Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Meeting - August 12, 2025

Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_AJLk0tIA

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 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] Good evening. The school board meeting is called to order. Would you please stand for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:37] Mrs. Garza, would you please call the roll? Yes, ma'am. Chair Seberg, here. Vice Chair Spall, present. Oh, thank you.

[00:00:55] Mrs. Stephens? Mrs. Brescia? Present. Ms. Miles? Present. Ms. Brown? Present. Dr. Jones? Here. Thank you. Madam Chair, we have a quorum. Thank you, Mrs. Garza. Dr. Newman, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda?

[00:01:12] No, ma'am. Can I get a motion, please? Chair, I move that the school board of the city of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented. Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Stephens, seconded by Mrs. Brescia, the school board of the city of manassas approved the public meeting agenda as presented is there any discussion all in favor yes you have discussion ms brown um i move to amend the agenda by i by adding timely notification policy over or a resolution for significant personnel matters

[00:01:46] can you make a motion to that effect i move to amend the motion i do i move to amend the agenda by adding timely notification policy or resolution for significant personnel matters.

[00:02:04] I second. Motion. Can you repeat, I mean, timely notification policy or a resolution for significant personnel matters. Ms. Miles, you seconded that?

[00:02:26] Yes. Is there any discussion? I just want to say that I want to ensure that every board member is informed promptly about critical personnel decisions so that we can fulfill our duties to support the superintending, maintain public trust, and respond to our constituents effectively.

[00:02:47] So I have a motion by Ms. Brown, seconded by Ms. Miles, that the school board have a timely notification policy or resolution for significant personnel matters. All in favor?

[00:03:09] Aye. All opposed? Aye. The motion does not pass. the motion fails with Jones, Stevens, Brescia, Spall, and Seberg opposed. All right. We're going to go back to the motion for the public meeting agenda by Mrs. Stevens, seconded by Ms. Brescia, that the school board approve the public meeting agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any

[00:03:46] opposed? The motion carries. 6-1, Brown opposed. All right. I just want to note that if anyone's here to speak during citizens comments to please sign in down at the front down

[00:04:06] here at the base of the stage next up is superintendents announcements and spotlights Dr. Cassata good evening chair chair Seberg vice chair Spall school board members and Dr. Newman what they just pulled up on the screen is an

[00:04:44] announcement about a town hall that the school board will be hosting on September let's try it again can you hear any better now yes okay I'm gonna start over good evening chair Seberg vice chair Spall school board members and dr. Newman what folks in the audience and at home can see on the screen is a flyer about a town hall meeting that the school board will be hosting in September but most importantly there's a QR code and a link to a survey for

[00:05:22] folks parents staff community members the school board is interested in feedback on things that Monassa City Public Schools can start doing continue doing or stop doing and this information will be used to structure the discussions at the town hall on September 11th so the survey link can be accessed through the QR code or the link on the flyer and will be made available on our website and social media as well thank you Dr. Quesada next up is board committee reports and I'll go to Mrs. Spall chair of the educational support and

[00:05:56] finance committee good evening our educational support and finance committee met on 8 5 at 4 p.m our three agenda items were about the town hall that you just heard about finance funding for the future and facilities for MCPS a facility study our committee wishes to clarify if the board envisioned for September 11 to be a board meeting I don't know if that comes to a vote I think it does but it depends how we announce the meeting if we're gonna consider it a meeting and I think if we're all there we should announce it and consider it a meeting we

[00:06:32] wanted to clarify that um so mrs garza agree we want to know if the town hall if it's the desire of the board to make the town hall be an actual school board meeting we want to know how miss garza is is going to announce it so we'll announce it as a meeting would it be considered a special meeting it would be okay yes definitely thank you and it's going to be held at mets mets 6 p.m

[00:07:05] that's September 11th all right so I think so the town hall will follow a stop start continue model which begins with a survey which you just heard about and the QR code is available for this survey and all residents students staff and parents are encouraged to participate the due date for the survey I believe is August 25th and the committee will visit next steps on August 26 at 2 p.m. prior our next meeting to review the data that's collected and formulate a more specific plan for how to host on September 11 based on large themes that emanate from the study results further there was some interest in capturing

[00:07:44] stories about Jenny Dean the person and the school and the students on September 11th so the committee has decided they recommend that we defer the story day to an event closer to black history month because we did not want to conflate the two purposes so please stay tuned for those details to come out after September 11th the finance portion of our meeting resulted in a recommendation that an ROI presentation be a big focus for our next joint council school board meeting and the committee feels that there is much to celebrate in our recent funding commitments from the council it's important to our story to share how

[00:08:20] their contributions are helping our overall mission finally the committee discuss the RFP which will be distributed for our facility study. As a reminder a study was done about 10 years ago but leadership felt that the subsequent study done during the 2020 timeframe offered inconsistent information based on a number of factors not the least of which was COVID-19. The new RFP will specify objectives for the study and criteria for the review committee. This new RFP and process will be discussed at our next work session. That's the report.

[00:08:55] Thank you for that thorough report, Mrs. Ball. Next up is citizens' comments. At this time, we welcome citizens who wish to speak about services, policies, and affairs of the City of Manassas Public Schools. Because we have an agenda we need to complete, we ask that comments be limited to three minutes.

[00:09:13] We appreciate the time you have taken to be here. We treat citizens' comments as a public hearing, and we do not engage in conversation with speakers. The lack of an immediate response to your comments should not be taken as a lack of interest or concern.

[00:09:29] Please be respectful when presenting your comments. And first up, I have Tony Lewis. Thank you and good evening, Chair Seabird and Vice Chair Smalls, as well as Dr. Newman and the rest of the school board members.

[00:09:47] I'm here this afternoon or this evening to speak on behalf of my friend, a man that I've been knowing for literally 25 years. I'm not here to talk about how well he coaches.

[00:10:06] I'm not here to talk about the fact that he is a well-respected member of Light of Life Church, which I am the senior pastor of. I'm here to talk about a man's character, a man that I, again, have been knowing for 25 years who does everything with decency and order.

[00:10:30] I also want to bring to the attention, which I know that you know, His love for this city should never be not respected. His love for this city goes far and beyond a lot of people here in this city.

[00:10:50] Coach Mike Johnson is a friend of mine. He's a friend of a lot of people who I'm sure are standing or sitting behind me right now. And I'm sure tonight you'll hear a lot of people talk about his character. You'll hear a lot of people talk about how great a coach he is.

