoke about that this was an issue that [06:27:31] we spoke about it our last legislative and policy meeting school safety and student mental health are increasingly being treated as sort of interconnected rather than separate policy issues states are looking beyond sort of like this idea of physical security to prevention behavioral threat assessments I think we talked about counseling crisis response I think you mentioned those bullying and the effects of technology and social media on students and well-being the the trend that we're seeing is already visible in in our [06:28:07] state legis state legislature with with many state agencies tracking separate but sort of overlapping categories for school safety mental health staffing student mental health digital safety so for 2027 and that's the reason I brought it up we talked about it at lmp 2027 this convergence could put more of an emphasis on emerging legislation that bill sort of builds on these integrated systems that can identify concerns early uh connect students with services and address address safety risk before they become [06:28:46] emergencies that's that's really what we're seeing mr pepper thank you madam chair and so you just talked about student safety and mental health coming together is am i right to assume this is similar to the issues of like special education or what you mentioned about el barriers well first of all thank you for the question i appreciate that mr mr spence and i actually had a conversation about this i think it was last week again this is another area where we're kind of emerging or redefining an approach to a traditional education issue at the state level [06:29:26] 2027 our state legislature state legislature is increasingly likely to view something like english language learners school nutrition or a more traditional approach to special education not again as these isolated issues but as overlapping parts of a broader challenge involving students because all their problems all their issues that we're dealing with are converging their socio-economic barriers developmental struggles needs general access to opportunity we're sort of acknowledging that students are [06:30:02] facing multiple barriers at once you know I had a discussion I was having a discussion with one of our state senators the other day and he was talking about he said it's becoming and I have it in my notes he said it's becoming evident that siloed programs are increasingly becoming less effective and I thought that was really interesting because this convergence is is sort of pushing our lawmakers towards a more comprehensive sort of all-encompassing at-risk student framework that sort of coordinates all the things we just discussed that sort of wrapped around the whole student. [06:30:37] So we're definitely going to see that sort of silo effect sort of hopefully breaking away. That's excellent. Thank you so much for this. Mr. Sutton, I've had some conversations recently about Medicaid reimbursements for student mental health, and I was hoping you could give us some context about that. [06:30:59] Sure, and that wasn't something I think I mentioned. It was the Medicaid reimbursement for eligible school-based mental health services is becoming an issue in 2027, while Medicaid reimbursement is expected to continue. [06:31:16] I don't think anybody's going to take that away. But Virginia, through DMAS, which is the Department of Medical Assistance Services, Sort of implementing a broader behavioral health services redesign that is supposed to take effect in July 1. [06:31:36] The changes may affect service definitions, provider qualifications, enrollment requirements, pre-authorizations, reimbursement rates. I understand as a division we probably monitor requirements and ensure that providers are properly enrolled in those services and we continue to meet those eligibility and billing requirements. [06:32:01] Overall, it's my understanding the primary objective of that is not the elimination of reimbursement but possibly implementing a new way to ensure continuity of reimbursement and a new understanding of how these health structures may affect billing and payment for school bill services. [06:32:19] That's sort of an emerging thing. It's sort of a wait and see. I don't know and Joel and I had a discussion about it. We don't really know what that looks like but that's sort of like one of those things going to we'll kind of will kind of monitor a little bit thank you for that is the implication that there could be potentially some delays not that i'm aware of i i think it's a i think it's a sort of a technical uh not a technical not the right word um operational kind of kind of thing i think they're kind of struggling with with what to change and what not to change and how that [06:32:54] change affects is affects the overall the overall program like i said as more comes out through through DMASC. We'll look at it and we'll see. It could be nothing, or else it could be something, you just never know. Thank you. Board members, any further questions? Mr. Spenson. [06:33:13] Not a question, but I just quickly wanted to say thank you for being on the front foot on this. I think it's great that we are preparing well ahead of the legislative session. I think it puts us in a good position to work with our great state partners on these critical priorities. I know this is focused on the state legislative session but I also wanted to shout you all out for the advocacy you're doing on the federal level on the e-rate program that's really important and glad that we're able to advocate both federally and locally so thank you all right any further