Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 59m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1237765627?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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[00:00:13] - Okay, has everyone had an opportunity to scan the QR code to sign in? - Even the student delegates that are here and the students, if you guys could sign in

[00:00:27] if you haven't already.

[00:01:40] Might help if I turn this on. Okay, welcome to tonight's MSAC meeting. So tonight, we're gonna have a school board update. We're gonna do a delegate power up where we get a presentation about FOIA and FERPA. And then I'll come back later and we'll talk about the website and get some feedback.

[00:02:01] and we'll have Academies of Loudoun after the purpose. And then we'll have Erin make a special announcement and then I'll have some closing remarks. So just to go back to what our theme is for this school year, it's empowerment.

[00:02:19] So tonight's focus is gonna be empowered by information, know, navigate, and advocate. The goal for tonight is to understand key information, navigate available opportunities, and advocate effectively for students and families.

[00:02:35] I do want to thank all of the delegates, the families, students, our student delegates, and our LCPS partners. - It's not, is it loud enough?

[00:02:51] Okay, and we'll have Dr. Rasheed come up in a second. I do want to let the body know that our chair, Ms. Tyler, had to step down for personal reasons.

[00:03:07] So later on, we will discuss what that looks like moving forward and the process for getting a new chair installed. All right. And Dr. Rasheed.

[00:03:29] Hey, everyone. I'm Dr. Rasheed. We're quiet today. I just want you to clap for me. Thanks so much. It just makes me feel better when you clap. Just in general for everyone, it's fun. But thanks for being patient. So I'm just going to talk to you about the school board updates in regards specifically

[00:04:06] to the calendar and the special permission policy. So as you know, there was a calendar option called the Rasheed calendar. You know, what happened was that we had to do a vote for the calendar as we do every year or every other year. And it's really dictating or rather talking about or adopting the years for 2028, 2029. So the Rasheed calendar definitely got adopted after an amendment and the key calendar anchors, just some things I wanted to point out to you was that the first day

[00:04:42] is August 17th for 2028, and the last day is June 1st, 2029. So overall, there is this balance of having 178 days, okay, as instructed, because we didn't want to violate any rules, so we got that on track for that calendar year. Another one is that this definitely preserves a full two-week winter break, and I think I have some differences up here for you guys. Just a little synopsis.

[00:05:10] In terms of timeline, you'll see that in the middle, what we, I guess, there were other options that LCPS presented, and there were other calendars that were adopted in the past. That's the last column. So as you can see, we really tried our best to stay within the 178 days without kind of impending or really, I guess, trailing into June.

[00:05:36] I understand that we do start in August 17th, but we end way earlier. And again, winter break is still a full two weeks, so that was definitely protected, including a recharge time, I guess you could call it, for January 4th and 5th being off as well. Overall, it does protect the summer window. The early June finish keeps the AP testing in balance, and then we also can manage, parents can manage the camps, the internships, etc. So There were some variables with past adopted calendars, as you can see in the other calendar.

[00:06:14] I don't want to go too much into it because I'll really use up a lot of your time. But just feel free to browse through that on BoardDocs if you want to look at the comparisons. But it was discussed in school board meetings, but I just want to make sure that MSAC knows about that.

[00:06:31] All right, moving on. Special permission policy, there were also changes to that that was adopted. So I have a chart here that I made before the vote, which is the first column, and then the second column is the revised policy, which is much more stricter.

[00:06:47] So what was noticed was that people that were moving into the communities that were normally zoned logistically and just how the boundaries were drawn, they were not able to attend to the school that they were districted or what their rule to be part of as a student.

[00:07:05] So to balance that, we had to develop a little bit more stricter rules, so to say. So in the first column you had before the vote, it was an open special permission with open capacity. And then you'll see that after the revised policy, there was no more open transfer, only a narrowing qualifying criteria.

[00:07:27] And that criteria has to be followed by documentation. For example, is there a safety issue or a disability issue? so that made it more tighter in that sense another thing was we wanted to you know protect the limited seats for the families that were moving in we're getting more and more newer buildings in the area newer townhomes residential areas that are being built so as you see in the second column it protects the capacity for the zone neighborhoods and then there was something that was really important to know that yearly the reapplication routinely kept the students across the entire feeder patterns. But in the second column, rising 11th and 12th graders, they stay to

[00:08:07] graduate. Elementary siblings, brothers and sisters, are permitted only through elementary grades before returning to the zone. So there is that little bit of leeway. And then, of course, when it comes to employee and relocation, it has to be maintained for a full-time LCPS staff if you want that to happen. And it's verified mid-year. Home moves with formal documentation again it's a lot of documentation a lot of rules involved for that so that that was the changes for the special permission policy the transfer policy again with community perspectives you know and what should we

[00:08:45] do for immediate next steps if this affects you you want to review the LCPS administrative guidelines so take a look at the guidelines take a look at your situation you do want to coordinate with your school counselors of student services, you want to track the updates at upcoming MSAC delegate sessions to make sure there is transparency. Again, just to recap, there is a system balance with this. I understand there's also a lot of, you know, inconveniences, some emotional inconveniences, emotional issues too with this. A lot of people want to stay with their friends, with their, you know, people that

[00:09:23] they were thinking of graduating with, and this might change some family members that are in your neighborhoods or in your communities, and maybe even you yourselves. So it does give family stability. There is ongoing advocacy that focuses on grandfathering and transition pathways.

[00:09:41] But those were the next steps that I wanted to make sure that you follow along or that you follow through with. I just wanted to clap for me, but that's just me. Thank you so much. turn it over to Vice Chair, Ms. Raquel. Thank you so much, Dr. Rasheed.

[00:10:17] Okay, and now we will have our FOIA and FERPA presentation.

[00:10:53] Don't worry, y'all. I'm getting good grades in school. There we go. Nope.

[00:11:25] Try again.

[00:11:59] I got it. Buried in the bottom. There we go. Now we're right. All right. There we go. Thank you so much. So, I am Janice Ewing. I want to take just a minute to introduce myself and what I do.

[00:12:26] So I'm the Deputy Division Counsel here with LCPS. So I'm one of four attorneys in the office and I primarily assist with procurement, construction, land acquisitions, and FOIA. So if there's ever a FOIA question that you have that's legal of nature, it'll probably come through me.

[00:12:44] Or if you need assistance with one, I'm one of the attorneys that will assist with it. So I'll start off with the FOIA presentation and then I'll pass it off to my colleague, Cheryl Richardson. So FOIA. What's the point? The point of FOIA is that all public records are open to all citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[00:13:06] The purpose is to be transparent and that any citizen, if they have a question or they need information, they can readily receive it. So who does this apply to? A public body. Now, a public body is, in the traditional sense, the school board or the board of supervisors at the county.

[00:13:25] But it also includes committees. So any committee that's of the school board, that the school board either creates as an advisory committee, a standing committee, or a select committee. So you all, MSAC, are considered a committee of the school board, and therefore a public body.

[00:13:44] So we're gonna go over a few quick things, and we're gonna leave plenty of time for questions. So required trainings. In general, whenever someone becomes a member of a public body, they have to receive a copy of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. there's also different trainings depending on your level so school board members have to have more formal trainings while committees often receive this type of presentation as a training it's important that you familiarize yourself with what's required in foia because you are members of a public body you are also subject to the requirements of foia so meetings meetings are

[00:14:22] considered an assemblage of three or more members of a committee if you have a committee that is less than three, then two would be your quorum. So what constitutes a meeting? It's any time you're discussing public business.

[00:14:37] So in the context of MSAC, it would be any time you're discussing an item that requires you to advise the school board. So a lot of times you all provide advice on policies or on regulations that would be considered transacting business or the business of MSAC.

[00:14:55] So there's certain requirements for meetings with respect to whether or not you can have a virtual meeting or if you can attend electronically, I recommend that you check out policy 2420 because there are very specific requirements. As a general matter, unless it's a public emergency, most meetings will be in person.

[00:15:15] But there are certain requirements for medical concerns or other issues that may allow you to participate remotely. Here there's a caution against simultaneous electronic communications. There are several court cases that have said If there's a huge group of a committee and they're all in one big chat together, that can be construed as a public meeting.

[00:15:37] And why is that important? Because that means you're discussing information and there's no record of it. So if a member of the public wanted to know what you all were discussing, they would not have access to that information. So it's important for members of the public to know when a public body is meeting and what is being transacted during that meeting.