[00:11:07] hear a lot of people talk about uh how long he's been in the school system here as a coach for over 26 years but again my job and my my responsibility tonight is to talk about his character and i think uh a lot of people will do the same thing whether he had a fair uh shot i'm that's not what i'm here to talk about but i do wish to say that i think he was done unfair and his to miss his uh dismissal

[00:11:40] Knowing some of the particulars because he is a friend and someone I speak with, I just wish that this would be reconsidered. If that's not in your hands or whoever's hands it's in, I wish it would be reconsidered. Mike Johnson is a good man. He's a husband, he's a father, he's a man of God, and he's someone who loves this city.

[00:12:05] And for him to be let go of in such a short notice, I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's fair at all. i know there's going to be a lot of people who are going to walk in this building tonight who's going to talk about coach mike i'm here to talk about a man of god who's fair and loves the city of manassas like all of us do thank you for your time thank you sandra dodson good evening school board members i'm here to speak about mike johnson also he is a wonderful coach

[00:12:44] a great mentor and he means a lot to a lot of people here in the city my son had never played football a day in his life in his junior year at Osborne coach Mike took him in and gave him a chance to play he only played in one game got a concussion but coach still considered him part of the team still mentored him and still you know coached him well his senior year he played one game but coach Mike meant a lot to Ryan and to me coach Mike is part of the city of Manassas you

[00:13:23] can't think of the city of Manassas without thinking of coach Mike he is a leader he is a mentor he is a friend he is a coach but he thinks about these boys on and off the field and without him as a coach I think a lot of kids wouldn't be where they are today so I just want to say

[00:13:49] that coach Mike means the world to all of us thank you thank you Ryan Dodson uh good evening Chair Seberg, Vice Chair Spall, Dr. Newman and School Bowl members.

[00:14:08] I'd like to start my speech by listing a group of players. Zamarian Williams, Edward Hogan, Kamani Morris, Michael Kenna, Katrell Davis, myself, Omar Hayajni, Kellen Reed, Rodney Henderson-Smith, Andrew Funk, Julian Burrell, Corey Hill, James Miller, Jamie Jones Jr., Eric Zabala, Elijah Armstead, and Anthony Arthur.

[00:14:34] That's 17 names. During the 2024-2025 season, Osborne had 22 seniors. Those 17 names are all now enrolled in college and getting ready to go into their freshman year. They played under Coach Mike's leadership.

[00:14:50] Not only has he made an impact on the field, finishing with a winning record last year despite barely having enough players to field a team, his impact off the field is greater. To me and others, we consider him a role model and a trusted adult in a school that lacks culture and stability.

[00:15:07] i went there for four years and the first two years the culture was terrible sports culture nobody would come to the games but as soon as mike johnson stepped up there was a noticeable shift in culture everybody wanted to be there uh they trusted the team they trusted the people running the team and a trusted adult in that building can be hard to come by so i understand that it might not be to your discretion whether he gets rehired or not or reconsidered but whoever's discretion it is i'd like i'd like them to reconsider because i know to me he's a role

[00:15:44] model. To me, he's one of the best people at that school. Not just coaching-wise, teacher-wise, but as a person, as a man. He's a father. He's a husband. He's a God-fearing man. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Alexis Keith. Good evening. My name is Alexis Keith. I'm here tonight to share

[00:16:22] not only my own concerns, but also the grief and deep concern of our entire community over the termination of Coach Mike Johnson. We're speaking about a man who has lived a life of service and charity whether it was making young men and boys feel like they belong showing up for the community or pouring his heart out into the OHS football program how could someone who's given so much be treated as if he were disposable simply for being a human being with a heart I have never seen anyone sacrifice so much time and energy without it primarily being for recognition or

[00:16:57] even a paycheck coach Mike has given this community more than most of us could imagine And while I'm here because of what he has done for our city, I'm also here because of what he has done for my own family. My husband has been deeply influenced by Coach Mike since his Little League football days.

[00:17:17] And because of that, he now pours into our sons with the same dedication and care. That is the ripple effect of Coach Mike's life. I've seen him open his home so that boys wouldn't be pulled towards the streets. I've watched his wife and children selflessly share him with all of Manassas because they understood his calling.

[00:17:36] To inspire these young men to show up and be their best selves, this community needs him. Have the players in the very heart of this program or coaching staff been asked how they feel, what they believe is needed? It's hard not to see politics where they don't belong.

[00:17:52] Somewhere along the way, it feels as if grace and mercy has been forgotten. It has been Coach Mike's grace, love, and passion to help others that have kept him on the OHS sideline for all these years. Now, in his time of need, he deserves that same grace, love, and mercy returned to him.

[00:18:09] Please, let us not make him an example for the wrong reasons. Let's make him an example for what it looks like when a community stands by its own. As school board members, you know the weight of being at the mercy of others' decisions. You were elected to be the voice and representation of our community, the city of Manassas.

[00:18:29] Tonight, my prayer is that you hear the cry of this community, hear the plea of the parents, the students, the athletes, the families who have been touched by this man's life. Please reconsider. Please overturn this decision. We are asking, truly asking, that you reinstate Coach Mike as the head coach of Osborne High School.

[00:18:50] Thank you for your time. Thank you. and i'm not sure if this is allowed but i don't know if everybody has facebook access to see the outpouring supports the comments that everybody has made but i have went and printed off eight copies of just a hand a handful of comments um from facebook just in case you all have not have been you all have not been privy to see them so um i'll set them here yeah our clerk

[00:19:17] mrs garza you guys can have time too thank you thomas key good evening nasa city school board members my name is thomas keith coach mike was my little league coach and not just my little league coach but a role model to me a father figure figure as i didn't grow up with a father

[00:19:53] he opened his doors to me at a young age and allowed me to come whenever i wanted to He instilled great values in me, nurturing me into a student athlete that would later take Osborne to a state appearance in 2009 and on so forth and so on, leading into my semi-pro years.

[00:20:21] He's always been a great role model to me, and he's also had the opportunity to instill the same values in my children. So I think that, you know, not only is he a great coach, but he is a great person at heart.

[00:20:39] And I don't think he was done fairly. His heart is pure, and he really means well for the children. If anybody has children, that goes to Osborne. The book of Proverbs 22, verse 1 says, To choose a great reputation over great riches.