questions okay with thank you so [06:33:52] much for the presentation and your patience as we've reached 11:00 p.m. with With that, I'm also going to pull up on the agenda because Ms. Nadler and Ms. Dawson are here. The Specialized Programs and Centers Committee, Family and Community Engagement Resource Hub proposal. [06:34:14] I'd hate for you to have to come back another night since you stayed so late. So while you're getting situated, Ms. Chernoff, is there anything you'd like to kick off? - Sorry. - Yeah. - Absolutely, so in the Specialized Programs Center's committee. We had this item brought to us, the hub, and they're going to do all the sparkly, wonderful things that they're going to bring to the table at this late hour and rescue me from my own mind that is slipping rapidly. But I am very excited to have been a part of this [06:34:51] conversation in committee and to bring this forward to the board tonight. This is the kind of feel-good stuff I know we all really care about. The board did move it forward with some recommendations to increase staffing from the original proposal that they brought from the committee's direction we felt like maybe more staffing would be needed so I'll let you guys kick it off and thank you for staying with us it's important we're so happy to be here and hopefully this perks everybody up a little bit at 11 o'clock because it is really good news and something I think all of you will support good evening chair Chandler vice chair Donahue Dr. [06:35:28] Spence and members of the board I'm Natalie Allen chief communications and community engagement officer and I am pleased to be joined by Renee Dawson director of family community engagement and Danielle Nadler executive director of the Loudoun Education Foundation we are happy to be presenting a collaborative vision for the LCPS face resource hub this initiative builds on the work already happening across LCPS and the Loudoun Education Foundation to create a more coordinated and accessible system of support for students and our families okay so [06:36:08] tonight we're pleased to introduce the proposed face resource hub an initiative designed to strengthen how lcps connects students and families with essential resources through our schools and community partnerships and the concept really grew out of dr spence's vision for a more coordinated approach to supporting students and families after directly hearing from our community about the need. [06:36:35] At last year's Interfaith Luncheon, which brought together nearly 120 faith-based partners, LCPS staff, family liaisons, a common theme emerged, and that is that our community has tremendous resources and a shared commitment to supporting students and families, but we do have an opportunity to really connect those resources more intentionally with the needs identified in our schools and that conversation really helped to shape the concept for the LCPS space resource hub and the model we're bringing forward tonight we want to begin by sharing what we're proposing [06:37:13] why this work matters and how the hub would operate so basically the what why how so the face resource hub would serve as a centralized referral based system operating from a dedicated physical location through school-based referrals the hub would coordinate access to clothing or hygiene products school supplies and other essential resources that help address the barriers to student learning students can't learn if they don't have the things that they need the hub would be co-located with LEF fueled which would continue with its [06:37:50] established food programs and this coordinated model would really allow us leverage a shared infrastructure while maintaining our distinct programs and responsibilities. Why is this important? Well, we know that students are better positioned to engage in learning when their essential needs are addressed. And our schools, our family liaisons, and community partners already do tremendous work to support our students and families. And the opportunity before us is to build upon those efforts through a more coordinated, consistent, and [06:38:25] sustainable approach for example if a community partner donates a thousand backpacks those would go to the hub and the hub would use those and what we know and the needs that we know across our schools to help determine where those backpacks are most appropriately direct appropriately directed based on identified need and the hub would do that instead of me putting those in my car and driving all of those places well this would also make it easier for our community partners to give in meaningful and impactful ways and rather than [06:39:03] individual schools independently locating storing distributing those resources the hub would provide a division-wide system to better connect identified student needs with available resources and how would we do this well it would operate through a consistent school-based referral process when a student or school identified a need by a designated school staff member they would submit that request the hub staff would then coordinate those available resources fulfill the requests arranged distribution back to the school now [06:39:41] that school-based distribution model is intentional and as we'll share a little bit later in the presentation transportation can be a barrier for our families so getting to the hub would be a challenge that's why transporting it back to the schools would be a more appropriate approach approach this closed-loop process would allow us to track requests inventory the recurring needs and really help us better understand demand identify gaps and make informed