Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Specialized Program & Centers Committee Meeting, Thursday, October 1, 2026

Date: Thursday, October 1, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 04m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1231063957?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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[00:00:05] Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Chernoff, and I am calling this Thursday, October 1st, 2026 Specialized Programs and Centers Committee meeting to order. We have no public comment today, so we will jump right into item 3.01, approval of the draft minutes for the September 15th, 2026 meeting.

[00:00:26] Mr. Pepper, are there any additions or changes to the minutes? There are not, Madam Chair. All right. With that, I will move to approve the draft minutes for the September 15th, 2026 meeting. do i have a second second all those in favor aye and that passes with two zero with one um not here miss donahue absent for the vote so that passes we will move on all right next up we have our first information item 4.01 review of policy 5120 alternative education programs and joining us today is our chief of schools miss ray mitchell the floor is yours thank you good afternoon committee

[00:01:03] members this afternoon i am bringing forward policy 5120 alternative education programs for its five-year review currently we have expanded options to include settings designated as a program or a school and therefore in collaboration with the department of student services we changed the title from alternative education programs to alternative education settings additionally because these settings are no longer specific to only high school students

[00:01:38] we revised the policy under the sections for credit and student eligibility to be changed accordingly an enrollment whether by self-referral or reassignment is intended to provide continuous instruction from the students home school to the alternative setting to include any accommodations for our el students and or our students with disabilities are there any questions regarding the red line version mr pepper any questions thank you madam chair so in the section i believe it's

[00:02:14] 3d on student eligibility there's a whole lot of reasons that were taken out and a generalized clause of each alternative education setting has specific eligibility criteria put in as a replacement are we going to have an associated regulation that has a lot of these listed in in there or where can somebody find the reasoning that a student might need or benefit from a specific alternative setting thank you so that section was removed because originally or the policy as it currently is and these right reasons were for our high school students which when we now have middle

[00:02:52] school students and even virtually we have elementary this information was no longer applicable so while we do not currently have one that sets that aside because each setting has its own criteria that is listed for that information so for example if a student is self referring to the North Star School that has a set of criteria versus the rise program and so information for each alternative setting that is set forth for that particular program which can be found at the home school through the counseling office and or on the webpage okay would it be something we'd want to mention where they could find

[00:03:31] the eligibility for a specific program in the policy just thinking ahead for as this goes probably next week or next month to action that it just might be helpful if there it could even be a regulation just something to redirect people to the right spot so they know that yes the North Star School is a good fit for me or you know the virtual Loudon is a good fit for me so just a clarifying question so are you asking to have a regulation that describes all of those different program settings or just a mention in this policy I would

[00:04:06] actually perhaps neither perhaps it's a regulation that states specific criteria for you know for each individual program can be found on their website or something that could be the reason I wanted a regulation is it's so much more fluid than a policy right we can update and change regulations as needed but But knowing the purpose of these programs really helped the public find the program that best fits the needs of their student.

[00:04:35] Understood. Thank you for that. And just to clarify, there is not a current regulation. Not for each individual program that encompasses that. And I don't need an individual program. Yes, I understand exactly what you're saying. Thank you. I had a similar question along the same lines of just making sure that either we cross-reference where that can be found or that we create a regular regulation so um appreciate that comment and then um did you have any other questions yeah okay i had a question in the opening paragraph um there you added the

[00:05:10] section um that says students may be assigned to reassigned to alternative educational settings through the student discipline process and then you go on to say a few other things i'm totally fine with that because then in the bottom of the policy it outlines sort of that again but also in the policy that it's outlined about self-referral in terms of you know rise would it be helpful to also put or self referral in that opening paragraph so that both of them are mentioned because right now it kind of just seems like that's the only reason you could be that's the way it reads to me in the opening thank you for that comment yes I can add some language to clarify that as

[00:05:48] the intention was to address the fact that the only time students cannot self refer for example is when it's discipline they can self-refer through other things but when it's discipline related it is a reassignment okay so for example our tape program is through discipline that's not a self-referral okay I guess just because it's out it's I mentioned again in section G about the discipline but for some reason that got pulled into the intro paragraph but the elective enrollment didn't so both of the if we could just sort of like an intro paragraph would outline what those different options are yes the English

[00:06:26] teacher in me is um and then there is one other thing that i was wondering and it's really nitpicky so i apologize but um in the section where it under goals section a number one it said it struck out in a suitable environment to best meet the unique needs of the student because i believe that's what you're trying to achieve with the new sentence that's put there yes but i don't see anywhere in the new sentence where it really addresses a suitable environment i see that resources are addressed and personalized needs are addressed both are great but i think the suitable

[00:07:03] environment piece is really key so i would like to have that not removed i can do an amendment and rewrite it for you or we could just agree that that could be something that could be added what i can do is um rewrite that and i can send it to you and if it agrees with the two of you then we we can do it that way not add it in. Perfect. The only other thing and this may be piggybacking kind of chair off of what you said in the first paragraph I don't actually even know because the opening paragraph really is two sentences I don't even know if the second sentence is necessary about student reassignment at all because we talk about later on in the policy as we get down to

[00:07:43] section F about the method through which a student is in the program I think really the opening paragraph is fine just as a sentence as to what alternative education settings are it just ended it at educational goals and take out the students maybe reassign yeah cuz you outline it in the next section I'd be fine with that makes it up that works other than that I think the substance of the policy is great and it's great that we're updating it and it's a wonderful that we offer all these alternative settings so I don't have anything further if you don't all right thank you so we will move this to action next time so we're gonna send it out to feed