[00:21:00] Being held high in esteem is better than silver and gold. And he has been just that. So I ask you guys to please reconsider, to take time to think about this decision before you make it final. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:21:17] Zach, and I can't read the last name. Could you spell your last name? Good afternoon, everybody. I'm here to talk about my friend. I don't know if people know that Mike is taking six, seven, maybe eight kids into his home, like somebody said earlier.

[00:21:37] Away from his kids, away from his wife. After football, most coaches blew away with the kids, not Mike. Mike took the kids, did other things with him. They're semi-pro just so you keep the kids in something positive. If you know and I know, if you don't go to college, they're age 18 through 22, you get into stuff.

[00:21:57] Mike kept those kids. They wouldn't get into stuff. I just want to let y'all know about my friend. And you have to suspend him. That's cool. But dismissal shouldn't have even been brought up. I really believe this is Auburn City.

[00:22:14] This is the National City. You're looking at it. When all of you first come to Manas, who the first person is talking about? Mike Johnson from the Johnson family. Think about it. We're going to get rid of the city. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Karen Morris.

[00:22:30] Good evening, everybody. I don't know a lot of y'all on the board, but I know a few of y'all.

[00:22:51] And I know y'all know I know Mike Johnson. My shirt speaks for itself, okay? And I love him. My children love him. Manassas City loves him. When I first moved to Manassas, Osborne, they had a lot of talent, but they was one and nine.

[00:23:16] One and nine. Nobody wanted to go to Osborne, including my children. My oldest son took Osborne to their first state championship, 14-0. Mike Johnson was on that staff.

[00:23:32] He was the reason my son stayed at OHS. So he not only took my sons and also my grandson. Like Ryan said earlier, we had 22 seniors on the graduating class this year.

[00:23:49] Out of those 22 seniors that graduated, 20 of them went to college. The other two went to vocational school. So they all did something. And that is the most of a class other than the 2006, even more so than the 2006 class.

[00:24:07] Because out of the 2006 class, didn't but 10 of those guys go to college. And they were 14 and 0. So it was bigger than football for Mike Johnson. So now we're asking it to be bigger than because Mike Johnson, the young man that he opened his home to, did not show up.

[00:24:26] He didn't even know that kid and didn't even like his parents. But, hey, he said yes because he did it for the children. not because he was trying to get one over on the school, because he wanted to see that young man go off to be better.

[00:24:46] So I think after Mike Johnson gave Osborne Manassas City, half of his life, the best anybody can do is say, okay, let's give Mike Johnson a second chance, because he didn't do it because he was doing it for the glory, because not even the kid, it wasn't like he went out and said, okay, let me go recruit this five-star athlete, because he ain't even that.

[00:25:11] He did it for the child, and the child's parents decided, okay, well, we're not going to come. I just think it's only right to make it right and get Mike Johnson his job back.

[00:25:27] Otherwise, we're going to be looking at some empty stands over at OHS, and it's going to be a sad day when Manassas City, the only city school you have, don't fill the football team. Thank you. Thank you. Austin Akul?

[00:26:04] So I was one of those kids back in 2010 when I met Coach Mike. I was never even in one of his players when I met him.

[00:26:20] I actually had already graduated by Osborne Park, by Blake. That was my basketball coach. So I was never even one of his players. And he took me in some 15 years ago. He knew I was hungry.

[00:26:36] He knew, you know, I had a little bit of an attitude on me. But at the same time, he knew I had a lot of heart. And I just wanted to find a way to do the right thing.

[00:27:00] Coach Mike, like a second father to me, and he helped me get through school from 2011 to 2016. I was at Blue Ridge and then transferred to West Virginia. playing the whole game. I always wanted to go there. I loved the games. The day I graduated, my mom, my dad, Coach Mike, Ms. Robin, and the rest of my second family was there to see me graduate and then take off. Now I'm a grown man. I'm about to turn 33 years old in September.

[00:27:34] I got to finish school and I have a career. I'm a cloud ops developer. I don't know if y'all know what that is, but basically I'm an IT engineer. And every single time I talk to Coach Mike, I still tell him I love him no matter what, and I always tell him thank you for everything.

[00:27:53] One of the last texts that I sent to him was probably in December when the Heisman ceremony was going on, and Travis Hunter was talking. He was having his Heisman ceremony speech. He was talking about Deion Sanders, and Shador is there.

[00:28:11] And as he's talking about Deion and thanking him and everything, I sent a text to Coach Mike, and I said, you know, I love you just like that, probably maybe even more. And he never owed me nothing. I was never one of his athletes. So when Ms. Karen is saying that this kid wasn't even a player, he was just doing it for the love of the kid, they're not lying.

[00:28:32] It's actually true. This is a technicality, and I get it. You guys probably have a zero-tolerance policy. But sometimes you've got to understand that there's things that could possibly be a strike or some type of suspension. But to fire a man that gave probably close to 40, 45 years of his life to just one school.

[00:28:54] I mean, he stepped foot in Osborne Park and his heart gave out. Like, really, like this is he loves Osborne. That is what he loves. And that's why he came back here and he got this thing right. He got 22 kids into school. They're not on the streets. It doesn't matter if they had the same attitude as me or not.

[00:29:12] He doesn't care. He sees past it. Even when you can't do something for him physically, I owe him a lot. And I never have to give him anything, but he's just proud to see me as the man I am today and the man that I'm becoming. So thank you. That's your time. Thank you. Sarah Cook. And after Sarah Cook, it's Tammy DeHaven.

[00:29:42] Good evening. I am not here to talk about Coach Mike, but I do appreciate the outpouring of love and support. And I can see how much he's meant to so many of you. Good evening.

