Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Loudoun Education Alliance of Families (LEAF) Meeting, Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 21m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1229399960?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:12] - Hello, everyone. Good evening, everyone. My name is Chad Quinn.

[00:00:28] I'm with the communications department. I tried to say hello to as many of you as possible when you came in. Thank you for coming. If you haven't already done so, please write your name on a name tag and the school you represent.

[00:00:43] Also, sign in using the QR code, either on the sheet in front of you or at the end of the table. I officially called the meeting to order. Welcome to the September 23rd, 2026 LEAF meeting, and it is now officially in session.

[00:01:02] The first item on the agenda for this evening, oh, and just a quick program note, staff is running the meeting until we do the elections. So just so you know. The first agenda item is public comment.

[00:01:20] LEAF meetings are open to residents of Loudoun County, and we kindly ask that all attendees refrain from interrupting the meeting's agenda to maintain a respectful and productive environment. Per the LEAF Charter bylaws, public comments should address items listed on the agenda.

[00:01:39] If you wish to speak on an agenda item, now is the time to do so. Anyone interested? Seeing no one, we'll move on. Now, the first action item is the approval of the minutes from our last meeting, August 19th.

[00:02:03] Hopefully everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes online prior to the night's meeting. A printed copy is in front of you just in case. Now I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from August 19th.

[00:02:24] What's your name? Clara. And do we have a second? And your name? Kayla. Thank you. All in favor please say aye. Those opposed say no.

[00:02:47] Okay with that the minutes have been approved. Thank you. The next item for this evening are the elections for the leadership of the LEAF committee.

[00:03:04] In your meeting materials, you'll find a summary of the duties of each open office. The summary was also shared at our last meeting and in email communications. As we go through the election process, just as a note, if you have a nomination, please raise your hand and I'll recognize you.

[00:03:27] at that point if you could just state your name and who the nomination is for it can be for yourself or for somebody else now we'll start with electing the chair nominations are now open so if you would like to nominate somebody or yourself please raise your hand and I'll call on you and if you can stand up and actually if you could use your microphone so that we can hear you but if you could tell us your name and who your nomination is for

[00:04:04] Brooklynville for myself thank you and did I see another hand uh can you use the microphone in front of you uh you have to you have to hit the button you have to my name is Akshita Jada and is the nomination for somebody else or for yourself for myself for myself okay seeing as how both nominations are for you the individual uh we will give you both an opportunity to speak about uh why you're interested in the position

[00:04:44] you can either do that here at the podium or you can do it at the table with the microphone in front of you. Okay if you could turn off that microphone please and if you could join us also. We'll start with Brooke and then we'll give you a chance to speak as well. We'll have two minutes for each person. Hi my name is Brooke Lynnville. I am the this is my third year on LEAF. I was the chair last year and will be honored to continue in that position this year. Last year our

[00:05:22] priority was to regrow the membership to ensure voices were represented across the county. I think we did a pretty good job of that and I'm excited to see the growth of LEAF and the membership here tonight. My priority for this year is to continue to elevate parent voices throughout LCPS initiatives which I hope I can talk about a little bit in the future tonight. I'm also hoping to connect more with the other advisory committees like SEAC and MSAC and work to align LEAF a little more closely with the structure and county-wide awareness

[00:05:59] of this committee as we're one of the newer committees trying to work towards aligning us with MSAC and SEAC a little more closely. I've also actively worked to make the leadership team feel cohesive including delegating responsibilities to the other members of that team. Monique is not able to be tonight but we'll hear from a little bit we have a meeting once a month for dinner and would love to build out the team to its full capacity so I hope that more of you will consider participating in the leadership position my hope is to continue to serve you in this position it's been an honor

[00:06:35] and and hope to keep doing it. Thank you. You need those. Okay, would you like to come forward? Okay, okay. What's your name again? Ashada. She's withdrawn her

[00:07:12] self-nomination for chair. She was interested in a position though so we'll come back to the other positions. Do you want to have a seat? Thank you though. that part wasn't in the script do we have any other nominations seeing no other nominations may have a motion and a second to nominate brooke as chair returning chair clara and i saw your hand

[00:07:50] too neo thank you for that uh all in favor you can raise your hand keep them held we have we have

[00:08:13] to have a count thank you okay okay thank you welcome to our newly elected chair so you you may join us at the table and we will move on to the other positions that are available now we will move on to vice chairs of planning then membership and communications as well as

[00:08:48] secretary we'll start with the vice chair of planning uh are there any members interested in the vice chair planning position? If you are, please raise your hand. Okay, we have any others?