[00:08:22] for feedback oh yes yes thank you mr. Slevin all right thank you so much miss mitchell we appreciate you being here and now we will move on to item 4.02 future ready lesson the risic and special programs and to present is miss katie clark our director of academic programs and mike and dr grubbs director of career technical and adult education floor is yours thank you so much good afternoon we really appreciate the opportunity to share an update on our middle

[00:08:55] school future ready lesson which will take place on thursday november 12th dr grubbs and i are excited to provide an overview this afternoon about this district-wide experience we will share reminders today about the new acl testing process provide an overview of the middle school future ready lesson and allow time for questions feedback and considerations as we prepare for implementation so as discussed during the june spc meeting we shared several updates on the acl admissions process for this year these changes are part of our ongoing efforts to

[00:09:35] strengthen access consistency and overall student experience first students applying to the academy of science and academy of engineering and technology will continue to participate in that stem thinking assessment we did work with our partner insight assessment to develop that custom acl admissions assessment designed specifically for our programs this assessment will continue to measure critical thinking problem-solving and stem-related reasoning skills that align with the expectations and learning experience within these programs additionally we are also moving to that single testing day November 12th for all middle school applicants this change is

[00:10:14] intended to create a more equitable and efficient process for students and families while reducing barriers to participation so students enrolled in LCPS middle schools will test in their homeschool environment while homeschool and private school students will test at the academies of loudon on that same day so while that is happening um our while our eighth grade acl applicants are testing on that day the rest of the students sixth seventh and non-testing eighth grade students will participate in our first ever middle school future ready exploration lesson this lesson is being developed

[00:10:52] through a collaborative effort between academic programs career and technical education school counseling and additional partners across lcps Using the RIASAC framework, students will participate in guided reflection to explore LCPS programs and make connections between their strengths, interests, and future goals.

[00:11:11] So some logistics for this day. The lesson is going to allow us to expand access to information about LCPS programs and ensure every middle school student, 6th, 7th, and 8th, have the opportunity to explore the pathways available to them.

[00:11:29] Using the RIASAC framework and school links, students will engage in guided reflection that helps them connect their strengths, interests, and aspirations to future academic and career opportunities. This lesson provides a student-centered opportunity for students to explore future pathways while also supporting a smooth and consistent implementation to our new ACL testing process. It gives us the opportunity to create a shared future-ready experience across all middle schools. Every student will have the chance to learn about the programs and opportunities available

[00:12:03] in LCPS. Again, they'll be able to engage with school links and reflect on their interests and strengths through the RIASAC framework. Ultimately, this work supports our broader goal of helping students make informed decisions as they prepare for high school, college, career, and life. Now I will turn it over to my colleague, Dr. Grubbs, to discuss the RIASAC model. Thank you, Ms. Clark.

[00:12:27] I'm going to talk about the RIASAC model, and although we are going to introduce this as a new model in LCPS the RISAC framework has been around since the 60s the RISAC framework is embedded in things like ASVAB it's embedded into Schoology and while we've used it for over 50 years what we have not done is the discussed component of RISAC we've used the assessed component and so on our next slide I'm going to take you all through an activity we're going to do one letter we're not going to do the entire framework but the well we can always always find more time really RISAC is creating pathways for students the model

[00:13:05] we've been using in career development has been showcasing how much you could earn in a specific career and trying to work backwards from there where this model is very much about meeting students where they are it's not about what do I want to be it really is more about who I am where do I fit in how can I add value so RISAC on the next slide it's actually not an acronym the R R stands for realistic, I stands for investigative, A stands for artistic, S stands for social, E stands for enterprising, and C stands for conventional.

[00:13:37] What I want to note here is that those six letters actually are already mapped back to all the careers that are out there through the Department of Labor. And so from a career pathway perspective, we can actually map our courses, our program pathways, all back to these six letters. So on the next slide, we're going to only unpack one letter, which is R for realistic, I'm going to ask that you take a pen or a pencil out.

[00:14:01] And as I go through this slide, I'm going to ask that you take tally marks for anything that resonates with you that aligns to your skills, your values, or your interests. Realistic folks are doers. So if you're a doer, you could make a tally mark.

[00:14:18] They like to work with machines, tools, plants, animals, or the environment. They may like to build and repair things. They may be physically active. they may be into the outdoors they may work with animals and they may like to operate tools and machines i say may because i may not like to work with animals but i may be physically active i may like to build and repair things and just because i don't like to work with one aspect doesn't mean that i'm not more realistic than my colleague next next to me i also encourage you to look at the

[00:14:55] visual and look at the icons and for every visual make another tally mark for something that resonates with you so there's someone planting something there's a picture of tools there's a crane and there's someone that is running hurdles so if any of you if you see anything in you make a make a tally mark on the next slide if we could advance this is a video i don't think we're going to play the all right we can play the video thank you as we watch the video every letter is about a one minute video. And so we would take students through all six letters. As you watch the video,

[00:15:30] I'm going to ask that you make tally marks for what you hear, what you see, and what resonates with you. And we can play the video. Identify with a realistic theme, see themselves as practical, mechanical, and active. They enjoy hands-on activities, which may include working with animals, tools, or machines. In their spare time, they may enjoy activities including mechanics, gardening, hunting or fishing, carpentry, making jewelry, playing sports, driving vehicles, skydiving, or landscaping.

[00:16:02] You can often find people that align with the realistic theme in outdoor settings, in national parks, athletic facilities, farms or greenhouses, or in the military. Some of the greatest skills they possess include building and repairing, using tools and equipment, concrete problem-solving, growing plants, and anything involving manual dexterity, public safety, and engineering and technology.