decisions about how resources are coordinated across our division and [06:40:13] importantly the hub would not replace existing community-based services okay our family liaisons would continue referring our families with those community resources and provide that direct support that they do the hub would take on much of the resource sourcing the storage and distribution that our family liaisons do and that would give them time free to work with our families more directly and the hub would also be co-located with lef fueled which would continue with its established food programs and this complementary model [06:40:52] would really allow us to share infrastructure while also maintaining distinct programs and responsible responsibilities ultimately the hub would strengthen the work already happening across our schools and community by providing a more coordinated way to connect identified needs with available resources so that's a lot but we wanted to give you the background of the what the why and the how so just real quick we want to show you some data of why this is important so these data points really kind of help in illustrate the scale of need across Loudoun County and the level of support [06:41:28] that's already being provided to our students and families the Alice data highlights the financial challenges facing many Loudoun households within a LCPS that 24% that you see 24.7% of our students are economically disadvantaged when you think about that in terms of student count that's roughly 19,000 students that fall into economically disadvantaged we're also seeing the needs firsthand in our schools so our family liaisons provide [06:41:59] about 5,000 instances of support per month helping families access food or clothing hygiene products and other essential resources and those numbers kind of give an important context to understanding the needs of our schools and families and the work that's already taking place and I'll turn it over to Danielle to talk a little bit about LEF as Renee mentioned fueled is a program of the Loudon Education Foundation and this past year we served 64 schools through that program providing both weekend meal bags and supporting in-school pantries and [06:42:36] with those pantries we're providing nutritious snacks and hygiene items and fueled is the largest emergency food provider of students in the county of serving more than 10,000 individual this individuals this last school year and that's more than 300,000 food items I'll shorten up my script because of the time but just to share that these numbers really demonstrate the scale of the need that we're seeing each week quite frankly grow and just being able [06:43:05] the importance of building a coordinated, sustainable system of support and how often we are coordinating and collaborating already to be in a shared space would really just increase that collaboration. So as I shared before, we have about 5,000 students per month that are served, instances of support by our family liaisons. [06:43:30] We have about 3,100 families that are served every month by our family liaisons, and there's 98 of them. And if you look at logging their hours, it's about 71,000 hours that our family liaisons are supporting families and students across the division. [06:43:49] These hours represent far more than transactions, though, and this is something I think it's important to note. They are moments when a family has received help, a student has gained access to something essential, a barrier to attendance and engagement or learning has been reduced. [06:44:06] So the hub would help them more efficiently be able to coordinate these essential needs for our families. And this next slide just provides a closer look at the support our family liaisons are providing across LCPS. [06:44:22] We added this slide specifically because each figure represents 100 instances of support per month. But as you can see, the need extends across every planning district. And although the volume of support varies, you see, like, with the Dulles South example, this district has a lower percentage of economically disadvantaged students, but our family liaisons are still providing an average of 768 instances of support each month. [06:44:50] And what that clarifies for us is that it's important to consider both demographic data and actual service demand when planning resources like the hub. And so this coordinated division-wide approach would allow us to better understand and respond to those needs across our school division an lafs field program works very closely with family liaisons at each of the schools to ensure the basic needs of students in the schools are met we're really seen as a leader in the human services provider space in the county so often a student may come for a meal bag a family but then we're uniquely positioned to connect family [06:45:27] liaisons to other nonprofits and other resources around the community and kind of the little bit brass tax situation here we currently operate out of a warehouse in Leesburg that we share with loud and hungry relief that building is no longer available as of December 2027 so we've been looking for a warehouse space that that we can afford and then dr. Spence was kind enough to keep it on our quarterly agenda and bring it up and here we are today to propose the idea of sharing the warehouse space one of the other things that we did just in the [06:46:05] process of this we try to be really thoughtful and intentional about how we rolled this out and so we did gather input from our family liaisons our school social workers McKinney Vento school counseling quarter name coordinators who work directly