[00:09:04] And I'm assuming you're nominating for yourself, right? Yeah, okay, let me just make, that is the only nomination I see, is that correct?

[00:09:30] Okay, would you like to introduce yourself to the group? Would you like to speak some? You can come up here if you'd like. - So, thank you for having me.

[00:09:51] My name is Akshita and I am first time representing Aldi here and very excited to be a part of the community so thank you very much. I think I I'm a proud mother of fourth grader from Aldi and I also have a background. My mother is a teacher and she is a dean back in India so I have seen both the part a student and a teacher or or the

[00:10:20] dean who is a bit excited sorry so yeah so I've seen both the part what an education institution put hard work into it and so I want to kind of give give something back to the community so here I am today full with excitement sincerity and willing to put 100 person so that's why I

[00:10:45] wanted to nominate so thank you very much with no additional nominations may I have a motion and a second for I'm sorry I'm gonna mispronounce your name Akshana okay thank you do we have a first emotion in a second which you Rebecca and a second

[00:11:22] any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand and keep them up high so that Maria can get an adequate count all right well congratulations you are you are our new vice chair of planning you're more than welcome to

[00:11:58] join us at the table here at the front and now now we'll move on to membership the vice chair of membership we do have one person who submitted their nomination for themselves through email and I have a statement from her does anyone else want to nominate somebody or self nominate for this position seeing

[00:12:34] none I will go ahead and read Monique Buckley's statement that she sent in just so you all are aware and I think she was involved last year right yes her statement is my name is Monique Buckley I served as the membership chair for the 2025-2026 year and I feel like I just scratched the surface I will be representing Freedom High School in the Dulles South Cluster and have a fifth grader and a freshman I have enjoyed being part of LEAF for the past two years I would love to continue growing the membership my goal is to have every school district and level

[00:13:08] represented and have a voice I believe that this bridge between the school board and parents is so important to ensure open communication and sharing of concerns programs reviewing policies and ideas so with that do we have a motion and a second for Monique's nomination you know what's your first name Lauren thank you Lauren L thank you and a second what's your name again Caitlin thank you

[00:13:47] and now with the show of hands for Monique's nomination and keep them up high for Maria please and with that we have our vice chair of membership now we will move on to vice chair of communications nominations are now open anybody who is interested please raise your hand or anybody who would like

[00:14:20] to nominate somebody please raise your hand your name okay Sarah do we have any other nominations would you like to come up and say a few words are you sure you want to be in charge of communications good evening everyone I'm Sarah Levinetti I have two children at Evergreen Mill Elementary and I was part of the chair last year of communications and in the same spirit as

[00:14:59] everyone else said just looking to work together and bridge the gap and see how we can continue to move things forward and with that do i have a motion and a second your name from christina and a second your name i'm sorry what is it of supreme thank you all right yes please if we could raise

[00:15:37] our hands keep them up high all right and with that we have our vice chair of communications and now we are on to the last okay we are on to the secretary uh do we have any nominations

[00:16:04] any self nominations for secretary wait we still have to go through the script i have to find my place again um do you consent to the nomination i think you did it yourself also

[00:16:37] but tell me your name again sorry clara that's right yes are there any other nominations with that do we have a motion in a second okay we'll have uh your rebecca and you said neo before

[00:17:01] okay and can we have a show of hands all right so with that if you would like to have a seat up at one of the tables it's up to you thank you to all of our newly elected officers for the 26 27 school year we appreciate the willingness you're new Claire's new to join the leaf leadership team

[00:17:41] at this time I get to turn it over to our chair trying to run through all this fast at the end of your table our name tags I know that we haven't done them for a bit of time but we would really ask that everybody use a name tag with your name and school please it just really helps during conversations and it helps us all get to know all of our all of your names it's just really really helpful and so you don't have to keep being asked or people feeling like oh no

[00:18:19] what's your name so please please please at this time I would like to welcome our school board representative ross vinson to provide a brief update from the school board good evening everybody and congratulations to all of our newly elected officers it's very exciting to see how leaf is growing over the last few years and excited for that continued work with the other advisory groups and to fill out membership across our schools i hope i'm not breaking any news but the school board did adopt a 20 28 29 calendar at last night's meeting you may have seen i wanted to

[00:18:58] tick through some of the highlights of the calendar that were based on community feedback that was received so we heard loud and clear from teachers and and parents as well that people really prefer that thursday friday start to the school year to ease in there are always contrary opinions on the calendar so i also heard from people who would prefer monday through friday but the i think the majority felt especially our teachers that it was helpful for the students to ease into the year so the school year starting august 17th on thursday thursday friday and one of the things i like most about the calendar that we ultimately adopted is that the second quarter