[00:16:30] They tend to value things you can see, touch, and use in their life, and often want their work to be hands-on, physical, and fairly active. Thank you. We'll go to the next slide. Let me show you how to make a cold pack and a hot...

[00:16:48] And in addition to the videos, students will have visual representation of each letter. What you will notice about the video and the illustrations is that there is no discussion of careers. We have flipped the conversation around career development to who you are as a person versus how much a specific career can make, biases that you have about a field or profession.

[00:17:09] And it's really centering the student in this work in terms of career development. The other thing that I want to share, which is so powerful with Katie's lesson and the the work that she's doing is that it does not put career counseling just in the office of CTE or just in the office of school counseling this work is really putting career conversations into every single classroom at the middle school level and we're gonna impact 16,000 kids around how are you connecting with what you're learning in the classroom to your future career and who you are research has shown that we tend to gravitate towards two to three letters and so while we didn't go through all five letters today I am curious how your tally marks turned out and if you are realistic or if we need to come back and do five more letters

[00:17:49] i only had four in this one i had 18 okay there you go all right so like legos and gardening so like and ikea furniture which is grown up legos there's five more letters i'm sure enough we can come back and find which letter you lead with yeah you should have done social then we would have been 5 000 some investigative yeah thank you well we had the benefit of doing it as the board before you got here and so that was really really fun go ahead continue all right thanks Dr. Grubbs and as he mentioned this is really exciting that

[00:18:25] we're tying it all together for our students here in LCPS and to go off of that it is a really exciting time in LCPS with all the diverse programs and opportunities we offer our students and we're hoping this lesson will help with that awareness the lesson will begin by introducing students to all of our special programs so they are going to hear voices of our current students who are participating them in as of today through videos and students will learn about each program and they will engage in reflection activities designed to help them think about their own interests strengths and future aspirations our goal is to ensure that every student is aware of all the

[00:19:04] opportunities available to them and can begin seeing how these opportunities connect to their own future plans so to ensure students and families can continue to access these resources beyond November 12th the lesson is being developed as a Schoology course this will provide ongoing access to the videos reflection activities and information about the various special programs and pathways available in LCPS there will also be a folder in there for families so after the lesson they can go home and talk talk about this with their families students will also have dedicated time at the end of the lesson to further

[00:19:41] explore the programs and opportunities that interest them most our goal ultimately is for students to leave the experience with a greater awareness of the programs available to them and a better understanding of how those opportunities connect to them personally we have also been working closely with school counseling we've been an excellent partner and we are planning to link each program school links page within the schoology course this gives students an easy way to continue exploring any program that interest them and learn more about the opportunities available. Our hope is that students will leave this lesson curious and empowered to dig deeper into pathways that connect with their interests

[00:20:21] and future aspirations outside the school day. So that concludes our presentation. We'd love to hear any questions, feedback, considerations you think we should keep in mind as we continue implementing this district-wide experience. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. Mr. Pepper?

[00:20:40] I mean, this is fantastic. A couple questions that I'm going to dive into your kind of overarching feedback question here um going back to the uh testing at the very beginning how was um the date chosen just like just out of curiosity why was it november 12th you said so typically we test over three saturdays throughout end of october into november we did work with the middle school office to pick a date that wasn't impacting other activities within the school so we did work collaboratively with the middle school office to select that date just

[00:21:17] Putting it out there, there's also a day the high school's testing all day for SAT and PSAT. If you have any, you know, it might be a good day to combine those two. Just get all our testing done in one fell swoop. Just putting it out there, how are we, is it the same test for all the academies?

[00:21:36] Is that correct, Patrick Clark? Is it the same test for all the academies? Yes, it's one test for AET and AOS, so students that apply to both, it's the same test. Do students identify on the test which one they're thinking of, or is it just luck of the draw?

[00:21:52] Great question. So students have to apply before October 16th, and they have to apply for one or both. So when they apply, they are indicating for AOS, and then they also would have to apply for AET as well. And then when they take the test, they're taking that assessment, and then that is used for the admission cycle.

[00:22:15] I appreciate you're doing it this way. It's much more equitable. our students to do it this way. Let's talk about the RISAC for a little bit. That's super cool. Sorry I missed the whole, you know, find your RISAC, but it looks like I might be a realist. I really like that we're moving away from the idea of like, let's pick a career based on how much I make, and then I decide I want to go into that career, and I'm completely miserable, like many doctors I know, or lawyers. But I really like this model. When we talk about it, it's embedded into Schoology. I assume that's the Schoology course that you guys were talking about when he said that the RISAC is embedded in the Schoology?

[00:22:54] I can lean in first. So as an assessment, it's built into school links through, I think, the Would You Rather assessment that's in school links. On the front end, students don't even realize they're doing RISAC. It's more on the assessment on the back end, how they're mapping the careers and things like that.

[00:23:10] Now, through the lesson, that's where we're having the conversation about the six different letters. And that's the piece that's been missed over the last 50 to 60 years. It's do a survey, but there's been no connection to the letters. The letters are really mapped back on the back end of the careers that students are exposed to, if that makes sense.

[00:23:26] Yes, it's very helpful. And then, so when they do the Schoology course, because you said this is a Schoology course, is it asynchronous, hybrid? I know there's probably an at-home component that students are going to likely have to do. Great question. If we can slide back a couple slides.

[00:23:45] One more, I think. So right here, this is an example. So each of our programs will have its own page. As you can see there, this is mapped to the I, the S, and the R. And there's going to be information for each program. So these will be here. Students will have time to explore these.