with our students and families we wanted to get the background data as to what their needs were specifically and they identified recurring needs related to obviously food and clothing hygiene products school supplies transportation housing and access to health related fields and so while individual needs vary this kind of feedback reinforced what we were seeing across our schools and staff are [06:46:43] responding to a wide range of student and family needs and there's real there's a real opportunity to better coordinate that support and these insights really kind of help shape what our proposed model was for the hub so our schools and community partners are already doing this tremendous work to support students families and the challenge is that much of this work depends on individual school processes local partnerships to that school and available resource resources and as a result how families access [06:47:20] support can vary from school to school and our family liaisons often spend valuable time locating and coordinating resources themselves and so the face resource hub would really provide the infrastructure to bring these efforts together through a more consistent coordinated division-wide approach and this isn't about replacing the work that is already happening in our schools or communities it's about strengthening that work and supporting our school-based teams and making it really easier to connect students and families with the resources that they need so that [06:47:55] students can show up to learn so the face resource hub has been shaped through thoughtful planning a thoughtful planning process informed by both research and feedback we've kind of tried to paint the picture we've got the data we've got the survey information and so we really did begin by gathering all of that data and we did site visits to places we've done a tremendous amount of research for other resource hubs and those findings kind of informed our project charter which we further refine with input from community partners [06:48:34] including the Loudoun Education Foundation and then we also present it to cabinet our next step is really to convene that cross-departmental work group to guide the implementation and long-term sustainability of this so each step has really kind of helped us develop a model grounded and identified needs existing partnerships and the realities of our schools and with that we established four goals I'm actually very excited about but the first is really about accessibility and that is ensuring students and families can [06:49:11] access essential resources through a consistent school based referral process the second is around coordination we can strengthen how LCPS and LEF and our our community partners work together and then our third is around student success and this is really about helping reduce barriers to attendance to engagement and to learning by addressing those essential needs and the fourth is family engagement because it to be forecast out with this hub b [06:49:46] this could also be a place where we could provide opportunities for our families to come in and get you know financial planning lessons or how to navigate parent view and all of those essential important things for being a parent together these goals provide the foundation for a coordinated division-wide approach that builds upon our existing partnerships and supports students and families across lcps so we took all of that and we came up with some strategic priorities and our goals define what we accomplish and these strategic priorities really outline [06:50:22] how we plan to get there so and they focus on as you can see centralized resource coordination streamlined operations and distribution our partnership with lef community and business partnership network truly offering equitable access to those essential supports that our students and families need and then also the exciting part is that future family engagement opportunities that we could do through the hub all right and so based on our research and [06:50:56] stakeholder feedback we're proposing a four-step closed loop process request fulfillment delivery and feedback schools would submit requests based on identified needs such as clothing school supplies shoes hygiene items or winter apparel hub staff would coordinate and deliver resources directly to the schools, and school staff would provide feedback to confirm that the need was met. [06:51:19] This model would allow us to track requests, inventory, and response times while using that information to continually improve how we support students and families. One of the things that we are really excited about, and we already work really closely with LEF, is the ability to be co-located. [06:51:42] And that's the strength of this model. It's that opportunity for us to work side by side while maintaining our distinct role and responsibilities face would coordinate the school-based referrals resource fulfillment delivery outcome tracking and lef would continue its established food programs fundraising and donor engagement and by sharing that location we can leverage space and volunteers and infrastructure and strengthen coordination and make the most of our community resources and this partnerships builds upon the strengths of both organizations while creating a more connected system of support [06:52:20] our students and families. Okay, and then we're very excited about the partnership model. So the FACE Resource Hub isn't simply a place where resources are stored. It's a place where partnerships are activated. Our partnership model would bring together students and businesses, non-profit