[00:29:58] My name is Sarah Cook, and I am both a resident of Monassau City, as well as the gifted and talented teacher at jenny dean elementary school and a proud member of our local teachers union the manassas education association i would first like to take a moment to extend my gratitude first thank you chair seaberg for your responsiveness to a family in need in our community because of your follow-up and diligence members of the mea were able to act expediently to come together to meet some basic needs for one of our families going through the unthinkable thank you also to the school board as a whole for your appointment of the interim admin team at

[00:30:34] Jenny Dean we're all excited and hopeful for this school year and what is to come knowing we are under competent caring leadership so thank you very much for that thirdly about a year ago I reached out to dr. Newman regarding trauma informed training I expressed how I'd received ongoing trauma informed training in a previous division and how helpful I felt it would be for our division I see that tonight it's on your agenda to discuss and I want to thank you for your openness to initiatives that will benefit our students and staff and lastly thank you to the school board in partnership with City Council for the additional raise for all staff the message that staff compensation matters is clear I do understand that is the belief of our school board and

[00:31:13] superintendent that all staff are educators and therefore we all deserve the same raise as a division we are concerned with equitable practices I think these equitable practices should extend beyond the classroom and reach into all we pursue in this division including employee benefits compensation and working conditions I'd like to point out that a 6.7% raise for someone making $100,000 a year is not the same as a 6.7% raise for someone making $30,000 a year while the former would cost the division a considerable amount of money and result in an increase in the standard of living of the recipient the

[00:31:49] other yields only about $2,000 over 24 pay periods before taxes this results in about $55 more per pay after taxes this is the reality for many of our support staff our office staff maintenance teams food service staff instructional assistants bus drivers these people who take care of our kids keep them safe keep our buildings clean get our kids to school feed our kids many of them have to hold second jobs to make ends meet and this should not be and you hold the power to make that change and so as budget season approaches I hope you will finally consider looking at compensation in a more equitable way and show all of

[00:32:26] your employees that you value what they bring to this division in a way that restores their dignity and their quality of life thank you thank you Tammy Dehaven I'm Tammy Dehaven resident of Manassas City also an employee of the school division and the proud secretary of the Manassas Education Association I'm here for to talk about collective I'm kidding I'm kidding no I'm just here

[00:33:03] to say thank you for hearing my concern about being able to publicize the work meetings and the work sessions in a different way and i wanted to thank you for considering it and working on that thank you okay next up on our agenda is the consent agenda may have a motion please chair i move that the school board of the city of manassas approve the consent agenda as presented second i have a motion by mrs fall vice chair spall seconded by mrs breja that the school

[00:33:37] board the city of manassas approve the consent agenda as presented is there any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed the motion carries 7-0 moving along to our discussion agenda item a is student services our 2526 student code of conduct isn't that did you say discussion agenda

[00:34:07] i'm looking at the online agenda student that's down as item c item a is student services 2526 student code of conduct okay well it's on tell me it's on this what would you like to present mr

[00:34:33] I mean it's right okay okay can you hear me yeah there were it went back to the work session and there was no changes with the exception of the title page of the student code of conduct and so

[00:34:55] it should be on the action tonight for approval hang on just a second look at all right hang on here on our discussion agenda tonight is facilities and maintenance new jenny dean furniture selections

[00:35:31] and finishes mr gefeller yes good evening chair seberg vice chair spahl members of the board and dr newman so tonight i am going to share some information regarding furniture selections and finishes and what that will look like in the new jenny dean elementary school so over the last several months we have worked with the director of design interior design for our MM our architect to select furniture and select finishes that will enhance the learning environment here in the new Jenny Dean elementary school and so I

[00:36:07] want to share a little bit with you I'm also going to be leaving we have a trifold up here that shows some of the finishes of the furniture that will be in place for the new school starting next year so with that so just want to share again this is a committee that came together to with the administration to look at form and function about how best to furnish the the new Jenny Dean elementary school I did not give a lot of input on colors and design because you don't want that but I was part of the committee so looking at what the

[00:36:45] teacher desks and chairs will look like in all of our classrooms we have there the chair the desk and then the colors that will you will see on the on the furniture for the teacher to teacher desks and chairs each classroom will have storage and so the storage cabinets that were selected with you can see a picture of those there and the natural maple will be the color of the finish on the storage containers. In terms of the typical student chairs you will see here

[00:37:23] this is the what the the desks will look like but also the chairs will look like and there's a chart there that will show that the based on the grade level is what the size of the chair will be and the desk will be. It will be a variety of colors and this the color theme that you will see through all gets pulled through not only the student furniture but also for the adult furniture in the new building and so you'll see that the top of the desk will be will be that natural maple that will cut will tie into the cabinets and also the regatta color which is a top part of the student desks and then based on grade level you

[00:38:01] will see the outer shell plastic finish the three different colors the platinum the regatta and the surf based on the grade level will be the student chairs so we look at actually going deep into the actual classroom so preschool are a pre-kindergarten they call it pre-kindergarten or preschool classrooms this is the a schematic of the the layout of the room and then all of these things here will be ordered as part of the furniture package for all the preschool rooms they will be furnished in the same way so each

[00:38:38] preschool each kindergarten each first grade will all have the same furniture and so here is what you will see in a pre-kindergarten classroom continuation you will see here is a more furniture the the play kitchen which is in our pre-kindergarten classrooms you have some flexible space couches that will be there in ottoman and then the preschool classrooms will also have two different carpets one is they call it the dramatic play carpet and the other will be for the morning meeting it has the squares so you can actually say where to sit and into those

[00:39:13] squares for personal space so again a lot of thought was was put into what best furniture and how to enhance the learning space in each of those classrooms we will also have our pre-kindergarten special education our preschool special education classroom so here is a schematic of what their room will look like and you can see here is a just the furniture that we will see in each of the preschool special education classrooms again very similar to what

[00:39:46] you will see in the general education preschool classroom as well. In kindergarten, the schematic there, the addition here, you will have a kidney table and you will also have stools that will be around that.

[00:40:04] The student chairs will be what students will sit at their desks. You see the mobile storage, you see the bookcases, again here is the schematic of the classroom and all kindergarten classrooms will have the same furniture.

