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Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 23m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1237422755?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 2026-10-23. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:24] all right good afternoon this it is 434 and we're calling the october 20th meeting of the finance and operations committee to order mrs griffiths is here mr pepper and myself and that would make a quorum we'll go to item number 2.0 public comment do we have any public comment today nope no public comment all right so we'll move on to 3.01 the draft minutes from the october 6 2026 finance and operations committee i just have one uh quick um actually a couple of little

[00:00:59] corrections i for policy 43 30 40. mr carty oh maybe you have to move it first oh yes i'm sorry yep so i'm gonna move the draft minutes of the october 6 2026 finance and operations committee meeting and i'll second thanks just as a clarification so there are a couple items that were on the minutes that we actually talked about in the at the october 13th meeting for the school board um so we need to just change the dates because there's october 27th was mentioned in a couple of those agenda items so we'll need to you got it yeah there's four of them i think on

[00:01:38] there so we just need to move them back from october 27th to october 13th as we discussed so i would move to approve the october six minutes as corrected do we need to make a motion to make the to amend the minutes no minutes don't need motion okay perfect second all those in favor aye and the minutes are approved all right so we're going to move on to item 4.01

[00:02:14] business and financial services ifb number i 27101 toner and ink cartridges the whole thing i'm sorry it's approval of the consent agenda my apologies uh i move that the finance and operations committee approve the consent agenda for the october 20th 2026 meeting second all those in favor aye aye the consent agenda is now approved um now we're on to item number 5.01

[00:02:53] business and financial services renewal of rfpr 25272 medicare advantage i have no new information to share since our last meeting when this was an information item just oh you need to make a motion right i move that the finance and operations committee place this item on the school board consent agenda and recommend the laudan county school board renew rfp number r25272 to united

[00:03:28] healthcare effective january 1 2027 through december 31 2027. all right second are there any questions or comments any questions no good i just had a couple of questions really quickly so give me one second because I've had this open now all of a sudden it's acting

[00:04:05] very odd surprise good I'll do the next sorry board docks is just not clicking through for me at all in any way shape or form here and I think I'm gonna skip

[00:04:44] for now I'll come back so then we will proceed to a vote all those in favor aye aye so so with that this is an action item so this will go ahead to the school board. Thank you. Thank you so much for Mr. McCarty for taking over. I was a little late today.

[00:05:10] We will move on to item 5.02, business and financial services revision of policy 4125, cash handling responsibility. May I have a motion to approve item 502? I move that the finance and operations committee place this policy on item 5.02 on the school board agenda as an information item and recommend the Loudoun County School Board adopt the staff provisions of policy 4125 cash handling responsibility. Thank you. That item has been moved. Second. And seconded. This item is being presented

[00:05:48] by Susan Gabney, Executive Director of Financial Services. Thank you. Good afternoon. This policy 4125 cash handling responsibility has two changes. Lines 13 and 18 on the red line version. We added activities at for clarification.

[00:06:08] And unless otherwise directed, this policy will be brought forward to the school board agenda as an information item on October 27th. Any discussion? Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I had a question for you. So I've noticed that in this we've reorganized or we've gotten rid of and then reorganized some of this a little bit.

[00:06:30] I'm wondering if we need to add the word should on lines 10 to 12. So it says funds should be turned in no later than the end of the school day to require that. can you clarify that because it does say shut on my red line it is up on the screen thank you I'm sorry so should it say shall instead of should so that's a

[00:07:06] requirement and then I think somewhere on here we got rid of as soon as the as soon as possible closet are we gonna put any kind of time constraint on when we want cash to be turned over do you reference a line number I'm not saying as soon as possible okay so on line 13 we crossed out as it's it's crossed out is as soon as possible was removed on that red line on line 13 and I don't see that it's in there

[00:07:44] anywhere else it's encompassed on line 10 through 12 that funds should be turned in no later than the end of the school day which is then why on line 13 that as soon as possible was removed okay and so if in a bit event happens after hours would is the is it assumed kind of that the next business day is when the cash would be turned in if that's the case I don't know how that all works So that is correct.

[00:08:23] Any more discussion? Mr. Pepper. I know there's a big difference between should and shall, and I like the idea of shall because it's very specific. I do worry about those, like, super weird random one-offs where someone might be ready to turn in the funds the next day, but the accounting.

[00:08:41] So let me give you a concrete example because it's a little bit more convoluted in this. So very often I would run a school activity that collected cash and it ended very late at night after the bookkeeper was gone, I would go into the office and put that money into a safe, but I wouldn't necessarily have turned those funds in until the next day when I came in in the morning, which is why I kind of like the should rather than the shall because it gives me just that little bit of leeway.