[00:15:57] So, some of the steps that we recommend for people is not replying all to an email blast. If you receive an email from a member of the committee and it goes out to everyone, that's great. It's a one-time communication. But when people start replying all and engage into a large discussion on email, it can be considered simultaneous communication.

[00:16:21] So try, whenever possible, to keep your communications one-on-one. Phone, or if you wanna use your email, make sure you're using it for public business and I'll get into why that is in a minute. Also try to avoid having a lot of after meetings where you all gather together.

[00:16:39] Like, so for example, after this meeting, if there's six, seven, eight of you all gathered together, someone comes in, they could say, oh, they're still meeting, that's not on the record. What was discussed? I want a copy of that. So that's where that becomes a little bit tricky. So all meetings in general have a notice requirement under FOIA, they have to be noticed three working days advance at lcps we provide notice through our calendar where we post whenever a meeting occurs this is particularly important whenever there's members of the school board so there's ever three members of the school board or more they always have to be noticed on the school calendar on the

[00:17:17] lcps calendar as a form of notice and of course agenda packets they are always received at the same time so if you all have an agenda it has to be posted at the same time you all receive it okay so for your request for records this is usually where people really care about for you and it public records what is that it's anything anything that's written or recorded that has to do with public business and in this case the business of lcps or so school business so it doesn't matter

[00:17:57] who um has requested it if you put it on a post-it it's technically considered a public record if it's related to school business so someone submits a request for a public record what does that mean that means that they can receive that information subject to certain exemptions which are all set out in the virginia freedom of information act the first timeline is five days this is very important because you all are all members of this public body so if someone

[00:18:29] comes up to you and says hey I would like a copy of the MSAC minutes from last December they don't have to say under FOIA or use any kind of magic words that in it in and of itself is a FOIA request because it's a request for a record so once that comes in the most important thing is to notify the FOIA officer his name we have a new one now his name is Chad Quinn I'll have his information in the next couple of slides but he will input that into our guvqa system which we use for processing and tracking and communicating with a requester if for some reason we can't get all of

[00:19:07] that information within five days the FOIA officer will reach out to the requester and ask for an extension they can receive an additional extension for seven days there is also sometimes where someone may ask for every single email my student has ever said in the past five years that's a lot Especially if it's a high school student or a middle school student.

[00:19:30] So a lot of times that requires a lot more time to gather that information. So we may reach out to the requester and say, hey, you know what, 12 days hasn't quite been enough. Can we please have a few more days? And we will release the items to you as they come in. So generally, what should you expect?

[00:19:47] So let's say you requested, your parent asks for your entire scholastic records. What would they receive? Well, they would receive all information that's related to you, the student. However, let's say there was an issue involving multiple students, there is an exemption for scholastic records of other students.

[00:20:07] So while your parent may be able to get access to your student record information, they are not going to receive that for other students. Same thing with personnel. If someone requested the entire personnel record of an employee, a librarian, they probably would not receive it because that's exempt.

[00:20:25] We can't provide the personnel records of other employees unless they are the subject of that record. So some common exemptions are personnel, scholastic, attorney-client work, communications and work product, and safety and security plan information.

[00:20:44] So the most important thing with FOIA in your role as committee members are to notify the FOIA officer as soon as possible whenever you receive a request. And also remember that when you are engaging in MSAC business, those communications, even if you don't use an lcps.org email address, they can still be construed as public records and you may have to produce them if someone requests them.

[00:21:08] So make sure that if you have emails or messages, try to keep them off of a personal device if possible, or if not, just make sure you flag them. So in your subject, you can say MSAC business, just so you know, and you can easily identify them.

[00:21:26] So costs, sometimes this also comes up a lot, well how much is this going to cost? Or let me know how much this is. So generally any public body can assess costs for searching, accessing, supplying, and duplicating records. In general, we will send out a cost estimate if the costs exceed $200, or if a requester says, hey can you let me know if this is gonna cost more than $50?

[00:21:52] We will let them know, we'll process the request, determine what those costs are, send it. If they want to move forward, great, they'll be sent the invoice once they receive the records. For any costs that are over $200, we do require payment before we actually endeavor to process those records. Under FOIA, it is serious. Any violation can be brought to circuit court, and it has been done here with Loudoun County. And failure to follow the FOIA is also a violation and has its own civil penalties. So quickly up here,

[00:22:31] are your contacts um it's acting but he is now the official foyer officer it's chad quinn i included his email address and phone number in addition any citizen in virginia can request an advisory opinion from the state this is the virginia foyer advisory council and they will render an opinion if you feel like i didn't receive these records from the sheriff's office was that right they will review it and provide an opinion so key takeaways avoid conducting or holding inadvertent meetings and understand that emails on public business are so can be subject to disclosure and so that

[00:23:11] includes emails that are even personal that have a piece of personal business while we try to withhold them sometimes they could be part of a larger so please be sure whenever you are emailing about msac or other school business that you keep it related to that business okay while we're clapping right all right hello everyone my name is cheryl richardson and i my office is right next door to Janice. I'm the assistant division counsel and my focus in our office is really on supporting

[00:23:48] our 100 schools. So if a school principal or other administrator has a concern or a legal question that they have, I'm the person that they reach out to. So it's every day is a new adventure. You just never know what's going to happen. So anyway, I'm here to talk with you about FERPA and FERPA also addresses records but unlike foia which covers all of our public business ferpa is specific to our student records and we have so ferpa is the federal version of the law the virginia code also

[00:24:22] has a version and we also have these requirements listed in school board policy as well just to reiterate that we how seriously we take protecting our student records so our student records are a a wide variety of things.

[00:24:41] Under the law, they are defined as anything that pertains to a student that is maintained by the school. So you can imagine what kinds of records those might be. Your attendance records, all of your report cards, any discipline, Title IX violations, threat assessment, suicide screenings, all of those things are part of an individual student's records.

[00:25:09] So, and now, in the old days, like when I was a kid, now I sound like my mother, we used to keep everything in paper. And now those records are maintained in different ways. For instance, Phoenix, right? Many of you have access to parent view or student view.

[00:25:26] Those are an example of electronic student records. So, what rights does FERPA provide? So, generally speaking, all parents with education rights have the right to request their student's record at any time.

[00:25:44] And it can be a general request for the record or sometimes parents want a specific record, they want attendance or they may want a discipline record, but they have the right to those records. Now that right, and I see we have a bunch of students in the room, once you turn 18, those rights transfer to you as the student, so those are your rights.

[00:26:04] Now does that mean we don't have to tell your parents anything? No, that's not how that works out. There are many exemptions that we retain, like if you're in trouble, we will still call your parents in a nutshell.

[00:26:20] So anyway, so these are the basic rights as I said. So if you request your record, whether you're an 18 year old student or whether you're a parent of a student, you always have the right to what's called inspect and review. So you can call up your school principal because the school principal where you're currently attending is the custodian of your record.

[00:26:41] So even if you're in high school and you wanna see your elementary record, it is your high school principal that has those. You don't have to go back to the elementary school. The custodian of the record is the school where your student is currently attending. So that is the person to ask for the record.

[00:26:57] So you can request that record and then you can come in to the school and you can look at it. And someone from the school will be there to answer all the questions that you may have about the contents of the record. You can also get a copy of that record if you would prefer.

[00:27:15] If you want somebody else to see your student record, and that happens in a lot of cases. We have families that have advocates. We have families that hire attorneys or families that want to share their students' record with medical professionals.

[00:27:32] In that case, we have a form that's, it's called, we call it, it's our RT-15, and it's basically a FERPA authorization form. So you can authorize us to share your record with someone else if you'd like. If you are unhappy with what is in your record, you have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, and there's information about that on the LCPS website.

[00:28:00] If you feel also that something in the record is inaccurate, we also have a form for that. So if you feel it's gotta be inaccurate, it's gotta be misleading, or something that would violate your students' privacy, and again, there's more information about that on the website.

[00:28:18] Or if you've got other questions, you can certainly call our office and we can help you with that. Now, oops, sorry, that was me. I just bumped the cord. Should come back, maybe.

[00:28:38] Okay, we'll just let it. Anyway, like Janice mentioned, there are other rules related to scholastic records when that information contains more than one, information about more than one student. So as you can imagine, if there's an incident on the playground, right where one student pushes another one and they skin their knee and need to go to the nurse, so that record would address both of those students.

