Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 4th Tuesday School Board Meeting and FY28 Budget Work Session, Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 7h 14m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1238582612?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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:55] all right good evening everyone we're calling to order this tuesday october 27th 2026 fourth tuesday school board meeting uh i have been advised that um i have been advised that there are individuals who are requesting remote participation in tonight's meeting ms chandler

[00:02:23] are you there yes madam chair my apologies for the delay um i am here excellent thank you uh ms chandler uh chair chandler uh we've been advised that you would like to participate remotely in tonight's meeting is that correct yes ma'am thank you can you please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter i am in tempe arizona and technically it is a

[00:03:00] personal matter although i have traveled um to tempe so that i can attend a strategic planning conference on behalf of the school board starting tomorrow at 8 a.m. thank you and is anyone present with you at this location no no one is with me okay thank you uh chair chandler uh i believe has not used any personal this is oh this is the second okay this is this is your second uh personal exemption for remote participation this year that is correct i will entertain a motion for chair

[00:03:40] Chandler's request to participate remotely. Is there a motion? Mr. Pepper. I move that Chair Chandler be allowed to participate in this meeting remotely. Second. Thank you. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. Is there any discussion? I assume no.

[00:03:58] Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Different layout tonight. School board members, please cast your vote. Are we having some difficulties, Mr. Pepper? There it goes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously with the seven

[00:04:34] members of the school board who are present. Thank you. Welcome to the meeting, Chair Chandler. I have been advised that Dr. Rasheed has also requested remote participation in tonight's school board meeting. Dr. Rasheed, can you please confirm your request? Tell us your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. This is a medical matter and i am currently in my home and i confirm my absence there physically thank you very much

[00:05:10] dr rasheed this is a medical exemption which we have unlimited medical exemptions is there a motion to allow dr rasheed to participate remotely in tonight's meeting so moved thank you mr svensson is there a second second thank you ms shernoff that prop that motion has been properly made by by Mr. Svensson and seconded by Ms. Chernoff.

[00:05:32] Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, can you please cast your vote? And Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? - Yes.

[00:05:49] - Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously with all eight members present for the meeting. Welcome to the meeting, Dr. Rasheed. - Thank you. - Okay, next we will move on to disclosures.

[00:06:12] Chair Chandler, can you please start? Yes, ma'am. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with an item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:06:32] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest.

[00:06:51] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Chair Chandler. I will go next. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance, and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:07:16] Specifically, my spouse, my minor children, and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance. Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me. These subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse, my minor children, my sister-in-law, and I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years this is Griffiths thank you vice

[00:07:54] chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and our health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees specifically as a school board member I am eligible receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits however affect thousands of employees as well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public's

[00:08:33] interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you Mrs. Griffiths. Ms. LaBelle. Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board I i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with tonight's item on the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for lcps employees specifically as a school board member i'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an lcps

[00:09:11] employee in addition as a former lcps employee i as well as my husband received medicare advantage insurance benefits through LCPS these benefits however affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which my spouse and I are included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you miss LaBelle miss Riccardi thank you madam vice-chair as

[00:09:48] a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits however affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the Clerk of the School Board for five

[00:10:27] years. Thank You Ms. Riccardi and Ms. Chernoff. Thank You Madam Vice Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these benefits however affect thousands of employees well in the excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected of which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for

[00:11:07] five years thank you miss Chernoff and with that we will move on to item number three the business consent agenda are there any changes to the business consent agenda. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the business consent agenda? Motion to approve the business consent agenda. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. That motion has been properly made by Ms. Chernoff and seconded by Mr. Pepper. Madam Clerk, can you please

[00:11:38] open the vote? Board members, can you please cast your vote? Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. And Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote?

[00:12:05] That motion passes with eight board members in support, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, Chair Chandler, myself, Vice-Chair Donahue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and one abstention, Ms. LaBelle.

[00:12:20] We will now move on to item number four on our agenda, the proclamation consent agenda. Before we vote on this, I will ask board members to read the proclamations that are before us tonight. Starting with item 4.01, Office of the Superintendent, Native American Heritage Month Proclamation, which will be read by Dr. Rashid.

[00:12:43] Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. Native American Heritage Month. Whereas Native Americans are a diverse group of indigenous people native to the continent of North America with a rich cultural heritage, Archaeological evidence suggests people have lived in the Americas for at least 23,000 years, with many indigenous groups believing their ancestors have lived on the land from time immemorial.

[00:13:09] And whereas there are over 570 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., each with distinct languages, cultures, and housing traditions, and whereas Native American Heritage Month was established in 1990 when President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November as National American Indian Heritage Month.

[00:13:29] During November, we show appreciation and acknowledgement for the unique contributions made by the first Americans for the growth and establishment of the United States. And whereas November is the time to rejoice in the Native American cultures, histories, and traditions, and to appreciate the great contributions of the Native Americans that are indelible in our lives.

[00:13:49] Through awareness, we not only celebrate Native Americans, but also educate people about the various challenges faced by Native Americans in the past and today. And whereas the terms Native American, American Indian, and Indigenous have different meanings and levels of acceptance, and it is important to respect how individuals and groups choose to identify, and whereas our school division is stronger when we reflect and respect the full diversity of our school community, helping enable 97% of all students in Loudoun County Public Schools to graduate in 2026.

[00:14:20] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes November 2026 as Native American Heritage Month. Be it further resolved that the Loudoun County School Board encourages our students, staff, and community to observe, recognize, celebrate, and learn about Native American history and contributions to our country, the Commonwealth of Virginia, our beautifully diverse county, and our schools during Native American Heritage Month and throughout the school year.

[00:14:46] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Our next proclamation for National Homeless Youth Awareness Month will be read by Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Whereas November was first declared as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month in 2007, and every year, hundreds of thousands of American families become homeless, including more than 1.3 million children, according to Schoolhouse Connection.

[00:15:13] And whereas there were about 1.2 million students enrolled in public school in Virginia during the 25-26 fall membership counts, according to the Virginia Department of Education, with about 10,927 of those students identified as experiencing homelessness, and whereas the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act provides educational rights and services to children and youth experiencing homelessness in grades pre-K to 12, including those 21 years and younger who are found eligible for services under IDEA, special education and whereas as defined by the mckinney-vento homeless assistance act

[00:15:50] youth and children experiencing homelessness are individuals who lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence including those sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing economic hardship or a similar reason are living in motels hotels trailer parks or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations are living in emergency or transitional shelters or are abandoned in hospitals, and whereas the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act further defines youth and children experiencing homelessness as those who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or

[00:16:26] ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including those who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings, and whereas the population of youth experiencing homelessness also includes migratory youth, as well as unaccompanied youth who have left home for one or more nights without permission, youth who have been kicked out of their homes, are abandoned, deserted, or prevented from returning home, and whereas Loudoun County Public Schools continues to support students experiencing homelessness and identified approximately 1,446 students experiencing

[00:17:03] homelessness in the 2025-2026 school year, allowing them to receive a stable education despite the uncertainty of their living situation. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes November 2026 as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month in Loudoun County Public Schools and encourages school community support to help all youth engage in education and experience both academic and personal success.

[00:17:30] Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Our next proclamation for National Adoption Month will be read by Chair Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas more than 100,000 children in our nation's foster care system are waiting to be adopted, longing for the love, connection, and stability that a permanent family can offer, and whereas some young people age out of foster care without being adopted, it is crucial that we work together to support these youth in staying in school, gaining job skills, managing their finances, and preparing for successful adult lives.

[00:18:07] During the 2025-2026 school year, Loudoun County Public Schools served 30 students in foster care, including 16 students without disabilities who spent a combined 2,093 days in foster care placements and 14 students with disabilities who spent a combined 1,354 days in foster care placements.

[00:18:28] and whereas. During the National Adoption Month, we honor the love and connection shared by adoptive families across the country. We celebrate the millions of adopted and kinship families who provide safe, nurturing homes. We also express our gratitude to foster families and the dedicated professionals who play a vital role in supporting children and families. We stand with foster youth and adoptees of all ages and remind them that they are not alone. We also encourage those considering adoption to take this meaningful step and to provide a permanent loving home for a child.

[00:19:03] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes November 2026 as National Adoption Month. We encourage all Americans to observe this month by supporting children and youth in their communities in finding permanent homes where they can experience the love and connection they need to flourish. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Our final proclamation for this evening acknowledging school psychologist week will be read by Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. Not used to saying it that way. Whereas all children and youth learn best when they are

[00:19:42] healthy, supported, safe, and receive an education that enables them to thrive academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally, and whereas schools can more effectively ensure that all students are able to learn when they meet the needs of the whole child and provide culturally responsive, multi-tiered supports, and whereas the children's mental health is directly linked to their learning and development, and the learning environment provides an optimal context to promote good mental health through correctedness, connected with school and community, and

[00:20:18] whereas sound psychological principles are integral to instruction and learning, social and emotional development, prevention, early intervention, and school safety, and reverence for the LCPS commitment to equity for all students and whereas school psychologists are specially trained to provide access to continuum of mental health services and academic supports that lower barriers to teaching and learning and whereas school psychologists help children thrive by nurturing their individual strengths across both personal and academic endeavors and whereas school psychologists are trained to access student and systems

[00:20:58] based barriers to learning as well as individual strengths utilize database decision-making implement research-driven prevention and intervention strategies and evaluate outcomes that improve accountability and whereas the residents of Loudoun County should recognize the vital role that school psychologists play in the mental health social emotional behavioral and academic development of all children now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes November 9th through 13th 2026 as School Psychologists Week in the Loudoun County Public Schools to

[00:21:35] highlight the positive contributions that school psychologists make to the school division. Thank you Ms. LaBelle. I will now entertain a motion to approve the proclamation consent agenda. I move to approve the proclamation consent agenda. Thank you Mr. Svensson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Mr. Pepper. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Svensson and seconded by Mr. Pepper.

[00:22:00] Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, can you please record your vote? Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote?

[00:22:20] Thank you. That passes unanimously with five board members in support, including Mr. Svensson, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and and four members abstaining, Ms. Riccardi, Ms. Chernoff, Mrs. Griffiths, and Ms. LaBelle.

[00:22:41] We'll now move on to item number 5.01, our first work session of the evening. Tonight, for our first work session, we will hear from the Department of Support Services, who will provide an update to the board on fiscal year 2027 student enrollment and provide fiscal year 28 through fiscal year 33 enrollment forecast.

[00:23:02] Our presenters are Mr. Adnan Mamoun, Chief Operations Officer, Ms. Beverly Tate, Director of Planning and GIS Services. Mayor Mamoun and Ms. Tate, the floor is yours. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue.

[00:23:23] Good afternoon, members of the board. Dr. Spence, before we dive into our enrollment report for September 30th of this year, as well as enrollment projections for the next six years, we wanted to begin with a broader perspective on the demographic trends shaping public school enrollment across Virginia as well as Northern Virginia.

[00:23:46] We believe that that context will help inform how we understand our local projections. So joining us this evening virtually is Mr. Zach Jackson. He's the school enrollment projections manager with the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

[00:24:10] Mr. Jackson leads the center's school enrollment projections work and holds a bachelor's and master's degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech. Mr. Jackson, thank you for joining us this evening, and I'll turn it over to you for your presentation.

[00:24:47] Mr. Jackson, we heard you briefly, but then you dropped out. Are you still with us? Hello, yes. I'm sorry.

[00:25:06] Perfect. There you are. Please continue. I'm unclear. I'm sorry. Is this my presentation slot? I think I may have become unmuted, and I apologize for that.

[00:25:35] You're not projecting your presentation. Okay. Just one second. I apologize.

[00:25:54] Now we see your slides, Mr. Jackson, and you, so hopefully we're in a good place here. You're still on mute, though.

[00:26:44] I apologize for the technical issues. Can you hear me? We can hear you now. Thank you. - Okay, okay, sorry about that. If now is the right time, I'm happy to start.

[00:26:59] And again, I apologize for the confusion at the start. - No need to apologize. We appreciate you joining us this evening. And yes, please go ahead. - Okay, well, it's my pleasure to be here. I'll first introduce myself. My name is Zach Jackson.

[00:27:15] I'm a senior researcher at the University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. In addition to my many responsibilities, I am in charge of producing our school enrollment projections for Virginia's 131 school divisions.

[00:27:37] Today, I'm joining you all to discuss Northern Virginia school enrollment trends and enrollment projections for this region based on our last round of school turnover projections which were released in March of this year. So I like to start these sort of presentations with an idea of where

[00:28:10] we were before the pandemic, where we thought we would be before the pandemic, and where we are now after the pandemic. We can see if we look at our blue line, which shows actual enrollment that K-12 enrollment in the Northern Virginia region grew by about 19,000 students or 4.7% from 2015 to 2019. If we were looking at this line, then we may have expected growth just to

[00:28:44] continue indefinitely. But even before the pandemic, we expected that enrollment in this area would begin to decline beginning in the fall of 2023. If we pay attention to our highlighted area of the line graph, we can see that this 2020 projection didn't exactly come to bear.

[00:29:09] Instead, this region lost about 15,000 students into the fall of 2020. In addition to that, enrollment trends following 2020 or following this initial enrollment shock haven't been particularly clear.

[00:29:29] We haven't seen exactly the recovery in enrollment that some may have expected early on. And we also haven't seen the gentle decline that we were anticipating before the pandemic. Instead, from 2021 to 2024 enrollment, mostly hovered around 400,000 students before dropping by nearly 2%, or about 7,000 students into the fall of 2025.

[00:30:00] I want to first speak to why we would have expected enrollment to decline before the pandemic, and even in this sort of era of, at the state level, nearly three decades of uninterrupted or virtually uninterrupted K-12 enrollment growth.

[00:30:23] This graph shows two lines. Our line in blue shows annual births or the number of children born to mothers residing in Virginia each year. Our orange line shows the number of kindergartners that enroll in Virginia schools five years later.

[00:30:47] And we can just immediately see that these two lines are very related. Before the pandemic, kindergarten enrollment reflected or resembled about 90% of the number of children born five years earlier.

[00:31:08] To the left of this highlighted portion of births, we can just imagine a longer and perhaps some steeper increase in births, which mostly started around 1995 for a lot of Virginia localities.

[00:31:28] Births increased from 1995, peaking at 2007 at around 108,000 births. I have three years of births highlighted here, 2006 to 2008, because these are, in a historical context, abnormally large birth cohorts. And as I mentioned, this kindergarten line is highly related to births, and I have three years of kindergarten enrollment also highlighted. This is when these three

[00:32:02] birth cohorts born from 2006 to 2008 began kindergarten from 2011 to 2013. And in this presentation, I'll refer to these three cohorts as the peak birth cohorts because they are really very important for enrollment trends moving forward. So at the state level, after 2013, we see births start to noticeably decline before sort of leveling off around 5,000 or so fewer

[00:32:38] births compared to the peak. We see a similar flattening in kindergarten enrollment after an initial decline in 2014. This trend in Northern Virginia contrasts a little bit with state trends.

[00:32:58] Annual births in Northern Virginia did come to a short-term peak, if you will, in 2007, but really continued to grow up into 2012. And if we just revisit the births line at the state level this this is quite a bit different um kindergarten enrollment uh does better resemble the the statewide um enrollment trend i i showed on the on the previous slide where we have a

[00:33:30] a clear sort of cresting of this wave in 2012 and 2013 um then a bit of decline into 2015 unlike the state, however, kindergarten enrollment did begin to increase and reach near peak levels just before the pandemic. The increase in kindergarten class sizes had a cumulative effect on K-12 enrollment

[00:34:03] As progressively larger kindergarten classes entered the K-12 system, enrollment started to grow, I would say, from the bottom up. And if we look at the blue line at the top of this slide, which shows our actual enrollment for grades K-5, we can see what this looked like before the pandemic.

[00:34:33] So from 2015, 2016, and 2017, these large cohorts were still in grades K-5, and as they advanced through higher grades, they generally grew K-5 enrollment. If we look towards a pandemic, however, we can see that K-5 enrollment actually begins to decline as the three largest kindergarten cohorts, which had been swelling K-5 enrollment, moved into grades 6 to 8.

[00:35:00] And correspondingly, we can see that before the pandemic in 2017, 2018, and 2019, middle school enrollment actually begins to peak as these larger cohorts move through. Also, enrollment for grades 9 through 12 generally increased before the pandemic, as I mentioned, these progressively larger cohorts were moving through higher grades.

[00:35:29] The impact of the pandemic is very apparent when we look at the K-12 line. There's a big drop at the state level of about 40,000 students, at the regional level about 15,000 students. But we can see, if we focus on the highlighted portion of this graph, that not every grade band was impacted the same.

[00:35:51] So what's very evident when we look at this is that cohorts that were in grades K to five were disproportionately impacted by the enrollment decline that followed the onset of the pandemic.

[00:36:08] The cohorts that were in grades K to four in 2019 lost about 5,500 students as they progressed into grades one through five in 2020. In addition to that, the smallest kindergarten class in 2008 entered regional schools trailing the 2019 kindergarten class by about 4,300 students.

[00:36:39] Overall, this sort of bubbled up to a total loss of nearly 12,000 students at the K-5 level. Grades 6 to 8 only mildly declined, especially in comparison to K-5 trends, and grades 9 to 12 actually increased.

[00:37:01] The mechanism of this is a little different compared to K-5. Amid the pandemic, these large cohorts that have been pushing up enrollment in K-5 and then pushing up enrollment in grades 6 through 8 started to move into this 9 through 12 grade band.

[00:37:22] These cohorts still lost students into fall 2020, but because they were larger, they just had a little bit more room to absorb those losses, and we don't see the same kinds of enrollment decline that we see in grades K-5 or even grades K-6, or 6 to 8, excuse me.

[00:37:42] If we look after our highlighted period, we can actually see some interesting changes in grade band enrollment trends. As I mentioned before, K-5 enrollment began to decline before the pandemic as the last of the increasing kindergarten cohorts moved into grades 6 to 8 and were backfilled by smaller cohorts.

[00:38:11] We can see that from 2021 to 2023, K-5 enrollment actually began to increase again. And our research points to a heightened level of recovery in cohorts that were in elementary school grades following the pandemic, which helped to offset some of the declines that we might have expected before the pandemic.

[00:38:43] Grades 9 to 12 continued to grow as these larger cohorts approached the 12th grade and got ready to graduate. And sort of continuing our K-5 trend before the pandemic, we can see that middle school enrollment actually would begin to decline again because these larger cohorts were moving out of these grades into grades 9 through 12. So amid the recovery in grades K to 5 that I mentioned following the pandemic, kindergarten enrollment was still declining

[00:39:20] in Northern Virginia. We can see that from 2014 to 2020, the number of annual births in this region dropped by about 5,000. Consequently, the number of kindergartners decreased from about 30,000 uh to 25 000 in um in 2025 this slide i think is is maybe one of the hardest to wrap your heads

[00:39:53] around but perhaps the the most telling um so i mentioned when we when began this presentation that a period of increased births from um 2000 or a period of very elevated or abnormally large births from 2006 to 2008 created three of the largest kindergarten cohorts.

[00:40:20] The state and this region saw beginning school from 2011 to 2013, and I've got them highlighted here on the blue line of this chart, which represents kindergarten enrollment. And as I've mentioned, kindergarten enrollment has generally decreased since the pandemic.

[00:40:39] Northern Virginia trends contrast a little bit with statewide trends. There was a bump in kindergarten enrollment right before the pandemic, but especially after the pandemic, the state trajectory and the regional trajectory of kindergarten are basically the same.

[00:40:55] Smaller cohorts have been entering division schools, and as they've progressed into higher grades, they've slowly replaced the larger cohorts that entered before BIRTS began to decline, pulling enrollment down with them.

[00:41:13] All the while, and I mentioned on the previous slide that despite the pandemic and in recent years, grade 9 through 12 or high school enrollment has been growing. All the while, we're seeing this continued decline in kindergarten enrollment.

[00:41:30] We're seeing that decline with each passing year sort of bubble up through the lower grades. We've been seeing a steady increase in K-12 or in grade 12 enrollment. And this is because these larger cohorts that entered regional schools before 2013 have been slowly reaching the 12th grade.

[00:41:54] And despite this longstanding, now longstanding kindergarten trend and K-5 trends, grade 6 to 8 trends, has continued to grow as these students enter and now are beginning to leave high school. So if we look at the highlighted portion of our orange line, those are the same students that began school between 2011 and 2013.

[00:42:20] So in spring of this year, the last of these large cohorts graduated, meaning that only the cohorts that began school after kindergarten class sizes started to decline, after birth started to decline, remain in the K-12 system, both in the region and in the state.

[00:42:43] And what this means is sort of a sea change moment for enrollment, if you will. Kindergarten enrollment is expected to decline as births are expected to decline. But now for the first time, and we can see 20 years, we're expecting that grade 12 enrollment will also begin to decline.

[00:43:05] meaning that at the state level and at the regional level, this enrollment decline that started back in 2014 in kindergarten now touches all grades. As you may expect, based on what I've been explaining, we're expecting that enrollment in the Northern Virginia region will continue to

[00:43:35] decline over the next five years, we're expecting a decrease of nearly 6% or 22,000 students. This is a bit sharper than previous projections, A, because there's no longer these larger cohorts in the school system to sort of offset this projected demographically driven enrollment decline, and B, the rate of enrollment decline from fall 2024 to fall 2025, but at the regional

[00:44:14] level at the state level was quite a bit higher than we would have projected in 2023, suggesting that some factors beyond the demographic aspects that I've been mostly discussing in this presentation brought on a greater extent of decline. If we take another look at this K-12 trajectory and we zoom into our grade bands, we can see that projected enrollment decline is really concentrated in grades K-5, and this is almost solely because the number of children born

[00:44:53] in the region and, for that matter, in the state has continued to decline. Obviously, because of that the supply of children eligible to enroll in kindergarten has also declined.

[00:45:12] Grades six to eight enrollment, we expect to remain relatively stable and the same goes for enrollment for grades nine to 12. This contrasts with state level trends and is largely due to the fact that the Northern Virginia region Didn't see the same consistent decline in kindergarten enrollment prior to the pandemic.

[00:45:38] This table runs through our 2025 division level enrollment projections for the eight divisions that are included in the Northern Virginia regional definition that I used for this presentation.

[00:45:55] As it relates to Loudoun County, We forecasted a decline of 4,650 students or nearly 6% over the next five years. It's important to note that these projections begin in 2026.

[00:46:14] We're at fall of 2026 now. So with one more year of enrollment data, expectations around enrollment for Loudoun County will largely change. I believe these presentations will probably be a bit dated compared to what staff will present later on during the board meeting.

[00:46:34] So I wanna just touch on three trends to recap what I've discussed here. I know it's been quite a lot. Overall, Northern Virginia trends track very closely with state level trends. Meeting that continued decline in the number of children being born each year in Virginia is having a dominant influence on K-12 enrollment trends.

[00:47:00] if we consider the regional aspect here, because birds began to decline more noticeably in 2017 compared to 2007 at the state level, this impact has a bit declined, but nevertheless, we're expecting that the continued losses or recent losses in birds in the Northern Virginia region will create the sharpest losses in grades K to five, contributing to a 5.6% decline in K-12 enrollment overall.

[00:47:36] So I thank you for your time. I realize this is a lot of content to get through. So I am happy to answer any questions, any clarifying questions you may have, or if there's something I might've missed, I'm happy to address it.

[00:47:53] So again, thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Board members, do you have questions for Mr. Jackson at this time? Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you so much for this presentation. I am relatively new to your organization, but I've heard really great things about it and the projection numbers and I know that many divisions across the Commonwealth use it and so I just had a couple questions for you. I'm trying to

[00:48:27] really wrap my head around the expectations of the formulas and how we're choosing or how we're getting to the numbers that we're looking at and if we need to start rethinking how we're calculating these numbers going forward.

[00:48:45] This year, we were off by about 2,000-ish students, and it totaled about $13.5 million of money that we're not going to be getting from the state. So I was just curious, did you have a projection in here for the fall 2026 enrollment numbers for Loudoun?

[00:49:11] If that question is directed at me, no, we rely on the Virginia Department of Education to provide us with enrollment data, and that data is usually conveyed to us in the weeks before Thanksgiving, so we're just a few weeks early on or before we typically get that data.

[00:49:31] So you guys didn't make a projection, I mean, because I see like on slide number 10, there's a projection for Loudoun County for the fall 2025, but I guess those numbers would be from VDOE, is that right? I may have misunderstood your question.

[00:49:48] I apologize. The first year of our most recent statewide projections is 2026. So that's the first year we're projecting. We've obviously passed fall 2026 in terms of school enrollment. We don't have the data from the Virginia Department of Education to create a new series of projections.

[00:50:10] So from actual fall 2026 beginning to 2027. Okay, I'm just trying to figure out, I guess, just to be super direct and straightforward about it, I'm just trying to figure out if you all projected a fall 2026 enrollment number for Loudoun County versus what we projected, because I'm just trying to kind of triangulate the data and figure out how we're doing that.

[00:50:33] I've overcomplicated your question, and I apologize for that. Yes, we do have a projected number for 2026. It is not on this slideshow, or it's not on this table, But I can tell you I would have to find it.

[00:50:56] It's not something I have just immediately. That's okay. If we could just get it. Because, again, I'm just trying to figure out kind of who got closest to the right number is really what I'm looking for at some point in time. And I say that because I chair our performance monitoring committee.