organizations, our faith-based partners, and community volunteers, each contributing in meaningful ways. We can also build on strong work-based learning and service learning opportunities, already happening across LCPS creating opportunities for students to gain that [06:52:58] real-world experience while also contributing to their communities businesses and community partners to contribute through donations volunteer efforts and ongoing collaborations that help us respond to those identified needs and the hub would provide a central place to coordinate all of those wonderful contributions that we get connecting our community's generosity with the needs of our schools and families this model would strengthen existing partnerships it could create new opportunities for involvement and expand our capacity to support students and families across LCPS so to the meat [06:53:37] and potatoes of the matter Renee did you want to talk through this so through the special programs and centers committee the proposed staffing model which includes five regional specialists was moved forward for consideration by the full board and our proposal includes a coordinator five regional specialists and a program assistant it also includes expanding our existing part-time financial analyst position to a full-time one um to support that additional operational and financial needs for the hub these positions would directly support our schools working with school-based teams to identify needs source [06:54:17] resources coordinate fulfillment pack supplies and support distribution across loudon county public schools with five regional specialists each would serve approximately 20 schools but importantly we wanted to make sure that we note that our approach would be guided by demonstrated need rather than a one-size-fits-all model so we would use school level data to strategically prioritize our staff time and resources providing more targeted support where needs are greatest so that's important to know um the budget before you reflects the staffing and operational resources [06:54:55] needed to establish and sustain this coordinated division-wide model however when the committee voted on this option they did so with the caveat that we really did reflect on whether we needed each of the five employees to be the specialist level so we have been thinking about that we've explored possible alternatives to include three specialists and two base hub liaisons so we still had our five people that we would definitely need and they would all be year-round this would minimize some of the cost so that's a consideration in terms of minimizing that cost but still [06:55:32] maximizing the impact and we're still working through this and we welcome board feedback on that so this slide is really about our timeline and this reflects a deliberate phased approach to developing the face resource hub our first priority is to establish a strong foundation including the referral process staffing partnerships and resource distribution systems and from there we would expand and refine the model based on what we learn and what the data tells us by our third year of operation because it's going to be great and amazing and wonderful [06:56:09] once that foundation is established our intention is really to expand that hub to offer family support opportunities such as helping families navigate the school division parent view and other school-based systems and resources and this based approach allows us to build that hub thoughtfully evaluate our impact and really grow in the response to the needs of our students and families and schools and at this late hour we will take any questions that you have we're ready we've been ready since six o'clock [06:56:49] thank you thank you for the presentation um especially this late um i i don't want you to take my being tired as any sort of sign for how excited we are about this very lovely idea um mrs griffiths thank you madam chair um i do have a question you mentioned um warehouse space and i think housing so are we going to be covering your warehouse space and Housing? Can you elaborate on that? [06:57:26] So we wouldn't be looking at doing housing or anything related to housing with the hub. But, yes, we're looking for a warehouse space to co-locate with LEF. And so the hub itself would be a physical place where this distribution was happening. [06:57:44] Would you be able to – it's not in the proposal that we're going to be providing warehouse space. And also, I know that LEF works with a lot of companies that can contribute and bring the cost down per this proposal. Can you get into more detail? [06:58:03] Certainly, I think there's a big opportunity here. The more data we have, the better opportunity we have to go after some pretty exciting grants and competitive grants. And as Renee shared, just the improved collaboration that we do see some opportunities going forward for some more grants to support this or to support LEF's fuel program. [06:58:27] And I'll just mention that the leasing, the facility leasing, and the intention would be the lease, would be part of the capital budget. So this is the operational budget that you're seeing here. Thank you. Ms. Riccardi? You know, I'm excited. [06:58:43] I'm all on board. So this is great. Of the 24.7% of the economically disadvantaged students in Loudoun County, 16% of those are squarely sitting in seven schools in Sterling Park. So I would love to see the hub coming to Sterling. I think it offers a lot of opportunity there and is most directly reachable. [06:59:02] I think one of the biggest concerns I have is that in Sterling Park, the families that are receiving