[00:24:02] Like, they're going to be asked to, what was one of your top letters? Explore that. And then they're going to have some discussion time in class. And then they're going to go back, maybe what's a program in a letter that maybe you didn't score as high? Because we definitely want to make sure kids know that RIASAC is just a tool.

[00:24:18] And it doesn't mean you can't explore other programs that aren't necessarily in one of your top letters. And then there will be family resources in there. So families could continue to have discussions about this. I do believe counseling is also working on expanding this into their lessons after November 12th.

[00:24:36] And then to answer your other question, it's going to happen synchronously through our teachers in the classroom. So they'll take students through one letter at a time. Very similar to how I did it with you. A little bit more in depth, a little bit longer. But they're going to take kids through one at a time. And then students could come back asynchronously and explore after the class.

[00:24:53] I like that. I'd love to see what the Schoology course looks like when it's all up and running as someone who spends his day building Schoology courses all day long. And then so kind of to answer your overarching question, then I'm going to let my chair of the committee here get her piece in. But what's a consideration we should keep in mind?

[00:25:09] A couple big things. One of them is, you know, teacher training and buy-in, right? So as teachers are presenting this, what you don't want is you don't want our middle school students to have vastly different experiences simply based on who's delivering this content.

[00:25:27] So we want to make sure that what are the considerations that we have for our teachers to be trained to implement this day, to do this with fidelity, to ensure that our students come out of it with the right model. And then the other thing is, if this is successful, what is that going to mean for enrollment and lottery and pool and all those other things?

[00:25:47] Because if we do this right, I would envision that would pique a lot of interest in many more students than we currently have applying now. So I'll answer a few of that. So we have thought about teacher training. We did a sample lesson with all the principals and their contact leads.

[00:26:05] Each school identified a lead for this lesson. We already did that. We got some initial feedback. We walk them through like a student, what do we need to change, what do we need to do differently. And luckily we have our November 2nd and 3rd days coming up, our work days. So our principals are planning on taking some of that portion of the day to walk staff through this and make sure they have all the resources they need.

[00:26:27] We really are trying to design it so that anybody could pick this up and lead the lesson. It should be that easy to deliver, so that is our hope. they'll have a facilitator guide, and they should be able to walk through pretty easily the lesson. That's great. Thank you so much. I am very excited about this. I have been excited about this shift for a long time. I was actually with a group of youth this weekend who are seniors, and they're getting ready to go off to college, and they're all, I was just listening in on their conversation about whether they should find something they're passionate about that may not

[00:27:05] make a lot of money or whether they should just try to go big for like go and finance and find something really that will pay the bills and it was a fascinating conversation and like I said I was just kind of listening and it really reminded me why this is so important because so many of the kids were coming back to like what they were good at and what makes what fulfills them and what their passions are and this is really what we want to see as a career path we want something that they can sustain that they're going to love to do so um i love this shift i i think it's exciting i think

[00:27:40] kids will glob onto it um and it will be interesting to see the data from last year's interest to this year's interest and if we can tie any of that to this experience um my first question is for the uh schoology course and letting parents know is that going to go home in like a community message where it's like today was november 12th all your students had this lesson here's the information is that something we're envisioning great questions we've been working with communications they're going to do a web story on this to get it out and then we're also going to provide that to each individual school so they can include that in their newsletters

[00:28:18] prior to november 12th we do have a flyer that we've asked principals to start including into their newsletters as well about acl testing and the future ready lesson so we do have plans for communicating that out and then also follow up after. Awesome. Make sure they know to continue the conversation at home. For sure. And then I'm guessing all letters are represented in our programs. Yes. Yes. All of them are mapped, the three different letters. So all of our, we have letters represent programs. Yeah. And then my other question is just sort of a devil's

[00:28:53] advocate question. As our students sit in these lessons and this is going to be appealing to them. I mean, this is about who they are, so that's going to resonate, I think, on some level. Not every kid needs to go to a program, and that's not the right fit for every kid, and there aren't enough slots for kids to do that here in LCPS.

[00:29:13] So how are we framing the conversation outside of just tying it to our programs? Go ahead. I'll start, and then Dr. Goves can add in. We are going to have an intro video. We're going to make sure that's emphasized, that there might not be a program that you're interested in, and that's okay.

[00:29:33] But our purpose here is to make sure they're at least aware of the opportunities And then dr. Grubbs myself and Heather Ross from school counseling We plan on closing it out with a video to the students Just to really make sure students know that if you don't choose a program and you go to your regular high school There's a lot of great opportunities there as well We do see that this lesson might expand in the future as we continue to build obviously this is phase one it's our first year implementing this but really even customizing it per cluster with what they have offered at their their home high school so I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to improve this as we move

[00:30:12] forward and I just I think there's Katie's point we're mapping all of our CTE courses to this as well so regard all of our courses are mapped to the six letters we're fine-tuning some of that I think this opens the doors too we can map our clubs to these letters whether you're signing up for dual enrollment or IB. This would be on just pathway discussions. This is, you know, why am I taking this? Why am I applying to this college? I think it's part of a larger conversation around skills, values, and interests. Yeah. I mean, even just in the elective world, there's so many opportunities, you know, obviously something we've talked about and we're going to talk about is the arts. And, you know, I just, I would hate for a kid to have to sit there and be like, there's nothing for me,

[00:30:51] you know, so making sure that we're getting that message out and maybe even touching on, you know, maybe it's not a program, but maybe it's an elective because certainly all of these letters are represented in the many, many, many elective choices, too many that we have in LCPS. It's competitive for that. So I think kids understanding that too is really great. And extracurriculars. I mean, these kids can literally do it all. I mean, really, we have every opportunity here. It's just, I worry that it'll get like funneled into like, well, if I, I can't use my skills if I'm not in a program or if I'm not in CTE or if I'm not, but every kid has to take an