[00:51:11] So the data is really what, you know, I'm looking at the data really closely. And I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to get there. Yeah, I totally understand. And I just found the number, our projected K-12 enrollment for Loudoun County for fall 2026 was 78,584 K-12 students.

[00:51:35] - Not bad, where are we right now? - 78,130. - There you go, okay. - 173, I'm sorry. - Yeah, that's great, okay. I appreciate that information.

[00:51:50] It's pretty spot on for where we're at right now, so that's good to know. Thank you so much. of course thank you board members any other questions for mr. Jackson none mr. Mamoun and miss Tate I believe you also have a presentation for us or is yours thank you vice-chair Donahue and board members thank you

[00:52:26] I think he's still on this afternoon we too will be reviewing the student enrollment we will review the September 30 enrollment more detailed student by school and grade are included in your board agenda items we will also be speaking to the enrollment projections for the FY 28 through FY 33 period with a focus most certainly on this coming September 30 2027 as referenced by mr.

[00:52:59] Jackson and his presentation public schools across Northern Virginia area even broader Metro and u.s. are experiencing declines in student enrollments driven by lower birth rates, by shifting migration patterns, and rising housing costs.

[00:53:16] Loudon is not alone in this, in what we're experiencing, and I will touch on these components as we review the coming slides. So as we just mentioned, and kudos to Weldon Cooper, we projected over 80,000. We were 2,000 students over our projection, where we reported 78,173 students on September 30th.

[00:53:44] This chart depicts our enrollment since 1967, showing a steady increase where we peaked in 2019 with just over 84,000 students. We have, right now, we are more comparable to our September 30, 2026, where we just had over 79,000 students.

[00:54:08] Projections, as we have often said, are an informed educated estimate of future students that are used by school divisions for budgeting staffing and facility planning this slide provides you the projected enrollments for the next six planning years reflecting a decline related again to changes in birth rates population demographics residential construction including housing affordability as well as migration patterns the projected losses as mr jackson noted in his presentation are primarily

[00:54:45] in the elementary grades although we will see them in our secondary grades too this illustrates our share of students by grade level looking at k-12 only so just to give you a few numbers to relate to this the 42.5 percent of the k-12 enrollment for elementary which is the orange line in 2021 was 34 000 students this year we are just just nearly at 32 000 and in the fall of 2032 we're

[00:55:21] projecting just over 27 000 students the blue line which is the middle school and looks relatively stable in part because it's only three grades in 2021 we had more than 19 000 students we are sitting just about 18 500 for this current year and then we're projected just under 17 000 in the fall of 2032 the high school level again 9 through 12 it's showing a increase in part as mr jackson

[00:55:54] alluded to our younger children are aging and so in 2021 we had about 27 000 students and by the end of this planning period were just about 25,000 students. Again we're going to talk about births way too much but it is kind of what's driving our younger grades. Nationally one of the biggest factors in declining enrollments is definitely birth rates and we are right now on a record low.

[00:56:25] Loudon's resident birth rate peaked in 2015. I believe Mr. Jackson alluded to Virginia peaking around 2012, but we peaked in 2015, and that decline is in part tied to a number of factors where women are electing to not have children.

[00:56:45] They're having them later in life, and so they're having fewer children, and then in part having them later in life, families are more established. They're financially more stable, so they can actually choose where they live.

[00:57:00] They've got more expendable income, and so that is influencing a lot of our decisions here as we made our projections. And lower birth rates obviously relate to lower kindergarten enrollment, so it segues to this slide. And this shows our capture rate, which measures how many students are born in Loudoun compared to how many enroll in kindergarten the five years later.

[00:57:24] The chart, well, you'll note, is an October to September range. It's not an actual annual year count because our kindergarten, you have to be five on or before September 30th. So we're looking at an October to the following September rate. So when you look at those children that were born in the late 2020s, going into 2021, we had 4,833 children born to resident Loudoun mothers.

[00:57:52] And this year, we had 4,545 kindergarten students enrolled on September 30. So what does this tell you? This tells you that our birth rate is at 94%. You will look in those earlier years of this chart where we were exceeding 100%. So not only in Loudoun were we experiencing the resident birth rate, but we were also experiencing a number of new homes being built and people moving to Loudoun County. We were building new elementary school after new elementary school after new elementary school. We were opening a new school at least once a year,

[00:58:28] maybe one a year so right now we are at a 94 percent and that is influencing again what we're going to be projecting for the future years I'm looking to see my little note here that I wrote to myself to remind myself to say that the tail end of the last decade Loudon was adding about 3,500 to 4,000 new homes a year of which 60 percent were single-family homes with a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of three to four percent and so I just want you to

[00:59:03] remember that as I get to a couple more slides down this closely resembles a slide that mr. Jackson included in his slide deck we use bar charts he was a line but this reflects the variance between what we're graduating in a given year to what we're enrolling the following year in kindergarten so in the

[00:59:27] 2005-2006 window, we graduated 2,725 12th graders. The following fall, we enrolled 4,025. It's a gain of nearly 2,000 students. We kind of meet that equal threshold in the 2015-16 period, which Mr. Jackson alluded to as well, that was seen across northern Virginia and Virginia.

[00:59:49] But now, this past June, we graduated 7,145 students in our incoming class this fall. Kindergarten was 545. That is a difference of 2,600 students. Even if we did not enroll another student or another student left our division, we've lost 2,600 students.

[01:00:11] Between September 3025 and September 3026, the division actually lost the 2,300 students. So you can see that while our enrollments are declining, we continue to attract families. We continue to get children enrolled in our system that weren't here before, but it's not to the greatest extent that we've had in recent past.

[01:00:32] Those of you who were on the board last year know this is my favorite chart, so I would just like to explain it. The blue lines will give you the progression of a cohort of students.

[01:00:49] And so they started kindergarten, I'm guessing, are both of our students, are you both seniors this year? Good. So when you started kindergarten in 2014, we had 4,891 of your classmates.

[01:01:04] You have grown over the years to now we have 6,920 students. So this is showing how Loudoun has grown as new residents have moved into the new homes that we were building in all of the vacant land. Brambleton, think Ashburn Village, think South Riding, Stone Ridge. They added a significant number of homes to Loudoun County. The yellow highlights show the largest class of each given school year. So as you can see, for the past two years, our largest classes in LCPS have been 12th grade. When you go back into the early 2000s, our largest classes were in first grade. That's in part

[01:01:42] because we had half-day kindergarten up until 2018 so a lot of families because daycare was important they were both working would keep their children wherever they were in preschool because they had to pay for daycare because it was only half day so we always saw a significant bump in enrollment in first grade because then the children are in full day so in the early 2000s our highest class sizes our largest class sizes with elementary and you can see over the course of the years how that has changed how our population just like each of us

[01:02:18] we're all aging day by day this is often data requested when we look at our enrollment numbers to see well where are they going what's happening so first I wish like to point out that this year this summer over summer change we saw less students leaving LCPS than we have over the past six years since the pandemic, the end of the pandemic. We're also showing that the percentages on the bottom, 6% of those who left us left us to

[01:02:53] homeschool. 8% left to attend a private school in Loudoun County. 38% left LCPS to attend either a private or public school in Virginia. Now a majority of those have moved. They've moved Prince William County. They've moved to Richmond. They've moved to Albemarle. They've moved elsewhere in the Commonwealth. But some of those we will acknowledge perhaps still live in Loudoun and are attending a private school in Fairfax. They're going to Bishop O'Connell, Bishop Ireton. But for the large majority, most of them are leaving Loudoun County. Their families are leaving Loudoun

[01:03:29] County with them. Then we're showing 36 percent of those students that we lost over the summer have moved outside of Virginia, somewhere else in the U.S., and then where they are attending public or private school. And then we have 12% that have left the U.S. to a non-DOD.

[01:03:48] So they've gone back to India, they've gone back to France, they've moved to Spain, they've moved somewhere exotic that perhaps we all wish we were there today. But those reflect our changes of population from summer withdrawal. I wanted to give a snapshot of our population. Going back to 2000 to 2025, Loudoun County's population has increased every year of those 25 years. This current 24-25 snapshot, our population grew by 6,000 residents.

[01:04:25] The difference is that our population is getting older, and so the number of people residing in Loudoun, the number of young persons, the young families, those persons in childbearing age, they are actually declining, the 25 to 44 age group.

[01:04:46] The 45 to 64 and 65 and older group are continuing to remain in Loudoun County. They like it here, they're staying. In part, this could be job-related. It could be affordability-related. But just to give you a snapshot in time, in 2010, Loudoun's median age was 34.8.

[01:05:09] In 2020, Loudoun's median age was 37. The estimate, U.S. Census Bureau estimate for 2024 has our median age at 39.3. So we are passing that childbearing age, but we are all still here.

[01:05:25] Components of population change include three things. So natural population change, births over deaths. There will be a positive change if we have more births and deaths in the county.

[01:05:41] Immigration, that is persons coming here from another country directly into Loudoun County. So if it's a positive net, we're seeing more persons coming to Loudoun to live than leaving. For the past several years, I would offer that the immigration has guided and has influenced our population that we just saw on the last slide.

[01:06:06] We have a lot of families moving here from Asia. We have a lot of families that have moved here from South America, and so that is giving us a net growth in our immigration. The domestic migration are those who have moved out of the area, moved out of Virginia.

[01:06:28] So our domestic migration in Loudoun County has declined over recent years. The number of Virginia residents living outside Virginia, this is like a fascinating fact to me because it's work-related, the number of Virginia residents who are living outside of the northern Virginia area while still holding a job in the DMV area between 2019 and 2023 was over 40,000.

[01:06:53] So coming out of the pandemic, we all know people who are working completely remote that weren't before. We know Loudoun is an expensive place to live. So if they have been able to remain working remote, move somewhere affordable, a larger area, they're going to do it.

[01:07:11] That explains in part why some of our families have left Loudoun County. Segway to this slide. The downsizing of the federal government last year certainly impacted us. It impacted the Virginia area. This I've stolen this slide directly from a finance committee meeting that the Board of Supervisors had last May. Someone from the Brookings Institute was speaking to this and she indicated that more than 325,000

[01:07:47] federal workers were let go in 2025, 63,000 of them in the Washington metro area we were extremely hit so this reflects the employment so while we have at the private sector we've continued to grow our maintain at least a steady the impact of the federal downsizing did impact us and so again we've had families who've moved they can't afford to live here they've gone to live with families or moved where it's less expensive to live so again just giving you a snapshot of how employment also plays in now segueing to a residential

[01:08:25] building. You can see here in the 2015-2018 period we were adding 3,500 homes a year. We significantly dropped that during the pandemic and coming out of it although in 2024 we were closely approaching that 3,500 unit but as you can see here as depicted in the yellow portion of the bar chart most of the homes that have been built in Loudoun of late are multifamily homes 59% of the homes built in 2024 and 2025 were multifamily homes

[01:09:02] through August of this year 76% of the issue permits in Loudoun County or multifamily homes multifamily home can be a condominium that is sold or it can be the traditional rental property this is significant influences our enrollment Because we calculate student generation factors.

[01:09:25] And so typically you will see families living in a single family home because there's more bedrooms. Multi-families typically have one or two bedrooms. So this chart, while extremely busy, and I do apologize for that, it gives you at the very top, it kind of gives you a county-wide look at how our generation factors have changed over the years.

[01:09:46] So if you look, in 2024, we were averaging 0.63 students. realize that sounds so impersonal, 0.63 students in 2024 out of each single-family detached home in Loudoun, excluding age-restricted. In 2025, that declined to 0.61, and this year it's 0.58.

[01:10:05] Conversely, if you go all the way over to the far right side, out of our 26,553 multifamily units, we had 9,019 students living there in 2024, which gave us a 0.34 child out of every multifamily unit this year it's dropped to 0.32 so as we're building more multi-families in this current era we're going to we're know that we will get less children out of them simply because of the size and the housing product I go back to this

[01:10:41] chart to again now kind of circle back on the affordability we're providing you some rental rates here and you can see how it's changed as year over year with vacancy rates again this is typically going to be the multifamily rental rate because it's a one or two bedroom but this gives you a snapshot of the affordability or perhaps unaffordability that loudness experiencing for some of our younger families our younger persons coming out of college wanting to start to live here to work here this slide provides a snapshot of the medium set

[01:11:19] median sales prices in Loudoun County and thank mr. trainer for asking this question earlier today so it will help me explain it to you as well in the purple column or the purple section of this this is all houses this is single family detached this is single family attached townhomes and it's multifamily this is the median sales price by zip code the big old box underneath the map gives you the median sales price for a single family detached in Loudoun County in August was over a million dollars A townhome or condo was $607,000.

[01:11:54] I can tell you, when I came out of college, even after I'd gotten married, there's no way I could have afforded to live here. I was lucky, but yeah, it's difficult for us to attract more families to attend our schools if they can't afford to stay home.

[01:12:14] So I'm wrapping up, and I will answer questions, but enrollment projections are used for a variety of purposes. Again, they are estimates, but we use them for budgeting purposes. We use them for staffing. We use them for capital budget planning.

[01:12:32] The primary drivers are listed here of what are influencing our projections. Declining birth rates, it's aging population, changes in migration. Again, employment, whether it's remote or being downsized, housing costs, and even availability.

[01:12:49] So with that, we've provided our projections here for the coming year and happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, Ms. Tate and Mr. Ramon, for that. This is fascinating and dense information.

[01:13:08] Thank you very much for the presentation. Board members, do you have questions for our presenters? Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you guys so much for this presentation. As you know, I love the data, so it's fascinating to look at all of this.

[01:13:26] As we're kind of, you know, again, I'm kind of a big picture down to the details person. So I think my takeaway on this, and I mentioned this, I believe, in the board retreat, was, you know, with us being off this year by about 2,000-ish, when it all was said and done, students in our estimates, I would, and we're going to hear, I guess, a little bit later, that's going to come out to be actually when it all said and done, about 12, just under $12 million that we've over estimated because of that I would really like us to consider looking at

[01:14:05] leveraging the weld and Cooper data moving forward or at least using it to compare to because had we done that this year back in the napkin I think we would have been at somewhere between two to three million off instead of you know closer to 12 and I think that as we're moving forward into kind of the unknown about all the different birth rates and migration and immigration and all the different factors that play into this I think we need to have that data set kind of front and center and I'd like to go back and see how they would have predicted the last couple years compared to how we predicted and then I want to

[01:14:42] also take a look here in a minute about going forward how they've predicted out the next couple of years compared to what we've done because if this comes back to that whole methodology that I had talked about either at the last meeting or at the board retreat I feel like maybe our methodology needs to get kind of reformulated and if Weldon Cooper already has this and they're accurately predicting here in northern Virginia why don't we just use the numbers that they've got so that we're we're using solid data as we move forward in this not to suggest that we shouldn't use our own data to look at

[01:15:17] but I mean I don't know how much more spot-on you get than being off by just 400 students versus a couple thousand and that's a real but that has a real budget impact for us from a planning perspective as we move forward so I would I'm just gonna put that out there for what it's worth I'm gonna definitely dive it more into their numbers and what we've got projected as well and kind of see but I know many divisions use their data and I feel like that might just be a good jumping-off point we can certainly provide you the past few years

[01:15:54] of their projection again projections are estimates and their accuracy some years has been more off than ours we have up until the pandemic our accuracy rate was less than one percent off for the decade prior to the pandemic the pandemic threw us in every school division for a loop we are slowly recognizing i think there's i don't want to say it's a perfect storm and i'm not making excuses for our projections but there's just a lot of things that have happened

[01:16:32] in the northern virginia area over the past couple years that have had a strong impact on what we have enrolled with students but certainly we can provide what their numbers have been of past and we do project by school they project for division so we would still need to go through that but yes ma'am we can provide that information mr spenson thank you madam chair um and thank you for the presentation. It is really fascinating to see all these factors at

[01:17:09] play. In terms of the data sources, I would be curious to see because obviously with different sources can be you know spot-on one year and off another year as you suggested and I'm sure you are well aware of the the Weldon Cooper data and have relied on it in the past. So I was just curious in addition to Weldon Cooper are there buckets of data sources that you all rely on and if so what are those that you generally each year kind of cross-reference against thank you for the question so we utilize resident birth data we secure from Virginia Department

[01:17:47] of Health we plug in for a GIS team they're fantastic we geocode students and we monitor residential building so permitting and then even occupancy and we track that actually on a monthly basis so that we are keeping track of that we do outreach with developments we are referral agencies which you all know we comment on those and so we utilize our generation factors to forecast what we may get from a development upon build-out we do track

[01:18:27] migration and we do partner with Weldon Cooper we do reach out to them and They're a great resource for us. And I've promised Zach some data in return for him presenting tonight. But yes, but I can certainly provide you a little bit more detail in an update.

[01:18:44] Thank you. Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you guys for the presentation. Obviously, this feels like a point in time for our school board, for our county. It feels like a big shift and a pivot, and I think it would do us well to pivot with it.

[01:19:05] And I think we're kind of hearing tonight a lot of questions and a lot of numbers and a lot of historical data. But I think each of us that are in Loudoun County also have a personal story about why we're here and how we got here and where our kids are. And I know we were chatting here just a minute ago about when we bought houses and, you know, some things that have changed.

[01:19:27] So when you think about those personal stories and where the economy is and where things are going with enrollment, I don't think it's a surprise. to a lot of us but we have a really big responsibility on the school board to make sure that we are making good decisions with the numbers in front of us and with the trend so I'm super super grateful for this and I think it's really important for the community to understand the multi-layered context that goes behind enrollment and I know it feels like last year and this year we've done deeper and deeper dives into the enrollment story I'll call it and I

[01:20:02] think now we're starting to get a good clearer picture of where we're gonna be in the next few years and so maybe it's not that we rely I'm glad that we're overlaying the different data points and and I think what I would like to see going forward is sort of the range that we're seeing so that we can have sort of plan a plan B and be really responsible to this is our what we think is gonna happen but this could also happen and so that we are really prepared to make good decisions as it relates to the budget and I feel like tonight we've had sort of the here's what and then you all have provided the so what and I think the

[01:20:39] next big conversation for us tonight in the budget work session is now what because we do we are accountable to these numbers and we do have big decisions ahead of us and big hard questions to ask and important conversations to have that will impact our community and our students and our staff. And so I am very well aware of the work and level that went into this. And so I'm very appreciative for you all. I'm appreciative for the consultants tonight to just be able to have a clear picture and eyes wide open as we move forward. Thank you. Chair Chandler asked if she

[01:21:16] could chime in. So we'll go there and then you, Mr. Pepper. Chair Chandler, we can't hear you, Chair Chandler. Sorry, thank you for that. I'm not at all used to being online. I wanted to take moment really to say thank you for the presentation and I wanted to reflect on how incredibly difficult this work is. This has been a very effective and weighty presentation and it is

[01:21:55] very impactful to have the ability to finally see it and to be able to weigh all of these factors which are very much out of our control. I did want to note if you check the LCPS dashboard as of yesterday. Enrollment is up just slightly from the September 30th projection, so as of yesterday, the dashboard is showing 78,271 students, which would show about 98 student gain, which I'm sure

[01:22:28] we wouldn't necessarily expect that as we get into the year, but just wanted to note that that did occur. And it's just really impactful to reflect on how much all of these situations have changed.

[01:22:47] I know much the same way you were reflecting, Ms. Tate, that our family would have been hard pressed to have bought in Loudoun County if we were faced with doing that now, especially given that the 30-year fixed is about 7.38%. That's about double the amount. And again, I would reflect on the fact that in in my own neighborhood we just are not seeing turnover at all um because the interest rate is effectively double what most of the people who bought in

[01:23:22] our neighborhood bought um when they bought you know between 20 and 10 years ago but um i do think it's important for us to have studied this effort and to try to stick as close as we can to the information that we have so that we can develop a responsible budget.

[01:23:42] So thank you very much. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, thank you for this. Once again, an area being at some point an environmental science teacher, some population dynamics are something that are extraordinarily fascinating to me.

[01:24:00] I really like all of the factors that you put into what's driving this enrollment decline because I think one of the things this allows us to do is kind of control the narrative about what's happening, right, and it's not just a Loudoun County issue. It's a Northern Virginia issue. It's a Virginia issue, and frankly, in a lot of ways, it's the country-wide issue, right, between declining birth rates, waiting to have children, rising interest rates, all the economic decisions that people make before they even decide to have children play a very big role in this.

[01:24:32] I also really enjoyed the way that you were able to kind of track cohorts from the birth rate down, and even with the Weldon Cooper data, five, six years down the road. I want to echo a little bit of kind of what my colleague, Ms. Chernoff, had to say here. I would really like to see what's the best case enrollment projection, what's the worst case enrollment projection, what's the kind of middle of the road to give us a variety of options that allow us to make decisions going forward.

[01:24:59] I know that there's a lot of factors that come into play, both with budget, with staffing, with schools, when we talk about where our numbers are and where they're going and it creates a lot of angst in the community at times we're talking about things that are not necessarily so pleasant based on factors that a lot of times are out of our control so just to have that range of a B and C options would be really beneficial going forward with that so once again thank you so so much because I know the tremendous amount of work that had to go into this board members

[01:25:37] any other questions for Mr. Mahmood or Ms. Tate? Thank you very much as it is now 5:54 I do not think it makes sense for us to start our second work session Dr. Spence and or Ms. Willoughby I had considered trying to squeeze in one or two info items I'm thinking that is not going to work at this time okay so we will the school board will now recess for dinner and we will reconvene at 6:30

[01:26:10] thank you welcome back everyone we will now continue with our agenda for the

[02:02:58] evening before we jump back into our regularly scheduled agenda I just wanted to note for two things for the people in the audience first chair Chandler is joining us virtually this evening she is traveling actually on school board business so as the vice chair I am filling in her role for chairing this meeting tonight and before we move forward with our regularly scheduled agenda I just want to I want to take a brief moment to acknowledge the tragic loss in our school community from last week on behalf of our entire board we

[02:03:36] want to express our deepest condolences please join me now in a moment of silence to acknowledge the heartache and sorrow being felt across our entire

[02:03:44] LCPS community we will now move on to item number eight on our agenda this evening we are pleased to welcome the Seneca Ridge Middle School Select Chorus.

[02:04:22] They are a small but mighty group of 7th and 8th grade students who perform at events in our community. These singers rehearse after school and enjoy additional performance opportunities outside their chorus concert schedule. They are under the direction of Liz Shoemaker, the Seneca Ridge Chorus Director, and tonight they will be leading us in the pledge and the national anthem. Welcome Seneca Ridge Middle School Select Chorus. Now everyone

[02:04:44] will please stand and join me in the pledge that was beautiful thank you so

[02:06:32] much Ms. Shoemaker and the Seneca Ridge Middle School select chorus for sharing your gift of song with us this evening we will next move on to item number nine on our agenda our student school board representative comments first we will hear from Raina Kim from Freedom High School Raina Kim is a senior at Freedom High School and currently serves as the student council president and the editor-in-chief for the school's news publication. Raina also serves as the president of Freedom's National English Honor

[02:07:05] Society and is passionate about journalism and leadership. Raina, the floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Raina Kim, and I'm a senior from Freedom High School. I'm so honored to be speaking here today. I'd like to start off by thanking my student council advisors, Ms. Grace DeLeo and Mr. Chad Barker, my journalism advisor, Mrs. Dana Baker, and our wonderful principal, Mrs. Tania Brown, for all of their commitment and dedication to our school.

[02:07:33] Because of their support and the support from the rest of our amazing staff at Freedom, we're able to continue to grow and be successful as a school. With a student population of more than 1,800 students and 121 unique clubs and activities, ranging from Model UN to Cheese Club, each student has many opportunities to explore their interests within Freedom. This year, we implemented Club Fridays for the first time, making clubs and activities more accessible for all students. Freedom has also reached many significant milestones and achievements. Just in the past year, our boys' track and field team and our boys' tennis team won VHSL state championships. We also had success with our

[02:08:12] robotics team, which qualified for Worlds in Houston, where they won top rookie team. Additionally, this year, Freedom started our new girls' flag football team, which ended the season with six wins and two losses, and our boys' volleyball team, which just qualified for the state tournament after winning in their regional semifinals. Last year, Freedom ranked number four in top high schools in the Northern Virginia magazine based on factors such as test scores and graduation rates. Although Freedom is strong academically, our school strongly values mental health, and our staff works hard to support our student body in prioritizing mental health through programs like Sources of Strength and our unified mental health team.

[02:08:52] Throughout all four years of my time at Freedom, I've consistently felt encouraged to try my best by the staff and students, and it is clear that the staff has worked hard to create a safe and supportive environment for all of our students. Thank you to the school board for allowing me to speak here today, and I'm so honored to be able to represent Freedom High School.

[02:09:09] I'm so proud to be a part of this community, and I'm looking forward to all the amazing things we'll accomplish during the rest of the school year. Thank you. - Thank you very much, Rena. We are lucky this evening to be graced by the presence of two of our students, of our wonderful LCPS students.

[02:09:30] And our next student representative is Sophia Estremera from Heritage High School. Sophia Estremera is a senior at Heritage High School. She has been part of the Student Council Association for three years. This year, she was chosen to be vice president of the association. Within Heritage High School, Sophia is the founder and president of the Pickleball Club, an officer of Care Club for the Elderly, a member of the Principal Leadership Council, and a four-year varsity cheerleader and captain.