[00:09:09] if someone said well you didn't actually turn those funds in you put them safely in a safe there's just a little bit of there's a little bit of leeway i would be okay um with shall um shall be turned into later the end of school day or upon the conclusion of an activity um but i don't know how to caveat that does that make sense for those like weird random one-offs which is why i think i'm leaning towards should just because of personal experience but i i see exactly where you're coming from i guess my question is are there ever really ever instances

[00:09:44] where we were worried about cash not getting turned in in a timely manner we have a safe in every financial technician's office in this as you stated before okay so do we have do we have issues with people not turning money so along those lines that because every school has a safe i think that helps lessen the concern of the risk of you know money walking off um before it could you know be you know deposited into the bank or brought over to the admin building but also share

[00:10:20] that we don't have a large volume of cash and checks also so the risk is relatively low so going a little further i see the word safekeeping is in there so i think that i'm actually okay with gel because i think it does encompass that kind of safe piece i don't want to make too big of an issue of it because i don't know enough about how this actually i mean especially now with digital transactions happening so often i'm assuming you know checks and cash just are not something that we're dealing with in the volume we used to um so i don't want to make this an issue i just want to make sure that we're getting those funds as quickly as possible put wherever they need to be put

[00:10:58] safely and it's not an issue um and i and i appreciate the fact that we've cleaned this up a bunch which i think is really helpful thanks so uh with that do we want to um change it to shell or leave it as is we can leave it as is for now maybe discuss this is going to go to the full board we can think about it and ruin it on whether there's a significant difference between should and shall okay so thank you both um with that um i guess it's okay as is right now um we will need

[00:11:34] to proceed to a vote to um send it over to the board um all those in favor aye aye thank you very much and we'll move on to the next item we're on to information items now 6.01 business and financial services award of IFB number one two seven two zero two fresh bread this item is being presented by Andrea Philod director procurement risk management thank you good evening and thank you this item is being brought before you to award a contract for delivery of fresh bread to

[00:12:08] our schools for the school nutrition program we did receive one bid on this solicitation and based on our review of the bid the contract is recommended to be awarded to schmidt baking company and the estimated amount is 298 200 which is in line with our anticipated spend for this item and if approved we would like to bring this back as either action or consent on the november 3rd finance committee meeting and on the school board consent agenda on November 10th 2026.

[00:12:42] Thank you. Any discussion? Mr. Cardi. I had a question. How often do we only get a single bidder for this? On school nutrition almost every single contract that we put out is only one bid because of the size of our school system the vast area that our school district covers and the fact that we do regular weekly deliveries of our product and do not warehouse it is very limited on the number of vendors that we get that respond to our solicitations for the school nutrition foods program interesting okay I'm really so I'm

[00:13:20] surprised by that a bit but I'm not I'm not doubting it it's just I find it really interesting that there's just one one bakery that's I guess big enough to service that is that big enough to service that also the fresh bread requirements the age of the product that is coming in and other requirements within our school nutrition program.

[00:13:40] This is a issue that is larger districts across the state. Northern Virginia encounter this on a regular basis. Also keeping in mind, they most likely also service Fairfax and Prince William. So because of the sheer volume, there is not a lot of vendors in our area that do this large of a product distribution.

[00:14:00] But historically, our school nutrition programs, when we put out contracts for any of those items, we generally get one bid. - Interesting. opportunity to work with smaller bakeries to be able to have I'm not that we want to manage multiple contracts but I'm curious the only way we would be able to do that is to break the school district down into clusters and when we did that that would increase billing requirements and also the work we do behind the scenes to pay the invoices as well as schedule and coordinate the deliveries you would get into a situation where you would be working with multiple contracts for

[00:14:33] the same item well if there's no other discussion I do find this conversation interesting because I was thinking of another bakery and then you split, you know, half of Loudoun County schools and the other half. But if this company can handle all 100 schools, then great. Do you feel comfortable putting this on consent? I do. Okay, good. Thank you so much. We'll put that on

[00:15:07] consent. And we'll move on to 6.02. Support services, grant and stream restoration, floodplain, Excuse me easements at River Bend Middle School and Potomac Falls High School. This item is being presented by Mr. Pasquarelli, a director of construction.

[00:15:26] Thank you. Thank you. So this is an easement for the county, a floodplain easement at River Bend and Potomac Falls. So as part of the county's mission to improve the quality of stormwater runoff, the Department of General Services recently completed a stream restoration project in the stream bed which lies between these two schools.