[00:31:29] elective every kid has access to athletics and after school curricular activities so i think that tying that message in would be something that i would ask and recommend and i do have it on my calendar so i'm really hoping to get into a classroom to see it in action so um i will look forward to seeing how this evolves this is awesome anything else mr bever okay all right thank you guys so much and we will move on to our last information item of the evening 4.03 elementary special program update visual and performing arts and ib programming and so that will be miss katie

[00:32:04] clark as well so i will pass it over again oh and mr jeff roundsley is also joining us and mr schaefer is joining and mr schaefer is joining us i'll kick us off though so um back in september we brought some elementary options and we were asked to bring back some more information about the pyp myp and the elementary arts integrated learning so we are back today um and our agenda we're going to first talk about the arts integrated learning and then we're going to move into the pyp and myp so i'm going to turn it right over to mr roundsley to talk about the elementary arts

[00:32:43] integrated learning all right thank you miss clerk so we are first going to talk about a proposal for what an arts integrated program in our elementary schools might look like this is based on visits to schools in fairfax county talking with um at the administration at bailey's elementary school for the arts and sciences and also a lot of research for schools around the country for how they approach this and this kind of represents just some initial thinking around what a program might like this might look like so on the next slide and the slide after that uh we have three kind

[00:33:17] of big grounding ideas that are important um that we have found in arts integrated programs The first one is that it's not just more art or more music, but that that art and music is grounded in content and that it is a way that students learn. So that's embedded within core instruction and there's really strong collaboration and opportunities for collaboration between our art and music and potentially theater teachers and also our classroom teachers.

[00:33:45] The second one is that these programs give students lots of opportunities to show what they know in different ways. So voice and choice and lots of ways that they express their learning through performance and creation and movement and artistic expression, not just kind of the standard ways that we measure and look at learning.

[00:34:02] And the third one is that this represents pathways for students and really contributes to a sense of belonging in our schools, that students feel connected to what's happening, and that it's also a way that students can kind of see pathways in the arts that might serve into our secondary programs and continue students on a pathway towards looking at the arts as a way that they can discover their interests, think critically, solve problems and collaborate and find some joy and some connection in that. So those are our three big philosophies and three things that we would really want to see in a program here in Loudoun is first that we again connect the arts and academics that there's

[00:34:38] we intentionally plan lots of ways for our art and music and theater arts teachers to work with classroom teachers and truly integrate the learning that happens there that was definitely something that our teams in Fairfax that we spoke to talked to us about oh sorry we're on the next slide Morgan and then the next is that there's lots of outreach to our community and partnerships so we saw at Hunter's Woods representations of the work that Artisan Residence did and working with students to express their learning in different ways and that students have lots of

[00:35:13] opportunities to not just work with practicing artists in our classrooms, but also to have connections to really relevant and authentic experiences and field trips. And the third one is that there's a culminating experience, either some sort of artistic creation or a performance or some way that students exhibit their learning and showcase their learning. So those are kind of the big ideas that we kind of were grappling with as we thought about what this might look like.

[00:35:40] And now we have a few ideas around what a proposal for this might look like. These are just initial thinking and really kind of like some big priorities that we know are important. So first, we know that we would need someone to help lead this work. So we have a proposal to create an elementary arts program coordinator who could help guide this in some schools that are piloting this for us.

[00:36:02] And then some big things that we know we need. So if we're serious about really integrating the arts, we know we need to give our teachers time to collaborate and work with CLTs. And so we would suggest some enhancement of our staffing at these schools for art, music, and potentially create a theater arts elementary teacher up to three positions that would give those people time not just to lead specials, but also to collaborate and work with CLTs and think about how we're intentionally integrating performance and art into content learning.

[00:36:31] Second, some funds to host events at the school of exhibitions of learning and school performances. And then some of these are kind of categorized as investment at the launch of this, but we would need to do some really in-depth professional learning to help teachers understand what art integration looks like and some big ideas and principles around that, to develop some new curriculum resources that we could embed into our existing curriculum that really do enhance arts and the expression of arts and potentially the purchase of new materials that also stress that as well, and some robust funding for field trips and for students to be

[00:37:11] able to travel out in our community. That's kind of an initial proposal, but another proposal on the next slide would kind of enhance that further if that was the way that our board chose to go with this a lot of this is the same but a couple of things that are different is first greater enhancement for funding for art clinicians that would be like an artist in residence to come in and work with our students and create something that's lasting and the really kind of the the big part of this would be any kind of facilities enhancements that we would need to do

[00:37:46] so we have seen schools where they've transformed a classroom into a dance studio or where they transformed a classroom into a black box and all of that would require could require minimal work could require painting the walls it could require putting some mirrors on the walls or it could involve more in-depth flooring or audio visual equipment in a black box so that's just kind of a range of possibilities there from some just kind of minor upgrades to facilities to really building out those facilities in a way that that that really is a representation of kind of true authentic experiences so we put those there just as a range for consideration and I

[00:38:24] think I would also say that our initial proposal would be to pilot this at two schools and perhaps to look further at two additional schools in the future but to start with two schools and a planning year in the 28-29 school year for a planning year for a coordinator to kind of help us get this underway, depending on the budget. Sorry, plan in year 27-28, a launch in 28-29. Sorry about that.