[02:09:57] She's had the honor of being part of the Superintendent Advisory Council where she presented on student mental health and well-being at the admin building. Sophia plans to attend a four-year university to study psychology on a pre-law track. Welcome, Sophia, the floor is yours.

[02:10:14] - Thank you so much. First, I wanna say thank you all for having me. It's such an honor. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sophia Shumira, and I've had the greatest pleasure of being a member of the Pride for the past four years. Heritage has been a safe and supportive space for me and my peers, and I believe one of the greatest reasons our success is the foundation our school has built around making every student feel valued and like they belong. When students feel supported, they gain confidence to lead, take risks, and accomplish great things. We see this foundation in the leadership opportunities Heritage creates.

[02:10:43] Our administration doesn't just encourage students to lead, they empower us to turn ideas into action. One example is our student-led spirit team, Chaos Crew. With our administration's support, we strengthen school spirit and more importantly, school unity. During Breast Cancer Awareness month we created think pink week doing this we used a t-shirt to raise over two thousand dollars to cover treatment costs for someone this is what happens when students are trusted supported and given the opportunity to make a difference in our community we also see the support in the classroom this year the class 2027 became the first class to experience the full four-year ib pathway an

[02:11:19] achievement made possible by students teachers and administrators and administrators working together to tackle this rigorous program as a united front. At Heritage, we understand that high challenge must come with high support. IB-specific study halls give students extra support and demanding courses, while daily win time, or what I need time, allows students to meet with teachers, take a break, and participate in clubs. Heritage has 100 clubs. Win time helps students get involved without sacrificing time outside of the school day, and that involvement leads to incredible achievements. DECA earned over 18 placements at states, while Rocky Cares earned

[02:11:55] first place in Virginia for community outreach for spreading awareness about patriotic cancer in honor of our late student Rocky Lardo. This success extends beyond academics. Our choir group earned the highest rating at district assessments. Our most recent play received nine awards and our marching band placed first in its class in the last four competitions and is now the team to watch at states. We see the same dedication in our athletics. Football ranks second in the district.

[02:12:21] Girls volleyball holds a 15-2 record and boys basketball reached the state semifinal after winning regionals last winter. Girls basketball won districts, and girls soccer reached the state finals, and currently, right now as we speak, the girls field hockey team is competing to win regions. Today, sadly, it was my last practice as a Heritage cheerleader, and I found myself reflecting on what I'm most proud of after my four years here. And it isn't the trophies, awards, or all the successful events that we hold. It's the family and sense of community that exists in every corner of Heritage. Heritage has taught me that when people feel supported, valued, and accepted, They gain the confidence to not only achieve great things, but to overcome the hard ones.

[02:13:00] And that's what makes this school special. Lastly, I want to thank Mr. Adam for selecting me for this wonderful opportunity and for being such a strong foundation for Heritage. The support I've been speaking about starts with him and the admin who believe in us students and give us the opportunity to succeed. I feel incredibly blessed not to have just gained an education from Heritage, but for the family and community I've gained as well.

[02:13:20] Thank you and Roark Pride. Thank you, Sophia. Again, we are very privileged to have both of you with us. And we also welcome your input. If you feel like chiming into any of our discussions, please speak up. We would love to hear from you.

[02:13:41] Now we will move on to item number 10 on our agenda, the Superintendent's Report, presented by Dr. Aaron Spence. Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue and members of the board. It's always my pleasure to share some good news from around the school division, starting with a heartfelt thank you to our incredible school staff, students, and community for making this year's 1LCPS Celebration Day a resounding success.

[02:14:02] Now in its third year, this growing tradition honors the staff and students who make our schools an exceptional place to learn, work, and grow. My team and I had the privilege of visiting schools across the county that day, and we were inspired by the creativity, energy, and school spirit on full display.

[02:14:17] And it is that enthusiasm that made this day truly unforgettable, so we want to thank all of those who celebrated what makes LCPS so special. More than 150 LCPS juniors and seniors explored career opportunities and strengthened workplace skills at the third annual LCPS Workforce Summit on Friday, October the 16th.

[02:14:38] This event brought together more than 150 students and nearly 200 business partners from across northern Virginia for mock interviews, networking opportunities, and hands-on career readiness activities. Through these experiences and partnerships with local businesses, our students built confidence, developed professional skills, and gained insight into potential career paths.

[02:14:57] all of which reinforces our commitment to preparing students for success after graduation. Micah Wollum, a senior at Loudoun County High School and Navy Junior ROTC cadet, has earned the prestigious Joseph C. Gilliam Academic Achievement Award, one of the highest honors in the NJROTC program.

[02:15:16] This highly competitive award recognizes outstanding cadets for their leadership, academic achievement, community service, and personal character. Micah was one of only 23 area winners chosen nationwide from approximately 88,000 eligible cadets. Recently appointed as Battalion Command Master Chief, Micah serves as the Senior Enlisted Cadet in Loudoun County High School's 150-member NJROTC Battalion.

[02:15:39] Micah has also received a letter of assurance to attend the United States Naval Academy after he graduates. And we certainly wish Micah all the best as he completes his senior year, and congratulations on this recognition. In other news, Renee Dawson, the Director of Family and Community Engagement, was honored with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Leadership Award this past Saturday, October 24th, at the annual Child Safety Day at the Village of Leesburg. Renee was commended for her more than 30 years in education and as someone who brings schools, businesses, non-profits, faith-based communities, and volunteers together to make the community better. Last week, Sugarland

[02:16:18] Elementary School celebrated its 50th anniversary, marking five decades of learning, relationships, memories, and opportunities. The school's motto, Climbing Higher, accurately reflects the purpose of education, helping students see beyond where they are today and envision where they can go tomorrow. As we look forward to Sugar Land's next 50 years, it was an honor to join that community in celebrating this milestone. Recently, Fox 5 visited Riverside High School on Friday for its weekly Show Us Your Spirit segment. During the visit, Fox 5 interviewed the principal, athletic director student athletes marching band director and student performers with discussions focused

[02:16:56] on the athletic seasons balancing academics with athletics and extracurricular activities and the programs and opportunities that enrich student life at riverside the segment also featured energetic performances by the cheerleaders and marching bands showcasing the school's spirit talent and enthusiasm and then finally this evening i'm pleased to announce the release of the 2005-2026 LCPS Innovation and Achievement Report. Each day, our nearly 80,000 students walk through the doors of our schools with unique strengths, experiences, and aspirations, and this report showcases how we're working together to provide every student with the

[02:17:34] opportunities, support, and resources needed to succeed. The achievements featured in these pages reflect the collective effort of the educators, families, community, and partners, and students who make LCPS the special place that it is. I invite you to explore the digital version of this report available on our website shown on this slide and to celebrate with us the many successes of our school community.

[02:17:56] And Madam Vice Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Spence. With that, we will move on to item number 11 on our agenda, public comment. Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system.

[02:18:19] Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted. Based on the number of speakers in the agenda this evening, all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. Decorum and civility. All audience members shall maintain civility, decorum, and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times.

[02:18:38] Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break. Violations of civility, decorum, and respect include shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting, obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa, interrupting speakers, attempting to speak when not called to do so by the vice chair, and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees.

[02:19:08] Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, or other life breaches of respect. Nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students and or individual division employees during public comment. As a reminder, school board policy 2520 states speakers may not target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. I want to take a moment to

[02:19:44] clarify a few things. As has been explained previously, speakers can personally identify a student or employee without stating a student's or employee's name. That is, personally identifiable information is any information that a reasonable person can link together to pinpoint an individual student or employee and where that individual student or employee is known to others in their school and surrounding community based on the context that is shared. The school board welcomes you to share your concerns, but asks that, to the extent you have prepared remarks that target, criticize, or attack any individual students or employees, you generalize such remarks to ensure compliance with board policy.

[02:20:24] For example, comments that target, criticize, or attack a student or an employee, or a student or an employee from a specific name school, or a student or an employee with any characteristics, where the information would personally identify that student or employee to others in the school or broader LCPS community would violate school board policy however comments that discuss general concerns with students or employees at schools and do not target criticize or attack an individual identifiable student or employee are permissible under school board under school board policy I as the

[02:21:02] vice chair of the school board and chair of this meeting and charged with the responsibility to maintain order during school board meetings accordingly when reasonable I will warn of breaches of decorum civility and respect and ask speakers to redirect their comments prior to possibly discontinuing individual speaking privileges or taking other actions to preserve the civility decorum and orderly conduct of the meeting such such action includes calling a recess in order to maintain and/or restore order if speakers fail to comply with board policy regarding public participation you will receive a warning and request to redirect or generalize your comments should you fail to redirect or generalize your comments after that warning you may be asked to

[02:21:42] yield the microphone at which time you should yield the microphone as well as the floor and take your seat. I will then call the next speaker. Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board. Per school board policy 2520 members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. To the extent necessary I will also warn of breaches of decorum civility and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly conduct of the meeting. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the vice chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent

[02:22:19] violations of decorum or civility by the attendance may result in, on the decision of the vice chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons, or the public comment period ending for the evening. Distribution of materials to school board members. Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public affairs supervisor in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of the materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that access to school board

[02:22:53] meetings is available through LCPS TV on channel 1070 and Verizon Fios channel 43. The live streaming of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. We will start as we always do with our virtual public comment, beginning with Laura Thomas, followed by Ryan Shelsky. Good evening.

[02:23:18] My name is Laura Thomas. My daughter is eight years old. She's a student in the dual language immersion program at Sanders Corner Elementary School. We don't speak Spanish at home, but since kindergarten, we've asked our daughter to step outside our zone school and spend half her day learning in another language, and she is thriving. She's learning to read and write in both Spanish and English. Her reading continues to improve in both languages and she is excelling in math a language she learns primarily in Spanish. When Spanish-speaking adults speak to her she understands far more than she can yet express and that's part of the journey. By the time she finishes fifth grade

[02:23:57] she has the opportunity to be bilingual and biliterate. As parents we've trusted this process because we believe we're giving her something bigger than language. We're giving her the chance to see the world differently to more people and to understand more than we ever could on our own. What a gift that is. What a gift we're giving these children. But we have to ask ourselves what happens after fifth grade. We've invested in these children in their teachers their curriculum their training and their future. So shouldn't we be asking not just what it costs to continue this program but how we make the most of the investment

[02:24:33] that we've already made. I'm asking you to start planning now to expand the dual language immersion program into middle school our children have worked hard to build these skills they deserve the opportunity to keep growing keep learning and to keep building on what they've learned let's not make fifth grade the end of the journey let's make it the beginning of what comes next thank you thank you our next virtual speaker is ryan shelsky followed by amanda ruffman good

[02:25:08] evening vice chair school board members and superintendent my name is ryan shelsky i'm a a Luckett's resident, and a parent of a fourth grader and a pre-K student. I am here regarding the potential closure of Luckett's elementary school and the three other small rural schools.

[02:25:24] I understand LCPS faces difficult budget decisions, but I question how these schools were selected. LCPS's own projections have substantial unused capacity at several Eastern Loudoun schools, including Algonquin, Horizon, Sugarland, Lowe's Island, and Sully.

[02:25:41] Some of these schools are just one to two miles apart. Yet the proposal focuses exclusively on our rural small schools. Historical enrollment figures show Luckett's operated with fewer than 200 students from much of the 90s and 2000s. What has changed to make approximately 200 students unsustainable today?

[02:26:00] In rural communities, schools are more than buildings. Luckett's is the center of gravity for our community. It is where families connect, relationships are built, and generations of neighbors come together. Closing it would mean losing far more than classroom. Geography matters in Luckett's.

[02:26:17] Children living directly across from the school would be assigned to schools that are six to seven miles away. Families in other hamlets and neighborhoods would see even further trips over 10 miles. Route 15 is already severely congested.

[02:26:33] Traveling from Luckett's to Leesburg can take 45 minutes in the morning and similar in the afternoon. How will LCPS account for bus rides and transportation costs? LCPS estimates more than $8 million in savings across four schools, but where is the analysis showing actual net savings for Luckett's or any of the other small schools?

[02:26:55] I ask the board to release school-specific financial analysis, transportation projections, and selection criteria before moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Our final virtual speaker is Amanda Ruckman.

[02:27:13] Good evening, school board. I am Amanda Ruckman. i am also representing a small school of aldi um and i have a lot of the same concerns as the previous speaker um with the um the division growing the excess capacity and i do apologize i am calling in from a baseball field um the declining with the large declining buildings um and we have stable small schools i do want to see a five-year enrollment trend with the criteria

[02:27:46] We are around the analysis with the cost per people and understanding why our sections between Luckett's, Aldi, and Lincoln and Hamilton were selected compared to the larger schools and how their enrollment is shrinking and how we're going to utilize the capacity of those schools.

[02:28:04] And as well to understand the impact of how this is going to affect the community. ALDI has a motto this year is every child and every day, and it is truly felt and it can be seen through our strong academic success. Even with 28% of our students are in economic disadvantage, and we have 16% of them are English as second language, as well as 17% of them are in IEPs.

[02:28:30] So despite all of those smaller numbers, these students are still having strong academic success because it's working and they have a strong community. We are very supported by the Aldi Village, as well as businesses and the Aldi Fire Department. And we also continue to win spirit rewards along with the We Belong, the 1LCPS.

[02:28:51] And we are just very tied into the community. and we just want to understand where the numbers are coming from and why we were selected before understanding the whole county as a whole and what's going on with the other schools as they are losing capacity and what they're going to do with those schools as compared to what you're going to do with the small schools thank you thank you we will now continue with our in-person

[02:29:19] public comment beginning with reyna amador followed by david lazarczyk i understand ms amador is using an interpreter. In accordance with policy 2520E, the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted four minutes total for their comments, two minutes for the speaker and two minutes for the translator.

[02:30:12] As a mother, I've been able to see how beneficial it has been to him. Not only has a safe space where he stays after classes, but also learns, interact with other children and participates in activities that contribute positively to his academic and social development.

[02:30:35] For me, as a mother who works on extended days, this program represents a great tranquility. I can comply with my responsibilities, knowing that my son is in a safe place, learning and taking care of his time while I get to collect it.

[02:30:52] These programs benefit more than 250 families, but currently have funds and limited spaces. I worry that the financing has a final date and that many families can lose this important support.

[02:31:08] Por eso hoy les pedimos que en el presupuesto escolar del año 2027 consideren una inversión de 10 millones para garantizar la continuidad de estos programas a largo plazo, mantener las cinco escuelas que actualmente participan en Sterling Park y expandirlas a dos escuelas adicionales en el área de Lichburg.

[02:31:31] Nuestros hijos necesitan oportunidades para aprender, desarrollarse y participar en actividades positivas después de la escuela. Y nuestras familias necesitan opciones de cuidado infantil accesibles que nos permitan trabajar con tranquilidad.

[02:31:48] Muchas gracias por escuchar nuestras voces y por considerar las necesidades de la familia de London County. Good afternoon, members of the school board. My name is Reina Amador. I'm a mother and a community leader with the new majority of Virginia.

[02:32:05] First, I would like to thank you for allowing me this after-school pilot program to be implemented. Thanks to this effort, many families are seeing the benefits these programs provide to our children. My son attends Guilford Elementary School and participates in this program.

[02:32:22] As a mother, I have seen how beneficial it has been for him. He not only has a safe place to stay after school, but he also learns, interacts with other children, and participates in activities that positively contribute to his academic and social development.

[02:32:39] As a mother who works extended hours, this program gives me great peace of mind. I can fulfill my work responsibilities knowing that my child is in a safe place, learning and making good use of his time while I finish work and get there to pick him up.

[02:32:58] These programs benefit more than 250 families, but funding and available spaces are limited, are currently limited. I am concerned that the funding has an end date and that many families could lose this important support.

[02:33:15] That is why we are asking you to consider a $10 million investment in the 2027 school budget to ensure these programs continue in the long term. Maintain the five schools currently participating in Sterling Park and expand the program to two additional schools in the Leesburg area.

[02:33:37] Our children need opportunities to learn, grow, and participate in positive activities after school. Our families also need accessible child care options that allow us to work with peace of mind. Investing in these programs means investing in our children, the well-being of our families, and the future of our community.

[02:33:58] We ask that you, we ask you to continue supporting this initial. Thank you. Our next speaker is David Lazarczyk, followed by Melissa Larson. Hello. So my name is Dave Lazarczyk. I've been the boys soccer coach at Tuscarora High School

[02:34:31] for the last 10 years. And one of you board members had put out a post about talking about increasing the stipends for some coaches and stuff like that. So I started thinking about what benefits could the coaches get besides monetary, because in the long run, we put in a lot more hours than what the health benefits require for part-time employees. As you guys do, as part-time board members you get insurance. So what I'm asking is instead of monetary benefits

[02:35:10] to coaches could the coaches that have put in time be offered the opportunity to buy health insurance through the Loudoun County pool? Currently I'm a retired person I'm not quite 65 I go through the health I go through the marketplace and I have three I have two kids that teach in the school system. I review their benefits sheet with them, and the Loudoun County Public Schools offering benefits of its quality health care, and the marketplace just does not do it. You see in all

[02:35:46] the news, and you guys hear the news stuff. But what I would like to ask is, instead of monetary increasing the stipends, could you offer the benefit for coaches to buy into the health care program. I believe it wouldn't be many people that would qualify or want this. It would be non-employees that are big corporations and people that are under 65 that don't qualify for Medicare yet. I believe it would be a big benefit to Loudoun County in that it would be a retention tool to keep coaches around to take some of the stress burden of health care away from them as again

[02:36:26] it's a quality product you guys offer. Thank you. Our next speaker is Melissa Larson followed by Morgan Cabuzzi. Good evening, members of the board. I'm Melissa Larson, president of the Loudness Association of School Librarians. I'm speaking tonight to address a fundamental structural inequity and how our elementary school libraries are staffed. Across our district, elementary librarians are integrated into the master schedule as specialists to provide required planning time

[02:37:05] for classroom teachers. Yet, while art, music, and physical education are staffed based on the total number of class sections in a building, elementary library staffing is tied to baseline state standards of quality and enrollment thresholds. This creates an unsustainable double standard. Librarians are expected to carry the same full-time teaching schedule as other special area teachers, but with significantly fewer staff allocated to cover those classes. What makes this model particularly

[02:37:40] inequitable is that a librarian's job does not end when the class period finishes. Librarians are essentially tasked with managing two full-time jobs at once. Instructional specialists, we teach information literacy, digital citizenship, and research skills across all grade levels. And then as library director, we curate, catalog, process, and weed thousands of physical books to maintain a current high-quality collection. On top of both roles, librarians are responsible for collaborating and co-teaching with classroom teachers, as well as managing special programming.

[02:38:19] When one librarian is scheduled back-to-back with classes all day, like an art or music teacher, without equivalent staffing, there is no time left during contract hours to manage the collection, assist teachers with resources, or run special programs. If our district uses librarians as full-time specialist on the master schedule, we must staff our libraries equitably by class count, not just baseline standards of quality. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Morgan Cabuzzi,

[02:38:50] followed by Lydia Johnson. Good evening. My name is Morgan Cabuzzi, and I'm an LCPS parent, former English teacher, and founder of the Loudoun County Balance Project. In 2023, the LCPS Board of Education did away with the LCPS Technology Steering Committee. I am here to ask you to bring it back to ensure quality education for our students going forward if an LCPS parent or teacher wants to see what educational apps are available to students at LCPS they must comb through 400 plus online pages to do so these pages do not include the additional educational

[02:39:28] apps purchased by their school PTAs this is an impossible task for anyone to audit and vet especially LCPS administrators who are tasked with multiple responsibilities in order to allow for more transparency between LCPS parents, teachers, and administrators, a technology steering committee could bridge this gap.

[02:39:46] Currently, Fairfax County Public Schools has an educational technology review committee that advises their superintendent on the school's use of educational technology, and we could establish one in the same vein. This is especially important in the age of AI. One particular area of concern is that the LCPS technology and student learning guide for teachers and schools contains zero sources for its recommendations.

[02:40:06] An EdTech committee could take the time to gather evidence on proper screen time limits for students, review independent audit of EdTech apps, and consider how to best incorporate intentional technology into our classrooms. We currently have a Smart Start pilot that is being compromised by increasing amounts of online testing by the county, despite teacher complaints.

[02:40:25] An EdTech committee could come up with testing solutions to maintain the integrity of our low-tech pilot schools. Eight days ago, NBC released an article on YouTube in American Classrooms. The Balance Project emailed this article to the board and administrators. study may as well have been taken in lcps schools and i hope you all take the time to read it it is a prime example of how devices can be a distraction and a detriment to our children's education if we are not intentional fcps and prince william county have banned youtube on student devices and i know that we can too thank you thank you our next speaker is lydia johnson followed by eric canalis

[02:41:00] good evening members of the school board um we the loudon association of school librarians continue to share direct feedback from elementary librarians across loudon county their message is clear our librarians are being asked to fulfill two jobs specialist classroom teacher and library collection manager with inequitable staffing when compared to other elementary specialists while other content areas like art music and pe receive additional staffing when schedules exceed

[02:41:40] 22 classes our librarians remain tied strictly to enrollment as our survey respondents emphasized librarians lay the foundation for lifelong reading and literacy but they cannot sustain both jobs without adequate support we asked the board to act on our immediate need staff libraries with eight more positions that when schedules exceed 22 classes every child receives weekly instruction thank you we would also like to invite each of you to our halloween parade um we'll be at the

[02:42:14] leesburg halloween parade our drill cart book team and performing tomorrow night come see the lengths librarians will go to make reading fun for our students thank you thank you our next speaker is eric canales followed by jorelli ponce in accordance with policy 2520e the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted four minutes for their comments two Two minutes for the speaker and two minutes for the translator.

[02:42:44] Buenas tardes, miembros de la Junta de Supervisores. Mi nombre es Cedric Canelas. Soy padre de familia y mis hijos asisten a la escuela Rolling Ridge. Como padre, quiero agradecerles por el apoyo y la aprobación de los programas pilotos después de la escuela.

[02:43:02] Estos programas han sido de gran beneficio para nuestra comunidad, tanto para los padres como para nuestros hijos. Gracias a estas oportunidades, los niños y jóvenes no solamente participan en actividades educativas y recreativas, sino que también encuentran un sentido de pertenencia. Descubren nuevas habilidades y desarrollan talentos que quizás nunca habrían tenido la oportunidad de explorar.

[02:43:23] Para muchas familias, estos programas representan mucho más que un espacio en el que nuestros hijos estén después de clases. Representan oportunidades de aprendizaje, crecimiento y convivencia y desarrollo personal. También brindan tranquilidad a los padres que trabajamos y queremos saber que nuestros hijos se encuentran en un ambiente seguro donde pueden aprender y desarrollar su potencial.

[02:43:44] Por eso considero de vital importancia garantizar la continuidad y expansión de estos programas para que más niños y familias puedan beneficiarse. Nuestras futuras generaciones merecen tener acceso a las mismas oportunidades para descubrir sus capacidades, fortalecer sus talentos y construir un mejor futuro.

[02:44:02] Invertir en nuestros niños no debe verse simplemente como un gasto para las arcas locales, sino como una inversión en el futuro de nuestra comunidad y de nuestra sociedad. When we understand that the opportunities that we have today can transform our children's lives in tomorrow, we will understand the importance of acting with responsibility and vision of the future.

[02:44:20] That's why I ask you to support the continuity and expansion of the programs after school. Our children deserve opportunities to grow, learn, and develop all their potential without the economic situation of their families being a barrier.

[02:44:36] Thank you very much for listening. Good afternoon, members of the Board of Supervisors. My name is Eric Canelas. I am a father, and my children attend Rolling Ridge Elementary School. As a parent, I want to thank you for your support and approval of the after-school pilot programs.

[02:44:51] These programs have been a tremendous benefit to our communities, both for parents and for our children. Thanks to these opportunities, children and young people are not only able to participate in education, educational and recreational activities, but they also develop a sense of belonging, discover new skills and develop talents they might never have had the opportunity to explore.

[02:45:15] For many families, these programs represent much more than a place for our children to go after school. They provide opportunities for learning, growth, social interaction, and personal development. They also give working parents a peace of mind, knowing that our children are in a safe environment where they can learn and reach their full potential.

[02:45:36] That is why I believe it is essential to ensure The continuation and expansion of these programs so that more children and families can benefit. Our future generations deserve equal access to opportunities that allow them to discover their abilities, strengths, and their talents and build a better future.

[02:45:56] Investing in our children should not be viewed simply as an expense for local government, but rather an investment in the future of our community and society. When we recognize that the opportunities we provide today can transform our children's lives tomorrow, we understand the importance of acting responsibly and planning for the future.

[02:46:18] For these reasons, I respectfully ask you to support the continuation and expansion of after-school programs. Our children deserve opportunities to grow, learn, and reach their full potential, regardless of their family's financial circumstance. Thank you very much for listening to parents' voices and for considering the future of our children.

[02:46:39] Thank you. Our next speaker is Jorelli Ponce, followed by Brian Holloway. In accordance with Policy 2520E, the next speaker is being assisted by an interpreter and will be allotted four minutes for their comments, two minutes for the speaker, and two minutes for the translator.

[02:47:07] donde trabajamos para representar las necesidades de nuestras familias y estudiantes. Primero, queremos agradecerles por apoyar los programas piloto después de la escuela, que durante más de un año han beneficiado a muchas familias en Sterling Park.