[00:29:06] When you request a record, you can't have information about the other student, so you can get the record, but information about any other student would be redacted.

[00:29:24] - Broke it. have one okay we have two little time I'm so sorry that was all me all right and we talked about this a little bit that so say about some samples of education records and what is not an education record so LCPS per school board policy ah there we go the magic of the computer generally emails are not

[00:30:03] considered part of your student's education record on however if your student receives special education services then we do consider any email related to those special education services as part of the student record however you can request those emails if you would like them through FOIA because they are public business but again you can only get information related emails related to your student, not other people's students.

[00:30:44] One other thing that I wanted to clarify that's in the code, so directory information. We also have this in school board policy, but at the beginning of the year, everybody gets the student rights and responsibilities document in ParentVUE, write the SRNR, and one of the boxes that's available for you to check is to opt in to LCPS sharing your directory information.

[00:31:09] So, and there's a list of what that directory information in policy 8640 that you see listed on the screen. So that's basically your name, your grade, the school that you attend. It's a pretty long list of things.

[00:31:24] So if you think about how we share that, an example would be if you're an athlete and you are like your basketball team roster, right? Your name shows up there and maybe your height and your grade. That's an example of you when you give authority for us to share your directory information.

[00:31:41] That's one of the ways that we do it. Or your name is in the yearbook, right, along with your picture. However, the Virginia code requires that your address, your telephone number, and your email, we have to get affirmative consent from parents before we can share that information with anyone, regardless of whether you check the box in the Student Rights and Responsibilities document or not.

[00:32:05] So you can trust that we're gonna do our very best not to disclose that information without your permission. I will say it happens sometimes by accident, and when that happens, we will notify you that it has happened and what we're gonna do to fix the problem.

[00:32:20] So in addition to parents, and I'm sorry, this is going on longer than I thought it was going to, but I just wanted to cover just a few other things. In addition to parents, the other people, who else has access to your student records? Basically, anybody that's got in the school that has a legitimate educational interest.

[00:32:39] So if you're in sixth grade, your sixth grade teacher and the other teachers that you have and your school principal would have access to your student records. Other administrators at other schools would not. We keep that limited to just people that basically, if you need to know, if you don't need to know, you don't have access to those records.

[00:33:02] However, there are times where we do need to disclose records without parent consent. The number one reason is when there is a health and safety emergency. And this has to be a significant emergency, right?

[00:33:19] Something where we are releasing the records because it's going to be a means to stop this danger from happening. For example, if we have a threat at the school and we have a reason to believe it's a particular student, we can provide the local sheriff's office with the address so that they can try to intervene to prevent a horrific accident.

[00:33:43] Otherwise, as I mentioned, school officials with a legitimate educational interest, if you transfer to a different school, we'll share your records with them. And then, let's see, and if we get a subpoena, that's the other time we share records, and we will notify you when that happens as well.

[00:34:07] We keep a record of who has seen your record, and your record on this green sheet, the RT9. And so if you're ever wondering who else would have had access to your student's record, that form is available for you to view as well. Now, probably one of the more controversial issues that we have around student records is related to video.

[00:34:30] So generally, video footage at your school is not a FERPA record until it is. And it becomes a record, as I mentioned before, when it pertains specifically to a student and then we maintain it as a school division.

[00:34:47] So for instance, there's a fight in a high school hallway that involves three students. We would maintain that video and it would become the record for each of the students involved in the fight. Now, there may be 50 other kids in the hallway that you can see on the video, but it would not be a record for them.

[00:35:07] They're just in the background. Now, because it involves these specific three students it would become part of their record any one of those sets of parents of those three kids could come in and watch the video because their student is a subject of the video however you cannot have a copy of it because we can't blur out the other kids and we can't disclose records of other students but you can always come in as long as your student appears in the video you can come in you can request it and then schedule a time to come in with with chad quinn

[00:35:45] our foia officer to come and view a video and again if you have more questions about that chad can help you and our office can help you as well all right questions comments concerns yes i have question about deleting emails is that part of foia especially emails that are part of like the lcps

[00:36:18] team so that doesn't necessarily fall under foia but it would fall under records retention that's It's with our DDI office, which is our, is that DDI that maintains that? Yeah, through the library of Virginia. So even if you delete something off of your computer, that doesn't mean that it's deleted in the LCPS system.

[00:36:40] And it can still be accessed for a certain amount of time. So how long do you keep records after a student leaves LCPS? So I want to say we keep them for a long time.

[00:36:57] We don't keep the entire record, though. We just had a record request for a student who graduated in 2016, and what we had maintained was their transcript and maybe their attendance overall.

[00:37:14] We just keep a little bit of information, but we always have something. But your record stays at your high school for five years, I believe, after you've graduated, and then it goes to the records office. Yes.

[00:37:36] - Okay, so for clarification on the special education, records you mentioned something I think one of you that the emails are considered that if the student is special education but you all also probably communicate in other ways right like through other digital means whether it's like teams I don't know what you all use at LCPS how do you all determine what is a part of that record if you're communicating on that about the student so when we submit a request to DDI which is our Department of Digital Innovation right we request

[00:38:10] all communications and teams is part of that poll that it's included so we're just looking for anything that's related to special education and and also the students so we give them keywords to search and then we work collaboratively with them because to get all the to make sure the records are as accurate as possible to add to that under FOIA if a parent requests all they have a student that does not receive special education services and they request for example all text messages from coach a to coach b that's still a foyer request and we will reach out to both

[00:38:47] coaches and ask them please review your your cell phone messages and provide us with screenshots of any records responsive and that is produced as far as part of a foyer so long as those messages have are related to the student and related to public business so i do want to clarify one thing though because this is this can be really confusing outside of of our office right because we're talking about you can have this under ferpa you can have this under foia and what i want to make it very clear is that we don't make you slice and dice all of these things if you submit a request

[00:39:22] to us and you want your students record and you say and i want all the emails we will give you the record under ferpa and the emails under foia we won't make you submit to both things we'll just parse that out ourselves because we want to be responsive so we're look we'll create the avenue to get you the records that you're asking for if we possibly can hello um my question is that you said there was a ferpa release form right how come when we apply to colleges we have to waive

[00:39:59] our ferpa rights and we don't just fill out that form because that applies then for several colleges the form is just for one specific entity so guidance just makes it easier for you so then then they can just share with whoever, whatever colleges that you apply for.

[00:40:23] - A follow up on that. So it makes it easier, but is there a way that students can limit it? - I think you could, I would talk to your guidance counselor about that if you want to limit it, is we won't release your records without your permission. Like I said, without the, and absent those few exceptions, right?

[00:40:40] Subpoena, health and safety emergency. - Wonderful. Well, thank you so much.

[00:40:58] - Thank you so much. That presentation is a wealth of information every single year. So I appreciate you guys coming back.

[00:41:30] Okay, so now we're gonna have our Academies of Loudoun group come through. They come through and they give us information on their programs. I love when they come so we can ask all the questions to get our students ready.

[00:41:47] This was one of the presentations that I was actually really looking forward to and I kind of blasted it out to our PTA too. So I'll pull up your presentation. - Thank you.

[00:42:08] We are very excited to share this information with you tonight about the Academies of Loudoun. My name is Jacqueline Royster. I am the admissions coordinator. And here with me tonight, I have two of my teammates. We have Ms. Carrie Flaherty and Ms. Jackie Hernandez. They are our content specialists for the admissions and outreach office.

[00:42:27] And then we also have the esteemed principal, Ryan Sackett, with us here tonight. We'll kind of just go through some of the programs, some of the admissions criteria, as well as our outreach. We'll then kind of talk through a little bit about what a day in the life is like, and then there'll be a very brief overview about some of our other programs for you all.

[00:42:45] So I'll bring Miss Flaherty up.

[00:43:12] - Education for LCPS students. The Academies of Laup is a school community that merges the Academy of Engineering and Technology, the Academy of Science, and Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, and is the result of a vision of educators, business partners, and community leaders.

[00:43:42] Located on 119 scenic acres near Leesburg, Virginia, the Academies of Loudoun allow students to pursue their academic passions while attending their home high school on alternating days. At approximately 315,000 square feet, it is the largest high school building the school division has ever constructed.