[00:39:04] And again, these are just kind of some broad initial thinking and things that we think are important to capture here, but are happy to take any questions, suggestions, or feedback on the proposals we have. Mr. Pepper? So let me begin by saying this is super cool. And I know a first grader who would love, who wants to be an artist, who would absolutely love this in his elementary school not going to say who that child is um but the the question i have realistically is just the cost question on these budget options as i look at both option one and option i'm going to take option one just because it's easier if we're going to schools the estimated cost really isn't

[00:39:41] the total of 783 723 it's 783 723 plus the 555 because you only need one coordinator but you need a second school implementation so it's really it's more of a cost driver knowing the budget environment that we're getting into it's a super cool program we you would even said you know it's not more arts and music well guess what we need more art we need more music and we need more science and maybe some social studies too but um like i said to integrate integrate this would be great

[00:40:16] it's a really cool way to get more into our school to get more music into our school i'm all for it It's just, do we have the funding to allocate to this at this point in time? I think that's fair. I mean, just had a budget retreat where some pretty steep options were presented to us in terms of cuts.

[00:40:38] So I get it. I definitely feel like I wish I'd thought of this sooner, but it's all good. And, you know, I think we will have to prioritize. Obviously, I would really be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't think this is amazing because I just the first of all seeing it myself and just knowing that this to me does feel like it fills a gap here in Loudoun and I just think the benefits for these children to be exposed to these things would just I don't think you can put a price on it but obviously you can

[00:41:11] so um I'm not naive to that I also am aware um just in terms of you know what we do to support the arts especially in middle school I know it's a little bit of a crunch I think licensing of shows and different things, and that is growing here in Loudoun, which is awesome, and PTAs and PTSOs have really stepped up, and they've had a lot of donations. Some have applied for grants to make that happen, but I know that there's a squeeze there, too, so thinking about, you know, oh, you're going to give that to elementary. What about us? I think there are some other thoughtful conversations that do need to be had in the world of the arts, conversations that we

[00:41:47] have had before, and I know we're still having about marching band Vs and all the things, But I really do think that putting this at the beginning of their journey and making sure that this is foundational and is an option for students here in Loudoun could be just really exceptional.

[00:42:02] So obviously we will be, I think, considering this through the budget. And I'm definitely, it's on my priority list in terms of trying to see if we can carry it in some way, shape, or form. And I do think money is going to have to be found to do that. Whether or not we can go full throttle with including facilities is definitely secondary to me getting it up and running.

[00:42:24] But I do want the full package if we're going to roll it out. But I am so appreciative of your quick turnaround on this. I mean, holy moly, this is amazing. I didn't think we were going to get this much detail. So I am excited about the potential. I'm excited that it is out in the ethos and it feels like it could be real someday.

[00:42:43] And so that's kind of where I'm at. I don't really have any other questions. think you guys nailed it I think these prices match the conversations that we had on our visits and the research that we've done so appreciate all right thanks mr. roundsley and I do just want to point out his visual art performing arts team did an excellent job in meetings and collecting information so I just want to give them a shout out as well with coming up with these different options and proposals for you next we're gonna go into bringing back some information about the pyp and the nyp you guys asked for us to bring that back just as a reminder

[00:43:23] we do have the diploma program fully implemented at loudon valley and heritage and we are in authorization we do have our dp coordinator darcy malone with us from parkview we are in authorization at parkview and we are currently in authorization for the career program at all three high schools as well so just wanted to ground that i'm going to turn it over to mr schaefer to give you some information about the PYP and the MYP program yeah hi committee glad to be back what's more information about PYP did a combination of research through IB and then also talking to some staff who have experience in this area too so the

[00:44:01] mission and inquiry will probably look similar and or look the same to IB in terms of really getting students started on the IB learner profile right so real world topics building a strong academic foundation of course really sets the tone for IB and then these elements of critical thinking collaboration and of course the global awareness theme here too so the core skill areas here again are our skills that students build and work throughout the IB continuum here just to reference the the social and self-management piece when PYP is is

[00:44:40] important and big and students are getting a chance to really do some first you know self-directed learning but learn how to do that right how do I manage time how do I follow through on to-do lists and tasks so in their project-based learning the six transdisciplinary themes talk a little bit about the units that are planned and worked on in in PYP and give a few examples here but these are some big-picture questions that again students and what makes this unique is they're diving into some of these that are typically not happening so like sharing the planet where are we in place

[00:45:18] in time how do we express ourselves so again you're picking up on some themes of inquiry is a big big deal with this next slide please the thing I want to emphasize here on this slide is the exhibition right it's the fifth grade culminating project and again focuses on this very IB specific talent and skill of reflection the students reflecting on their entire PYP journey and really this is a big this is essentially a kind of community service learning impact

[00:45:53] project right I wanted to in the second one give you an example of how does a school take that and make it a learning experience for the entire school and that would be the Belvedere Elementary does a portfolio parade right so it's an exhibition that everyone gets to learn from involving both students parents and the community and lastly the back to the Ivy learner profile the chance for students to really document growth and see where they've grown and talk about it with their parents engage their families with with this growth one of

[00:46:32] the things I want to emphasize here in the last part is one of the staff members that I interviewed here had worked in PYP in Doha cutter and also also at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Woodbridge and she emphasized the again the real the community aspect but also parents playing a big part in this you know they are elementary students so some of them do need some help and kind of the self-management the guiding pulling this project together right so she just wanted to she emphasized that and I thought that was a good thing to

[00:47:05] share with you all too next slide please so middle years program and again I leaned some on research, but also actually talking to Ms. Malone, who is currently at Parkview, but has served in the past as the Middle Years Program Coordinator and has worked in IB in multiple states and D.C., so very helpful with this.