[02:47:23] Sin embargo, todavía hay muchas familias que no pueden acceder a estos programas porque cada escuela cuenta solamente con 50 cupos. También nos preocupa que el financiamiento termine en diciembre del 2027, poniendo en riesgo la continuidad de estos servicios.

[02:47:43] Por eso, hoy solicitamos que se incluyan 10 millones en el presupuesto escolar del 2027 para mantener las cinco escuelas participantes de Sterling Park. Ampliar los cupos e incorporar dos escuelas adicionales en Eastburg.

[02:47:59] Estos programas ofrecen mucho más que cuidado infantil gratuito. Brindan a nuestros hijos espacios seguros para aprender, desarrollar sus habilidades y participar en actividades educativas y recreativas mientras sus padres trabajamos.

[02:48:16] Como madres y líderes comunitarias, conocemos estas necesidades de cerca y por eso pedimos que estos programas no sean temporales, sino una oportunidad permanente para nuestras comunidades. Esperamos contar con su apoyo para invertir en nuestros estudiantes y garantizar que más familias de London County puedan beneficiarse. Muchas gracias.

[02:48:39] Good afternoon, members of the school board. My name is Joely Ponce. I'm a mother, a community leader with the new majority of Virginia. As a member of the parent committee, where we work to represent the needs of families and students.

[02:48:54] First, we would like to thank you for supporting the after-school pilot program, which have benefited many families in Sterling Park for more than a year. However, many families still cannot access these programs because each school has only 50 available spots. We are also concerned that the funding will end in December 2027, putting the continuation of these services at risk.

[02:49:16] For this reason, today we are asking you to include $10 million in the 2027 school budget to maintain the five participating schools in Sterling Park, expand the number of available spots, and add two more schools in Leesburg.

[02:49:33] These programs offer much more than free child care. They provide our children with safe spaces to learn, develop their skills, and participate in education and recreational activities while their parents are at work. As mother and community leaders, as mothers and community leaders, we understand these needs firsthand.

[02:49:52] That is why we ask that these programs not be temporary, but instead become a permanent opportunity for our communities. We hope to count on your support to invest in our students and ensure that more families throughout Loudoun County can benefit from these programs.

[02:50:08] Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Holloway, followed by Aaron Mayhew. Good evening.

[02:50:25] First, I'd like to go ahead and congratulate Micah for his accomplishment and being accepted to the Naval Academy. So well done to him as a retired Marine. I can certainly appreciate his commitment. Board members, good evening.

[02:50:42] I'm Brian Holloway. I'm a parent of a first grader. And though today I'm speaking, I don't speak on the organization's behalf. Not only am I a parent, but I am the president of our school's PTA. I'm here to say that we need to keep Aldi Elementary open.

[02:51:03] End of story, full stop. Let's talk about stats. So first, Virginia's official school quality data gives Aldi Elementary a distinguished performance rating.

[02:51:18] Framework score, 97.69. That's incredible when you consider some of the other factors. 16% ESL. Not only do we have that, but we also have more than a quarter receiving discounted or free lunch? Are we really comfortable shutting down a school that has incredible scores, that is serving an underserved population? If you're okay with that looking in the mirror, I would love to talk to you elsewhere. That is abhorrent.

[02:51:56] Come on. These are wonderful educators, wonderful kids who are getting the best of the best. They're getting the opportunity that every kid in the districts that you represent, they're getting what every kid should be offered.

[02:52:15] Let's please take the time to ensure that we are not cutting off a wonderful school with wonderful people leading these kids. Thank you. Our next speaker is Erin Mayhew, followed by Matthew Rockowitz.

[02:52:32] Good evening. My name is Erin Mayhew, and I'm the mother of a third-grade son and a first-grade daughter who absolutely love Aldi Elementary. I, too, am here to address the proposal for cost savings by closing four small elementary schools and pushing those students to six much larger schools. Every morning, my children practically jump out of the car because they're so excited to see their friends, but they're also excited to see their teachers and their principal, all of which know every single name of the students.

[02:53:05] There are bubbles floating through the air, smiles greeting our children, and that feeling that they belong. I encourage you and all board members to please visit this gem of a school and experience firsthand what makes Aldi so special before weighing in on this tremendously important decision.

[02:53:23] I also want to acknowledge that my husband and other Aldi parents would be here with us tonight if we had been given more notice about the subject of a school closure. Our presence here today does not reflect the full strength of our community or how deeply families care about this school.

[02:53:40] I hope going forward, the board will provide parents with sufficient notice and meaningful opportunities to participate in these discussions. Small schools serve a purpose. Smaller schools offer close relationships and the input these teachers have and the attention that they give the children cannot be duplicated.

[02:54:00] I understand LCPS faces financial challenges, but we do need answers. What are the financial actual net savings of closing Aldi and the other schools? Are they receiving, the receiving schools, are they already overcrowded?

[02:54:15] How reliable are the enrollment projections? What alternatives have been explored? We understand that we need to save money, but at what cost? Savings on a spreadsheet do not tell the whole story. Our children only get one chance at elementary school.

[02:54:30] these years are foundational. Behind every enrollment and enrollment number is a child. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Rakowitz followed by Kelly Michon. Good evening. I'm Matt Rakowitz and all the elementary parent of eight years. Dr. Rasheed, I hope you feel better and I would ask politely that you request from the board why we did not discuss section 5.02 FY28 budget work session, specifically closure considerations. Raising the

[02:55:07] possibility of a school closing is a big deal. It creates uncertainty for children, families, teachers, and the entire community, especially as Aldi prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Superintendent Spence, I admire your mission of building community, belonging, and making every child feel like they matter. You've shared Aldi's award-winning We Belong image created by our students and staff in presentations and online. That picture represents what our children experience every day, belonging. We appreciate your visit last year when you presented a Shine Award to one of our kindergarten teachers during a tumultuous transition, and we appreciate you practicing what

[02:55:45] you preach about building community. A recent graduate shared that when students move on to larger schools like Willard, their advice to other students is, if you're having a hard time, find your Aldi students. That speaks to the care and emotional intelligence and ability to work through conflict that children develop as Aldi Bobcats. A military family at Aldi told me that the comfort, support, and inclusion their children found so quickly at Aldi contributed to their decision to extend their duty here. They've seen schools all around the world, and by their assessment, Aldi is at the top in quality. Our children's mental and emotional support must be

[02:56:22] a priority alongside academics and financial considerations. Aldi's strong SOL results, attendance, and academic growth matter. Housing prices don't tell the whole story. ALDI serves economically disadvantaged students, English learners, children with disabilities, while achieving strong academic results.

[02:56:41] Dr. Rasheed, again, I hope you feel better, and I invite you to come to ALDI and visit with our faculty and students and see what's going right in the county. ALDI is a small school with a big impact. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kelly Michon, followed by Brandon Michon.

[02:57:00] Hello, my name is Kelly Michon. I'm the parent of four LCPS students across three different schools. My two youngest are in kindergarten at Hamilton Elementary. All four of my children have attended Hamilton.

[02:57:17] My husband and I are both LCPS grads and believe in the value of high-quality public education, which comes in many shapes and sizes in a large district like this. No two schools in LCPS are alike. I want you to know that the teachers, principal, and staff at Hamilton are the absolute gold standard.

[02:57:35] There is not a single unnecessary position there. Hamilton Elementary is the only reason that is keeping my family and many other families from homeschooling their children. The woven fabric of parents and teachers and community in Hamilton is very tight, and we want to keep it that way.

[02:57:54] Closing these schools to save a paltry $8 million in a $2 billion school budget seems extremely trite. You are public servants, not a private equity fund. Don't corporate America LCPS schools. These kids are more than numbers on a spreadsheet.

[02:58:12] I'm fully aware that the idea of closing smaller schools seems to come around every few years. And perhaps bringing it up again feels like a formality to those making these decisions. But for families like mine, it's not a formality. This is our actual community.

[02:58:27] It's a community we've invested our time, our money, and our hearts into. These school communities continue to make do with fewer and fewer resources like full-time librarians. Yet they continue to provide meaningful, high-quality personal education experiences for their students.

[02:58:48] Why aren't we looking for more ways to strengthen these schools for what makes them special rather than looking yet again to eliminate them? No one wins when you disrupt small-town and rural schools. And in the end, like always, it's the students that will lose. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:59:04] Our final speaker is Brandon Michonne. There's a concept being thrown around today about closing various smaller schools, predominantly in Western Loudoun.

[02:59:22] As a proud graduate of Hamilton Elementary, go Panthers, and having four students there that are my children, two currently, any consideration to close all these small schools is very short-sighted.

[02:59:38] Out of a $2 billion budget, there are other areas of savings that don't impact the smaller communities and the children, like shutting these schools down will. Per your 2026 report, from 2025 to 2026, the LCPS budget increased by $131 million. Feels like there's some savings available. For those who are listening and are not in attendance here, there are over 40 people sitting at desks around me, all LCPS employees, many of which may not even be paying attention. So there might be some duplicative

[03:00:14] efforts that can be saved here. Another item on the report is that over the last four years, the superintendent's expense has increased by 125 percent from $12.9 million to $29 million. Inflation is high, but not that high. Out of that $29 million, not a single student is impacted on a day-to-day basis like the students are by their students, fellow students, their teachers, and the staff at their respective schools, which includes all of the smaller schools.

[03:00:46] Hamilton, Aldi, Lincoln, Luckett's, all these communities matter to the students. All of these teachers and administrators matter to these students. I grew up in Hamilton. I moved my family back to Hamilton because of the schools and the community. I urge you to find other avenues to save $8 million.

[03:01:04] There's 40 people in this room that can help you do it. Figure it out. Thank you. Thank you all for coming out today and providing your public comment. This time we will move on to item number 12.01.

[03:01:20] We move on to our action items, beginning with 12.01. Tonight's first action item is regarding policy 4330, remedies in bids and awards. Speaking to this item will be the finance and operations chair, Mrs. Dina Griffiths. Mrs. Griffiths, the floor is yours.

[03:01:36] Thank you, Vice Chair Donohue. I would like to make a motion to approve policy 4330, remedies in bids and awards. Is there a second? Second. Excuse me, second.

[03:01:51] That motion has been properly made by Mrs. Griffiths and seconded by Mr. Pepper. Mrs. Griffiths, would you like to speak to your motion? Sure. Policy 4330 remedies and bids and awards was mostly recently, most recently confirmed by the school board on October 8th, 2021 with no changes to the policy. The purpose of the policy is to establish guidelines for vendors regarding bid withdrawals due to error, determination of non-responsibility and bid protests. This information is incorporated into the LCPS solicitations. This policy was discussed at our

[03:02:26] last meeting on October 6, 2026. Not a lot of changes to the policy, just fixing some verbiage to make it sound better for ownership of bids. Updating a policy's verbiage for clarity is generally a benign action for practical clarification. Per the clean version, the updated changes may make sense as ownership for the bidder and the company. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths, board members, is there a discussion?

[03:02:55] Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I would like to make a few amendments to policy 4330. May I proceed? Yes, please. I move to change the word there to the word it's on lines 14, 28, and 29 of the red line version.

[03:03:20] Is there a second? Second. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak further to your motion? Yes, I'm at a vice chair. So in our committee meeting, there was originally these possessive pronouns were not in there.

[03:03:38] And there was a motion made to add the possessive pronouns there at lines 14, 28, 29, 31, and 32 to the red line version. Realizing, of course, that we don't normally have pronouns in our policy, but because bids themselves are possessive, putting pronouns in made sense at the time.

[03:04:00] However, I asked, we tasked our administrative staff to kind of look at the verbiage, and because bidder is singular on 14, 28, and 29, it is grammatically more correct than there. If you look at the original amendment in board docks, I also had 31 and 32, but after looking at it again, because bidder is bidders in that line, there it makes sense grammatically.

[03:04:27] Is that helpful? - Yes, thank you, Mr. Pepper. Board members, is there a discussion? Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam. Vice Chair. Vice Chair. As chair of the Finance and Operations Committee, this policy has gone through committee review, and the revised language was intended to improve clarity and accountability. From reading the clean version, I'm not quite sure I understand the rationale to replace the language that clarifies ownership with the word there, T-H-E-I-R, and replacing the word there with the word it's doesn't seem to make sense to me. I'm generally

[03:05:04] okay with what makes sense in the English language. At our meeting the policy was presented with omitting his or her so I ask that we show possession with the word there. I would also like to point out that the code of Virginia that is cited in the policy 4330 makes repeated references to a person using the pronoun his. Consistent with the code of Virginia the corrections in committee were to have a possessive pronoun if we were going to remove his or her code of

[03:05:39] VA colon 2.2 4330 withdrawal of bid due to error I can read the paragraph it's a little long a bidder for a public construction contract other than a contract for construction or maintenance of public highways, may withdraw his bid from consideration if the price bid was substantially lower than other bids due solely to a mistake in the bid, provided the bid was submitted in good faith and the mistake was a clerical mistake as opposed to a judgment mistake and

[03:06:13] was actually due to an unintentional arithmetic error or unintentional omission of a quantity of work, labor, or material made directly in the compilation of a bid, which unintentional arithmetic error or unintentional omission can be clearly shown by objective evidence drawn from inspection of original work papers, documents, materials used in the preparation of the bid sought to be withdrawn.

[03:06:40] So with that, we had originally gone in and, well, actually, the administration had taken out his or her. I just, I felt it would be better to add there as a possessive pronoun. So I don't feel, if you read the clean version, I don't think it makes sense.

[03:07:00] But I'll leave it up to my board members to make that judgment. Thanks. Board members, is there any further discussion on Mr. Pepper's proposed amendment? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote on Mr. Pepper's amendment?

[03:07:20] Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes with seven board members in support including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, Chair Chandler, Vice-Chair Donohue, Mr. Pepper and Dr. Rasheed and two members voting against Mrs. Griffiths and Ms. LaBelle. Returning to the underlying motion as

[03:07:56] amended, is there any discussion board members? Mr. Pepper. Vice-Chair, I have a second amendment. I move to delete the word there on line 35 of the red line version. Second. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, madam vice-chair. So additionally at the October 6th meeting the word there was added to the phrase superintendent or their designee. This is in just on line 35. This is incongruent with the language added in the policy on section D

[03:08:31] on line 79 and 88 of the red line version which just states superintendent or designee superintendent or designee is used throughout the remainder of our policy so really just is this is just for consistency's sake board members is there any discussion mrs. Griffiths thank you madam chair um for amendment number two um i generally go with what uh makes sense but it i believe it takes the power away from the superintendent um does he have the power to designate taking away there relieves uncertainty. Ownership, I felt, is necessary. A designee can come from anywhere.

[03:09:10] Possessive pronouns are needed. If left as is, the amendment is not necessary. Are we making a new designee? I say leave it alone if possible. It creates confusion taking out the pronouns. We must clarify the designee. I just ask, just read the clean version. I do ask that the people of Lana County, take the opportunity to listen to this discussion surrounding deliberate replacement of ownership language in our policies. Thank you.

[03:09:40] Board members, is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, we are now voting on Mr. Pepper's second proposed amendment. Please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote?

[03:10:09] That motion passes with seven members in support, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donohue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed, and two members voting against, Mrs. Griffiths and Ms. LaBelle. Now returning to the base motion as amended, is there any further discussion as to the base motion as amended?

[03:10:35] None. We will now vote on the base motion as amended. Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote?

[03:10:52] Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes with eight board members in support, including Ms. Riccardi, Mr. Svensson, Ms. Chernoff, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, and one member voting against, Mrs. Griffiths.

[03:11:13] Okay, we will now move on to item 12.02, Finance and Operations Committee revisions of policy 4340, Procurement Procedures. Speaking to this item will be board member and F&O chair, Mrs. Griffiths. Mrs. Griffiths, the floor is yours.

[03:11:29] Thank you, Vice-Chair Nonahue. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the revised policy 4340 procurement exceptions. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. That motion has been probably made by Mrs. Griffiths and seconded by Mr. Svensson.

[03:11:48] Board members, is there any discussion? No discussion. Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote?

[03:12:04] Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support of the vote.

[03:12:21] Now we will go back to item 5.02 before we get into our information items. And we will transition back to our second work session topic that we were unable to get to prior to the dinner break, is the department of business and financial services fiscal year 2028 budget work session presented by ms cheryl sharon willoughby chief financial officer ms willoughby the floor is

[03:12:57] yours thank you this is our third um discussion on the development of the fy 28 budget with the school board i am joined by our budget director casey jones and our chief technology officer aaron smith to provide you an update on our budget work we're going to start by talking about enrollment and you had a lengthy discussion and presentation about the enrollment projections and wanted to give just a few examples of how

[03:13:34] enrollment can impact the FY 28 budget. We want to start with talking about revenue. Based on current projections you know enrollment is expected to decline from 80,201 students in FY 27 to 76,669 for FY 28 and that's a decrease of a budget-to-budget number of approximately 3,500 students. Because a portion of our state funding is tied to enrollment, this decline could have a significant impact on the revenue available to support our schools and programs. Based on these projections, the estimated reduction in enrollment driven

[03:14:12] state revenue for FY28 is approximately 20.7 million. This reduction though is offset by other non-enrollment driven revenue lines such as sales tax and compensation supplementals. This is an important consideration as we begin developing the FY28 budget, particularly as we work to balance available resources with the needs of our students. In addition to the impact on revenue, we also need to consider how enrollment changes may affect our expenditures. The first area is staffing. The majority of our staffing standards are tied to

[03:14:49] enrollment, so as student populations change, staffing needs may also change across schools and departments. Based on our currently adopted staffing standards and the projected FY28 enrollment, the most challenging planning scenario that we are looking at would result in approximately 209 FTEs in potential staffing reductions. I want to emphasize though that this is a preliminary planning scenario. It's not a recommendation at this time. It also excludes English learner and special education positions, which have different staffing considerations.

[03:15:26] We are taking several steps to better understand and refine our staffing needs, including implementing a strategic hiring freeze this year, reviewing current staffing standards, developing an internal hiring plan, and assessing existing and potential programs.

[03:15:42] We are also working directly with principals and senior staff across the division regarding their needs for fy28 alongside the projected staffing the second area is school-based allocations which provide funding for instructional costs teacher supplies and other school needs based on the projected enrollment decline the preliminary estimate here reflects a 275 000 reduction in instructional allocations this is an initial look at the potential implications of enrollment changes and there is still much work though to be done before we make decisions about

[03:16:17] the fy28 budget you may recall from the september retreat with the school board we talked a lot about the budget during that time we also obtained feedback from the board on a variety of possibilities you may recall a slide where there was a thought bubble regarding a variety of topics for consideration we have brought back the top two items that the board expressed an interest in hearing more about one being revenue generation opportunities and the other being device deployments. We are also bringing two additional items that we

[03:16:53] would like board feedback on as discussion starters and they are virtual distance elementary and school consolidation. First though an update on the overall aim budget strategy from Mr. Jones. Good evening. During the budget retreat in September we provided an overview of budget deep dives conducted with each department earlier in the summer. These phase one efforts focused primarily on finding budget efficiencies where analysis of historic spending patterns and anticipated contract costs indicated that program budgets could be right-sized to either free up budget capacity or to offset inflationary increases on goods and services. This work

[03:17:33] expanded and built upon the reviews we conduct during each annual budget cycle to ensure that all departments, programs, and light items are evaluated. In addition, this granular review sought to achieve even closer alignment at the line item level between budgets and expenditures. While you've heard us mention that the budget is an estimate and that not all expenses will occur exactly as estimated, we do try to narrow that variance as much as possible.

[03:17:56] And now we are gearing up for Phase 2. Since September, we have worked with departments to document various services and activities that LCPS provides. This includes educational opportunities afforded to our students, the resources that support our staff, and the processes that enable our large, complex school division to operate.

[03:18:14] This phase differs from phase one in that instead of focusing on budget alignment, it is taking the next step where we look at expender controls and service delivery levels. We recognize that this critical component of the AIM budget strategy may feel new for LCPS as we discuss our activities and services in this way, some of which you'll hear about shortly.

[03:18:37] To that end, we want to emphasize transparency of the decision-making process with the school board and our community. You should recognize this slide from your budget retreat in September. The graph on the right identifies that fiscal impacts, the x-axis, must be balanced against implementation difficulty, the y-axis. While the fiscal impact can be measured by dollars and FTE, the implementation impact will necessarily be a mix of items that could include community feedback, educational outcomes, our own policies and regulations, and student access and opportunity, just to name a few. Each AIM strategy would be different. Combining these, you have four

[03:19:16] quadrants. On the bottom left, you have low difficulty and low return items. Generally, you would expect to see many opportunities in this quadrant. Each, however, generates relatively smaller savings and, quote, moving the needle would result only from the culmination of many individual changes. On the bottom right, you have low difficulty and high return items.

[03:19:37] These strategies, while attractive, have generally already been seized because of their very nature is low-hanging fruit. Moving to the top left, you have high difficulty and high return items. Strategies in this category would generally not be pursued as they achieve relatively smaller savings but at a significant operational cost. And finally, in the top right, you have high difficulty and high return items. As you can imagine, these aim strategies could have the potential to yield significant budget savings but come with potentially high implementation costs or

[03:20:09] risks. Strategies in this category are important to acknowledge even if not acted upon. Here we have our first set of AIMS strategies which collectively focus on revenue generation. The first is for facility rental rates. Per LCPS policy 6310 facility use and its accompanying regulation, LCPS facilities are available for limited per event short time use when not otherwise used for instructional purposes. The regulation identifies a prioritized tier of five groups who

[03:20:43] can access LCPS facilities. They include LCPS groups, Loudoun County Government and the Elections Office, Loudoun County Parks and Rec, youth organizations, non-profit organizations, and for-profit organizations in that order. While exceptions exist, the regulation generally only requires that priority four, non-profits, and priority five, for-profits, are assessed facility use fees. And while these two groups account for less than four percent of total facility use on average they have historically generated between 1.2 and 1.4 million dollars in revenue each year

[03:21:18] most of the facility use fees have not been updated since the 2020 school year so applying even just a 10 percent increase almost a decade later could increase an additional 123 000 in revenue for lcps for summer in the arts this is an enrichment program for loudon county students entering grades 6 through 10. the program offers a variety of classes including theater instrument vocal music, visual arts, robotics, maker space, cooking, baking, and more. The current tuition rate is $425 for the first student and $400 for the second student compared to Fairfax County

[03:21:55] Public Schools advertised tuition of $600 per student for a very similar program. In order to keep pace with our own rising personnel costs, increasing the tuition rate by even just $75 would maintain fiscal sustainability for this program at LCPS and continue to offer high quality enriching programs for our students while also generating an additional twenty five thousand dollars. And finally we have the behind the wheel fee. The current fee of two hundred twenty five dollars per student is a legacy amount that was tied to the cost of instructors but has not kept up with the actual cost of the program. In addition to changes in how instructors are paid, there are

[03:22:33] also costs associated with instructor training, students requiring more sessions behind the wheel, and just the cost of fuel. For FY26, the state estimated that the max allowable rate for LCPS could be close to $292 for this program, but if we were to increase our fee to 275, that would generate an additional $35,000 in revenue. And as discussed on the previous slide, implementation for each of these would need to be carefully considered and communicated to families and community stakeholders, along with an emphasis in communication of our fee reduction and waiver policies for families and students experiencing economic hardship. And now I'll turn it over to

[03:23:12] Mr. Smith to discuss the LCPS device strategy. Good evening. As previously requested by the school board we're here tonight to discuss what I will stress as a potential elementary deployment scenario. We are still early in our pilot and we are actively collecting feedback. In fact I just gathered we just received the teacher feedback about an hour before this meeting so I've been reviewing that. So I don't want to say this is a plan that is set in stone but just to give the board an idea of a potential change to an elementary device deployment model. So in this potential model, the total cost would be $3.7 million and have a cost savings or cost avoidance of $2.3

[03:23:50] million. This is based off of five devices per kindergarten classroom and a charging station, 10 devices per first grade classroom, classroom assigned Chromebooks starting in second grade through fifth grade, charging cards and stations for all elementary schools, all elementary devices staying at school and elementary devices left at the school over summer break this basically results in a single refresh cycle for elementary schools eliminating half of that that cost and includes the cost of carts to for that so here on this slide you can see our current deployment model is students receive a new one-to-one chromebook in k3 kindergarten third grade sixth grade and

[03:24:27] ninth grade and we average about 24 000 chromebooks deployed each summer in 2023 we paid about 355 per device in 2027 based off of vendor forecasts where our budgeting cost of 600 or more per device so you can see here the cost of what it for a full refresh for student devices was about eight million dollars in 2023 2024 and that cost next year we're anticipating that to be in the 13.8 to 14 million dollar range another one-to-one device deployment model that we could discuss is the the potential change to staff refresh cycle. Currently, we have about 12,500 staff who receive

[03:25:07] an LCPS-issued laptop. An important note there is in 2023, the board, per board direction, DDI deployed about 2,500 devices, laptops to teacher assistants, which increased our deployment pool by about 25% in a single year. Devices currently are refreshed every four years, which leads to approximately 3,000 devices based off of age of device, and the total cost this is budgeted for for next year is five million dollars. One option is to extend this to a five-year refresh which would be a one million dollar in cost avoidance because we would need to add some additional cost for out