[00:44:03] Beyond its size, every square foot of the building enhances students' learning through advanced technology and innovative features. The Academy's four guiding words, explore, research, collaborate, innovate, are written on the walls and into every facet of the curriculum.

[00:44:22] In opening the Academies of Loudoun, Loudoun County Public Schools has moved learning beyond the classroom, using innovative techniques and approaches not previously seen in traditional facilities. The Academies of Loudoun Makerspace has just about anything that you possibly dream of.

[00:44:39] This is top-notch compared to even some things that I've seen at universities. Technology supports the curriculum. The tools in the makerspace help students create the things that they imagine. The Academy of Engineering and Technology, or AET, is a four-year curricular program.

[00:45:00] The foundation of AET is to provide advanced academic STEM opportunities for students to engage in the study of engineering, entrepreneurship, and information technology. The AET program provides an immersion in STEM curriculum that challenges students to think critically, innovate, research, design, and invent to solve real-world contextual problems.

[00:45:25] We use a lean business model canvas, and the students ideate a concept to solve a problem from the beginning to prototype pitching to final pitch. So it really is a reality-based process, and they're doing it.

[00:45:42] They're not just writing about it, they are doing it because they're out there getting the data. My personal favorite thing about the Academy of Loudoun is the integration between our three subjects that we have. So, for example, last year I took physics, computer science, and math, and all three of my teachers worked together to integrate the three subjects and make projects based on the three subjects.

[00:46:05] And another thing is that being around passionate people here at the Academies of Loudoun makes you a more passionate person yourself. The Academy of Science, or AOS, strives to provide students the opportunity to deeply engage in mathematics, science, and research, and to promote creativity and innovation through problem-solving and collaboration.

[00:46:27] Students at the AOS will acquire skills to ask sophisticated scientific questions and conduct research and experimentation, to explore the interconnections between the sciences, math, and the humanities, to read, write, and communicate at a level that is required of university students, and to develop perspectives to assess the impact of scientific advancements on society.

[00:46:51] The experience of inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, being able to do a lot of things hands-on, faculty that really care about you, that know you, it's kind of a dream come true for any student, I think.

[00:47:07] I think the ultimate reward is being able to see connections in the world that you wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Being able to learn so much more in depth about biology, about chemistry, about math, about physics.

[00:47:24] And it's a different learning experience than you can get at home school. Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, or MADA, builds on a 40-year Loudon tradition of excellence in career and technical education. The MADA program strives to provide significant and relevant learning in career and technical education, CTE, which allows students to explore and innovate while preparing for 21st century college and careers.

[00:47:52] There are 26 industry, college, and career CTE pathways available. MADA is totally more than just the skills that we learn. We learn how to be proper leaders in our industry. We learn how to work together as teams. It's a lot of professional development that you wouldn't get at a regular school.

[00:48:09] It's not just learning how to do graphic design. It's all about learning how to be a better leader, how to be a better person and citizen and student. MATA is a Virginia Governor's STEM Academy and is also the home of the Claude Moore Health Scholars Program, designed to supply future employees for some of America's fastest-growing medical fields.

[00:48:30] For many of the students, the advantage is this is almost a pre-med program for them. So the hands-on experience here allows them then to shadow in the clinic. They have a better understanding of what technologists are actually performing.

[00:48:46] And it actually puts them more at ease with an adult, which is something they have not to this point worked with. While the Academies of Loudoun provides unique curriculum to its students, it also subscribes to the theory that deeper authentic learning comes from intentional collisions.

[00:49:04] The Academy's architecture allows students to collaborate informally across programs to tackle projects with real-world impact. Common areas where students can meet and explore learning are spread throughout the building. The One Lunch model is informal, and students are encouraged to mix with their peers outside their areas of specialized study to explore areas of common interest.

[00:49:27] Clubs and activities are also offered at this time. The Academies of Loudoun incorporates the best in innovation, curricular design, and inquiry-based academic instruction with state-of-the-art equipment and technology and a spirit of community. It is devoted to deep, impactful learning that will move its students to become productive contributors to the world.

[00:50:01] Sorry. Amazing, right? Can y'all hear me okay? What an amazing place the Academies of Loudoun is. The Academies of Loudoun has a mission which is very near and dear to my heart as a parent, as an educator, which is to empower students to explore, research, collaborate, innovate, and to make meaningful contributions to the world in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

[00:50:30] So in our building, we are home to three special programs whose center is around STEM education. And those four words, as they said in the video, they're on our wall. That's what you see when you walk through the halls of our building every single day.

[00:50:48] Students actively engaged and loving what they are doing at every moment. They're exploring, researching, collaborating, and innovating, and it is infectious. So I am very happy to be with you tonight to kind of talk you through the opportunities that await if your children decide to apply to the Academies of Loudoun.

[00:51:12] Students can apply to our programs at various times throughout their academic career, starting as early as eighth grade. So in eighth grade, we have two programs that are both four-year programs that students can apply for.

[00:51:28] The application window would be during the fall when they are in eighth grade, and that That would be our Academy of Engineering and Technology, AET, and our Academy of Science, AOS. Some students might move into Loudoun a little later and miss that window.

[00:51:49] There are still opportunities to apply to our programs when they are in high school. We have a two-year option for AET. Students can apply for this program when they are in 10th grade, and it is a two-year commitment for students.

[00:52:06] We call that Advanced AET. And then we have our Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, or MATA, that offers students the opportunity to learn in a pathway that is either a one or two year commitment. We are currently offering 25 different pathways, and students would apply for those either in 10th or 11th grades.

[00:52:27] So lots of different opportunities for students. Our office, we run two admission cycles. The fall admissions is for students who are in eighth grade. We'll talk about the timeline of that in just a few minutes, but let's explore those programs that are open for our students.

[00:52:47] The AET program is an advanced academic program that allows students to explore STEM in one of three concentrated areas. I liken it to being in college. When you have a major in college, When you're in AET, you have a concentration or a focus in either engineering or entrepreneurship or information technology.

[00:53:12] Now, when students apply to AET, they are going to select their top two choices that interest them the most. And if offered admission, they would be offered into one of those two pathways that they have selected. So if your students are thinking about applying and they like engineering, Perhaps they love to use tools, they like to build, they like to take stuff apart, they want to create solutions to problems, they like to use 3D printing and tools, engineering is a great pathway choice for them.

[00:53:50] Students who are interested in STEM, but also have an interest in perhaps one day owning their own business, might select the entrepreneurship pathway. All of our students in this pathway are going to actually, in ninth and 10th grade, start their own business.

[00:54:06] And they are gonna learn that process, everything from ideation all the way through prototyping and pitching their idea for their business. And then lastly, we have information technology. Students who would apply to this might have an interest in coding.

[00:54:23] Perhaps they're interested in learning more about machine learning or artificial intelligence. They maybe wanna learn how to use an app or build an app. This would be a good pathway choice for them. And I should say that students don't need to have any kind of experience in order to apply to any of these pathways, just an interest and willingness to learn.

[00:54:50] Now in the video, I don't know if you noticed, but they did say that students attend the academies of Loudoun on an alternating day basis. This is a fantastic model because students don't have to give up the things they love about their community that they are in and a part of.

[00:55:06] They don't need to give up their friends, but they get to come to our school and become a part of a whole brand new community of like thinking learners. They meet new friends and they get to experience a different aspect of high school.

[00:55:25] Now, what you see in front of you is just a sample of what it would be like for a student to apply who attends. You'll notice on a B day in ninth grade, the student is coming and they're taking some of their core academic. Now, this is for AET.

[00:55:41] They're taking a math, a science, and their specialization course. On the day that they are on their home high school, I struggle with right and left. Okay, so on the right side, you are taking your humanities-based classes.

[00:55:57] Now, your student's schedule might look slightly different. Your student may be over the summer or through Virtual Loudoun, might take the health and PE class. That frees up a little bit of time. Our counselors will help you, or your counselors will help you to create a schedule that works for you to help you reach your academic goals.

[00:56:17] Now, throughout this presentation, you're going to see similar schedules for each one of the programs, but I did wanna take a little extra time with this one to kind of explain how things work, and then you can see as the students move into 10th grade, it's a very similar setup.

[00:56:34] Now, thinking about the AOS program, AOS is also centered around STEM, but it is a very different type of program, okay? This is what I call our bench science program for students who want to work in a lab.