[00:15:48] The project involved removing invasive trees and underbrush stabilizing the banks of the stream to prevent erosion And new plannings of native species to create a natural habitat for native species So as part of this process the county performed what they call a floodplain study resulting in a reduction of the area of floodplain So as a result They are seeking easements to define the areas of the floodplain as they are as they are now as well as to provide access so they can continue to maintain the stream and the floodplain so and i'm happy to answer any

[00:16:26] questions any discussion mr carty oh i have questions okay so explain so explain to me a little bit more about the geography does this feed out into the potomac or is this some kind of tributary that's not i i'll have to i don't know exactly where it feeds to but i imagine it probably does so this is a this is a stream that goes through between our two schools it looks like Don may want to weigh in on that a little bit so this the stream does go between the two campuses and discharges into the Potomac River all right so I have lots of questions about kind of the upstream

[00:17:05] downstream of this right so we're being asked to give them access give the county access to manage this correct like really dumb this down for me so I can really wrap my head around so the the work to stabilize the the stream bed has already been done so the the invasives were already removed the stream bed has been realigned and they have replanted the entire area this easement and the floodplain easement gives them the ability to come back in and maintain it over time so that they're not looking for us to try to do anything with it

[00:17:44] this would be the county staff they invested a lot of money stabilizing this trying to reduce the basically the flow of sediment and other things into the Potomac, clean up the Potomac. And they are asking for permission to basically set this aside so that they can maintain it in depth perpetually.

[00:18:06] And I'm good for them maintaining that, I mean, for sure. I guess one of my questions is, is this part of the Broad Run Stream? It is, okay. So what are the implications for the upstream, the data center development runoff around the broad run stream upstream coming down here to this area towards the potomac are we are we looking with this easement for for anything to get wide like expand so it this um this easement is only on our section of the property and the

[00:18:46] stream bed once again the stream bed is already there it's already established and they are not widening the stream bed they're not changing it from what's there right now it has very little impact on what happens upstream with the exception of the way the stream bed has been designed in the new in the floodplain area it will facilitate per se better flow during floods so you won't get the backup and the flooding up into the neighborhood that you that we have had in the past it's not perfect if in a heavy heavy storm it's still going to back up all the way up the floodplain

[00:19:25] But this project was intended to focus just on the public land at the bottom end of the trail, of the stream, right as it's going into the river. And is there any cost to us for maintaining? There's no cost to us at all with this.

[00:19:42] The county covered all the cost to do the work, and the county will cover all the cost to maintain it in the future. So they just want access? They're giving them the easement and establishing the floodplain easement gives them access to the site. And it restricts, obviously, it restricts our ability to do any buildings or anything growth in that area, but we couldn't build on the floodplain anyway.

[00:20:04] There's nothing we could do with that land. Our science classes have been going out. I mean, it's a pretty cool project. If you hadn't seen it, you can go down there and you can walk around some and see where the restoration work has been done. So it's an outdoor classroom space as well, sort of?

[00:20:22] I don't know if it's designated as an outdoor classroom space, but there is no reason that it could not be, and we can suggest that to Ms. Sipe and the sustainability team, and I'm sure the environmental teachers at both schools are aware of it. It's been going on several years. The work's been done, and if you go out there now, it doesn't look like new construction.

[00:20:41] It's settled. I mean, it's been done a couple of years. And I will add that, so the stream restoration project actually reduced the floodplain area by, so the easements were originally created back in 1994, So when they did this work, it actually lessened the amount of area to which would be likely to flood as Mr. Traynor mentioned.

[00:21:02] And here's a diagram of the stream that goes between our two schools. Yeah, it's fascinating. I mean, I think it's really interesting whenever we've got campuses that are around any one of these. We've got this, you know, at Rockbridge and Rosalie Carter too, and I find it fascinating because they do use those as outdoor classrooms as well.

[00:21:18] So it's fascinating. I just wanted to make sure that, and from an operations perspective, that it's not costing us anything. us anything this is truly just giving them the right to access the property and maintain it as they need to that's correct and this the the steam stream restoration projects is something that the Loudoun County Environmental Commission has been really strongly supporting and the Board of Supervisors has recognized that and has has been investing in it they've been doing projects like this across the county this just happens to be one of the earlier ones that was on public property so that and now this is just kind of the

[00:21:56] final step of formalizing the easement and the floodplain so that they will be able to maintain it long term instead of asking our permission to come on site all the time thank you for those great questions miss Riccardi anything else you'd like to discuss if not how do you guys feel about putting it on consent okay sure I mean she may not have any issues with that I don't know but I've messaged her earlier just to give her a heads up but I'm sure she knew this was on the agenda.

[00:22:30] Okay, so if it's not going on consent, then it'll just go as an information item then? Well, it'll come back to us. Okay, got it. Alright, thank you so much for that. We'll just do that. Not on consent. Is there any new business?

[00:22:48] No? I guess we'll adjourn for today. Thank you.

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