[00:19:38] ends before winter break this means that the break's actually going to feel like a break for all of our students there's not going to be projects hanging over people's heads and the winter break following some amendments at last night's meeting is going to be a full two weeks that was also feedback that we received again there are some folks who would prefer a shorter winter break but i think the majority um at this time at least wanted the full two weeks another element that we i think probably the biggest piece of feedback we heard from from educators and from families was that they were feeling squeezed on both sides of the calendar

[00:20:16] that the summer was shrinking and particularly going into well into june was not the most productive instructionally so um we are ending the school year friday june 1st um and um and we are the to the extent that there are days on either side of that summer we felt it was more helpful to have that the beginning of the year because our ap teachers and you know really a lot you know any classroom that's teaching to a test at the end of the year whether it's sol or ap finds that having that additional instructional time is really useful.

[00:20:51] And then finally, we balanced eliminating floating days or additional days that happened during the course of the year to maximize the amount of five-day full instructional weeks that we have while also recognizing the four cultural and religious holidays that we've observed the last few years.

[00:21:11] So you'll see that those are still included in the calendar. And for me, that was really important. My zip code where I live, we have one of the highest concentrations of Indian Americans in the United States. And if all students who are entitled to take an excused absence were to take one on Diwali, for instance, you could have well over a quarter of the class missing.

[00:21:31] And for me, there's a lot of operational concerns there about learning loss and lesson planning. I know different communities across the county are different, But it seems, I think the majority of the board felt that it was helpful to keep these holidays not only from a neighborliness respect for each of the different communities that live here in Loudoun, but also just that it made the most sense from an instructional standpoint.

[00:21:58] And also, you know, trying to maximize the number of full five-day weeks where we could throughout the year. You know, we're starting August 17th, ending June 1st, which I think folks are pretty excited about having a little bit more of summer and that was the big accomplishment at last night's meeting was finally getting the calendar done and I would say the community feedback was hugely helpful and that the board members took that really seriously and you saw different board members put out different options and all of those were incorporating different sets of feedback that

[00:22:30] folks were hearing from. So the other big topic at last night's meeting on action was revisions to the out of zone transfer policy it has been referred to as special permission or school assignment where folks in the past have been able to apply to not to go to school outside of their home school that they're assigned to based on where they live and so there are currently revisions before the board to tighten that up and make it stricter criteria for instances when you can do that there's so much conversation and so many changes to that policy that we decided to move

[00:23:06] that to the final action to the next school board meeting so folks had time to digest some of the amendments that went forward. I think one of the most interesting parts of the meeting last night was the presentation that you all will be hearing in a little bit on intentional use of technology in our schools, LCPS. I'm excited for you all to hear about the Smart Start K-2 pilot program program, and also the pilot program pertaining to generative AI at the secondary school level.

[00:23:37] So I think Mr. Slevin and Mr. Smith will be presenting on that, it'll be very interesting. And finally, I would just say the school board's been already gearing up for the FY28 budget. You're going to hear more about that later as well. We had a retreat earlier this month where we were discussing the budget picture and to talk about different ways where we can identify savings, additional revenue, key priorities.

[00:24:04] You know, we are continuing to get more revenue in Loudoun County, but the pace of revenue growth is slowing. So we have to be even more intentional about what our priorities are and what we're funding going forward. So that's a really interesting discussion that you all will hear about later this evening. So looking forward to chatting with folks and I'll turn it back over to Brooke. Thank you, Ross. Okay, the next thing we're going to talk about really quick is the strategic plan, which hopefully you've gotten emails about or are aware of.

[00:24:43] LCPS has been working on the strategic plan for 2027 to 2032, hard to believe. I had the honor of participating in several of those sessions and hope that I was able to take much of what I have heard in our discussions here at LEAF into that room. For example, I made sure to talk about the need to close the feedback loop many, many times. LCPS solicits a lot of feedback, which is great, but I know that we all want to know what is done with that feedback and if our opinions make a difference. The draft strategic plan is now on the website, which is available. So I know that

[00:25:18] that's the thought exchange. That has a link to the strategic plan, yes, on that link. And then thought exchange is open for feedback through october 1st so i highly recommend that you read through it it talks about the the vision the mission and the the goals to achieve that mission including i think maybe some action steps or maybe that gets developed once it gets presented to the board i know that it will then be presented to the board in december as an action item and and then hopefully shortly thereafter will be adopted.