[00:40:21] will not have two carpets they will have one carpet and you have the laptop charging cart as well for our kindergarten and you'll have the again teaching center for storage that was an emphasis placed as we were talking about furniture for the new classrooms making sure there was adequate storage for that was in talking with Baldwin Elementary School one of the things that was very clear is that we need storage and so we made sure that was a priority as we were talking about furniture with RRMM. First grade again here is is a schematic and

[00:41:01] this is what you will see in the first grade classroom very similar to what you will see in the kindergarten classroom and then our second through fourth grade classroom you have the schematic you have the different furniture that will be in their student desks the storage you'll have a tall storage cabinet and a wardrobe storage cabinet as well as the of course the teacher desks the chairs and the stools that will only be around the reading tables and again just a

[00:41:38] continuation of second through fourth grade and in our extended learning areas so in the new Jane Dean Elementary School there are what we would consider the ELA's in the in the Baldwin School we will have these open spaces for collaboration and workspaces for our students and teachers and so we'll be furnishing those with a teacher desk chair but then also be Ottomans flexible seating type furniture for our students to be more collaborative to be able to work on projects together group activities related to you know the

[00:42:15] content areas moving into the administration space here is a schematic of what the all the spaces that will be furnished in the the main office you have here you can see a copy or a copy but a example of what the furniture will look like it again ties into the the classrooms with natural maple the the interior design of the colors the vinyl seats will also be matching throughout the entire division we felt it was important to have a

[00:42:48] matching cohesive palette throughout the entire school one thing that we have in the front office that we we talked a lot about was the waiting chair and what we often see is had discussion around when you have parents that are coming in to fill out paperwork they often don't have and they're sitting down they don't have something to write on and so again looking at form and function we have the waiting chair that actually has a writing surface that you can pull up to use parent families can use as they're filling out registration paperwork I'm

[00:43:28] just trying to make it easy for for our families you see there is that is an example of what the conference room table will look like and the chairs there will be in the conference room in the administration in our clinic we met with with nurse Bellamy and worked out what is needed for the clinic area pretty standard equipment storage student debt or student chairs to for if you have multiple students in the clinic at one time storage and then a mobile teacher desk was important so that the nurse can be documenting things as they're

[00:44:06] working with students of course our music room you'll see here of equipment you have the addition to the chairs and the student desk you also have in the carpet you also have the the classroom this the stage the foldable stage the risers for students to be able to stand on during music performances during practice in the music class obviously you have stands and everything tied to music for that classroom again just in terms of storage of chairs we'll be

[00:44:42] having tables and folding tables and those are pretty standard across but we'll have enough for different events that the school will be able to utilize for parent events or activities that they have during the school day the cafeteria table is an example we talked about the round seats versus the rectangular seats and we felt that was better to go with the rectangular seats based on feedback that we've received from other schools you'll see that the laminate tabletop will be the a pearl gray color it will not be the maple color

[00:45:21] and so that will match across the school our media center will be have flexible seating in it with the different they call them tangram lounge seating so we want to make it as inviting but also a functional so you can move that seating around at students we obviously have the bookshelves and we're looking at at shelving for about 10,000 volumes of books and so you'll see kind of how the layout of the library there and using the that to really make it functional

[00:45:57] space for small groups individual but really conducive to making sure that we're complementing what's happening in the classrooms with content just another example of the the flexible seating that you will see the lounge seating the things that the pieces that go together and you'll see the color palette that gets pulled through not just through the library but also through the school as well to make sure that all matches so here's a just an example of the palette for the soft seating fabric and you'll see you can actually view that here we're gonna leave this here at Jenny Dean but actually samples of the fabric that will

[00:46:36] be used on the seating that we have available in the new school it is it is also very functional it's very easy to clean which was very important for us as we were selecting the different fabrics to use for the new Janine Elementary school and then nothing was left out our IT workroom very exciting we have tables chairs there that will be there for our ITTS who is here and making sure that This is a functional space there for our ITTS

[00:47:14] to do the work that they do on a daily basis. And of course, we'll have our broadcast room. We have a designated room for our morning broadcast, our morning announcements. And so you'll see, it's just very basic.

[00:47:29] We have a table, a chair, and some, again, more storage for our teachers and for our students to use. In the art room, you see the layout there of the art room. tables will be on wheels so that we can actually move the tables around and the teacher the art teacher can utilize them as best they to meet the needs that they have in that classroom obviously storage you have a work table and you'll see that they will have stools with which will

[00:48:02] match the tabletops of our desks and the metal legs will also have the the turquoise color palette that goes throughout those stools and with that i'm happy to answer any questions questions or comments from the board mrs spall mrs brezha uh thank you you mentioned baldwin elementary and some lessons learned from baldwin and i don't think they'd let me back in the building unless

[00:48:39] i asked you to talk a little bit more about the stools because they are leaving baldwin and going to hayden correct um based on feedback from those hayden wanted them and baldwin didn't well there are still some uh teachers that utilize the stools at baldwin currently okay But there are some teachers who did not like the stools, and they are currently on the stage at Baldwin Elementary and Intermediate.

[00:49:07] And so recently, a teacher at Hayden saw them and said, hey, we loved them when we were there. Can we please have them? And so they will be transferred to Hayden so they can be utilized. But again, here, we're using them in a very limited capacity.

[00:49:23] They'll be just around the reading tables. They will not be used for seating at the desks. Right. They're not general seating. are not general seating okay and the other question I had and it shouldn't occur to me until just now that usually our presentations have a link to our strategic plan where it fits into the strategic plan but these Jenny Dean updates have not is this under inclusive and collaborative learning environment is that the idea I think it's under inclusive collaborative learning environment I think it's under our vision and mission and I think it is you know really these were all in alignment with that because we want to make not

[00:49:59] only an inviting and inviting environment for our students but we also want to make sure it's functional for our students and functional and inviting for our staff and so I can get on board with that and final question you know there's a lot happening in the global trade environment and I really applaud the everyone who's working on the main construction project who's kept that under you on budget and on time do we have any concerns about furnitures timely delivery or any increase in cost there? No, so our last meeting that we had with RRMM, when we made

[00:50:36] some of our final selections, I asked that question, and they were not concerned. They had already checked with the vendors, and they were not concerned with delivery of the materials. We are looking to go out to bid as a bid package for this in October. I talked to Ms. Butler today, who is the Director of Interior Design, and asked if we could potentially move that up, and the goal is to move it up a little bit if we can but we're looking to go out no later than october great thank you vice chair spall yes um i just as a school board member i see it as our job to set

[00:51:12] some vision and expectations um so this is just a tidbit that came my way because i sat on the design committee but i don't know that everybody knows for baldwin i don't know 100 that it's going happen it at New Dean I believe it is but all of these packages that you see here are going to be issued to the teachers grade appropriate but this will be our flagship school so to say I mean Osborne is always going to be the real flagship but you know in terms of newness and design this is going to be

[00:51:46] what we what we're crowing about so you know I just the earlier the teachers know that you can't bring your grandma's clock or your own chair at least in the first couple years I think is it's better that people know early so that it's not a shock when they come because I believe that is the format that we're gonna follow is that correct correct yes thank you I just wanted people to know as soon as possible thank you mr. Giffel are very exciting and it's exciting to be able to be here at Jenny Dean and look over yonder and see the