[03:25:40] of warranty device repairs. So the next two items are topics that were also discussed with the school board during the retreat in September and the one that we are starting off to bring back is related to the virtual distance elementary program. This program is relatively new and began in FY22 during COVID era return to school planning specifically for medically fragile children. It was intended to accommodate up to 400 students with 15 full-time staff supporting the program. If there was to be

[03:26:19] a discontinuation of this program there's a 1.5 million estimated savings associated with it. This outlines the history of the program. You can see that in FY24 it was discontinued but then reinstated the following year per school board direction. Since its return the enrollment has continued to decline as you can see on the first row with currently this year only having 17 students. The program though is supported by almost 12 FTE at an annual cost of approximately

[03:26:53] 1.5 million dollars. That equates to roughly 90,000 dollars per student on a cost per pupil calculation as we consider the cost of maintaining the program at its current enrollment level we also need to consider the alternative options available to support students if virtual distance elementary were discontinued students would continue to have options to meet their educational needs these include attending their zone school receiving homebound instruction when appropriate or accessing virtual learning through virtual virginia enrollment data also indicates that

[03:27:33] anxiety is a primary reason some families choose the virtual distance elementary program while we recognize the importance of supporting students experiencing anxiety virtual learning may not address the underlying needs and can sometimes reinforce avoidance rather than help students work through those challenges families are encouraged to partner with their home school counselor and or a member of the unified mental health team to identify appropriate supports and explore alternatives that be that best meet their child's needs these options would remain available to students and families if the virtual distance

[03:28:10] elementary program were discontinued the next item is related to consolidating schools and as part of our routine fy 20 budget development process we are gauging the board's interest in various budget considerations including school consolidation to be clear this is not a recommendation to consolidate schools at this time but rather an opportunity to discuss the potential financial implications and determine whether the board would like staff to explore this option further

[03:28:44] any potential consolidation would be a longer-term effort with implications for both the operating and capital budgets preliminary estimates suggest that consolidating four of the schools could generate approximately eight and a half million in savings and again the intention this evening is to gauge the board's interest in further evaluating this option as part of our ongoing budget development. To provide context for this discussion, this slide highlights the six elementary schools with enrollment below 300 students, along with their projected FY28 enrollment and the FY26

[03:29:22] actual cost per pupil. Enrollment ranges from 77 students at Lincoln to 203 at Luckett. For comparison in the middle of the slide the average fy26 cost per pupil across all elementary schools was a little over 26 000 and all six schools exceed that average you'll notice that that banneker and waterford elementary schools are shaded differently on this slide both have had recent facility improvements and their locations make them better suited to potentially receive students from other schools rather than redirect their own students elsewhere for that reason they

[03:29:58] are being considered as potential receiving schools in this discussion while these figures help illustrate the financial considerations cost per pupil is only one factor historically these schools have been looked at for consolidation opportunities due to economies of scale what me what is meant by that it simply means that it costs that it may cost less per student to operate a larger school versus a smaller school each school has fixed costs regardless of enrollment such as utilities maintenance building operations and administrative support when students are

[03:30:35] consolidated into fewer schools the division may be able to reduce costs and use resources more efficiently any further exploration would need to account for facility conditions and planned capital investments transportation educational impacts and the needs of students and communities again this information is intended to support the board's discussion engage interest in further exploration not to recommend at this time consolidation of any specific school if the

[03:31:14] board is interested in exploring school school consolidation further one potential approach though would be to evaluate to evaluate the consolidation of the four schools that were not shaded on this previous slide this approach would also need to account for the two schools in the broader group that are already planned for significant capital projects the schools shown on this slide illustrate one possible scenario again just wanting to continue to emphasize it's not a recommendation at this time the analysis would include validating potential savings evaluating the capacity at the receiving schools and doing deeper dives on the transportation and facility

[03:31:53] investments as i shared earlier it's also important to recognize that permanently closing a school involves an established process governed by virginia law and school board policy 4160. the virginia code outlines the board's authority to consolidate schools following a public comment period and policy 4160 provides that the superintendent's recommended capital improvement program may include the retirement or closure of a school but no earlier than the second year of the cip budget given these considerations any potential consolidation would be a longer

[03:32:29] term effort with implications for both the operating and capital budgets the purpose again of today's discussion is to determine whether the board would like staff to explore this option further as part of future budget development processes touching on a couple of our other funds as we continue working on the fy28 budget as shared during earlier budget work sessions for our school nutrition fund we continue to anticipate a 20 cent increase in meal prices for fy28 that That would bring the elementary lunch prices to 365

[03:33:07] and secondary lunch prices to 375, as you can see on the table on the right. The USDA does provide a tool each year called the Paid Lunch Equity or PLE tool to help school divisions determine an appropriate price for paid meals.

[03:33:22] For FY27, our current fiscal year that we are in right now, the tool calculated a target lunch price of 415. And while LCPS is exempt from the requirement to meet this target, We use it as a reference when evaluating our meal prices. Our approach, though, has been to implement smaller gradual increases over time, as you can see, a series of 20-cent meal price increases, rather than larger increases all at once.

[03:33:49] As we look ahead, we want to keep meals affordable for families while ensuring that the school nutrition fund remains financially sustainable and that we can continue to support our students. i also want to take this opportunity that as we consider meal prices for fy28 we also need to consider the impact of rising operating costs particularly compensation in the school nutrition fund our school nutrition employees play an essential role in providing nutritious meals to students and maintaining competitive compensation is important to supporting and retraining

[03:34:22] retaining this workforce for fy28 we anticipate approximately 908 000 in costs associated with step increases and a two percent cost of living adjustment along with an additional 569 000 in increased employer paid health insurance premiums together those costs total nearly one and a half million dollars while gradual meal price increases can help offset rising expenses the estimated 686 000 associated with our 20 cent meal price increase would not be enough to cover

[03:34:57] these compensation-related costs alone. As a result, we continue to explore other measures to reduce operating costs that you will hear more about in January. The School Nutrition Fund will continue to rely on its existing fund balance to help cover funding shortfalls, making it increasingly important to identify ways to bring revenues and expenditures into better alignment.

[03:35:18] The next group is our self-insurance funds. Similarly, for the Health Self-Insurance Fund, we are looking to maintain the 14% premium increase that was discussed during the retreat in September.

[03:35:35] This 14% premium increase would be for both employees and the employer, as well as retirees, and that would go into effect January of 2028. This increase reflects the need to address rising health insurance costs and maintain the financial stability of the fund.

[03:35:51] We also need to consider the impact of declining staffing levels. With fewer full-time employees, the fund may receive less premium revenue At the same time, claims costs could also decrease as the number of covered employees declines. The overall financial impact, though, will depend on how those changes balance out.

[03:36:10] For the short-term disability, VLDP, and our workers' compensation self-insurance fund, the lower staffing levels there may also result in reduced claims costs as there are fewer employees covered by these programs. As we develop the FY28 budget, we will continue to evaluate these factors to understand their potential impact on each fund, and we will share more information again in January when we present the superintendent's estimate of needs.

[03:36:45] And when we last met in September, also the community feedback survey that we had just conducted had closed just days before, and staff had not had time to conduct a comprehensive review of the just shy of 2,400 individual responses received. Since then we've had a time to work we've had time to work with the research office to analyze the feedback and identify key takeaways. Namely our staff, students, and community put a strong value on reduced class sizes to provide individualized attention and support student success. Specialized services such as

[03:37:21] special education and mental health supports. Sustained focus on academic foundations and individualized learning and the smart use and thoughtful or the smart and thoughtful use of student devices and educational technology. In addition and not listed on the slide there was a high emphasis put on staff compensation which is not listed only because it is governed by the collective bargaining agreement. The full and comprehensive report of all of these items is included in board docs for your review and reference during the FY 28 budget process. And now I'll turn it back to Ms. Willoughby for next steps. So to round

[03:37:58] out where we're at in the process. On the left you can see the series of budget work sessions and public hearing related to the capital budget process and then the school board's adoption of that capital budget on December 15th. We are also anticipating bringing for the operating fund the preliminary county fiscal update that we received from the county. This will fine-tune the available revenues that they are initially projecting for FY28 and then the series of work sessions um that the school board adopted i think last month related to the operating budget calendar

[03:38:35] and then as always we welcome feedback on the budget development process from board members and always offer the opportunity to set up an individual budget meeting as we head into january and with that myself my colleagues my cabinet colleagues are available to answer any questions you may have thank you ms willoughby board members your questions ms lebow ms willoughby can you tell me how many students we have attending thomas jefferson high school in fairfax and how much

[03:39:15] we pay for tuition for them to go there i don't have that readily available i'm not sure if i think they're looking that up for you thank you i recall that that was oh three years ago a little over 12 million just for the buses. While you're at it looking it up, please also find out how many buses we're using right now and how long the buses stay there in Fairfax. Do they stay the whole day and then bring the students home or do they bring them there, come back to Loudoun and go back to

[03:39:54] Fairfax and then back again? And how much are we paying bus driver's salary and insurance for those vehicles and gas for the numerous trips that they make back and forth. So if you can get me that information, you may send it to me in an email. That will work. I can initially share that the cost of TJ Transportation is approximately $1.1 million. The pay for the bus drivers would be based on the salary scale that's published in the budget book. And in terms of the other questions, I'm sure we would appreciate the time to be able to pull that information and provide

[03:40:33] that information to the board in a written format. - Dr. Rasheed. - Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue, and thank you, Ms. Willoughby, for this information that you presented. My question is, how much does it cost, and I'm sure you don't have this information, and this could definitely be a side conversation.

[03:40:57] I was just curious how much it costs for students to attend the charter schools. 'Cause I know we have two charter schools, so I was just curious how that, if there is a difference between having our students go there and including the bus transportation, thank you.

[03:41:17] - So the cost related to our two charter schools is 8.4 million and that's based off of the funding formula in the FY27 budget. So for FY27, we have allocated 8.4 million to support the two charter schools.

[03:41:41] - Ms. Chernoff. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions and a few comments, if I may. I am first gonna address the elephant in the room, and I really wanna frame this conversation back to what you said.

[03:42:03] So we had a board retreat, not sure how much of the public is tuning in to the seven hour conversation that a school board had back in September, is that when we had it? Not sure how much they're dialed in, But there was, you know, we're beginning to have more challenging budget conversations.

[03:42:22] I think we've established that with the enrollment conversation earlier tonight and with just the way the budget is going. So one of the slides, and correct me if I'm wrong, was the beginning of staff, LCPS side of things, putting out a list, I think they were speech bubbles, if you will, of things that we might want to explore as a school board that were sort of being offered up as potential cuts.

[03:42:47] Those things were not really driven specifically by the school board, but more from the staff. Would you say that that is accurate? Yes, the thought bubbles were based on staff feedback as well as just historical presentations that we brought before the board before.

[03:43:03] And then we were asked as board members to rank, they sort of went through each one, and then we were asked to rank where we personally felt those different things should fall. And so as a means to further the conversation for the budget.

[03:43:20] So I just want to sort of level set with the public about that conversation that happened. My question is, where did consolidation of schools fall on that priority list for school board members? Because it was dead last for me. So one of the challenges we had leaving the retreat was a lot of feedback from the board in terms of what to dive deeper into.

[03:43:48] And so that's why we had the top two where there was a really clear consensus on the top two items that was presented this evening related to the revenue generation opportunities and the device policy. All the other thought bubbles all were pretty much along the bottom.

[03:44:04] There wasn't really a lot of a stretch between the rest of them. And so again, was just trying to bring information, doing our due diligence with school consolidation in particular because depending on the pathway it is a lengthy discussion we recognize while it can generate significant savings it is also a significant impact and so that's why we would rather get feedback from the board generally we bring this before each I want to say a new board to get feedback if this is something that there's an interest in knowing that this really

[03:44:41] wouldn't be an FY 28 budget impact this may be more of a 29 or FY 30 and if there is interest then we need to start discussions and what that looks like so that is why in my past 10 years of working with LCPS we routinely bring this topic up recognizing it's a lengthier discussion it's not something that you would just do on the fly I appreciate that context I just I wanted our friends who are here to speak tonight and to the public to understand that this is a conversation that has been going on not always when you're

[03:45:17] getting kids a soccer practice and getting a meal on the table and working are you you know listening to seven hour budget sessions by the school board so I think that's really important to put that out there I think this conversation will be interesting to see where my colleagues fall because I felt like from that conversation at the retreat that this was sort of a moot point but maybe I'm wrong and things have shifted but obviously budgets communicate value systems and I think we all know that and we've been really fortunate in surplus years it is great to ride the wave and be like we value all these special programs and all these different things and we do all these

[03:45:55] amazing things and not only that you get to protect everything that you already have in place so that's a win-win we're not there anymore and so I think now we're gonna have to really focus on what we're willing to give up is always a conversation what we're willing to offer up But also the conversation that really, and I've said this for the years that I've been on the board, that has never been had is what are we choosing to protect and why?

[03:46:22] What value do those things bring? And I have to be honest. I really think when we're talking about consolidating schools, we're really talking about fundamentally dismantling something that's part of the community.

[03:46:38] And you heard it tonight from our speakers. It's not kids aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. We already are undergoing this massive rezoning, which is already difficult. I think there's a lot of layers there. And I think our schools, regardless of their size, make us who we are. And for me, that's not a place to start a budget conversation.

[03:46:57] It would be a last resort conversation. For me personally, if we had spent years and years and years cutting layoffs, things to all kinds of different areas and just gutting out our budget and finding every efficiency we possibly could then if it was a life support issue that would be when we would be even starting to talk about consolidating school so that's me personally but I also think it's sort of shedding light on our process as a whole and I hope that as we go

[03:47:32] into January my hope is that we will get some more cards on the table because right now I don't even And it's very confusing to me to be talking about raising a Summer of the Arts program $75 per person, which is a great program, and I love it, and I actually support the increase of the funds.

[03:47:51] And also, in the next breath, talking about consolidating schools. It isn't aligning for me in terms of where we're at with our priorities as a school board. And so I'm really looking forward now to the process in January when these cuts or things come forward.

[03:48:11] to what cards we can also put on the table and what research we need to do through one-on-one meetings to start to evaluate what we're protecting and why and what other things can come to the table because this, and I know this is just a beginning overview, but it feels like I don't have cards on the table, very few cards to play with.

[03:48:34] Now that soapbox aside, I will say obviously I support the device usage savings. I think that's no surprise to anyone, but also it aligns with the feedback that we saw from our families and that we're hearing from. I am wondering if we started one-to-one usage in third grade with class sets versus second grade, if we could go even push that even further.

[03:49:00] So I like seeing that, and I know it's a low yield with the fees, but I think that that is important. Another thing that I've spoken to Dr. Spence about and I think I put on the record before is thinking about staffing standards in terms of what are some thresholds we're not willing to go below. You know, I don't want to jeopardize our arts programs. I don't want to make our EL support and SPED support so thin that it's not sustainable and it throws us back to where we were before we really put that flexible staffing and differentiated staffing in place. And then

[03:49:35] my last sort of thing to ask here is what is driving the cost for virtual distance elementary what is is it the FTEs and the health care it's the FTE it's the 11.9 FTE and their associated benefits so it's all personnel costs um I think there's one line item of like $75 for some supplies which I mean makes sense since it's a virtual so it's it's all um all personnel okay I'm wondering I will be reaching out to this community for sure because I know that

[03:50:15] We made commitments to them in the past. I'm wondering if there's any way we can get creative here about maybe not needing that much staffing, consolidating classes down, making it more of a differentiated model. I don't know if those things can be explored.

[03:50:33] I know we all put the three other options up, but I'll probably be having some conversations with staff and with that community in the coming weeks to kind of prepare for that. I don't want to be like a negative Nelly. I'm really not trying to be.

[03:50:49] I'm trying to be prepared for tough conversations. But I also do regret when these things go out into the public via the media and we haven't had a chance to front load our feelings about it because it spreads a lot of fear and it spreads a lot of confusion.

[03:51:04] And today has been a whirlwind. My phone has been ringing nonstop from staff, from families that are afraid. And so I know we can do better than that, And I hope we will do better than that. And I think I've said enough on the matter, but I'll pass it to my colleagues.

[03:51:22] Thank you. Chair Chandler. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Well, this is a tough conversation, there's no doubt. And it is definitely going to be a mind shift, a mindset shift that's required for all of us.

[03:51:43] It's very difficult to transition from a time when we couldn't build schools fast enough to make sure that we had a seat for every child that needed one to talk about closing schools. And I will say, I don't think I heard as much directly as perhaps Ms. Chernoff did, but to her point, I did notice in the press that staff had qualified this conversation, and I wanted to share that I appreciate that.

[03:52:16] But I think for the sake of the community, I'd like to start with asking, Since this is not something that we are in any way, shape, or form familiar with in recent history, is there anyone who can speak to what the process would be like if the board hypothetically were to choose to close a school, and how long would it be from start to finish in terms of when that vote was made to when it would actually be executed?

[03:52:45] So there's two different legal pathways of how to approach it. The Virginia code for the school board gives the board the authority to close the school and only requires public hearing process.

[03:53:08] So theoretically, you could possibly have public hearings. And if this was a real top decision of the board and to move quickly, that could be a pathway. Realistically, again, I don't think it's just a few because the code doesn't spell out how many public hearings or anything that this isn't something that would be taken lightly.

[03:53:34] And so, again, I can just only speak from a historical perspective that we always just want to gauge the board thinking about, you know, during each budget season, kind of just it's almost like a test balloon to see where the board lies with this topic so that we can be prepared and start planning for if there was an interest.

[03:53:55] because it would not be for the upcoming budget year. It'd be for something in and out year. And as I had mentioned on one of the slides, it's not just the operating budget, it's also the capital budget. And I don't know if Mr. Mamoon has any additional context he would like to add or share.

[03:54:15] Yeah, for these consolidation buildings, I mean, as part of the analysis, if the board decides to actually ask us to look at this as an option, We will also be reviewing the capital investments for these buildings as well.

[03:54:38] Okay. Thank you so much for that context. I understand at the most basic level that the relationship that families have with LCPS is grounded in their neighborhood schools. And so please know, I mean, I hope the public hears when I say this is not a conversation that I'm taking lightly And I hear that it's a conversation that my colleagues are not taking lightly either.

[03:55:06] I do think it is important for us to be willing to analyze everything that we possibly can do to find more efficiencies in our budget. And to that end, I am grateful for some of the things that were included in this update today.

[03:55:24] And I will say, you know, I don't think it had occurred to me that there were programs that we were offering that perhaps didn't generate enough revenue to cover their costs. That does seem like a good place to start in having a conversation about what our commitments are and how we could best manage those.

[03:55:44] It's definitely a conversation that I'm open to and I'm very supportive of looking for efficiencies around device implementation and generally just looking for efficiencies in a holistic approach.

[03:56:01] approach. It does resonate with me that we may want to actually look at cost per pupil as a reasonable standard by which to judge whether or not programs are working efficiently. It's a conversation that I'll look forward to having with the board as we can continue through this process.

[03:56:30] There are certainly going to be opportunities and hard conversations coming, and these per pupil costs could be really difficult to swallow.

[03:56:50] So anyway, I appreciate the contextualization. I know this is not necessarily the situation that we want to be in, but I know if we buckle down and work together, will be able to figure out a reasonable path forward for our community.

[03:57:08] Thank you. Dr. Rasheed had advised me she wanted to make one more comment and then Ms. McCarty and then Mr. Spenson. Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. I appreciate that. And, you know, I don't mean to, you know, cry about it, but Little River District tends to take the hit.

[03:57:30] And I know in this case, I know that Ms. LaBelle is also, her schools is quite a topic, the schools in her area. But all in all, I know that we're one big entity as a school board. So the smaller elementary schools like Aldi, Luckett, Hamilton, Lincoln, they're not just line items, you know, in an operational budget.

[03:57:49] They are or they do serve as a multi-generational type of cornerstones of their respective communities. So I'm definitely not in favor of, you know, splitting the cohorts, splitting the students again. We already went through redistricting. And I understand it's all a process.

[03:58:07] I understand we're looking at enrollment, we're looking at numbers, we're looking at price, but at the same time, you know, it is a community. And it's, like what Chair Chandler had mentioned, this is a tough conversation. But, you know, like in the end of the day, I don't think that we should close any of the schools.

[03:58:26] I think there's other means. Maybe staffing might get affected. I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not for closing any of the schools or having any of them like split and funneled to other schools by any means whatsoever.

[03:58:42] It's just such a, it's such a detriment to the students. It's such a detriment to the families. There's gotta be another way, thank you. - Ms. Riccardi. - Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:58:59] I'm kind of disappointed in, not kind of, I am disappointed in this process so far. I'm disappointed that we didn't, as a board, have more time at the retreat to really dig into our priorities and really get them spelled out clearly in order to provide staff with clearer guidance.

[03:59:22] And I hear that you didn't feel you had that, and I think that I wish we'd had more time to do that. I'm really disappointed in the fact that this slide deck in particular wasn't briefed to us when we had our meetings this week, because had it been, I would have made it very clear that I would not be very comfortable having a slide with a bunch of school names on it at this point in time.

[03:59:47] I think my biggest concern about that is nobody hears that this is an in-the-future kind of thing when their child's school, or the school that I grew up in and I'm now two or three generations into the school, shows up on a list of schools to be cut, or that we've picked Western Loudoun to take an enormous hit on a number of schools in the most spread out pattern of schools that we've got in all of Loudoun County.

[04:00:12] I wouldn't have, none of that is a good strategy moving forward and communicating out to the public. I think this building alone needs to take the biggest brunt of the first cuts of a budget. Any leadership in any organization would look internally first to make internal cuts and at the administrative level well before we get to cutting schools increasing costs of meals in a very difficult economic time adding more costs 50 bucks ahead to programs that our students appreciate I mean the whole list of stuff except for

[04:00:51] the the one that is publicly driven that we've heard from parents about is the low-tech option here which I'm a very big supporter of right because we've we've We've heard families very clearly saying they want less tech. That is a great thing, but saving $28,000 here and a couple of tens of thousands here isn't going to move the needle, and it's going to have negative impacts on the values that we do try to perpetuate in LCPS.

[04:01:20] So I think we shouldn't be touching schools. We shouldn't be touching teachers. We need to start right here in this building first and start looking at how we can streamline managing programs and services first and foremost.

[04:01:36] And then from there, look at programs that may be high, you know, low service and high impact dollar wise and figure out if there's other ways for us to service students. well before we ever get to cutting teachers, cutting schools, cutting the forward-facing staff for our students.

[04:01:56] And I don't think that that's an outlandish plan when companies have to cut back. That's the approach they take. They look internally first at the leadership and then spread and work their way out. And I'm just disappointed that we didn't see this before the public basically did.

[04:02:18] and it's it has a big wow factor for me I think there's just a lot that we need to really rethink in this entire process I know that we asked at the school board retreat and I know I did particularly that I would like to see I would like to see several slides on here about how we're going to reconfigure administer the administrative costs of running LCPS and that is abundantly vacant in this presentation so I I'd like to see you guys kind of go back and rework this and

[04:02:54] really kind of reprioritize where you're gonna make the cuts because there is space here to do that and and it's not a personal thing I think everybody here is fantastic but we have to make some good and solid business decisions and our primary job is education educating students and we need teachers to do that and our facilities to do that first and foremost so I'd like to see you know I I wasn't going to ask for specific amounts, but I'm getting to the point where I'm going to start asking for a very specific percentage.

[04:03:23] But I'm hoping that you all will initiate that and start coming back to the board with some legitimate shifts and changes in cost-cutting measures here internally, first and foremost. I just want to briefly remind everyone that right now, as Ms. Willoughby stated at the beginning of this conversation, these are not recommendations.

[04:03:48] Right now, what has been presented to us are topics for discussion and for our consideration. but there is no plan right now in place to close any schools or take any of these other specific actions. They are simply topics of conversations for our consideration. Mr. Spenson. Thank you, Madam Vice-Chair. I think that school closure is quite a dramatic step to take. It's more of a sky is falling budgetary situation. We are not in that place. We are at the time of methodical, thoughtful consideration of our budget and how we can bring that in line with

[04:04:27] enrollment projections count me as someone as someone not interested in school consolidation discussion going forward and unless and until some further date when that becomes necessary you know I have family have attended these smalls elementary schools in Western Loudoun I know how important they are to the community so I think I appreciate what Vice Chair Donahue has said and appreciate staffs you know clarification this is for consideration of what kinds of budgetary changes result in what kinds of savings but just want to be

[04:05:06] very clear for the public because I appreciate how scary that can be to see your school's name up on a slide so I think it's important for all of us to make that clear that this is not on the school board's priority list. I am very appreciative of the elementary school tech deployment model presentation. I thought that was really helpful to see the cost savings. One question it sparked for me because we saw on the slide on the elementary school tech deployment, we

[04:05:40] also saw the staff refresh slide. I was wondering, I know that at the secondary school level tech deployments different and we want to be preparing our students for skills after school that after a graduation that they'll need in terms of their technology use but I was wondering what a slide like that would look like for the secondary school level and I was curious if as we approach January if that's something we could consider and maybe I don't know mr.