these services, a lot of them have transportation issues, as you guys mentioned earlier, right? So being as close to those schools and those families as possible is really, really important. [06:59:18] I could not be more excited for this. It is exactly what our community needs. And I'm just, I'm really, really happy that you guys have done this. It's ironic that while you guys were doing that, at the same time, I'd kind of come to my own thoughts about this too, and so when I got to sit in the committee meeting and listen to your presentation, it was like, yep, that's exactly what we need, 'cause that's exactly what I'm hearing. [06:59:39] So I'm just, I'm really excited for you about this. And I know our community will be too. And I know there are a lot of really interesting spaces in the commercial areas in Sterling that would get to Eastern Loudoun as an opportunity. [06:59:57] I say that though, also knowing that there's also a percentage of families that are not, I mean, that's one side of the county and we have a pretty good sized county. So I would love just, even if we don't do one location, but even had two smaller that could serve the size or the ends of the county. [07:00:18] I think that's great. I think my concern about doing it someplace in the center of the county is just access, right? It's just the families that really need it, you know, a lot of them don't have transportation. And that's why the model is such that we would be coming to them, for lack of a better way of saying it. [07:00:33] Similarly to the way Fueled is set up, we would have drivers delivering those items that they asked for and that ticketing system straight to the family so that the student could bring it directly home from school versus them having to trek out to a location. [07:00:52] And I even think weekend opportunities and access is really important, too. I mean, I think one of the biggest things is, you know, and my thing is the consistency of school also meets the consistency of food. And when we're talking about the bottom of the Maslow's hierarchy of food, clothing, and shelter, it's really hard to get to learning when you're not sure where you're sleeping where you're not sure where you're eating and you're not dressed appropriately for school and you're cold and so um i feel like really serving our community in that way is really great i'm just so excited that we're doing this so excited thank you guys for all your work and i think it's [07:01:26] important to note that um at the interfaith luncheon last year this again is what we had been talking about and the message i think from us is we heard you loud and clear and we're acting on it so um really do appreciate that mr spenson thank you madam chair thank you all for this amazing work i'm really excited about it i just wanted to offer a thought i talked about this with miss dawson that you know school and this was implicit in the conversation with mr sutton earlier you know schools are being asked to do so much more than they used to you know it's not just [07:02:02] core academics we are supporting the community with so many services that support the whole county and so i think you know as we approach the budget and talk with our partners in the county i think it's so important to emphasize that we are doing more and more and we are taking you know we are filling services that are outside the strictly education space and that's a reason why we need more funds from the county to do this work and it shouldn't come at the expense of our core academic programming we're stepping into the shoes that in other places maybe a different department would be working on but we're being smart because we're leveraging our relationships and our infrastructure here in the schools. [07:02:40] So I think it's a point that probably we can't emphasize enough that there's a reason we're coming to the county or to our state partners or whoever we're going to for resources to emphasize that we're taking on this additional service and it's really important. And I think it would be great for folks to get on board to support that work. [07:02:58] That's a great point. Thank you. Any further questions on this item? Thank you for staying so late for the presentation. Thank you, everybody. - Thank you for the good news. - We appreciate you very much, thank you. [07:03:15] - Thanks, Dr. Rasheed. - Thank you, Chair, thank you for this. Madam Chair, I'd like to raise a question of privilege. Specifically, I'd like to ask that pursuant to section H of policy 2420, the school board take a temperature check to determine whether we can adjourn the public meeting and move to adjournment. [07:03:36] - Dr. Rasheed has asked us to take a temperature check to see if we would like to adjourn at this time, given that it is 11:31. If you would like to adjourn and have the remaining items on the agenda come back on the next school board meeting, please give a thumbs up. [07:03:54] - All right. Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Spence, did you have a point of clarification? - Just one if it's okay with the board. The fourth quarter forecast actually encompasses the next board meeting, so I would like to just provide that in a board update if we're gonna pull that off, and I don't see any issue with that if you don't. [07:04:12] - That would be very helpful, thank you. - So could I see the thumbs again? I think we're majority rules. It's time to adjourn. So with that, thank you, board members, for the engaging conversation tonight. [07:04:34] And we will adjourn the September 22, 26, Loudoun County School Board meeting. 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