[00:56:51] They really enjoy research. They like to design experiments. They like to gather and analyze data. They are interested in the biological sciences. AOS is a great program for them.

[00:57:07] It is a proof-based learning structure that allows students to learn at the intersection of mathematics, science, and research. So it's important for students to know that they are going to be conducting research in this program.

[00:57:26] Again, it is an advanced academic program, so every class is gonna be considered honors level or above, and every class is weighted respectfully, respectively. Now, AOS is the same sort of setup as AET.

[00:57:41] I will call your attention to the fact there is really not a concentration or a focus. It is more broad-based in the lab sciences. So you'll notice in that ninth grade year that they're taking an integrated science one and two. They are going to be covering concepts in earth science, chemistry, and physics.

[00:58:00] So by the end of 10th grade, they're getting three science credits for that particular course, okay? And then you'll notice in 10th grade, we have the addition of sophomore science research. So they're really getting into data analysis and how we use research properly, right?

[00:58:21] So by the time they're in 11th and 12th grade, they're conducting collegiate level research. Now, students can apply to both of these programs. If you have a general interest in STEM, they're both available for you to apply to. AET has more of a focus on the physical sciences, whereas AOS is more in the biological sciences.

[00:58:41] Both programs are going to allow students to engage in a rigorous mathematics curriculum as well as in research. Sometimes students have a particular interest, so they would only apply to one. They maybe just want to do coding or something along those lines, so they would just apply to AET.

[00:59:03] The choice is yours. There is some admission criteria to be aware of when applying to our four-year AOS and AET programs, and it is that students need to be enrolled in Algebra I or higher at the time of application.

[00:59:20] they do have to take an assessment, and we are going to be looking at their grades. So students do need to have a C or higher as a final grade in math and science from sixth grade, seventh grade, first semester of eighth grade, but science is quarter two.

[00:59:40] Now, for the fall admissions, it generally opens in mid to late August, and it's going to end in mid-October. November is typically the month when we administer the assessments, and students find their decisions.

[00:59:58] Usually it is the last week in February, early March timeframe, and then we do have an extensive waitlist, and those waitlist offers will be offered any time between March and August. Now our winter admission cycle is concentrated for our programs that are available to high schoolers.

[01:00:20] So that would be our advanced AET program. Again, it is an advanced academic program. It is two years, and so for that reason, we have just two pathway choices, right? So engineering and information technology.

[01:00:37] The curriculum is outlined on our website, so if you wanna learn specifically about the classes that the students would take in any of our pathways, you can go ahead and visit. We have some directions on a handout over there how to navigate the website. So, advanced AET is just the two pathway choices.

[01:00:56] Again, here is just a sample. This is just a sample. Your students might look a little different, but they're gonna take a math, a science, and a specialization course. When they're at their home high school, because they're a little bit older, that PE requirement goes away, so they might pick a different elective.

[01:01:13] But generally, you kind of see how that is set up. Again, there is some advanced AET admission criteria that I wanna call your attention to. Students need to be enrolled or have successfully completed either math analysis, AP pre-calculus, pre-calculus DE, or AP calculus AB.

[01:01:36] They also have to have finished two science credits by the end of 10th grade. We do recommend that it would be a research level course for those, doesn't have to be, but we do recommend it. And we again are looking for the grades. So we're looking for the C or higher in every course from ninth grade as well as the first semester of 10th grade.

[01:01:57] For the assessment, there's gonna kind of be two parts. One is gonna be that PSAT that they take when they are in high school. And generally it's the 10th grade one. If for some reason your student missed the 10th grade, we would revert back to the ninth grade score.

[01:02:15] And then we are looking for a writing assessment. The students will come to the academies and take a writing assessment. And for our other program that students can apply for during the winter admission cycle, we have our wonderful Monroe Advanced Technical Academy.

[01:02:34] I could sit up here and talk to you for hours about the wonderful opportunities that students can be a part of. MATA offers students the opportunity to learn in a one or two year pathway.

[01:02:49] As you can see, we have our one year pathways listed up there. If you see something highlighted in blue and it says DE after it, that means it's a dual enrolled course. And our students could be earning college credit for taking those courses. And I'm gonna go off script just a little bit because we were in the hallway the other day talking to two students, actually it was three students, right?

[01:03:12] but two of the three had taken cybersecurity one year and took Cisco another year. And they're graduating with 31 college credits, applying to, now whether they're college or university accepts all of those, you know, is another issue.

[01:03:30] But I think we have quite a few colleges that we know that will take those. For example, George Mason, I've heard. Okay, so enough about the DE, wonderful opportunities. Students can do career exploration. They can gain hands-on experiences and gain industry certifications.

[01:03:49] Lots of one-year pathways, and then we have our two-year pathways. The best part of this is that it is completely free, right? You don't have to pay anything to apply or to attend any of our programs, and students can be set up to either go on to a college or university, or if they want to go straight into the workforce, We have lots of options, as I said, industry certifications that would allow students to do so.

[01:04:16] For example, we have a cosmetology program as a part of our two-year program where students can actually sit for their state board exam at the end of 12th grade. Now, I want to point out one quick difference between the schedules here.

[01:04:32] MATA courses are all considered elective. So when students are attending the academies of Loudoun, you notice that they are in one class all day long. And on the day that they are at their home high school, they are taking their other core courses. So it definitely will benefit your student to have a conversation with their counselor to create their schedules.

[01:04:56] For MATA, the admission criteria is as follows. Students need to be enrolled in Algebra 1 or higher at the time of application. There is a 2.0 GPA requirement. Now, some pathways that are dual enrolled may require a 3.0.

[01:05:15] If they do not meet the grade, the GPA requirement, students, we can go to their PSAT. NOVA always kind of has a chart that we can follow for that. And we have to have on-time graduation verification.

[01:05:32] Now, MATA does utilize a lottery system if we have more applicants than we have space available for students. The application generally opens in early December and will conclude in mid-January.

[01:05:53] January is the time when advanced AET would take their assessment, and the time frame for decisions is about the same. all right it's the end of february early march and then the wait list will go from march to august now our office in addition to running um the admission cycle we do a lot of outreach these types of opportunities we have a nesb chapter we work with propel and level up we work

[01:06:23] with edge we work with pep and the face family so we conduct outreach to elementary middle and high schools we're getting set to visit all of our high schools in november and december so if you see us in your school please stop by and say hello our middle school outreach is here and And then we have our high school outreach as well.

[01:06:52] Do you want me to play the highlight reel? Yay? Nay? Am I going over? Am I boring everyone? I hope not. Okay, let's play our highlight reel. See what kind of fun things we were up to in our office. Uh-oh.

[01:07:10] Oh, boy. Okay. Don't know. Okay, we have a highlight reel. Sorry about that. Okay, now, Mr. Sackett, it's up to you. Take it on. Bring it on. How good are you, everybody?

[01:07:27] I wanted to just take an opportunity to thank our admissions office. They do a phenomenal job of going out to try and canvas all of Loudoun County to put out there all the information necessary for parents to make the decision if they want to apply and the students if they want to apply to the academies. It is a pretty significant decision.

[01:07:44] It is a significant commitment for the students. They spend quite a bit of time with us. So I really appreciate the amount of comprehensive education they provide across the school system. I want to just, for my whole career, I've been an elective teacher.

[01:08:02] I've always had to recruit students to my classes. I always had to be special to talk kids into signing up for my classes. And I still feel that way at the academies. Like, we have to be special or else why would you apply? So I just wanted to share some pictures of just examples. And these are just, like, these could all happen in one week.

[01:08:20] Like, there are so many comprehensive different activities happening at any one time. I have a full-time job just trying to tell parents about all the great things happening at the academies. And what we are really making an effort to do is ensuring that when I go out in the community, when I'm at the barbershop, get my hair cut, and I talk to my barber, and he's like, oh, what do you do? And I say, I work at the academies.

[01:08:41] He says, oh, I've heard of the academies. I say, what have you heard? And almost everybody that I ask has heard about our admissions process. And what I want them to tell me is about all of the great things that our students do during the day.

[01:08:57] once they are there. Like, I want students and parents to make decisions based off of what they hear about our students having the opportunity to do once they get to the academies. So for instance, the picture behind me is a high altitude balloon launch. It happened actually just last week.