[00:47:31] So, again, some of the content is going to sound the same, the through line through PYP with interdisciplinary learning, community engagement, the critical thinking piece, creativity is really coming into here and again the future success in preparing students for the future and essentially for NYP it's really preparing them to be able to do the DP the diploma program if they want the community or personal project again they want to focus on here that the community

[00:48:05] project is really optional the personal project is more of what is assessed and happens in year 5 or grade 10 of the NYP again this is really getting students a chance to to really focus on three things right the process of choosing a topic what are they interested in what you know what do they want to solve right they're working with criteria developments plans research those are the sort of things they're they're learning how to do and focusing on an outcome right what's a

[00:48:41] tangible or intangible result how can I show people what I've achieved or created in this project and then reporting again back on this reflection piece right keeping track of what are they doing are they meeting all the benchmarks for their criteria the reason why this is a little bit more structured is because again the thinking is that students have some practice already having gone through PYP they've done sort of a project preparation for this so they can jump into this again something to know is that this project is assessed

[00:49:15] by the supervisor or the the NYP coordinator right would would assess the project and then it is externally moderated by the IB so it shows just some overall kind of global criteria right that everyone's evaluated on this trying to look for that standard of excellence and lastly here on this this slide here is again just getting them ready for the for the diploma program so that when they do encounter things like the extended essay they might be able to tap back into their personal project say I really want to continue on to this and

[00:49:53] take this the next level of exploration and research all right so so the budgets again here a couple line items I want to focus on professional development $50,000 again not everyone needs to be trained but the point would be we want to make sure everyone knows about this so that's why we put a lot of money into that but budget line item also curriculum development the other part about the curriculum development is that again this is transdisciplinary right so you're gonna have multiple grade levels working on some of this curriculum which

[00:50:31] therefore would you know would make this a worthwhile investment in this part of the budget we're looking at between the coordinator and the school implementation line items there we're looking at a total of about three hundred seventy five thousand for implementation per school next slide please for NYP again miss miss Malone made a good point that you know not

[00:51:07] everyone needs to be trained but it is great to have an awareness throughout the school of what NYP is so that people can support it and it can be you know implemented to fidelity curriculum development is there to their the resources and then having a coordinator to you know to run the program to keep track of of students and also really helping with the essentially a project management there of their final project so again we've got the coordinator budget

[00:51:43] item and then the school implementation for 376 per school for locations we gave a fairfax county breakdown of the schools feeding into one another and then we broke down pyp myp and high school where the current dp locations are of heritage valley in park view and we wanted to just spell

[00:52:14] out the big picture of all schools that could or possibly be invited or a part of this I think that I think that's it Ms. Clark did you have anything that you wanted to add I don't think so I guess we could just add in that the NYP is a 6 through 10 program you don't have to do it that way but that is an option so if we did on this slide go from for example Harper Park to Heritage

[00:52:50] you could have that NYP coordinator supporting six through ten and bridging that gap into that diploma program so just something to point out and I think I was kind of misspoke a minute ago that would be per school because you would have a coordinator at every school to oversee that program so you would need to unlike the coordinator position for the fine arts earlier that you would take out per school the NYP coordinator and PYP coordinator you would want one of those per school to run that program is that non-negotiable i mean like a toll bird in a cool spring couldn't share someone i think we could definitely talk about it there are different

[00:53:30] models um okay i don't think you would want to have one for multiple um at like a district level you would want them embedded into the school right right mr pepper so much to say here because i live in this world um i'm actually gonna i might be helpful if you went first if of questions i unless you're waiting for me to go i my question is what would the rollout plan be because the arts i can roll i can wrap my mind around you know two schools maybe four schools

[00:54:04] eventually this is a lot of schools so it's like teaching teaching teaching across the board especially if they need a coordinator per school so that feels a little bit of a reach for me so i don't know if there that would be at the discretion of how fast the board wanted to move and what the budget look like or if there is like a proposal so i can start okay miss clark mr saver could fill in we are just trying to map out a big picture concept here yeah the rest of the committee i don't think the vision would be to have each of these schools listed on slide 15 being an ib school

[00:54:41] it may be that somewhere within that pipeline like for the middle years program if we do that it probably makes sense to think cluster wise because you only have one middle school to choose from but an elementary school it may be one one per cluster area for those who have an interest in going like I'm not sure if we would have the level of interest at 10 elementary schools right that would be worth the investment so we would have to strategically pick locations over time but we don't have necessarily an implementation plan we could go deeper if the board has serious

[00:55:17] thoughts about expanding these programs yeah like if we if this were to come to the full board we would have a more thorough process to recommend locations yeah you got anything miss clark i agree i would just add that i would not anticipate that we would roll pyp and myp out at the same time like you would start with one or the other yeah and then roll it out and exactly what mr slevin said i don't think you wouldn't pick all those elementary schools um in that cluster we were just laying out yeah no i appreciate available and it's good to see how many feeders go into our programs. I mean, that's quite a bit of schools. I also, I really appreciate what you

[00:55:57] said, Mr. Schaefer, about like, maybe everyone doesn't need to be trained, but everyone needs to know about it. I know at least at my time at Heritage, Mr. Adams spoke frequently about how when it was first implemented, it was like, it seemed so niche, but he was like, everybody benefits from this. And now it's a school culture. And now it's a learning profile culture across all content and classes and even electives and it's become sort of just the part of the identity of their school is like you might not be on that track but you are still you still have these things are still important so I think that that's a worthy investment if we're gonna do it because having that

[00:56:36] support across the board also helps prepare freshmen and sophomore kids to get ready to jump into that higher level coursework which is a jump from what I hear and I would be curious about the thinking behind doing elementary or middle first I think middle seems to make sense because we have high school so we want to prep them but then I know like from my research like the middle program kind of assumes they've had the primary program so we would need to think about how we're bridging those gaps as well so just lots of thinking around this it's less it's less clear for me how we could move forward with this. Although if we're going to be on about

[00:57:13] IB and we're expanding it, I mean, to me, it does make sense to have this conversation and see what the interest might be. All right. So I have very strong feelings about this. The first question is a question of value. Okay. And the question for me is what value do PYP and MYP bring to LCPS, particularly in terms of our IB diploma programs, which we are invested in.