[04:06:08] Smith if you have any initial thoughts on that sure most of the public conversation has revolved around focusing on early grades first but our focus is pre-k through 12 really so we're building again this is just an example of starting a conversation around one-to-one devices and I just want to say it again this is not we are still collecting teacher feedback we're still collecting school feedback so I don't want anyone to think that these are decisions that are set in stone but just to give an idea of if we were to make this type of implementation the type of cost savings or cost avoidance there could be we're more than happy to bring back any figures facts that we can do to support that conversation for all students thank you I appreciate that nine

[04:06:45] And yeah, and I know with the Smart Tech Pilot program and a lot of the feedback we receive is on the elementary school level, but we also are increasingly getting feedback from secondary school parents about the reliance on technology and questions about how that's preparing students for learning. So I would be curious if, you know, kind of like the elementary school example, if it's a win-win, we're saving budgetary resources while also kind of aligning our practices with community feedback.

[04:07:12] So really, I appreciate that effort. And I appreciate the slide on the virtual distance elementary and laying that out for us. One question it posed for me is in terms of if virtual distance elementary was not offered, where those students would be picking up their education.

[04:07:30] And seeing that cost per pupil on the slide, it's high. But I'm wondering, in terms of the alternatives that were shown on a later slide, what the cost per pupil would be for those same students in another setting. Would it be similar? would we be actually spending the same amount or would it be lowered?

[04:07:50] So I was curious for a future presentation if we could see what the ramifications might look like for the budget and for those students. On one of the initial slides, we talked about the 200 preliminary FTE reductions.

[04:08:14] I was curious kind of what the number each year is we FTEs we lose through attrition each year through retirement or other ways that someone might leave the school system I have how many individuals that is well I don't have a specific number and I'm not sure if my HR friend would have it on the fly we can absolutely provide that what I can share is that as we are looking at the reductions based again the current situation that we are working through we do have a sense that our our current attrition should be able to manage

[04:08:54] the reductions along with I'm sure HR working with staff of other opportunities within the organization so we have been very strategic of looking at that because it is a substantial decrease based off of the initial calculation but again we're also looking at our staffing standards in general to ensure that we're addressing all the needs of the schools the staffing standards are generally the first calculation that you know starts you know off of just a basic student count and then there's different variables that begin to build on top of

[04:09:32] that and that's what we're looking at this year of looking more closely at those other variables and are we capturing all the needs of the school thank you that's very helpful and I think you're kind of going along the lines of what I was mentioned at the beginning, I think that layoffs are kind of a sky is falling situation. We're not in that spot. We lose folks through natural attrition and folks can find other positions within the organization as folks naturally do as they progress through their careers. So I also just want to be clear on that for staff as well that this is something that is not we're not in a

[04:10:10] dire situation. We are in a gradual approach to thinking about how to be intentional thoughtful given the changes in enrollment in the county so I really appreciate all of your work on on the presentation and providing real figures with what we've discussed and and taking in the public feedback thank you dr. Spence you like to chime Yes, thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

[04:10:44] So yeah, thank you, Mr. Svensson for those comments and for some of the other comments from board members tonight as well. We want to just, I think, I want to reiterate that the purpose of the work sessions is to bring the context into these conversations, to have a conversation with the board and to try to get some direction and feedback as we continue in our work in the budget development process that happens before it ultimately comes forward.

[04:11:12] So we appreciate the feedback and I do appreciate the board wanting to give context to the public around that and I think that's an important distinction, that that is really legitimately the purpose of a work session. And that's always the challenge when you're posting documents and you don't have this context and you don't have the opportunity to have that discussion, but that's what the purpose of this discussion is for.

[04:11:33] And so we hear direction from the board, we go back as a team, we talk about that, and identify where our strategies come into play as we as we look at that and I will reiterate to just the the conversation around the AIM process and the AIM discussion and the deep dives. Ms. Riccardi one of the things that you talked about is how are we looking internally in this building and as was pointed out to provide that context that we have already done a phase one deep dive and identified several million dollars in savings and that we are working now on a phase two and some of the things you mentioned specifically

[04:12:09] program outcomes service levels and any alternative approaches there as well so you know recognize that again this conversation is about providing context and I don't think the message that should go out from here is that we're only looking at tearing down or taking away from schools because that's not how we approach budget development and I want to make sure that that is the conversation that occurs out here i think in my work with budget and my team certainly has understood this since i've been here and i think you all have seen this we focus our energy on putting our resources towards our teachers towards our schools and have continued to do that in my

[04:12:49] time here so that certainly will be how we approach the next budget as well and again as part of a work session we are appreciative of the conversation but i just think there's a nuance to the idea that this is a work session for discussion on this not a set of recommendations coming from the administration that is dismissive of challenges that are being faced in our schools so I just wanted to have the opportunity to provide that additional clarification this is Griffiths thank you madam vice-chair I just want to mention we discussed enrollment tonight

[04:13:24] how it's come down significantly you start closing schools parents are not going to be happy with that they will decide other methods could be private could be homeschooling it could be other methods for their kids and you lose enrollment there but I also did want to mention that we had I think it was last week or the meeting before we discussed the hub and I specifically mentioned and I was the only one on this day as to mention that I couldn't vote for it

[04:13:58] because of the threat of hiring freezes and budget issues I wanted to see what happened first and putting that slide in there in the presentation it does give the impression that eventually that's what's going to happen we're going to start closing schools every time I'm on the board three years now every time something even pops up or ends up on this on an agenda or in a presentation I've noticed we tend

[04:14:32] to go in that direction because this board likes to take advice from the administration so with that maybe reevaluate and I I don't want to say I don't love the idea of the hub I do maybe reevaluate that because I don't believe there was an actual cost listed on how much that will cost i don't know if we were gonna buy a building rent a building um i don't know way it uh close schools or have the hub i don't know how much that would cost to house all the items that the hub will um end up having so i just wanted to put it out there that that was a concern for me i think

[04:15:12] it was our last meeting thank you mr pepper thank you madame vice chair thank you guys for the presentation um always insightful um i think i'm in agreement with a lot of my colleagues here both in terms of the tech and in terms of the school closures.

[04:15:30] It was a big gap between one and nine when I was ranking them at the other meetings, and school closures was a clear nine in my book. So that being said, it's interesting to look at all these options because the way I see our budget is there's a couple ways of starting to attack this.

[04:15:47] And right now, in my estimation, it appears that we're in a situation where we're trying to nibble at the margins, right? We're trying to take a little bit of money here, a little bit of money there, a little bit of money in another place to try to even things out in a way that is the least impactful to our programs. And I'm hoping that we can continue to do that. The problem is at some point we're going to run out of margin and we're going to have to look at some of these big things.

[04:16:10] And so the question is, when are we going to get there? And is this a year where we're going to get there? Or should we start to prep for this three, four, five years down the road? That being said, I do have a couple questions. I know you mentioned when we're talking about the staffing standards, the internal hiring plan and what that might look like.

[04:16:27] And I don't know if that's a question more for HRTD or if we have a little bit of what an internal hiring plan would look like. I'm sure my HR friend would be happy to respond in writing in terms of a more comprehensive plan or maybe if he's ready to put him on the spot.

[04:16:48] Yes, good evening. For internal hiring plan, we have policy 7304 and regulation 7304 that dictate how we move staff around when we are reducing numbers in various buildings. So we have already started looking at numbers and looking at the projections that the planning office has given us and have started having conversations with building principals and have a very comprehensive plan that we disseminated to the principals a couple weeks ago to start thinking about that

[04:17:23] And then, obviously, how those plans could be affected by what the school board and Dr. Spence does with the SION. So that's obviously to be determined in February when the school board adopts the budget. But that's kind of the plan that we have right now looking at next year.

[04:17:39] So is it more fair to say it's more of an internal rearrangement plan than an actual internal hiring plan? in that we're prioritizing moving our employees rather than bringing new employees from outside over employees from the inside.

[04:17:55] Correct. Okay, that's much clearer than, in my mind, I was like, oh, so we're not going to bring in new voices from outside the county if there are open positions. The other question I have is really about, and a lot of this has been answered by my colleagues, about the raising meal prices. And my question is, I don't know if we've seen this historically, because I know we haven't raised meal prices a lot in the past, but we did this year.

[04:18:16] as we raise meal prices has that led to an increase a decrease in the number of students who choose to purchase lunch is there a correlation between that actually there is not fortunately when we track our meal participation rates i mean it's it's a metric that's reported as part of the current strategic plan we have seen a an increase year over year in our meal participation rates so we're we're very fortunate with that and hopefully our strategy of doing the incremental of the 20 cents per year versus again doing something more dramatic hopefully is helpful with that strategy.

[04:18:55] I appreciate that and then my last thought is I know one of the biggest drivers of cost is clearly health insurance and health insurance has continued to go up over time even as we have fewer employees participating because we have fewer employees and fewer students. I do want to encourage and I'm not really going to ask the question but I'm going to say it more statement. I really want to encourage us as a school division, as well as all of our neighbors and friends, to possibly look together in some way to consolidate some sort of statewide health insurance program. I think it would not just help us in Loudoun County, but help a lot of our small rural neighbors where teachers are paying, you know, thousands of dollars on their own in premiums

[04:19:35] and already taking a lower salary. And I think with a larger pool, our costs could go down, our services could go up. I'm saying this in a public forum, and I know VSBA is kind of working towards something along those lines but it's something near and dear to my heart as a public school employee who pays more each and every year for his health insurance and sees the quality go down so I think that if we could help promote some of that maybe that's in our legislative services it would be much appreciated we could help drive down some of our drivers my thanks to all of my

[04:20:08] colleagues for some useful food for thought for myself I agree with what many of my colleagues have have said that to me the notion of considering closing a school is would be a choice of last resort I do not believe that we are at that point right now to be considering that and if we were frankly my I didn't grow up here but my husband graduated from Hamilton Elementary so did my mother-in-law my niece and nephew both went there and are now students at Valley it is a school

[04:20:42] near and dear to the heart of myself and my family but I also again want to reiterate I have also been on this board for three years and when we have these budget discussions every year we ask staff to present to us what are some cost-saving measures for possibilities for us to consider and just and discuss and I believe every year there has been at least some mention of we could potentially close or consolidate a school and we have not chosen to do that It has never been recommended by staff in the last three years that I have been on this board, and it is not being recommended here tonight.

[04:21:20] It is a topic for consideration, and right now, nothing more. That being said, I do want to echo some of the comments that my colleagues made. I had also been intending to ask about the cost of transportation for students to TJ, which I know Ms. Willoughby already addressed.

[04:21:39] And I was also going to ask about the support for the charter schools, because if we are going to discuss potentially closing or consolidating some of our elementary schools, I would also want to be discussing the support that we provide to the charter schools as part of that conversation.

[04:22:00] Specifically, I have a question. I'm looking at your slide number 13 related to virtual distance elementary. And I have, I'm confused about the FTEs because I'm looking at, right, FY27 lists enrollment of 17 and 11.9 FTEs, but the previous two years, FY25 and FY26, were both higher enrollment and lower FTEs, or, yeah, lower FTEs.

[04:22:29] So, can you, like, to me that seems somewhat contradictory. Can you explain how virtual distance elementary went to a lower enrollment but a higher number of FTEs? I don't have all of the positions that they use.

[04:22:54] I know that they've created combo classes for their grade levels, but it could also be additional support staff. For example, to support special education students, it could be positions to support as a liaison between home and school, such as what a student support advisor position might be.

[04:23:17] So it could be in the form of other support positions, added to BDE and not to mention not only do you have grade level teachers but they also have specials so you also have to account for all of the resource periods like they have in elementary like music, art, PE, that type of staffing.

[04:23:41] Thank you Ms. Mitchell that's very helpful. Okay thank you Ms. Littleby and all for a very useful conversation to be continued. that we will now move on to our information items beginning with item 13.01 our first information item is being put forward by the department of business and financial services in reference to the the fy 27 first quarter financial review our lucky presenter tonight again is chief financial officer miss sharon willoughby ms willoughby the floor is yours okay so transitioning from

[04:24:21] budget discussion now let's talk about the actuals for this current fiscal year and i have before you the presentation for the fy 27 first quarter financial review this is where we report information based on actual revenues and expenditures for a number of funds actuals of july through september 30th and then we project the remaining nine months of the year in board docs is the comprehensive report on the funds and this presentation is really to just go through some of the highlights starting with our school operating fund

[04:24:58] this slide is looking at how our projected revenues are comparing with the revised budget starting with state revenue overall the state revenue is projected to be 5.3 million above the revised budget several factors are contributing to this projection including updated enrollment the final state budget allocation sales tax revenue and special education and career and tech ed revenues starting with enrollment as you recall our initial forecast projected a 13.5 million dollar shortfall in state revenue based on enrollment that was reported at the beginning

[04:25:34] of the school year with the updated first quarter enrollment information we are in see we are seeing an improvement of 1.3 million bringing the projected shortfall to 12.2 million and we expect this projection to improve even further with the second quarter financial review that will incorporate not only the september 30th student count but any additional students that arrive during that time frame while i don't expect the revenue pickup to wipe out the 13 and a half million shortfall i do expect us to perhaps pick up another million or so another significant factor is the 14 million

[04:26:10] in additional state funding included in the final state budget regardless of any action that the county board takes related to the budget supplemental adjustment we will receive 14 million from the state and that's why we show a positive variance here so far the county board has indicated that it does not intend to increase lcps's budget to reflect the additional state revenue so again we have the 14 million and then we have positive budget variances related to state

[04:26:39] sales tax and some other revenue lines that arrive at the 5.3 million our other revenue streams our county revenue appropriation is fully funded it is the one revenue line that is a guaranteed fixed amount our other funding sources related to federal revenue are expected expected to be slightly above budget to the tune of about 400 000 related to increased medicaid and rotc reimbursements but then those are offset by projections being below budget to the tune of

[04:27:14] 1 million related to e-rate and our athletic ticket sales so overall though our total revenues are projected to be about $4.7 million above our budgeted amount. On the expense side, personnel is projected to be $12.4 million below budget, or approximately 0.7% of the personnel budget.

[04:27:36] This projection reflects our 99.5% fill rate for licensed positions, the strategic hiring pause, and the projected cost of all components of the collective bargaining agreement. Operationally, maintaining such a high fill rate is a positive outcome because it means we are filling positions and supporting our schools. Financially though it becomes more challenging because it means we are realizing fewer savings from vacancies than we have historically expected. So as a result we want to be even more conservative in our financial projections. Our personnel costs as you may recall

[04:28:10] comprise about 90 percent of our budget and again just reinforcing this is where we typically would see savings fall out. For the operations and maintenance accounts we have expenses projected to be 4.6 million below budget or about 2 percent of that budget. These projections account for historically high fuel and utility costs along with additional contractual costs for classroom supports. Inflation is absolutely affecting many accounts in this area where we would typically expect to see some budgetary savings and instead we are expecting to fully expend those account

[04:28:44] lines. So when we look at personnel and operations maintenance together our budget is extremely tight while we are projecting to come in below budget in both areas the margin is limited and we have significantly less flexibility than we have had in prior years it's important to remember that these are projections they're not guaranteed savings and that our actual expenses will depend on staffing service needs and costs that will continue to be projected as we move through the fiscal year i also want to emphasize that the distinction between budget and actual and that

[04:29:21] will only always spend money based off of the actual revenues we expect to receive that we aren't spending based off of the budget so where that lands us is a projected fiscal year and fund balance of 9.7 million and while 9.7 million is a large amount compared to our two billion dollar budget it is 0.5 percent of the entire budget again a very very small margin i've described doing the financial projections using like the metaphor of landing a plane on a pinhead and now

[04:29:56] that pinhead has become just that much smaller and so with this very small margin we still are assuming a 12 million carryover into the fy 28 budget which is the same amount that we have done historically additionally under our established practice we would target less than one percent of the budget fund balance to be returned to the county or to transfer the available fund balance to the health self-insurance fund as allowed in the county's appropriation resolution and that would be our attention again this year circling back to the action taken by the school

[04:30:31] board earlier this year regarding the 14 million budget supplemental when the school board approved the supplemental request you also approved an associated spending plan i shared at that time that we would wait until the first quarter financial review before enacting any of the the spend plan to see what our financial position would be. This projection does not include any of the expenditures outlined in that spend plan. And as you can see, with a fund balance of only $9.7 million, we would not have sufficient funds to cover the entire plan. Therefore, it is recommended

[04:31:06] that we continue to hold on that spend plan as we move through the second quarter. We are working with the departments related to the initiatives to determine prioritization and possible adjustments other funding options or if items should be moved to the FY20 budget we're also looking at the individual items in terms of the dollar amounts because there could be some of the smaller dollar amounts that we could go ahead and proceed enacting moving on to our school nutrition fund we are projecting a total

[04:31:44] revenue to be forty five point four million with an operating shortfall of about two point three million the primary driver here is how enrollment shows up with reduced enrollment we have fewer students so we expect fewer meals to be sold that affects not only cafeteria sales but also the state and federal reimbursements tied to those meals served the projection also includes the 1.6 million transfer from the school operating fund that offsets the credit card piece that was approved by the school board in this year's budget these there are still factors that could still affect these projections including changes in student eligibility for free and reduced price meals something that we are watching very closely

[04:32:22] weather related school closures again if we close for a snow day we aren't generating sales but we still incur fixed costs related to personnel the important point here though is that the meal participation directly affects the funds revenue so we will continue to monitor that closely the expenses are projected to be 50 million with a projected surplus of 5.5 million compared to that budget personnel expenses are projected to be 2.3 million below budget primarily due to vacancies similar to the operating fund this includes all the cost related to the bargaining agreement and similarly staffing has not been

[04:33:01] adjusted based on reduced enrollment our operations and maintenance accounts are projected to be 3.1 million less than budget and this is primarily driven by fewer meal sales associated with that lower enrollment so these lower expenses do help offset the revenue challenge that we discussed however we will need to continue monitoring all the factors, enrollment, meal participation, and staffing to see how the fund will perform during the year. This results in a projection of an operating loss of $5.6 million

[04:33:35] in an FY27. It does account, again, for the one-time subsidy related to the credit card fees. And again, the personnel costs will continue to really drive the expenditures in this area. as in prior years it will be the fund balance in the school nutrition fund that will fill the gap of the operating net loss and while we are projecting to have a a fund we still will have a positive fund balance we will be continuing to draw that fund balance to cover the expenses

[04:34:10] where the revenues are not covering that so now moving on to our self-insurance funds looking at the grouping of our workers comp our short-term disability and our vldp self-insurance funds. These contain the claims and expenses related to these programs. Revenue for all these funds is supported by transfers from the school operating fund, and we maintain reserves equal to two months of claims as per our policy. On the expense side, our workers' comp claims are projected to be $1.1 million below budget. Short-term disability costs are projected to be $200,000

[04:34:46] below budget. In contrast, though, we are projecting our VLDP claims to be about $500,000 above budget and again this just shows the very unique attributes of each funds benefit program moving to our health self-insurance fund revenue here is projected to be 353 million which is about 100 000 above budget of that 271 million is coming from the school operating fund contribute contributions and this would be the employer contributions this also incorporates though

[04:35:20] where we would have our strategic hiring pause so again without having vacancies and employees in the positions we don't have revenue coming across related to those benefit programs and then also it does include the approved 20% premium increase that was included in this year's budget that goes into effect on January 1. We are seeing though that rebates and performance guarantees are projected to contribute 34 million in revenue and again moving on to expenses you may recall during

[04:35:56] the last quarter we had shared that we were seeing a positive trend where our claims increase was seeming to level off we are continuing to see that again this year claims cost here account for about 356 million of the budget of 377.8 we are still though seeing that forecast increase of claims of 10 percent and pharmacy costs are projected to increase by 11 percent though that is down from 20 percent this time last year so again the tapering off is definitely helping this fund

[04:36:31] so the rate of growth is moderating claims costs still are very substantial and even though a slower rate of increase can still add significant expense when applied across this large base of claims the health self-insurance fund is projected to have the expenses that exceed revenues by about 24.8 million with an anticipated ending that position of 18.4 and this includes the expected year-end transfer from the school operating fund the premium increase along with the plan transfer of any school operating fund balance at year end is intended to help strengthen the fund's financial

[04:37:08] position again though we will continue to watch the claims cost and the pressure that it will continue to put on this fund the next grouping of funds are our capital funds the capital asset preservation program fund allows us to respond to the changing facility needs similar to last year you're going to see the groupings of like roofing and hvac and different categories of projects project costs will shift and they can use savings in one area such as roofing to help offset higher costs in other areas including hvac and resurfacing projects that are being affected by inflation and

[04:37:45] supply chain challenges consistent with how the cap program operates they anticipate spending the full appropriation with no projected savings at year end and this approach allows us to use available funding where it is most needed to address facility needs and the last capital fund is our cip program fund which encompasses the multi-year program to address our capital facility needs as we move through the year we continue to evaluate project costs and identify opportunities to use available funding where it is needed most so for example projected surpluses and the capital renewal and alterations projects may help address newly identified facility needs supplement

[04:38:25] existing projects and support strategic improvements aligned with school board priorities one item to note is that this first quarter report does not yet reflect the board's october 13th action to fully fund the view transition academy through fund transfers and supplemental funding i do want to highlight as we have starred on this slide as promised last year that we were working to provide additional detail in this report the report that's in board docs does for the first time provide a more comprehensive project level update so you can see project by project the

[04:39:00] financial information related in this fund and that is the first quarter financial update and And I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you, Ms. Willoughby. Board members, do you have questions? Ms. Riccardi.

[04:39:18] Madam Vice Chair, could you tell me a little bit more about the hiring pause and who's involved? When is that going to start? What's the anticipated cost savings? I mean, who's impacted by this? I don't know if HR wants to maybe address that again in terms of what that looks like.

[04:39:43] It has already began. Yeah, I'm happy to actually address that quickly. So it's really less about a cost savings measure, although there will likely be some. But as you've seen, we have a high fill rate right now, so we're not really anticipating significant cost savings.

[04:39:59] It's really more about looking forward to next year. And as we think about the enrollment decline that that has, based on our staffing standards on FTE, what we're wanting to do is to make sure that we're not hiring people into positions that won't be available to them next year.

[04:40:16] So, you recall our priority is to, and what we've shared elsewhere, is that our priority is to make sure that the people who are currently employed here remain employed here as we go through this process. And one of the things, one of the ways that we'll do that is to make sure that we're being very thoughtful about who we are hiring right now.

[04:40:34] We're calling it strategic because, obviously, we have some positions which are difficult to fill positions. And if we've got a great candidate, we want to make sure that the principals have an opportunity to communicate that to their level of leadership and then work with HR on that. but in general what we're trying to do is for the the few vacancies that we do have remaining is to be thoughtful about whether or not it would be appropriate to fill those knowing that next year we're likely to see a reduction overall in ftes that will have to be managed through attrition is it possible for us to get some more details maybe an fno on that in the next fno meeting and miss griffiths i don't want to set your agenda but i think i want to understand a

[04:41:14] lot more about what the strategy and the plan is because i don't really want this to be full facing as you know if we can avoid that as much as possible i think and we have some concern about the staffing um standards and making sure that we're fully staffing um in in my preference our english learner title one schools as we're working on increasing reading and test scores so i would like to just understand a lot more about what the strategy is for this and when it you know what we're looking at and what the plan is going forward that'd be one one request

[04:41:52] i think i heard you say that the 14 million dollars that we're getting from the state were basically it's going to wash itself out in this entire scenario is that a fair statement or will we see some of it at some point in time and have to allocate so it's important to distinguish between budget and actual and so from an actual perspective the state is going to send approximately 14 million to lcps with the school board's action and what our action request of the county was to also

[04:42:27] increase the budget which is the authority to spend that the concern with the county staff though was concerned that we would be spending based off of the budgeted amount which is why I've made a point to kind of make reference to that we only spend based off of available revenues, which is why we go through this whole projection process.

[04:42:54] We are aligning what we expect to come in the door and that we're spending just those dollars. And so the county's concern was that if they were to increase our spending authority, that they are giving us permission that we would spend dollars that we would not expect to receive, even though I attended one of their finance meetings and explained how that has not been the practice, that's not how we operate.

[04:43:23] So that's why on our projection, we are showing the positive variance because we're not gonna have a budget of 14 million increase, but we're gonna have 14 million of additional dollars come in the door. And so that's when you net it against all the other variables that was on the slide two, why we are showing a positive budget to actual variance, which is kind of contrary to the concept, though, of not having a couple thousand students show up in our door, and it dilutes really that financial impact.

[04:43:55] And so we, from a financial story, we lose the concept of, or the relationship between, here's this budget to actual enrollment variance, and here's how it shows up in the revenues.

[04:44:11] It's going to look, it's just not going to align because we have less enrollment but yet we're projecting to receive more state revenues and so basically they're gonna wash each other out is what you're saying because we're not getting we're not budgeting the 13.5 million because we're not gonna because we're under under enrollment and we're while we're gonna get the 14 million it's gonna have to help offset costs for other things yes if I understand what you mean by wash each other out I maybe like offset yes we were always anticipating yeah right so basically we can just forego

[04:44:47] the conversations around the 14 the spend for the 14 million so I guess from a budget perspective what I'm trying to figure out is as we're as we're talking about the next budget cycle we had seven million dollars in that 14 that was set that was going to be set aside for looking at the stipends and reevaluating the stipend process so I would like to see that in the next budget and see us do that we had a two million dollar investment into our title one at Yale schools which we're not going to have now so we need I want to make sure that I just understand the whole 14 million that we'd budgeted basically all of that is not going to happen at this point so we need to factor that into the next

[04:45:25] budget cycle if we want them I mean some people may not want all of it or whatever but we've got to factor that 14 million dollars into the new the upcoming budget and/or we're looking at other opportunities such as the county's year-end fund fund request that will be brought to the board in November so some of those items may move over off of that spend list onto their request of usage of their fund balance.