[00:52:21] walls up so oh miss miles I had a question about the rugs because I know what the school that I teach at we have a lot of rugs that have bilingual words in colors numbers and shapes was there a reason why we didn't choose rugs like that in our primary like kindergarten and first grade classrooms I think we there was not conversation about that but I think we just were looking at getting rugs that were grade level appropriate that were simple and that would that we would be able to to have in each of the classrooms so but there was no discussion

[00:52:59] about that it never came up okay thank you okay thank you mr kefeller up next will be an update from our immigration and refugee advisory committee mr kefeller deputy superintendent miss stephanie jones student supports coordinator and miss al radford director of communications and community relations will provide information and an update on the work of this committee so good evening again chair seberg vice chair spahl members of the board and dr newman on tonight i want to provide an

[00:53:38] update on the work of the immigration and refugee advisory committee on january 28 2025 the school board directed the superintendent to form the immigration and refugee committee on february 5th during a school board work session the board discussed the work of the committee the committee was formed to address concerns of our immigrant and refugee families to and to hear the community on ways that mcps can better support them several parents community members and staff were invited to participate in the committee there were four meetings held and the topics were the purpose of

[00:54:17] the committee which we spent time talking about we talked about ice and law enforcement procedures on school grounds we talked about current mcps resources we talked about community perspective on things that were happening in the community we talked about our registration process and barriers that some of our families might experience when registering their children for our school. We talked about communication and making sure that we have transparent and open communication. We talked about the MCPS app. We talked about translation services as a way of bridging the gap between our immigrant and refugee families. We talked about mental health resources. We also talked

[00:54:56] about our community resource fair which you'll hear a little bit about tonight as well as our mental health resources from Miss Steph Jones and then We talked about APTAG and language options, which is a way that we want to make sure that we have open communication with our families here at MCPS.

[00:55:14] So tonight, I'm pleased to introduce Ms. Steph Jones, who is our Student Support Coordinator, and Ms. Al Radford, our Director of Communications and Community Relations. And they will be discussing some of the recommendations that came from the IRAC Committee, the Immigration and Refugee Committee.

[00:55:32] So I'll turn it over to Ms. Steph Jones. Good evening, Chair Seberg, Vice Chair Spall, School Board members, and Dr. Newman. As was shared a little bit earlier, we are planning to provide trauma-informed practices training for all Monassau City Public Schools staff.

[00:55:57] This came as we were meeting. We want to ensure that our students and staff are supported and are informed regarding trauma-informed practices. So we will have trauma-informed practices training on Friday, October 3rd.

[00:56:12] It will be provided by Northern Virginia Family Services, and it will be held at each school. So we'll have a total of eight trainers, and each, I'm sorry, a total of four trainers, and each of the four trainers will be responsible for going to two schools, with Baldwin Intermediate and Baldwin Elementary receiving the same trainer.

[00:56:35] Also, we recently secured a memorandum of understanding with the National School Counseling Group, And so we will be able to provide therapeutic day treatment for our students. You have to be a student on Medicaid in order to receive the therapeutic day treatment, but it will be a great opportunity for our students who are in need of mental health support.

[00:57:01] And for this, we will have school-based mental health staff. So our school counselors, our school psychologists, our school social workers, our family liaisons will also be invited to the training, but their training will take place on September 10th. they'll they won't be providing the therapeutic day treatment I should back up they'll be receiving the training for actually completing the referrals the therapeutic day treatment will actually be provided by the national counseling group we also looked into telemental health and so locally and I should say

[00:57:39] that telemental health is is providing counseling services for students and it can be provided during the school day at school so locally hazel health has been most commonly used in Virginia they're currently working in Alexandria City Arlington Fairfax and Prince William County Public Schools and they serve over 180 districts and the cost for telemental health with hazel was 115 thousand dollars because you have to pay for each student regardless of

[00:58:13] whether or not they're receiving the services so more recently though I've been in conversation with another telemental health provider their Daybreak Daybreak Health and they charge $8 per student which would be about $61,000 for all of our students to be eligible for telehealth services that shared the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services recently released a request for applications to apply for a grant that would give

[00:58:50] divisions up to $300,000 to provide telemental health services for for students so if anyone has grant writing experience and wants to join me we will definitely be applying for the grant there will be a pre teleconference for the grant next week so I'll be attending that and there'll be a couple of school counselors joining who have grant writing experience so that is exciting news like I said we'll be applying for that the deadline for application is

[00:59:21] September 12th. Any questions based on what I shared? Mrs. Stephens? Thank you um I want to talk about therapeutic day treatment real quick what what is the process and we've got the memorandum of understanding has already been finalized it's going to be available beginning this school year how will that work for our students? So it will be provided during the school day the staff does ask for a place where they're able to meet with the students we have to have at least six students

[00:59:58] from a school eligible and then national counseling group will provide the school counselor I'm sorry not the school counselor the national counseling group will provide the counselor to meet with the students and that's where does the therapeutic day treatment occur I think you said it but I I missed that one oh no of course it would take place in the school building during the school okay and then therapeutic day treatment because that's something different and I think it's something new to our city schools can you maybe give a quick explanation of how it will look in the school day so a student who's in

[01:00:36] therapeutic day treatment what their school day will look like sure so it would be do you mean like when they would go during the school day so I'm not sure exactly what class it would be but it would be like during the the regular school day so it wouldn't be held after school or before school it would be held during the school day okay and do you know what percentage because in my mind what I've seen of therapeutic day treatment is students actually going to a separate facility and receiving instruction and treatment in a separate facility for the entire school day but this is something different because it

[01:01:15] will be delivered at our schools for our students so they will not have to and they will not be somewhere else so I'm trying to get a picture of it in my head how it will look different they'll go to their regular classes except they may miss a class to go to treatment so they may we haven't fully worked it out but it definitely would be part of the part of the reason for therapeutic day treatment during the school day is to break down the barriers to access so student who may not have access to be able to go to a different facility or

[01:01:51] a student who may not be able to stay after school for whatever reason so that's the reason for being held during the school day if that answers what you were asking yeah and I think we'll see you'll you'll share more as we get closer to doing this I think it's a very important thing because so many of our students don't have access to mental health services until they're in crisis And once they're in crisis, they have to enter mental health services through the emergency room.