[01:09:12] That's our freshman engineering students launch a weather balloon 80,000 feet in the air. We picked it up this year in Waldorf, Maryland. It goes up in the air with sensor suites designed by our students, all kinds of fun things. that's an example of our engineering program.

[01:09:28] These students are some of our AOS research graduates and alumni, they just received, this is them receiving each a $25,000 scholarship for the college that they will be attending right now. The AOS students spend a significant amount of time doing research and one of the skills that they leave with is the ability to confidently stand up in front of a room full of people and talk like nerd talk for hours at a time.

[01:09:53] They will go into detail and have all the confidence necessary to stand up in a room full of people. And what's fun is watching them enter as meek little ninth graders and grow into the most confident public speakers you will have ever seen by the time they graduate from school. So these are two of those students.

[01:10:11] We also offer a couple different international collaborative research opportunities. These students are getting on a plane at Dulles Airport to fly to Germany for 10 days. We actually also have a relationship with a school in Singapore. that they we will be celebrating 20 years with the Singapore school we also have an Austria partnership so we try and find unique opportunities for our students as part of our programs one of the things we pride ourselves in is not only are you going to learn content you will learn math you will learn science you will learn trade skills but we also want you to learn transferable skills

[01:10:46] by the time you graduate from either Academy of Science Academy of Engineering or MATA you will have had those transferable skills that every employer and every college wants you to have once you get there. This is at last week's workforce summit. We took a bunch of students with Dr. Spence. They interviewed and practiced their interview skills with a bunch of different industry partners from around the region. We really try and make sure that by the time the students leave, they are ready for whatever they want to do next. They are confident and eager to go to college, confident and eager to take on that next career opportunity. We also have a white coat

[01:11:21] ceremonies, like we try and really celebrate and build a community around the programs that they are in. These are our health and medical sciences students. We have in total seven different health and medical science programs. That's 210-ish students standing there, all taking a pledge as part of their agreement as they enter into the programs to do their best to provide medical, you know, learn about providing medical service and being good providers of health care. And this is one of my favorite pictures. We have at, we have almost 80 clubs, CTSOs, and extracurricular

[01:11:56] activities. These are our students from our HOSA program. That's our health and medical sciences co-curricular program. Last year winning states, they won a gold medal at states last year and they were really excited. They wrote a book. They like literally wrote a book and a children's book about pediatric arthritis and about how like people coping with it and they put a lot of passion they like I had I interviewed them in a podcast and it was really fun and they were just so passionate about the content and they were super excited to win a state competition it like

[01:12:32] gives me chills every time I think about it they are just one of many stories of students like having just lifelong memories that they have created as a part of their programs. We were also fortunate enough to have our DIA office come out last week two weeks ago now and do some really really thorough walkthroughs we asked them to come out and kind of evaluate our school to see where we are from an equity lens in providing a an equitable learning environment where we have students forming relationships with their with their peers forming relationships with their teachers and I wanted to just share some glows and grows that we we got some feedback on

[01:13:11] because as a principal who never feels like he's doing a good enough job, like I always want to do things better, I'm always looking for things to fix, I have to stop and remember there are things to celebrate. We do have a lot of student autonomy. There are no passes at the Academies of Loudoun.

[01:13:27] There's no, like, the students ask for permission to do something, and the teachers just say go. Like, it is a very, as an administrator for the past 15 years, it is very strange to walk and just have a building where kids are just floating around the building all day. Open lunch where you have 1,200 kids eating lunch in every corner of the building at any one time is quite an experience that I had to get used to as a new principal.

[01:13:50] It was terrifying at first, but then I learned that students are amazing humans and they will rise to the expectations that you set for them. So we put a lot of trust in our students. They are very autonomous, and thank you for noticing that, team.

[01:14:07] We also have a big culture of rigor. We are always pushing people to do what is next, to reach beyond where they reached before. But that also comes with a level of mutual respect between our staff and our students. It is a very humbling place to work. If I walk around, students are always explaining things to me.

[01:14:25] I have to ask a lot of questions to understand what they're doing. And it is a very enjoyable place to just see people loving what they do. Some things that we're working on is our students and our staff love their content. They love math, they love science.

[01:14:42] We are trying to form relationships outside the classroom so we can learn beyond just the content, the connections that we have with each other. That gets into the, we have a lot of clubs that are around very academic themed content. We're trying to find some things that are a bit more relaxed and just more humanistic.

[01:14:59] We're also working on amplifying student voice outside of the classroom. We just started this week, video announcements, which I really love, that is all student driven. Students are like, it's a whole like news broadcast program. and we're trying to give students more of a voice. We have SCA, but we're really trying to leverage input from students so that they can help us solve the problems rather than us guessing about what they want.

[01:15:21] And I think it's really valuable. One of my favorite sayings is those closest to the solution are those closest to the problem. So if students are the ones experiencing the problem, they're probably the ones most apt and prepared to give us the best solution. So we are working on trying to capture that student voice.

[01:15:39] That is all I have. Thank you guys so much for coming. I'm going to turn it back over to my colleagues. Okay, so while we are just representing the Academies of Loudoun, I do think it's really important we have this amazing platform. And we do want you to just very quickly know that there are other opportunities out there for your student.

[01:16:00] So these are all secondary programs that are available for our students. They are four-year programs that your students can apply to their 8th grade year for their rising 9th grade year. So we just wanted to make you know that they are out there. So if something else will speak to your child, start doing that research as a family.

[01:16:18] The good news is, is that this admissions window has not opened yet. So you still have time as a family to do your research, get to know what these programs are about. And this window will open on December 1st. We do have a lovely table over there, and I did bring some special programs catalogs.

[01:16:37] So if you do think you could be interested, stop by. We do have the Access Academy. We have both the Navy and now we're very excited to have an Army ROTC as well. Thank you. We also have the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies.

[01:16:52] We have International Baccalaureate and then Health and Medical Science Academy. So things that really are gonna reach all of our students. So please stop by our table. We wanna make sure that you can grab a catalog, okay? Now I know that you have a ton of questions and we did run a little long.

[01:17:08] So we'll open it up to a few questions but we are going to stay for a little bit after the presentation. So if we don't get to all of our questions or you have one maybe that is about your particular student you're not comfortable sharing or about yourself as a student you're not comfortable sharing in this group, we'll be available.

[01:17:24] Come hang out with us, ask questions, grab some little swag, and grab some pamphlet information as well, okay? I'm gonna bring the rest of the team up 'cause some questions might be for different people. So we'll take a few questions and again, we will be here for you. We know you are excited to ask some of these things.

[01:17:43] first question. Thank you for the presentation. I did see some delegates taking pictures of slides. Have we made this presentation available to all the delegates so that they have it and they can refer back to it or share it at their schools? We will make sure that you get all the slides, slide deck, the whole nine yards like normal when we get everything back, the transcript and everything like that. So we see you taking the pictures, but we're going to make sure you have all the presentations and slides so you have that for your records and also, as Mr. Muhammad said, share to your community so we're not forgetting you we'll make sure you get it all and I will show too if you stop by and grab a sheet of paper there's a

[01:18:20] QR code that will take you to our website with our contact information we have a shared you can reach out to us for anything you might think of a question tomorrow the next day call us email us we'll get you all your answers okay where is the Army JROTC Stonebridge thank you love the presentation. Thank you. How does the Academies of Loudoun balance, say, with sports extracurricular

[01:18:57] if, you know, the students want to be able to participate in their sports homeschool but also be part of Academy of Loudoun? Fantastic question. So the Academies of Loudoun will end at 3 30 every day. The kids will hop back on their buses and transport them back to their homeschools before the bells ring that way if students need transportation and bus transportation home they'll have access to that and they will have full access to all of their clubs and activities

[01:19:25] after school as well great question um i have young kids so elementary school and below what does like the outreach look like for edge specifically thank you for that question so in this year we have kind of a hold on our field trips but we would offer field trips and we're revamping our model of how we offer field trips but in years past we have

[01:20:02] offered those trips for edge teachers to come and the way it works is the teacher would come and let's say there's 40 kids 20 of them would go on a tour of the school 20 of them would go with mrs. Hernandez and myself and they would do a stem related activity and then we would flip-flop and it was lots of fun And sometimes, if time allowed, they would eat lunch at the academies as well.