[04:45:54] What's the average that we wind up getting, do we have any idea what that might look like? It's been millions, I don't recall the specific dollar amount, but it typically isn't like just 2 million, it's usually a larger amount because they also typically generate a significant fund balance.

[04:46:14] Okay, thank you. Mrs. Griffiths. you Madame Vice-Chair. Getting back to the $14 million and the question Ms. Riccardi posed as far as the stipends go, $7 million. It was, and I don't know if you can answer this or this would be Ms. Boland, it was brought to my attention in the past week that our, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, that our teachers are working 11 months on a 10-month contract. Is that correct? Can somebody

[04:46:50] answer that for me because it was brought to me to check on the 14 million the 7 million stipend if that was going to go to teachers in any way so I'm glad that this came up so we can get clarification on that thank you I'm happy to offer clarification on a few things the stipend stipends are not related to the teacher contract specifically they're related to specific things that folks take on in addition to their regular contracts.

[04:47:23] So that's a separate piece. And then the conversation regards to 11, 10-month contracts, those are issues best handled in the CBA process. And so we have been doing that.

[04:47:38] But generally speaking, I will say our contracts for folks are based on the number of days worked, not on the number of months that their contract may extend into. And so it's really how many days do you work that determines whether or not you're on a 10, 11, or 12-month contract.

[04:47:58] And if I may, am I allowed to ask if we're currently evaluating that? We put the calendars through two years ago for this upcoming last day of school, I mean this upcoming year.

[04:48:18] so are we able to evaluate if we're going to be changing the calendars at all is that somebody able to tell me that to avoid having to possibly pay teachers an extra month I don't know if that's something you can answer for me or clarify again the calendars themselves are distinct and separate from the teacher contracts so the teacher contracts are very specific to the number of days that are worked and the calendars I mean certainly we establish staff calendars once the board adopts the calendars for the school year and just as we

[04:48:56] establish student calendars and all of those are published on our website obviously but again I think I think you want to be clear on that issue is not about the number of months that your working days may go into it is about the number of working days that you have in your contract and that again is a matter that's best handled through the CBA the LEA has every right to bring those concerns forward to the labor relations team and then we'll handle those through that process thank you so much sure leave that up to them there was just a

[04:49:34] misconception I guess it was brought to my attention so I thought because we were discussing the 14 million tonight I can maybe ask those questions but I will leave it up to the negotiations thank you board members any other questions at

[04:49:52] this time? Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I just, I have a kind of a follow-up to that. How do we go about as a board to make sure that these issues that are being brought to us about the 10, 11, and 12-month contracts are actually getting addressed? Because I'm hearing the same thing, too. I've heard it from the assistant athletic directors are really working, you know, 11 and 12 months and working all year long, but they're on, I think, 11-month contracts or maybe 10-month contracts. So I think that, for me, I have some questions just from a board perspective in this collective bargaining

[04:50:28] agreement um how as a board do we make sure that our concerns from our constituents are being addressed besides it just goes into the cba i think the answer to that miss riccardi would be that with the process for making sure that constituent concerns are being addressed is you all should be sharing those concerns with myself and with cabinet and then we will in turn be able to come back to you with those responses if we don't if they're not shared with us and if haven't said i'm hearing this and i need to know what's going on so that we can then share that response that obviously is the interruption in the communication process but if you share that

[04:51:07] with us and i'm hearing tonight that you'd like to know more about that we're happy to provide you with a full more fulsome response i don't think it's appropriate to talk about it um here on the dais because again it's a matter that's frankly being addressed through the cba process right now oh i do i disagree i mean i do think having these conversations on the days is exactly what we're supposed to be doing because that's our job as a board but I get that that you know there's issue about the stipends and just separately for clarification that's you know for teacher art teachers or coaches or people that are you know the and we got to we need to calibrate that piece too but this is a separate issue around the contract miss Riccardi the reason I

[04:51:47] would say that is because the matter for instance could be brought forward as a grievance which ultimately could come to the school board as part of a grievance process the matter also can be brought forward through a legal process that's established in the CPA where we would then have to work with an impartial hearing officer so I'm going to disagree with you I don't think it's appropriate for us to be talking about it here I appreciate you sharing the concern we're more than willing to get you information about what was brought forward to us in terms of that concern and how we're responding based on that generally you have been getting those updates from division counsel for

[04:52:22] precisely those purposes. Thank you everyone. Seeing no comments right now we will move on to the next item on our agenda item number 3.02 another information item proposed revisions for policy 4125 cash handling responsibility. This item will be presented by the Chief of the Finance and Operations Committee Mrs. Dina Griffiths and the Chief Financial Officer Ms. Willoughby. Mrs. Griffiths. I saw Ms. Willoughby left but I'll speak

[04:52:58] to it a little bit. Policy 4.4.1.2.5 is cash handling responsibility for review with LCPS review cycle. This policy is a standardized, straightforward communication practice to improve data sharing and strengthen trust. There is no budget impact, and it was last adopted by the school board on January 11, 2022, as part of the LCPS policy review cycle. This policy has been reviewed and suggested edits are provided by staff to capture current practices and changes or improvements that have occurred since the last

[04:53:34] adopted revision the language language was added to clarify responsibility and accountability and following cash handling procedures lines 5 through 12 language added to clarify responsibility and accountability and following cash handling procedures in lines 13 through 20 language added to ensure that cash is kept secure and properly accounted for in both school and non-school based locations 13 and 18 lines 13 and 18 were just some verbiage clarifications so I'm not sure miss Willoughby is still here I didn't know if she wanted to speak to

[04:54:13] it since it didn't go to consent I'm not I'm not sure she's still here I'm right here but miss Willoughby I just moved oh there she is okay so policies typically go info action through committee and then info action through the school board and so that's why it's being brought forward as an information here to the school board and I think you recapped the changes again just emphasizing just by virtue of the title change really emphasizing this is a cash handling

[04:54:49] policy and we're really just trying to be very specific and clarify expectations for employees. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths and Ms. Willoughby. Board members, do you have any questions? Well, it's not on for action at this time, but absolutely, Mrs. Griffiths, if you'd like to, would you like to say anything, Mrs. Griffiths?

[04:55:17] Can I move to just add it to consent? We can certainly take a temperature check on that for sending it to the consent. Just wanted to make sure if there are no, does anyone have any questions, Dr. Rasheed or chair Chandler I don't see any is there an appetite to send this to the consent to the business consent agenda the next meeting is a little yes that is unanimous so this will go on the consent agenda for our next meeting okay now

[04:55:55] moving on to information item 13.03 13.03 which is the presentation of the superintendent's recommended fiscal year FY 2028 through FY 2033 capital budget will be presented by mr. Adnan Mamoun chief operations officer and Beverly

[04:56:27] Tate and I'm not sure who else mr. Mamoun and staff madam chair can I ask a quick question would it be possible for us to take just a five-minute quick recess you know I'm glad you said that mr.

[04:56:42] because I wanted to and I didn't want to be the only one okay we will take we

[04:56:47] will take a 10-minute recess and reconvene at 9:35 board is in recess we

[05:07:03] will continue with I information item 13.03 department of support services superintendents recommended fiscal year 2028 fiscal year 2033 capital budget mr. Mamoun floor is yours good evening board members and dr. Spence support services team is here tonight to present the superintendents recommended capital budget just a going over our capital budget calendar on we've had capital budget work sessions on June 9th and September 8th and in tonight's presentation of the superintendent's recommendation you will recognize it

[05:07:40] because this is one of the options that we have already talked to the school board members about in our previous work sessions we will summarize the superintendent's recommendations tonight and go over this fresh off the press capital budget book and and help you know the audience as well as the board members can I go through how to use this book to get additional information about the recommendation however we're just gonna focus on the summary of the recommendation tonight because as you can see on the calendar on November 5th about it just a little over a week from now we're gonna be back in front of the

[05:08:18] school board to discuss the details and the components of the our capital budget So with that, I'm going to pass it over to Ms. Tate to take us through the next few slides. So again, this slide from earlier today, reporting our enrollment of 78-173 and our projections for the next six years.

[05:08:43] If you will indulge me, I think that's probably why I got this because I love going through what's in your folder, but this time it's the book in front of you. We just want to highlight the various sections of the book. First, as you open it, you will have two documents fall out of it, one of which is a copy of tonight's presentation.

[05:09:01] The other is a page that will be shown in very small detail on the slide that Mr. Pascarelli will address. It is also an excerpt of page 13 within your document. But within the document, you have a table of contents.

[05:09:18] you actually have on page I should have flipped to it on page 3 you actually have a how to use this document so it kind of gives you a little primer on how to navigate the document we have an existing and planned school index one of my favorite parts of the document my friends to the left not so much and then we have the 11 by 17 pages that are behind the capital budget summary that give you the projected projects for the first six years on page one and then

[05:09:54] we have the remaining 30 years follow on the two pages the 11 by 17s we've provided project descriptions for all projects that will be funded in the six year planning period we have a section on land inventory what sites we have still remaining in our inventory for future school needs we have a planning environment that very briefly touches on enrollment components we look at in projecting based building capacity and then facility analysis this is where we can get in the meat and potatoes of school specifics so we've broken each

[05:10:31] section down by our six planning districts as well as a section on academy centers and charter schools within that you will have a summary by planning district and by school level of enrollments for the six-year period and available capacity and utilization and then you will have individual pages for each school then we provide a glossary of multitude of terms that we use during in this document as well as we speak to and then there are a number of appendices enrollment student generation factors facility information

[05:11:08] when they opened the acreage what cluster they're in the next two slides I'm going to speak to you before passing over to Mr. Pascarelli. This slide kind of summarizes our long-term approach to the capital budget, specifically with the modernization components where we look at critical systems, energy conservation, certain building site renewals, how new initiatives are brought forward to the board, such as the visual performing arts,

[05:11:39] and how we enhance existing programs such as the ctae renovations then we as you're well aware we have nearly 14 million square feet of facilities our enrollment projections say leveling out they're actually on the decline but we utilize scout which is one of the platforms that were developed in-house so that we can better assess what's happening in our schools find out where there is available capacity so that we're not having to build additions thank you miss tate

[05:12:16] so this is a list of all the projects in the recommended capital budget as miss tate mentioned this is a hard copy was handout handed out to you for this document please note that to help navigate through this budget please note that there's a page number next to each of these budget line items directing you to a detailed project page within the budget book that should help you get the details that you need in each of those line items also please note that the total funding for fy28 through fy32 has not changed since the publication of last year's budget the blue arrows on this sheet show where there's been some movement and

[05:12:53] we'll talk about that in a moment so in addition to the information on each project page is also a page for each school showing a consolidated list for all projects at each school these two pager Other summaries include details for each school site, its capacity, enrollment, and a list of capital projects with their corresponding funding years.

[05:13:16] So this resource was added last year to the book, and the feedback was very positive as being a useful tool for the school staff. So far we've spoken broadly about the long-range planning and the six-year capital budget. This chart focuses on the recommended FY 2028 budget only.

[05:13:34] At our upcoming work session next week, we'll discuss each of these projects in more detail. The only change to this list is shown in blue and it relates to the deferment of the middle school additions and reallocation of that funding that we spoke about at the last work session.

[05:13:50] As you may recall, we reviewed two possible options for this reallocation. The recommendation that's shown here is the option to expedite three of the elementary school classroom additions which address a need for breakout in individual instruction space that's been identified.

[05:14:10] Also, the recommendation includes funding for the proposed district-wide safety and security initiatives that we spoke about briefly last time as well. So here's a breakdown of this year's FY28's capital budget summary.

[05:14:29] So of the $83.55 million that we have in this budget, 32% is for student program space, 22% is for infrastructure improvements to our facilities, 15% is for our bus and white fleet, and 12% goes to our athletic projects, 11% for safety and security, and 4% to playgrounds, 3% to restaurant privacy, and 1% to support spaces. So you can kind of see how the large buckets are allocated in this year's capital budget. We also want to touch upon the very

[05:15:06] important part of the capital budget, which is the cap. The cap for FY28 includes $65.1 million dollars of investment into our school facilities and you'll see here by this pie chart that roughly half of that those dollars are spent on plumbing HVAC and electrical projects which is pretty consistent year-over-year and then we have eight percent for asphalt resurfacing projects we have 24% for re-roofing projects and structural projects which is pretty much captures all the other things that we do in the schools such as restroom refreshes and field maintenance and those kinds of things case work finishes and and that

[05:15:45] includes 17 percent so this concludes our presentation for tonight as you can see from the schedule we will be back next week for a public hearing and work session where we plan on reviewing more details on the proposed projects as well as provide any other information that you request please send any questions that you have to miss Ramon which you would like us to address next week but also we'd be happy to take any questions or comments you have at this time thank you for the presentation board members are there any questions or comments

[05:16:18] mrs. Griffith thank you madam vice-chair just as a heads up I may come to you for case-by-case basis I'm trying to think were you on the tours that you were not on those tours mr. Mahmoud was not everything super serious but some issues like I think we discussed lighting behind Stonebridge that I think should be a priority lighting issues on pathways near the schools I think should

[05:16:54] be a priority if it's our property is that my is that correct if it's our property if it is and certainly would address that and mr. moon has reviewed those notes with me as well oh yeah if we could discuss that further I I was contacted by another constituent today about the that wanted an update on the Newton Lee trail you were gonna give me information on that as well perfectly understandable that if it's not our property we can't provide lights to it but wherever we can that might be a priority for safety but just certain

[05:17:31] situations like that I'm hoping we can do case-by-case basis if it's important and I'll send you all that information. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Mr. Svensson.

[05:17:47] Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I just want to thank the team for the conversations that you all have had with me about Farmwell Station and Eagle Ridge. I know given that the staff is not recommending moving forward with the classroom additions there, we've been discussing ways to prioritize improvements for those schools in the absence of those classroom additions.

[05:18:07] I know that folks, there can be a level of excitement with getting new classroom additions, and I think folks understand from an enrollment perspective those don't make sense right now, but there were going to be investments in those schools. You know, FarmWell is over 30 years old now, and we, you know, in broad run, want to make sure that we're investing in them, and I appreciate the time and attention that you all have taken in those conversations with me.

[05:18:31] I wanted to ask, especially because this is applicable across the middle schools, on two items, because I know at FarmWell, for instance, Speaking to staff, some priorities are making improvements to the CTE classrooms at the middle school.

[05:18:47] And I know this coincides with the division's priority and investments in CTE across the secondary schools, including middle school. I know we're prioritizing high schools first, but I wanted to understand, based on the current budget as written, what is the timeline for making improvements to the middle school classrooms the middle school CTE classrooms sure I could speak to that so our current budget so this coming summer we're gonna be doing renovations to the fax classrooms at the four old the middle schools that we have so farm well is the fifth oldest middle school we have so that would happen the following

[05:19:26] summer along with maybe some other middle schools we have to see how the budget works out but we have met with a school recently and explain that to them so they're aware that that is up and coming for their school thank you that's helpful to have the timeline and I think also coincides well with what we've been discussing in the CNI committee meeting about the middle school curriculum and emphasis on more electives and you know the ability for our students to take advantage of those resources will be really great at the middle school level I know we've talked about restrooms at farm well as well I know that it looks like here they're on the schedule for 2031 the restroom

[05:20:05] privacy upgrades I'm curious you know what what the current schedule is to complete all middle schools restroom privacy and I also wanted to confirm that the restroom privacy upgrades are actually also because we're reconfiguring the space that that means that the restrooms themselves would be overhauled in terms of new tile etc so with regard to the privacy restroom project in general so currently that's a seven-year project in the CIP and as you heard earlier there's requests for funding there will be requests for funding coming up and if so the project will be truncated to a five-year total program

[05:20:44] and through that project the restrooms are completely refurbished thank you and I might ask more specific questions in writing afterwards just about what level funding would enable us to speed up improvements for CTE at the middle school level in terms of classroom renovations or what funding would allow us to speed up the rest privacy restrooms across our schools I was just at Parkview with several of you on Friday and the design is great and I think it's a great addition to our schools so I think whatever we can do to

[05:21:23] to support that as a board is very important thank you excellent we don't have any action on this right so this is a presentation so thank you very much and we will continue these discussions again soon we will now move on to our next item 13.04 another information item proposed revisions to policy 5170 substance use education this item will be presented by the chair of the student Committee, Mr. John Pepper, and Assistant Superintendent for Department of Student

[05:21:59] Services, Ms. Tedra Richardson. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Vice-Chair. So policy 5170 is being changed in accordance with kind of some changes to state code that require that technology addiction be added to substance abuse. It doesn't have to be added to substance abuse, but just be added as an addictive nature. So students are, if you look at the red line version, now required to be educated that time spent using electronic devices such as computers, cell phones, other smart devices, and the addictive components of that.

[05:22:39] Ms. Richardson, is there anything else you'd like to add? Thank you, Mr. Pepper. The proposed policy changes for 5170 really came out of House Bill 1486, also strongly connecting the addictive nature of technology to gambling.

[05:22:57] The General Assembly definitely contemplated the uptick that we've seen in online gambling across our adolescent population across the Commonwealth. Thank you, Ms. Richardson and Mr. Pepper. Board members, yes, there are questions.

[05:23:15] Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I appreciate the change. My first instinct when I read it is just the literacy person in me, substance use and device use feel like that doesn't fit.

[05:23:34] so it feels a little jammed in here and Miss Richardson correct me if I'm wrong but following the House bill and the Senate bill that this is tied to it really is more than just the addictive nature and the gambling it's really been the effects of their mental health correct that is correct okay so following those conversations sort of did a little bit of a deeper dive and Miss Richardson and I had a bigger conversation we don't really have anywhere in policy where we document some of the things, the curriculum, the structures, the different mechanisms and resources that we have for mental health

[05:24:11] and I'm wondering if maybe the development of a new policy that could like this policy that outlines all the different things with substance abuse and drug abuse would make more sense in terms of adding this in and then maybe accompanying regulations with both this policy and potentially a mental health policy. I hear a lot from my constituents about, I hear that we have resources, but I don't know what they are, or like my daughter got nominated to be in Sources of Strength, but you know, she didn't know what that was, and other parents were like, do you know what that is? So we have all these incredible, and the list goes on and on, that's one example, but we have all these incredible

[05:24:50] resources, but I don't know that we have it documented anywhere. How we teach students, I know there's other areas of curriculum in terms of teaching healthy relationships and opportunities for parents to opt out. And sometimes I think parents don't understand why they're being asked to maybe opt out or what that's teaching.

[05:25:11] So I see this as an opportunity for us to have transparency there, but also to offer a resource via a policy regulation that says this is where we address these different mental health concerns as a way to raise awareness to what we actually offer.

[05:25:28] So I don't know if that's something that the committee would consider in student services, but to me, this feels a little bit shoved in there. And then just a secondary thought is, I know Ms. Chandler had raised during the meeting some questions about DARE and what their role is in terms of how this sort of interfaces with the policy.

[05:25:48] And I think that's where a regulation could be helpful so that we could categorize where these different areas are taught. So while I know it was just supposed to be one little bit added in and I'm making a whole bunch more work potentially I think it's an opportunity for us to really expand upon mental health. I also find it ironic in this time of device limiting. Mr. Svensson. Thank You Madam Vice-Chair. I maybe building off of what Ms. Chernoff has said I think that a regulation along the lines of what Ms. Chernoff suggested could be helpful but

[05:26:25] maybe that doesn't mean we can't move forward with this policy. My initial reaction when looking at it was that perhaps we could just change the language of substance use to add in another word or phrase that captures the addictive nature of technology and gambling with substance use, and then, you know, a regulation that builds on, you know, what guidance and instruction and resources we have available, just because, yeah, I think technology is not a substance.

[05:26:51] So I think, but hopefully that could be addressed through an amendment, and then we could still move the policy forward. Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I mean also to policy 8655 is our student acceptable responsible technology use policy so you may be able to either cross-reference or put some in there I mean I don't know if it has to go into this policy for because of the law but it may fit better in that policy throw that out there because it's dealing with

[05:27:29] technology obviously with technology use so place to put it. Ms. LaBelle and then mr. Svenson yes thank you one of the things that we spoke about at SPAC just Monday was the acceptable use policy for 8655 we are talking more about student responsibility and use there as opposed to whether it's a addictive or not it might be an awkward fit in there so again I think that maybe miss Chernoff's

[05:28:08] idea of a policy strictly for that and and defining mental health and what constitutes it where do you find help and what are some problems that might be a better fit for it making a new policy. Mr. Spence and then Mr. Pepper. Thank you just a short addition I you know I think even just saying the addiction and substance use education for this policy could capture that but I leave it to to the group and others to workshop it but I think really what we're talking about is addiction and that is addressed through the policy and it's just more of

[05:28:45] a language choice. Mr. Pepper. Thank you guys for the feedback. It's always helpful when we go to the bigger board and see more and have a little more time to digest. I'm in agreement kind of with both camps here, right? I think this is an opportunity to develop something new. I think as a stopgap measure, we can kind of shoehorn this in with a little bit of language change next week.

[05:29:07] So Mr. Svensson or any one of us want to look forward to kind of wordsmithing this so it fits a little nicer will be lovely and then I think this is an opportunity to rewrite either something specific for the addictive nature of technology or the use of technology I'm reading some of the feedback from the community even talks that you know there are some benefits to technology and it's not just all technology is evil and so this will give us a good opportunity kind of works with this as well as staying in compliance with changes to state code okay well if we're talking about amendments then we can't send this to

[05:29:43] consent all right but we will we will move on to item 13.05 next information item is proposed revisions to policy 8140 student attendance requirements and procedures this item will also be presented by chair of student services committee mr. pepper and assistant superintendent department of student services miss Richardson thank you madam vice-chair so few changes to this policy have been made and I would also envision that this may not go directly to consent, but we can talk about that later. We've redefined a little bit of

[05:30:20] unexcused absences and suspension at absences to align with code in Virginia and regulation 8140, but the other big change is to this policy there's a little bit of change to some military obligations about allowing students who have a family member on active duty or who've recently turned for deployment they get some time to visit with that family member and then perhaps the other big change that may require some discussion is on a allowance of one school day excused absence per school year for the engagement in a civic event

[05:30:59] we had a lot of discussion in committee about this and would welcome your thoughts on that Miss Richardson I'll let you add anything that I've missed Thank you, Mr. Pepper. The proposed revisions to policy 8140 stem from House Bill 653 for your reference.

[05:31:16] As Mr. Pepper has outlined, we did some reorganization of definitions, sort of grouping those things together so that it reads cleaner. I was not present for the October Student Services Committee, but I was made aware of the conversation around civic events.

[05:31:33] IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE BOARD TO KNOW THAT THE LIST OF CIVIC EVENTS WAS REMOVED BY THE PREVIOUS STUDENT SERVICES COMMITTEE THE FALL OF 2023, SO IT ONCE WAS IN THE MEET OF THE POLICY AND THEN IT WAS REMOVED. SO SHOULD IT BE THE WILL OF THE BOARD, STAFF CAN CERTAINLY BRING SOMETHING BACK WITH A LIST OR THAT LIST COULD BE ADDED TO THE SUPPORTING REGULATION for 8140 it's also important to know that one full school day and in the

[05:32:07] Commonwealth of Virginia is applicable to secondary students thank you mr. pepper and miss Richardson board members are there the chair Chandler oddly enough our family got to learn about this civic optional civic activity event last week and just wanted to share that for the context with the board. My child was able to

[05:32:42] participate in a Youth in Government Day, which was sponsored by the Board of Supervisors and I believe supported by Loudoun Youth, which was a very engaging activity where students were chosen to represent their schools and had the opportunity to learn in a hands-on setting about how government So I just thought that could be helpful for this conversation.

[05:33:05] Thanks. Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Vice-Chair. I definitely would like to see the list of civic engagement events or some definition around that. I think that would be just helpful just to put some guardrails around it, because I really do want it to be a learning and great experience for our students, but I have some concerns about potentially how that could get defined and then create some concerns.

[05:33:39] I don't know. I think I'd like to see the list and see if we can come up with a good way to define it so it's useful and not just super broad and anything goes so I'd be curious to see that I'd be curious to see the list I guess is what I'm saying and then maybe some definition around that did I don't know if the committee if you all had a chance to talk about that at all and how you define it or not mr. pepper do you want to respond so as as referenced by miss Richardson we do not have a list right now because that list was part of regulation that ended in 2023. We had stated some examples like Chair Chandler had talked about

[05:34:17] and talked about kind of what would classify and what wouldn't classify, but didn't hammer out anything specific. Our bigger concern with that was more about the advanced notice, whether or not it would, what would have accepted documented evidence. Those are the kind of things that we were really teasing back and forth with the policy, not whether a specific event would qualify, Because it does feel more like regulation than policy.

[05:34:42] Now, Ms. Richardson, I'll ask you a question. Do we still have a copy of the previous regulations? So we can look at those. Thank you, Chair Pepper. Yes, we do have a copy of the previous policy and regulation.

[05:34:58] And we really looked at the categories of civic events in seven buckets. Legislative and government participation, such as a formal government hearing or meeting. That's one example. elections and democratic processes, so a poll worker, a delegate of a youth civic convention or summit, public policy, civic advocacy, and community governance, so maybe they are an appointed student member on a public commission or committee, public service and civic responsibility,

[05:35:34] so they are officially recognized youth service program that's connected to a public agency, So that's very similar to what Ms. Chair Chandler shared. Student government and civic leadership. So serving as an elected student or representative at a government meeting.