[01:02:24] And that's often how our students first get treatment. So I think this is, I'm excited about this. I think it's going to be really helpful to our students. And it may prove to reduce chronic absenteeism because students will be able to get the services they need to be successful in school.

[01:02:41] maybe even apply some of those what they're learning through their day treatment they maybe it'll be able to apply it immediately in the classroom setting so I think this is I think it's great and then I had a question on tele-mental health so with tell them I I'm assuming one of the issues is there just are not enough providers for children that is an issue for sure okay and so the students will receive tele-mental health in the school setting through an online provider and is there a process for that for a student to become eligible to receive telemental health services so for

[01:03:21] telemental health any student enrolled in MCPS would be eligible which looks different than therapeutic day treatment therapeutic day treatment you have to be on Medicaid additionally there's a big list of criteria that you have to meet for the therapeutic day treatment but for telemental health if we were to implement it K through 12 then it would be available for all students K through 12 some districts have done it like just the high school level some are doing it K through 12 there's a variety of ways some only allow the opportunity for students to participate in the evenings at home so there's a variety of ways

[01:03:59] that telemental health has been implemented but for our purposes our thought process was for it to be implemented during the school day students would have the opportunity to access again to break down some of the barriers for instance if you are not in if you don't have a room to yourself and you don't have the privacy and you're not able to connect with the counselor in a private way then it might prohibit what you would share if you did have that privacy so that's part of the reason as well I I have to say I think this is really exciting I work with students I teach middle school and

[01:04:36] that's an age range where we really see a lot of students go into crisis so I look forward to seeing this in our schools I think it's important our students in the world we live in today mental health is such an issue and there's so few providers and so few means of access for our families that this is really exciting and I hope you'll keep us up to date on it I definitely will and as you mentioned you are in middle school I spent 14 years of my career in middle school and that was what the when I was talking with Hazel that was one of the things he shared about it was really the upper elementary middle school where the students needed or needed the most

[01:05:14] support tele-mental health support so thank you miss miles have a few questions about both so for the therapeutic day treatment how can a student be referred is it just the teacher can they refer themselves or can parent also refer them yeah they could be referred any of those ways they would then whoever refers would need to connect with either the school psychologist the school social worker or the school counselor they're the staff who will be trained to actually complete the referrals our family liaisons will

[01:05:51] also attend that training however they won't be the referrers for therapeutic day treatment okay and what are the ages because I know we mentioned middle school but since we have an intermediate school are we also including those students as well yeah so this is an opportunity also for k-12 okay and then the next question with the telemental health the age range for that as well is that a k-12 as well that is the thought that it would be k-12 okay provider does allowed you allow you if you just wanted to do ninth grade you could say we're

[01:06:26] are just doing ninth grade so but it is they provide services K through 12 okay and and for that as well how are they referred is that the same process yeah so they actually a parent I believe there's a well it depends I'm trying to remember what the daybreak was the one who I spoke with on Friday and I think she took me through the parent portal where parents can do the referral but for both you're able to refer as a parent you're able to self refer I think the staff goes beyond just our school-based mental health school-based mental health staff in terms of who can do. Okay and the other question I had is

[01:07:04] for staff members I know we do have young teachers who may struggle with mental health but have no one to call is this something that we can add as a caveat for us to add maybe even if it's I don't know 10 per school as staff with that as well. So no this tele-mental health is specifically for the students And they have to have, like, a student ID in order to be able to participate.

[01:07:28] Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I had to say something, Chair, just in response to Ms. Miles. We have EAP, which provides mental health services for our staff, and that's free, and they can call at any time. Okay. Thank you. Mrs. Presha.

[01:07:46] Thank you. So this is a recommendation that came out of the IRAC committee's discussions. But just to be super-duper clear, immigration status does not impact the availability of this. Correct. Correct. This is available to all students, or the Therapeutic Days treatment does require Medicaid, but aside from that, it's available to everyone.

[01:08:05] Correct. Correct. And I just wanted to link this up. You know, at the top of our strategic plan is student academic success, and so this is, I just want to fit this into what we're always talking about, supporting that academic success, and student mental health, does that impact student academic success if they don't have those resources?

[01:08:29] Yes. Yes, definitely, definitely. Okay, so I just want it to be clear, you know, this is something that, of course, this is nice to do, it's important to do, but also it is central to the mission of what we have to do, which is support that student academic success.

[01:08:48] I just wanted to get that up there. I was actually, as you were talking about earlier when you were asking about the links to the strategic plan, I just, it really does, like, this connects to all of them. I was thinking strong family and community partnerships.

[01:09:04] Definitely we're working with community partners. Parents would be able to refer a culture of caring, providing those opportunities for students. Of course, it's the inclusive and collaborative learning environment. And then also quality workforce.

[01:09:21] When our MEA rep came and she shared about trauma-informed practices, like it's providing an opportunity for our staff and continues to provide that quality workforce. Vice Chair Spall. - Yes, you've already said that you don't know exactly what it's gonna look like and we're getting started this year and I can appreciate that.

[01:09:40] But I'm guessing that we have six students on Medicaid in every single one of our schools. So is it possible that we would have a staff dedicated to each school that we have? - So if we have the referrals, and I will say in talking with National Counseling Group, they do like a pre-screening before we can say a student is eligible.

[01:10:02] but as long as we have students who meet the criteria for therapeutic day treatment, and I can actually share a list that they've shared regarding some of the criteria, they would provide a counselor in the schools.

[01:10:19] - Okay, and does that look like one day a week? I mean, what does staff mean to you, anyway? - I will have to check into that and get back to you. I actually met with her in June, and more recently I've met with the Telemental Health, and Hazel and Daybreak, so I don't want to give you incorrect information.

[01:10:40] I can't remember whether she said it was every day or whether it was certain days of the week, but I can definitely check into that. The question about the telemental health then, and I think I know this answer, but just for everybody watching, we are looking at appropriate spaces inside our schools to allow these children to speak with the professionals that they need to, but also not be too private, but be private enough.

[01:11:08] Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And just, I guess, you know, we all heard tonight a lot of stories about sports and our athletes and some of the major crises that they face. Is this something that you'll be able to, you know, specifically reiterate to some of the coaches that we have in our buildings that can help some of these individuals that may be going through really tough times?

[01:11:33] that we'll have telemental health available. Yeah, and this is all pending funding, so we don't have this in place yet. This is all pending funding for telemental health. The therapeutic day treatment is in place.