[01:20:32] Okay, thank you. Can I also plug, on my way here tonight, one of my science teachers reminded me that our Science National Honor Society on November 14th, is that a Saturday? November 14th is doing an elementary school science expo.

[01:20:50] You probably got some kind of flyer in the mail, so for elementary students, you can sign up and RSVP for that. I'll piggyback, piggyback. Because I got an email that 230 of those 300 spots are already taken. So if you're going to sign up, do so now.

[01:21:07] I guess I have a follow-up question. You said that tours and field trips are suspended. When are those going to be unsuspended? Is that like a next year thing? That's a great question. The reason they're on hold is because we want to make sure that we're offering the opportunity to all of our students.

[01:21:25] So instead of maybe people getting the chance just because they know or they know who to reach out to, We're trying to make it more equitable so that all of our students have access to our building at some point. So that is the why, and we're hoping to open up more next year. - Okay, so I can't just email our gifted lady and be like, "Hey, get on this, let's take the kit."

[01:21:44] Okay, yes. - Okay, well please stop them by the table. Again, grab some resources, grab the catalog if you're interested in learning more about all of our programs.

[01:22:00] Come get some swag and come get some information. Thank you all, we appreciate you for being here and giving us this platform. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay, so the last thing that we're going to do today before Erin comes up is last month we talked about revamping the website a bit.

[01:22:34] So I challenged everyone to kind of take a look and figure out what ideas you had for making those updates. And to review the website as both a delegate but as well as a parent, because a lot of our parents do go to our website to look for information.

[01:22:54] So what I'm trying to figure out is what do you feel is useful, what is outdated, what may be difficult to find. So I went ahead and I took a look myself and I kind of jotted down a few priorities that I want to go ahead and focus on initially.

[01:23:12] so our main page definitely needs to be updated to reflect this particular school year in our focus areas for our membership we do have an outdated application form up there so we definitely need to update that as people have been sending requests for information i have been sending them the updated form so we need to get that updated on the site our annual awards we do that every year so we do need to update that information and the link for that so that we can start accepting nominations for those annual awards. Our news and events link, we need to refresh the meeting dates,

[01:23:50] topics, and announcements. And also for our general body meeting minutes, just to update the destination and the link, I realized that that didn't work. And most importantly for me as a parent, just those resources. So to review the relevance, the usefulness, and the organization. So what I want to know from you today is what do you think would help? Are there any questions that families repeatedly ask you? Are there any LCPS services contacts or programs that are hard to locate through LCPS

[01:24:25] that we kind of can put those on our MSAC website and a link? What resources do you think we should highlight by grade level topic or needs for our particular communities? And how can this information can be easier to navigate, translate, and share throughout our department. So I did leave some paper on the tables. So I do want you guys to either talk among yourselves or if you have some ideas to go ahead and jot them down. I do want to take about 10 minutes and just kind of let you guys take a look at the website and go through it and see what information you have. If

[01:25:05] you did look at it last month and you have ideas, just jot those down and I'll pick those pages up

[01:25:11] in about 10 minutes. Right. Okay. Um, if you could leave your papers on your tables, um, after the

[01:37:35] meeting is over, I will walk around and pick those up. Um, I do want to thank everybody for your input. It, I was talking, walking around, talking to a few people and I'm like, for me to do the website by myself would be to me completely unreasonable because my needs could be different from everyone else in the room. I do have three older kids that are no longer in school and right now I just have one. So my needs are definitely a little bit different and I do have a very active boy child. So thank you for your feedback. I do plan to try and have that updated as soon as

[01:38:12] possible. I did get feedback to not wait and to go ahead and get the information updated so that you guys can take this information back to your schools. You can direct parents there and they can actually go and get accurate information. Okay and now I'm going to have Erin come up and give our special announcements.

[01:38:46] So hello and good evening everyone. For those of you that came in a little late. At the beginning of the meeting, Raquel announced that our chair, Jasmine Tyler, had to step down for personal reasons. And so because she's the only elected person on our executive

[01:39:22] board, wow, that was loud, we need to host a special election in order to have a replacement for the remainder of the school year so i'm going to walk us through what that process looks like and give you a link to the application and take any questions you might have about the special election so um if you were interested in serving um the first couple of questions i know you have would be who may apply and so we are asking that applicants be residents of loudon county virginia

[01:39:56] So to be residents of this county and you will find on the application that there are certain eligibility requirements. We would just like to know that you live here and you don't live in Maryland or Pennsylvania and you come on by because we're super cool people and you like to hang with us.

[01:40:16] We would just like somebody who lives in our county, who's a part of our community to serve in that role. To get you started, what happens is starting tomorrow, the application window will open and we will be putting a flyer in to Peach Jar and we will be putting it on all of our social media pages.

[01:40:36] and you will be able to follow a link and get the application. Or if you were interested in getting an application, you can reach out to our outreach chair, Charisse, and she can provide you with the application.

[01:40:52] But a couple slides from now, I'll have a QR code that'll take you directly to the application and you can scan it and save it and fill it out if you feel so led. You will need to submit your completed application to MSAC outreach at lcps.org by Friday, November 13th at 9 p.m. This will give us plenty of time to gather all of the applications to kind of make a delegate ballot, if you will, where we will provide you with their written statements, with their answers to the questions, and it will give

[01:41:26] us a time to make the ballot so we can have the vote like we did in both January and in May this year, this calendar year, and we will be able to elect our new chair. So you need to submit that application by Friday, November 13th at 9 p.m. That is the cutoff date. If you forget, we will not be accepting an application afterwards. So what happens next? So the special election will take place on November 18th at our next general body meeting. The elected chair will serve through

[01:42:00] the remainder of the 2026-2027 school year and they will come on board have meetings with the executive board and when we come back from our winter recess from december all the way through winter break you will we will have a new chair you'll hear from them uh in that kind of time phrase time frame to introduce themselves and we will have a new chair and they will lead the committee going through the remainder of the school year so looking ahead we're going to have two elections in this school year we will have our regular MSAC executive board committee

[01:42:38] nomination window open and we will have that election on May 19th 2027 at the final general body meeting of the school year so when that meeting is announced the positions all of the elected positions and the auxiliary positions will be open again unless those positions that are currently filled reach out to the current chair at that time and let them know they would like to stay on for another year but any position will be open for election and we will take the

[01:43:11] applications let you know when the window closes and we will have that election at that very last meeting in which we will we will onboard our new board we will recess for the summer and then when we go into the next school year we will have a new executive board and leadership to take us through the 2027-2028 school year does anybody have any questions so far yeah okay you sure all right um thank you for the question i i do want to and note my concern that this is the second

[01:43:47] year in the row that we are losing our chair and I hope that we can as a committee or as the school board maybe look for the systemic or root causes of perhaps these things and then the second thing that I wanted to propose is are we able to elect two positions instead of just one because Raquel did a great job and she ran and she you know would have been elected had the numbers come out And we would avoid a special election if we had a second person to be able to then take the spot.

[01:44:24] So is there a way we could change the bylaws? So we are electing two people in the case that this happens again, which given our track record for the past two years is likely, that we don't have to do another special election and that other person could take the charge. I will take both of your questions to, I'll go with your second question.

[01:44:43] With the second question, we operate under Robert's rules. So because Raquel was not elected, if Raquel had been elected as vice chair, we would not be having this discussion. She would already be moving into the role and fulfilling that role, and that's according to our bylaws.

[01:45:00] But because we do not have anyone elected in that role, any of the elected executive board roles, we have to fill it. The same thing happened last year when Ms. Jones stepped down, I stepped in as interim chair and held the line for us.

[01:45:17] And then I chose to run again to complete the school year. So we don't, we cannot, yes, we can talk about amending the bylaws, but currently our bylaws do not have a position for a chair or a co-chair. That is not something we have.

[01:45:33] We have a chair and a vice chair, and they would work as Ms. Parker and I did as partners. So we would have to amend the bylaws, have deep conversations with both the division of DEIA and our school board liaisons.

[01:45:50] We would have to talk to the necessary people in the division to let them know we want to make this change and have this conversation. But then we would have to put it to a vote after we made those changes and the entire delegate body would have to vote.

[01:46:05] but we would have to have an absolute quorum where the majority of our committee shows up to make that vote. So we can't say we're voting on this bylaws change and six delegates are in the room and 20 guests are in the room. We can't change the bylaws with partial or an incomplete quorum.