[00:57:42] And I can't speak as much to PYP, but for me, in my experience, the MYP brings little to no value to the diploma program, just none. It is, particularly in the United States, and it's a United States issue, and therefore it's a lot of county issue.

[00:57:58] It feels to me very much like we try to fit square pegs into round holes with the curriculum. IB has a set curriculum. It is extraordinarily integrated, and it works okay at 6-8. When you get to 9-10, it doesn't fit. Our students take biology, they take chemistry, and IB tries to shoehorn them in their IB-MYP assessment in a way that makes tangential sense.

[00:58:25] The one big thing that is of some value is the personal project at the end of 10th grade because it teaches students individual resource skills, it teaches them time management. However, it is very rarely a springboard, if at all, into the extended essay process senior year.

[00:58:46] And that is because the personal project is an area of the students choosing. And a lot of them will be like, I want to investigate my heritage. I want to make a cookbook of my family. Or I'm really interested in baking. Let me see how I can make the greatest loaf of bread.

[00:59:02] And it really doesn't apply because when you get to the extended essay, you are picking that in a specific discipline in that IB wheel. The other question that kind of relates to all this is who would this be for, right? Are we tailoring this specifically to the students, particularly at the 9-10 level, to those students who have applied and are admitted into the diploma program?

[00:59:24] If we're doing that, it makes some sense. But if we're bringing it to everybody, and it's great that, you know, it's the whole school, it's a philosophy, it's the way we're doing things, and it's a good lens to view curriculum through, I struggle with that, right? Because you're offering this thing, and then you're yanking the rug out from, you know, middle school of, you know, thousand kids. And now, however many get into the IP diploma program, they don't kind of see this anymore. So thinking about who this is for six to eight, if we were going to do the whole rollout, I'm going to piggyback on what you said. We really need to do

[00:59:59] PYP first. MYP is much more the successor to PYP than DP is the successor to MYP. MYP and DP feel like completely different things. DP is very much a college preparatory track.

[01:00:19] NYP is a holistic way to view curriculum. That's my experience with all of this. And so the question is for this price tag, or I'm going to discuss, it's not even a question, for this price tag, I don't know if we're going to get enough value from these programs to make it worth it right now.

[01:00:36] I think that's a fair commentary. I know you do have a lot more experience with this. I also, You know, something kind of running through my head as I was listening to you talk and sort of reading through the slides and just doing some loose, loose Googling and research about these programs.

[01:00:57] It feels a lot like PBL, which we have. It feels a lot like SEO. There's a lot of SEO components in here about being a global citizen and taking care of your world and taking care of each other. And, you know, so to me, if we were going to go this way, there would have to be, I think, some swaps for these schools because there is no way that we can just keep adding and adding and adding.

[01:01:18] And financially, maybe there's just some gives there in terms of give and take. So I just thinking about, you know, I know I asked to see the vendor list for the budget. So just starting to think about how can we be more intentional about the things that we're really on about.

[01:01:33] but I hear what you're saying and seeing that list of schools multiplied out that feels like if I were going to throw my weight to one or the other I'm going the arts route um for me personally but I'm one of nine um so that's just kind of where I'm at but I'm so appreciative of this and I do I do like the idea of the rigor and things that this brings I mean we've kind of joked when my school board aide and I when we're out at schools it's like wait till we hear the rigor because everywhere we've been that's sort of what people are on about right now you know we've heard a lot about it with common assessments and different things

[01:02:09] and so it's like do we have the structures and supports that drive that rigor for all students is this a pathway towards that and is that a worthy investment and so I think potentially yes but I definitely echo a lot of the concerns that mr. pepper brings up and think it's sort of a conversation and holding if you will I definitely think I need to do some work and see if other board members are even interested in these kinds of things it definitely doesn't hit the same resonating chord no pun intended as the arts program does

[01:02:45] for me in terms of just name and need and loud and so anything else to add yes you may mr. Slevin so just again similar to the fine arts immersion this this information is in response to the committee interest and opportunities for special programs outside the high school so we are not here recommending these programs it's more like you said they're on the table now for consideration I would say we are still building our diploma programs we are moving along at Parkview the career related programs that we're going to be starting up at these high schools also are just at the beginning

[01:03:23] I will remind you the support for the career related program was for the first year this budget year will have expenses related to the actual implementation of the CP program so we are moving forward in expansion for IB this is just like really out years as interest grows what might this look like and I think you hit the nail on the head I think at least from this conversation that feels like something that is maybe down the road and we need to see how budgets are going to shake out for sure but no I appreciate that I fully understand the responsibility of it's

[01:03:59] out there someone needs to pick it up and if I need to do that I will do that and find friends to take it with me so uh i really i'm just thank you to the team this was a huge lift a huge turnaround um a big ask and i'm just really proud of the work that this committee is doing it's driving towards some some really exciting conversations at least and maybe some potential real change for kids so those are good things to be doing so i appreciate you and we will get everyone home now so is there any new business no all right with that this meeting is adjourned drive safe

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