[05:35:54] Campaigns and political participation and peaceful demonstrations are the prior categories. Now we didn't have detailed examples under that, but then we did have eligibility criteria.

[05:36:10] So should it be the will of the board we can bring that back when we convene again on November 10th. Ms. LeBeau. Yes, I just wanted to reinforce what Chair Pepper said about our committee meeting.

[05:36:30] We did talk about defining what the different events might be like and having not been on the board in the fall of 2023, I didn't know there was a list either. So this is good news. Thank you.

[05:36:48] questions or comments fellow board members mr. Sunson thank you I just wanted to ask if there was discussion in committee or if there's another place in policy that this lives I know section a to discuss discusses observance of a religious holiday and to bring up our favorite topic the calendar we did discuss obviously there are religious holidays that are not off for all students and then someone might be observing a holiday and I I know we discussed how there could be instances where a significant test or a field trip is assigned on that date.

[05:37:23] And I'm just curious if there is discussion about spelling out in policy, or maybe it's already discussed in regulation about how situations like that will be handled to ensure students aren't in a position where they are missing out on an opportunity or put in a position to decide whether to go to school or not on a significant religious holiday.

[05:37:47] Ms. Richardson. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. So that is not defined, and I don't know whether it was a part of the conversation in committee on October 15th. I don't believe that it was. It's not clearly defined in policy or regulation, but our typical practice is we work with the individual families.

[05:38:09] Certainly, we want to honor their religious beliefs, but also help our students have that balance, whether it's a field trip or an assessment, like you said. Certainly, participation in an assessment is much easier for us to make up, work around scheduling than something like a field trip or an assembly should that also be the will of the board we could certainly add sort of we could sort of just pull it out what our current internal process is within the regulation if that is something that the board wanted to see thank you that's

[05:38:43] helpful is there appetite to put this on consent that way okay um we're we'll move on then to item 13 and I I do see I am aware it is now after 10 o'clock we only have one information item left I like can we one information item one information item so I is there I guess temperature check straw poll are we the board willing to continue on with our with our agenda at least power through

[05:39:22] last of the info items that's a majority okay we will move on to 13.06 the last information item is proposed revisions of policy 8420 student medication which also will be presented by chair of student services committee mr pepper and assistant superintendent department of student services ms richardson thank you madam vice chair so this is our last um information item from the Student Services Committee this has a change based on a change to state code and this minor change is on line 6263 but it now states that any student

[05:40:01] enrolled in a secondary school who is diagnosed the condition causing seizures may possess their own seizure rescue medication and this is to bring us into compliance with state code currently students who experience seizures in the medication for the LCPS policy conflicts with what the change to the state code is.

[05:40:22] Ms. Richardson, do you have anything you'd like to add to that? Thank you, Mr. Pepper. I think the only thing that I would add is that coming out of House Bill 1301, there were multiple changes that would impact 8420 as well as LCPS policy 6640.

[05:40:43] So this is the first of many changes that you will see with 8420 and 6640 due to state code changes. I know that there had previously been some concerns that coming out of committee they suspended the rules to get it to the full board sooner rather than later because we certainly don't want any of our students to find themselves in violation of this policy if it has been deemed appropriate by their medical physicians for them to carry their rescue medications for seizure activity.

[05:41:16] So this will be back before the Student Services Committee within the coming months to consider the rest of the code changes. And so those changes will be able to follow the standard established LCPS policy review cycle.

[05:41:32] Thank you, Ms. Richardson. Board members, are there questions or comments? Mr. Pepper. Madam Vice Chair, I move to suspend the rules. Is there a second? Second. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. This is a motion that requires a two-thirds majority vote and there is no discussion.

[05:42:02] Madam Clerk, and please, are you ready? Hold on, not yet. Nobody vote yet. Not yet. Okay. Board members, please record your vote.

[05:42:51] Chair Chandler can you please state your vote? Yes, dr. Rashid. Can you please state your vote? Madam clerk, can you please close and display the vote that motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support?

[05:43:09] Okay, we have now suspended the rules. Mr. Pepper. Madam vice chair. I move that the school board adopt policy 8420 Student medication. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. The motion has been properly made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms.

[05:43:29] LaBelle. Board members is there any discussion? I will briefly state that I am generally disinclined to support suspension of the rules but I agree that there are situations where it is important and this situation seems to me to be an appropriate exception to the general rule especially as Ms. Richardson has assured us that the policy will be going back before the committee again very soon. So if there is, to the extent that we have not at this time sent this revision out for public feedback, there will be the opportunity for us to receive feedback on this change and the

[05:44:09] other proposed changes that are coming. All right, Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? And that motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support. And we are through all of

[05:44:42] our information items. Board members, is there a desire to do member comments? It has been a little while since we did board member comments. Yes, no. Okay. Pepper, you got to pick a side, sir. Mr. Pepper.

[05:45:00] Sorry. Okay. I see two, three, four in favor, five in favor. Okay. Five in favor, majority. Dr. Rashid, would you like to go first?

[05:45:19] Sure, for that. So these are board updates. All right. So at the October MSAC meeting, we saw both full seats and a full agenda. And I am excited to see this committee continue to grow, as it always does.

[05:45:36] Unfortunately, this year's Chair, Jasmine Tyler, had to step down, and a special election will be held at next month's meeting to fill the position for the remainder of this school year. You can email MSACoutreach at lcps.org for details and definitely an application. So the application window will close on November 13th at 9 o'clock, or 9 p.m., and the special election will take place at the next monthly meeting on November 18th.

[05:46:02] Also at the meeting, I shared an update about the 2028-2029 calendar and the out-of-zone transfer policy. Additionally, delegates heard from the Office of Division Counsel regarding FOIA and FERPA, and a team from Academies of Loudoun shared pathway and application information.

[05:46:19] And finally, Interim Chair Raquel Chapman shared priorities for the MSAC website that was refreshed, including an updated membership application form, consistently updated news and events and helpful resources. And you can check out lcps.org slash MSAC and find out, you know, any type of contact information, or if you have any suggestions, you can reach out to them.

[05:46:43] And also, the next MSAC meeting is coming up on November 18th, so I'm definitely inviting you all to join us, Bring a neighbor, a friend, and your children, too. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:47:01] On October 14th, I had the pleasure of attending Hillsborough Charter School Academy's 212 Infinity at Family Steam Night. It was hosted by the Girls in Gear, which was a fantastic event with all hands-on activities, including origami engineering and launching straw rockets, building things with snap circuits, crochet lessons, programming spheros.

[05:47:30] And it was a fun evening. All the siblings and parents were even involved in it. So it was really a special night. Then I went on October 16th to our third annual Workforce Summit. It was awesome.

[05:47:46] We had over 250 business partners there. We were doing mock interviews. Students came from all our schools to participate in the mock interviews with real employers. And we had a commitment from many, many of our business partners to take kids in for a job for a day, to take kids in for internships, for all sorts of things.

[05:48:12] So that was a big success. Then I went to, we had our Student Behavior and Accountability Committee meeting. and the only action item was updates to policy 8650, which is the student acceptable responsible technology use.

[05:48:29] And I think we just mentioned that a few minutes ago when we were talking about that. Changes were made to modernize terminology, improve readability, and information was added to address content filtering and emerging technologies. We also reviewed 8260, which is being updated to align with Virginia code, and that will be going out for public feedback.

[05:48:55] Our next SBAC meeting is Monday, November 23rd. My next family and community round table is this Thursday, October 29th, I'm sorry, October 29th from 6:30 to 8 o'clock at Coach's Corner in Purcellville, and I hope to see you there.

[05:49:12] And tomorrow, I'm going to be visiting Lincoln Elementary for their annual PTO Fall Fun Festival. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. It's been a busy month or so since we've had public comment.

[05:49:31] I had the opportunity to attend the White Coat Ceremony for both the Academy of Science and MATA at the Academies of Loudouns. I got to see both groups. It's really nice to see our students get the opportunity to achieve some pretty high-level stuff when they're still in high school.

[05:49:50] I also, I know my clock didn't get reset, so it's going to beep in a second. but also in September we had the gifted education advisory committee I was unable to make it due to another commitment but there's definitely not three minutes but I'll keep it brief. The theme of the September meeting was the chance to walk inside and experience a gifted classroom and parents also got the opportunity to meet the LCPS ombudsman at our student services committee this month three items came out we saw all three of them tonight as information items, including one that has now been approved on student seizure medication.

[05:50:30] I had the opportunity to go see the Light Ridge Band at their senior night. We're not going to talk about the football game what happened against Stonebridge, but it was a wonderful opportunity to also practice our new policy 3310 about passing out campaign literature and let candidates know that's a no-no. I got to visit John Champ High School with Principal Sargent, saw some really cool stuff, including a DE bio class, went to Goshen Post and hung out with Ashley Tyson, who's just a joy to be with. So it's been a busy month in the Dulles District. We even had a meet and greet at Los Tiltacos. So it's all for me. Thank you. Mrs. Griffith. Thank you, Madam Vice

[05:51:08] Chair. On September 29th, I hosted a well-attended community town hall focused on e-bikes and scooters, traffic safety and intersections. The traffic safety focused on areas surrounding Trail State Middle School, Belmont Station, Stonebridge. During this meeting today, I was notified there was another accident outside Stonebridge High School, so I'm not sure if it was e-bike related or not. Thankfully, no injuries. I have been working hard pulling together what intersections need to be fixed. I will need help from the Board of Supervisors and VDOT for these

[05:51:45] issues. I would also like to thank the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office for a quick response to another recent electric scooter accident at the intersection of hay and belmont ridge road thankfully the student did not require medical attention i'm hoping an update on that one on this one that just happened tonight as well uh in partnership with the sheriff's office we will continue working together to help ensure our intersections are safe as possible i will also continue collaborating with the loudon county board of supervisors to advocate for improvements this all depends on VDOT's participation and cooperation to help us out in these situations

[05:52:22] I would like to keep hearing from the community and have additional conversations at my town hall I had a great suggestion that was made at the meeting for for e-bike safety I was calling on communications to have scripts available for students to do the news show programs in the mornings at their elementary school elementary middle schools Dr. Spence told me that's going to be a go, so I'm very excited about that. As far as safety goes, our students are my utmost priority, and I appreciate everyone who attended the meeting and contributed

[05:52:58] to that important meeting. Shifting gears for Health Advisory Committee, there will be a ribbon cutting for the HealthWorks Mobile School-Based Program in November, and I'm excited to attend that we have two mobile trailers i want to say mobile buses that will go to all the schools and offer medical care and dentistry um i went to see clue at riverside and a play called the states at stonebridge those were great shows and i'm just going to put it out there again please get out to your middle school and high school productions uh broadway in your backyard thank you thank you

[05:53:38] Ms. Sheridan? Thank you, Madam Chair. I thought you were going to go. Hold on. Okay. Last week we had the Head Start Policy Council. This was the first one of this school year. So every October the meeting serves as a crossover meeting between parents rolling off and new parents of preschoolers rolling on. It was good to catch up with all the amazing staff and parents who support our students through this council and our preschoolers.

[05:54:05] New officers were elected and we also discussed several policies for revision that will be coming our way. One item of importance that is currently, one item of importance that they brought up is that Head Start operates under the Head Start Act, but it is further accountable to over 1,400 regulations in the Head Start program performance standards.

[05:54:26] The Office of Head Start has proposed a major rollback of the performance standards, which may allow for more flexibility within the program, but will also bring some changes. We are in great shape here in LCPS to adapt to the change because we already adhere to all the regulations set forth under the umbrella of the Head Start Act, but aligning with these changes will be ongoing work this school year. I, like my colleagues, have been out and about. It was great celebrating one LCPS celebration day with Dr. Spence and Chair Chandler at Simpson Middle School, who went all out in celebration and that was wonderful. Additionally got out to Leesburg Elementary to see the

[05:55:05] launch of their new dual language immersion program and so great to see those kids getting into a routine there. I accompanied Miss Riccardi at the Bites STEM Day at Forest Grove which is a all hands-on deck basically indoor field day like STEM themed amazingness day and so it was really fun to see all the kids engaged with hands-on activities I like Miss LaBelle very much enjoyed and appreciate our workforce summit every year I'm very grateful for those partnerships and lastly on the end of last week I got to go to Hovater elementary school and visit some former colleagues of mine that I used to work

[05:55:44] with and they invited me to come and speak to third grade about local government and civics and so got the opportunity to engage with them on some fun activities, and it was a great way to end the week. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Spenson. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I wanted to start off by reminding folks that we have the Legislative and Policy Committee meeting tomorrow evening, so look forward to seeing folks there. We had a really engaging LEAF meeting this past month. Thank you to Mr. Traynor for coming and speaking about the capital budget. The parents were very engaged in that conversation and also appreciate

[05:56:22] Ombuds presentation we had, and the parents learning about that resource that is out there for members of the community, families, staff, and students. I want to thank Mr. Mamoon and Mr. Traynor for guiding me through the Parkview High School.

[05:56:38] It was really exciting to see that under construction, and especially fun to go with my staff aide, Kelly, who is a class of 1986 grad from Parkview. So full circle moment for us there. And I also want to just thank a few other folks from community events over the past month, especially the Eagle Ridge Middle School PTA for hosting me and engaging in some really good questions about what we can be doing on the school board to support the community Eagle Ridge.

[05:57:12] And I want to thank Principal Williams at Moorfield Station for inviting me to the fall festival. We got to go to the Scholastic Book Fair, which is always a nostalgic event for a millennial like myself. Thank you.

[05:57:28] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I just wanted to share a few highlights from the Sterling District over the past week or so. Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity to go to Rolling Ridge Elementary School to their advisory council meeting and get to meet the school counselors there who are doing really exceptional work.

[05:57:47] I learned a great deal about what the school is doing and what they're working on to help really push and drive not only just a really amazing school community, but also to help advance the learning goals of the school. I'm actually going to be there tomorrow evening.

[05:58:04] We're doing a town hall, the second town hall for the Sterling District at Rolling Ridge Elementary tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th from 7 to 8.30 p.m. We're going to be talking about academics and other Sterling Park initiatives. We have quite a bit of opportunity there. We are going to have an interpreter available as well, so I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there.

[05:58:26] On Friday, as Ms. Chernoff mentioned, we got to go to Forest Grove and see their STEM day, which is really fun. It's actually a two-day event where the kindergarten through second do activities one day and three to five do it another. We were there for the three to five, third to fifth graders. It's really cool to see STEM done without a lot of technology and screens. Yeah, it was really cool. Coding, they were having so much fun. We got to see tons different things and i will say it was also really great to see a bunch of instructors from some of the other park schools and eastern loudon schools there too observing just to kind of get some ideas about things they could bring to their own school so that was really a great experience

[05:59:04] on october 25th as we've mentioned our october 21st we had our ctac advisory committee meeting i'm really enjoying serving on that and miss labelle was there as well and they were i think just really able to celebrate a really fantastic workforce summit this year so as everybody's mentioned that happened as well on wednesday last week i had a sterling town hall at rosalie carter elementary school we had a really great turnout there and great conversations about obviously as you can imagine the transmission line issue but also had a really good conversation about dress code that was interesting and i was able to do a podcast with the blaze and i haven't

[05:59:43] had a chance to listen to it yet because it just came out but i'm fascinated to get some feedback on that and be able to talk about other things. And finally, I just want to congratulate the Sterling Ruritan celebrated its 75th anniversary this last week. Unfortunately, I was at my niece's wedding in Southern Virginia, but I'm really excited. They have served our community in Sterling so well and support our students in so many ways. So I just want to congratulate them.

[06:00:08] And finally, I got to go to one of my favorite sporting events. I got to go to the senior night at Parkview their volleyball game last week as well where my husband and I have a great time just cheering them on and got to celebrate Miss Linda Lamb who was just here a couple weeks ago who is there one of their captains on their team so congratulations to all of our seniors for all of our winter sports thank you I'll share a couple of brief updates from the last few weeks I was not able to attend the last equity council meeting but there was one at the beginning of

[06:00:46] October. The next one will be, I believe, in December. I was sick and had to cancel our Audit Committee meeting from October, but our next meeting is next Thursday, November 4th, 5th, whatever the Thursday, at 5 p.m. for Audit Committee.

[06:01:07] I, on Thursday, attended the first meeting of the Select Committee to discuss the law enforcement MOU with representatives from LCPS the London County Sheriff's Office and Leesburg Police Department which was a very interesting meeting and we will be meeting again on November 12th so I'm looking forward to the next meeting to continue our discussions and the fun stuff the recent fun stuff like my colleagues I very much enjoyed getting to attend the workforce summit going to the HAMSci white coat ceremony for the new cohort at HamSci I had a chance to visit Richard and Mildred Loving

[06:01:47] elementary school which was a lot of fun and I went to the evergreen mill elementary fall fest so that's been that's been my last couple of weeks and chair Chandler thank you madam vice-chair I'm happy to close this out tonight hello from Tempe I'm excited to join the strategic planning team tomorrow at the possibilities conference um uh over the last couple weeks it's been incredibly busy but um this weekend i had the opportunity to go with my husband to the northern virginia bengali

[06:02:23] association um they hosted a beautiful um cultural event which was also religious service at tuscarora and had hosted some international stars so it was very fun um to have an opportunity to learn more about that and to see the international stars who were incredible. I was also lucky last week to go to Sugar Land's 50th. 50 looks good on Sugar Land, I can tell you that for sure. It was really fun. And also got to run into one of the art teacher there

[06:02:59] at Sugar Land is a former classmate of mine. I also got to go to Potomac Falls senior night. It was really fun to go and spend the evening with the volleyball team and to especially be able to root and cheer on one of the teams that we had the opportunity to vote, to bring that in to the community.

[06:03:19] I was lucky enough to attend the Ruritan 75th anniversary celebration and was happy to see LCPS legend Dr. Hattrick. Again, thank you for commenting on the Workforce Summit and the MOU meeting and one LCPS day. I also really enjoyed this month going to the Pueblo Unido Day in Sterling and participating in the Dominion Homecoming Parade.

[06:03:45] And actually, several PTA visits as well. So there's always something exciting and fun to do, and I appreciate the opportunity and the welcome in the community. Thanks. Thank you. Having completed board member comments, we will move on to item 15 on our agenda, new business.

[06:04:05] board members is there wow there is new business um ms labelle i saw your hand first thank you i'm very glad that dr spence brought up the importance of us when we get notification of problems from constituents i recently received a letter from one of our students who is very upset that since HamSci is at Heritage, I'm trying to keep all this straight in my brain, that

[06:04:42] HamSci is at Heritage, I could have sworn she said Heritage, but okay, that they are cutting back on the number of AP courses that are available and encouraging the students to go into either the IB courses or the DE courses or else dropping down to just the regular courses instead of offering the AP which is what they wanted so i think we need to kind of

[06:05:14] take a look at that and see what's going on thank you miss labelle would be happy to do that if you could just share that information with me so that we can investigate that uh mr spenson thank you madam vice chair um i as you all know i'm the board's representative um this year to the vsba

[06:05:52] delegate assembly in Williamsburg in November and I just wanted to raise that I'm going to be asking for Chair Chandler to add to the consent agenda at the next meeting the authorization for me to act on our behalf on the legislative positions at the delegate assembly.

[06:06:10] I appreciate that you all will want to take a look at the delegate assembly handbook ahead of that meeting and appreciate that there's seven legislative positions that you all can review ahead of time and happy to discuss them in the interim. And if folks have questions, happy to answer that. I did just want to flag it in advance. I just would like to have the board support in order to vote at that assembly and also highlight that the legislative positions are in line with LCPS legislative priorities. In particular, I wanted to highlight that

[06:06:46] there's a legislative support for dedicated state funding for regional career and technical education centers which measures with our support for CTE education and I also wanted to highlight since mr. pepper referenced it earlier this evening that there's legislative support for looking into statewide health insurance access for public school employees so I hope you folks can take a look and let me know if you have any questions or concerns and let you know that I'm planning to ask chair Chandler to add that to the consent agenda and for reference the in

[06:07:20] In 2023, this is how we approached it in terms of authorizing the delegate to vote, was adding onto the consent agenda the authorization for that. As a brief aside, I just wanted to share how impressed I am with Mr. Svensson, because I know you were not on the board in the fall of 2023, so you have clearly done your research going back to see how we did it then.

[06:07:46] I had assistance with the research, but I will not take all the credit there. Then I'm impressed with your aid. Ms. Chernoff. Thank you Madam Chair. A couple of housekeeping items that I've been holding on to for a couple of months but I was waiting for a lighter meeting but that's never going to happen so we're going to do it tonight.

[06:08:08] The first is something for I think the audit policy to consider. I mentioned this back when we had the presentation of the Auditor General bringing the plan. We have some tension in our policies. We need to reconcile them in my opinion.

[06:08:23] so policy 2310 and policy is the committees of the school board and policy 3410 auditor general policy 2310 states that the audit committee approves recommends modifications to and monitors the audit plan through the divisions office of the auditor general but policy 3410 authorizes that the school board should approve the annual risk-based internal audit plans so mr. Allen has pointed out that that is in tension and we should probably have either the committee look at those two and reconcile and bring a proposal to the

[06:09:01] full board or we could do it just as the full board so I will defer to you and chair Chandler to sort that out potentially so I'm glad I can give you an update which was that mr. mr. woods has prepared proposed revisions for policy 3410 and is planning to present them at the next audit committee meeting fantastic we'll be addressing that check check and then I also hate to bring this up because it is our favorite topic but when we voted on the 2829 school calendar with the last-minute amendment to make it a two-week winter break we

[06:09:41] made it a two-week winter break for students however the second week of the winter break is two days off for everyone a teacher work day on Wednesday and two days off for everyone Thursday Friday so we have a workday smack dab in the middle of the second week of winter break I don't know if that was the intention of the amendment I know we are holding harmless the other two days I will just say in a budget year where we're having these conversations I don't don't know if we want to what we want to do if we want to move that but I think as a school board we probably need to clear that up as either teachers would have to eat that day as a day off

[06:10:20] or come into work on a Wednesday in the middle of winter break which I'm pretty sure zero percent would appreciate. Mr. Pepper would you like to comment? Sure since it was my amendment clearly we were trying to get the calendar finished and the belief and this would be a question perhaps from Mr. Allen that that work day would be kind of a Friday to prep for the the week upcoming so switch the Wednesday and the Friday so it's day day day day do we need to vote on this

[06:10:56] um how how would we go about changing that Mr. Allen thank you Mr. Pepper uh yes as approved right now as Ms. Chernoff um indicated there currently is that uh work day on Wednesday the 3rd, I believe it is. So the board would need to vote to amend that prior vote for clarity and that's within the board's purview in terms of how it wants to address it. But I don't know if that's a discussion. Ms. Chernoff, if you're seeking action tonight or placing

[06:11:34] it on a future agenda? Just putting it on the radar that we need to address it. So I conversations can be had potentially make it an action item at some point. Thank you. Any other new business? No, I would like to circle back to Mr.

[06:11:58] Spenson's request vis-a-vis the SBA authorization. You mentioned consent agenda, Mr. Spenson. Board members, is there an appetite to put that on consent agenda? All right, it looks like it looks like everyone is thumbs up so that will go on consent. Okay, moving on then to item number 16, closed meeting. Mr.

[06:12:34] Svensson, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Vice-Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia for the following. One, discussion of assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of a specific LCPS employee and consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel as respectively authorized by Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3711

[06:13:12] , discussion of a student matter that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record, discussion of plans to protect public safety and briefings by staff members, legal counsel, or law enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or related threat to public safety, and discussion of reports or plans relating to the security of any governmental facility, building, or structure, or the safety of persons using such facility, building, or structure, as respectively authorized by Sections 2.2-371182 and 2.2-3711A19 of the Code of Virginia.

[06:13:51] Second. Thank you. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Svensson and seconded by Mr. Pepper. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote?

[06:14:08] Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote?

[06:14:24] That motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support. The board is now in closed session.

[06:14:35] The board is now coming out of closed session.

[07:10:39] Mr. Svensson, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Vice-Chair. I move that the closed meeting be adjourned, that the Loudoun County School Board reconvene its public meeting, and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting. Is there a second?

[07:10:55] Second. I heard him first. All right, that motion has been properly made by Mr. Svensson and seconded by Mr. Pepper. Board members, is there any discussion? Seeing any, Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote?

[07:11:11] Board members, please record your vote. Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote? Yes. And Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support. Mr. Swenson, do you have another motion?

[07:11:37] Yes, I move that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting. Resolution number 13-26-27, whereas the Loudoun County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, and whereas section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law.

[07:12:09] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the Loudoun County School Board.

[07:12:33] Thank you. That motion has been properly made by Mr. Svensson and seconded by Ms. Chernoff. Board members, is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, can you please open the vote? Board members, can you please record your vote? Chair Chandler, can you please state your vote?

[07:12:50] Yes. Dr. Rasheed, can you please state your vote? Yes. Madam Clerk, can you please close and display the vote? That motion passes unanimously with all nine members present and in support. There being no further business this evening, the October 27, 2026 Loudoun County School Board meeting is now adjourned.

[07:13:12] Please drive home safely.

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