[01:46:23] To answer your second question, I will be completely transparent and honest with you. The chair role takes a lot, and it is easy to be like, I got it, I can do it. and even if you have intense conversations, when I ran my first year, I had meetings with our chair at that time, Ms. Bush.

[01:46:43] I had eight plus meetings, and some of those were two and three hour conversations. I thought I was equipped. I thought I was ready. We're having technical difficulties. I thought I could, I knew what I was gonna do. I was gonna run. I learned my lesson within the first week.

[01:47:01] It is a role that requires a lot of effort. It requires a lot of planning. Even if you have a full executive board, the burden is on you, where the committee is going, the leadership, what the commitment is, how we're going to act, how we're going to move, public statements and stuff like that.

[01:47:19] So it's not a lack of a structural issue. And I don't want people to think, oh, the committee is falling apart. It's just that if you get into it and it's overwhelming, you may have to take a step aside. And then we are also humans.

[01:47:34] we don't get paid to do this we have commitments to our families our schools our children our jobs our careers every sort of thing and even if you think you can do it you might have to step down so I want everyone to know this is not a structural issue this is not evidence that MSAC is collapsing and falling apart at the seams it just means that if you make this commitment you have to be prepared to know even if you are completely and totally prepared you're going to get overwhelmed there were days where I was standing up here cool as a cucumber and in the background I'm like oh my god I got to think about 15 different things I've got to be present in this conversation I've got to

[01:48:12] respond to this need and then I have to go to this meeting and I have to prepare for this this complication it is a lot that's why we have an immediate past chair to be kind of your rock when you come in as a chair but if conversations are not had if people think they can go in on their own and they got it then it is what it is but it's not the problem is a structure issue it's not that we can't handle it it's just that life happens and in this case two years in a row life happened to MSAC's chairs so we just have to decide that we're going to move forward the work

[01:48:48] goes on the commitment is still there you all are still in your schools advocating and taking this information back to your schools you're still holding the division accountable we just have to make up our minds that we got to go through some growing pains it stinks frankly it sucks but we got to go through this part to get to the next step to continue to be the great committee that we're always striving to be is there anywhere that lays out the responsibilities for each of

[01:49:22] the positions yes just to make sure that yes people are aware when you receive when you request we're just putting up the application but on the social media website and the outreach chair will have um the roles and the roles and responsibilities right now it'll just go out for the chair but in the election in may everyone will get access to the roles and responsibilities and what the expectations are for each role in there and it's also in our bylaws but if everybody would like it i can make sure i can we i get that information to raquel i've got a copy saved on my computer

[01:49:58] and she can send that out as well when we send out the meeting information and meeting minutes from tonight. Yes. Thank you for those answers, Erin. I think answer number two makes me think that number one, the request for either a co-chair or two elected structures is actually even more of an equitable lens, given that the chair role is so extensive in such a large undertaking.

[01:50:27] it may, since we are the minority student achievement committee, we should also be invested in the achievement of the leadership of this committee. And so if it is a big undertaking through an equity lens for one person to take, then we should in good faith be doing it, at least dividing the, the responsibilities between two people, having two elected, at a minimum two elected individuals, so that that can be something that is sustainable and that is done you know equitably right and it is a very valid point and it's a very valid idea to consider

[01:51:05] we would just have to have those conversations and figure out what that looks like yeah i just wanted to add i think this is a great conversation we can put into a request in terms of questions to legal counsel regarding uh if amendments or changes to the bylaws can be made what does that process look like? How do you go about doing it? And I think that in order to do that first, you have to have a new elected chair because that would fulfill the missing part right now

[01:51:40] that is included in those bylaws. And then to be very clear on informing all delegates, things about quorums and voting and meetings. I know it's a difficult thing. People have a lot on their plates as far as their families their jobs but as you can see as we were kind of getting after the presentations people were leaving the meeting so so those people aren't hearing the same unless they go back and look at the the notes or the the video and so that's one of the other

[01:52:16] things is how do we keep everybody abreast of what's going on because there could be some key information that people aren't getting because participation sometimes isn't exactly where we at a heightened level where we want it to be let's just call it what it is and so in order to make sure everybody's on the same page that's also a thing in terms of the communication because we want everybody to be successful and we want to make sure that this committee is successful but we also have things that help to govern that that we have to abide by so I think the next we should

[01:52:51] have a an email or that question ready to go specifically on what we're looking for to go to legal and I will send that to them and give the response and then provide it back so that it can be shared with with all the delegates definitely I think that's something that we should do and consider because this is going to be a long conversation in two or three years ago three years ago we amended the bylaws and that was a entirety of the school year process because we had to the executive board had to write the change and then we went on we went through as an executive board to edit it.

[01:53:30] We had to speak with our liaison at the time, Ms. Spurlock, and ask her, could we say this this way? Could we ask this, can we phrase this this way? And we went back and forth. We had to speak to legal. So I want everyone to know, the fix is there. Just some things are incredibly process laden.

[01:53:47] And this is one of those things that we can't just flip over the bylaws and say, we're gonna rewrite how it operates. We're gonna rewrite how we do it. We're gonna rewrite how it functions. We have to take those necessary steps. So if you do have an idea of a question you'd like for us to ask legal, I would ask you to send that to both myself and to Raquel.

[01:54:07] And we can go through those questions and we can put those together and we can get those to Mr. Muhammad and we can get that ball rolling. And I do know that legal will get back to us and we can ask that particular question. We can even connect with Dr. Rashid and get her feedback on what we're looking for.

[01:54:23] But I do want you all to know that the committee will still keep going. the committee will still continue to do the work. It feels chaotic, it feels like, okay, here we are again, what's wrong with us? As long as you all keep showing up and you keep asking the questions, you keep listening and you keep taking this information back, MSAC is still functioning, we're still relevant, we're still important, we're still needed, we're not disappearing.

[01:54:47] And so, the application is there. Again, if you just keep an eye out for, sorry, it's telling me I'm supposed to go to sleep. if you would just keep an eye out for the application and the things on social, share it out.

[01:55:02] And I would like to offer that if you are interested in running for chair and you wanna know the details and you wanna know what it takes and you wanna know what the experience is like, as Doc Holliday would say, I'm your Huckleberry. I am willing to have a conversation, meet you with coffee, get on a Zoom or a Teams, I don't like Teams, but answer your questions so you understand.

[01:55:23] So if you choose to apply in these next few weeks, you have a full understanding of what the role is or a better understanding, I'll say, and what you will be expecting going into the remainder of the school year. Because we're gonna have our last meeting, we're gonna get to take a little break, but then we hit the ground running because the spring is always our busiest time as a committee where we are present and we are showing up and showing out and reminding people that this is what MSAC does.

[01:55:49] So with that, I am going to step aside. Actually, no, I'm going to take this out and switch it back over so Ms. Raquel can, I know, technical difficulties, Raquel, technical difficulties.

[01:56:07] - It's been a day. All right, so thanks, Erin, and thanks for all the questions. So as she said, we're still delegates, we still have our jobs to do, so share this information with your communities, meet with your PTOs, give them the information that you learned here.

[01:56:28] The presentations that we get here at MSAC can help everyone. I learned so much just from being a delegate over the last, this is my fifth year, just by coming to these meetings and learning things about LCPS. And the praise that I get at the PTO meetings are amazing because it's things that they don't even know.

[01:56:51] So we'll have other meetings later in the year that talks about the school's website, their goals and testing and all the things. Even Dr. Rasheed came up here today and talked to us about the calendar. Those are conversations that we don't get to have anywhere else.

[01:57:08] So share this information with your communities, with your schools, with your families. And if you come up with any other questions or thoughts about the website, shoot me an email. I'll be working on it over the next few weeks just to get that information updated so you do have an accurate place to send your families to get the information that they need.

[01:57:33] And we'll send out the special election information like Erin said. And our next meeting will be Wednesday, November 18th. And I love Jasmine's theme for the year because empowerment starts with connection, information, and participation, which we're all doing by showing up here today.

[01:57:53] So thank you. And visit the Academies of Loud on Table before you leave. Yes. Oh, there it is.

[01:58:16] That's it. Hang on.

[01:58:42] Because I would ask a question. Like, I would ask a couple of people. Like, why do you set that?

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