[00:25:55] It was an arduous process. I learned a whole lot going through the process, but I do hope that we were able to capture the important values that most of us sort of hope for our school community. So please take a look.

[00:26:12] And then, kind of related to that, so we often get requests for parent input on various LCPS initiatives. I recently served on a legislative panel, for example, discussing LCPS priorities for the state legislative session. As much as I love sharing my opinion, and if you've ever sat at a table with me, you know that that's true, I would love to create a database of parents willing to serve in that capacity so that we can have a variety of perspectives in those meetings.

[00:26:38] And so I think that the plan is for us to send out to the LEAF membership asking you to sign up if you are interested in those opportunities. It's, I have learned so much by participating and I would love for more voices to be in those spaces.

[00:26:55] So please keep an eye on your email in the next few weeks for more information on how to add your name to that interest list so that we are contacting people who've expressed interest when those opportunities come to us. On membership, I don't have updated numbers, but that's okay.

[00:27:14] Oh, there they are. Look at that. Kim has everything. She's amazing. 41 schools, which is fantastic. 29 elementary schools, eight middle schools, three high schools, and virtual distance learning. We're gonna continue to push, to continue to grow that out.

[00:27:29] Again, want voices represented. I'm super excited that people have continued to come back. Please remember our attendance policy, if you cannot make it, that you send an email prior to the meeting so that we know if you have two absences that are unaccounted for, we will ask your principal to nominate somebody who can come to the meetings.

[00:27:49] We only have eight meetings, So we hope that you can make all or most of them. Also, we wanted to remind people that membership is limited to one school only. So if you are representing two schools, please talk to Kim tonight, because according to our bylaws, because of voting and that kind of thing, and also to give more people a chance to represent.

[00:28:10] You should only be representing one school. And again, if you are an elementary parent who has a secondary child, We would also ask that maybe we switch membership to the secondary school if there is no representation there because it is much easier to find elementary parents to serve in this capacity than it is to find our secondary schools and we want to make sure that our secondary schools are represented as well.

[00:28:33] Okay, now we're going to move into our collaborative conversations. If you, when you came in SAW, we're going to try, we can probably keep the tables as they are, but elementary mostly over here and secondary over here because of the digital tech conversation. It just impacts parents and students differently. So we're going to have two rotations. The first is the intentional tech, smart tech K-2 initiative with Mr. Neil Slevin.

[00:29:03] Hopefully that's correct. The assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. So let's have you start at the elementary table over here. And then the FY28 budget priorities and direction with mr casey jones director of budget and financial analytics and mr svensson is going to join that conversation and we're going to start over here and then uh somehow we still managed to get this uh started at 6.05 i'm amazed um so 20 let's go 20 minutes ish and rotate thank

[00:29:36] you everybody five minute warning one minute warning all right we're going to move tables now

[00:50:54] all right we're going to go ahead and start the timer for the second half of the collaborative

[00:54:07] conversations.

[01:09:19] Five-minute warning, one-minute warning.

[01:16:21] If you could wrap up your conversations, I know everybody is really engrossed and it's my least favorite part of the night, but if you could wrap up your conversations and we can get you out of here by seven. Thanks.

[01:19:04] I turn on my microphone first. I'm going to wrap this up so that you guys can continue conversations if you'd like, but the people can leave if they need to. Thank you all for your engagement and participation this evening. I'm just going to talk over you. I've been a take a few moments to complete the meeting feedback survey. Truly, if you're new to LEAF and you have not heard this spiel before, please, please, please fill out your feedback. It's in your packet. It really helps us plan for future sessions and know what kinds of things are working in our meetings and what kinds of things that you would like to see different, as well as know who

[01:19:42] you would like to see come and talk. It really, really helps us. If you're able, you can fill it before you leave as part of our commitment to a communication please take a moment to share what you learned with your school community sarah will be working on a write-up about our meeting and it will be sent out through kim and then we just ask that you send that right up to your school pta and principals and that they then can get that information out i know that at our table we talked about where this technology and student learning packet it is available on the lcps website if you

[01:20:19] search student technology it would be a great thing to perhaps present at your next pta meeting so that people can find out more about intentional technology and and have access to the same information that we're getting here which is really really important and then if there are policy things that need to be that would like your feedback on you'll also get those from from Kim. And please also remember to review the strategic plan and provide your feedback by October 1st. Is there any new business? I hope not. Great. Thanks for your time and partnership. Have a great evening. We'll see you on October 19th and we'll be joined by

[01:20:58] Dr. Spence that night. So I hope you're all here. Thank you. Rock and roll.

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