[01:11:49] The trauma-informed practices are in place. The telemental health, though, would be about $115,000, $115,000 for Hazel, and then about $61,000 for Daybreak. Like I said, I'll be working on that grant. That's due September 12th, but we don't have funding in place just yet for telemental health.

[01:12:10] But for the therapeutic day treatment also, that is something that we could let our athletic departments know that we have available. Oh, thank you. Okay, thank you. Of course. Dr. Jones.

[01:12:25] I just wanted to say, I've had a lot of experience with TDT counselors, and I don't know what it'll look like now in 2025, but I'd be happy to talk to you about it offline. Thank you. Ms. Miles. I have a question about the family component with the tele-mental health. I know we have students that have siblings and may have experienced similar trauma.

[01:12:45] Is there a possibility to have joint sessions if they're dealing with similar situations? Is that something that would be a part of that? I cannot say for sure. I do think sometimes, just my background in counseling, sometimes it's better for students to be separated because when you're in a family and while you might have been going through similar experiences, sometimes you're able to share a little bit better individually and then maybe joining together.

[01:13:19] - And I should clarify, what I mean is like, if they notice one student maybe also checking in with that other student who's a sibling to see if they also need the same care. That's what I mean, not having, I should have clarify that yes yeah just making sure that you know there's a family component we check on that that first grader or you know wherever that other student is or the high schooler you know yeah interesting so you're asking then if if the telemental health company would do those automatic checks right that's something I would need to check in on I know in connecting with daybreak they

[01:13:55] shared that with our elementary students there is a parent family component I know that for sure with that company I'd have to I'd have to check yeah just getting to the root of the root of issues is very important to have that family component I think thank you thank you Miss Jones and thank you Mr.

[01:14:18] Gefeller for the presentation oh there's more oh it's Radford hello thank Thank you. So yes, we're going to talk a little bit about communication as it relates to the IRAC group.

[01:14:37] Specifically, our conversations dealt more with barriers, removing barriers through the mobile app, through the school front offices and things like that, talking with the family liaisons and just kind of trying to figure out what are some of the concerns that they were seeing as they worked with families that came in.

[01:14:57] specifically with aptogee which is our website vendor a point one and two are kind of they kind of work in tandem with each other so we're going to talk a little bit about aptogee and language options and navigating translation options because one of the things that we found and this is very similar to experiences with any type of app or web experience working with your vendor is very important, because what they were finding is, although you are able to turn on translation

[01:15:32] for your specific language inside of an app, whatever your preference is, there are other components of the app that do not translate, because they are a template. And so basically that boils down to it being a graphic. Graphics do not translate, even if you see on websites That you have a globe at the top many times that is a translation tool that typically will pull up Google Translate or other like-minded ones, ones that act in the same way.

[01:16:03] If you have documents that are PDFs, if you have graphics on the page, those things will not translate. And so within the app, there are headers that are there. And so it was brought to our attention that those things do not translate over, even though a parent might put the preference in of what their language is in their own personal app.

[01:16:24] So we're working with our web vendor. That's not something that we're able to turn on and off ourselves. But because of the conversations that we've had through IRAC, we have put a ticket in for that to be something that would change over for us. Navigating the translation options, another conversation that we've been having with our data team is about expanding the language options that we have inside of the app and also through the way that we communicate with families through rooms, which is our two-way communication with parents, because primarily we have two languages, English and Spanish, that are there.

[01:17:02] So we're exploring options to be able to add additional fields because our federal programs group will tell you that we have many languages that are represented in Manassas City Public schools so we want to make sure that for registration for the mobile app however the ways are that our families are engaging with us and seeking to get and gain information that we've removed all those barriers for them the community resource fair is another thing that we did this year for the last two or three years I believe we've hosted the community resource fair this last one

[01:17:39] was August the 2nd from 9 to 12 we hosted it at Osborne High School the great thing about the resource fair in my opinion is the fact that we're able to offer this in an off time so it was on a Saturday morning and many times a lot of our parents have good intentions to try to make it out to weekday and weeknight events but perhaps they are not able to because of their work schedules so even though we had open houses and things coming up the very next week it was very nice to have an opportunity for our families to come out and meet and greet their schools and other school division staff in a single

[01:18:18] setting what I liked about this year we changed the focus a little bit while we've always been very appreciative of all of the community partners that we've been able to bring in in years past it's been very large and oftentimes many of our parents would come in our families would come and only get a few tools or few resources and then they would leave and so this time we were able to kind of contain everything into two areas at Osborne in the Fine Arts Commons area and then also in the gym and we scaled it down just a little bit for a more

[01:18:53] intimate opportunity for our schools to really truly interact with their families and the feedback that we've received has been great because we had all school focused folks inside of the gym our counselors our family liaisons the school tables a lot of those groups were in there and as the parents came in they were able to interact with them and in the Commons area we were able to focus on school centered start of school centered even community community groups like before and after care or social services those groups that

[01:19:31] directly impact our families so the the interaction that we were able to have this year was great one of the things that we changed this time was we weren't able to give out school supplies directly at the event but one thing that our schools did was advertise that if you were in need of supplies you can meet up with your school ahead of time ahead of school starting and be able to sign up for those proved to be a little chaotic in years past that we didn't always even though they were donated donations of supplies for us we didn't always have enough or you know the supplies were not equally dispersed

[01:20:10] among the bags and the things that we would receive so we felt that because many of our community partners were done donating directly to schools this year that it would be better for families to just meet directly with their families with their schools to sign up for that any questions any questions or mrs.

[01:20:28] it's your turn for the strategic plan question so the main mission is student academic success all of these measures that you've talked about what pillar do you think supports that just like Miss Jones I believe that they definitely align with culture caring because we care about our families and their interaction with their schools we care enough to meet them where they are so we want to remove any of those language barriers I do believe that just escape meet. So my when I was looking at it I saw strong family, strong family. That's exactly what I was

[01:21:07] talking about. Sorry, I didn't tell you that the pop quiz was coming. Nobody knew the pop quiz was coming. I want to put that out there. But we do want to strengthen that area in communications across the board, not just from the division level but definitely at the schools and to let our families know that we hear them when they experience frustrations and that whoever we're working with because many of these things are outside of our creation house but working with our with our vendors and some of these things are things that are standard in other places but just because it's that way other places doesn't mean that we can't push the envelope a little bit with the folks that serve us and see if we can

[01:21:45] make things more accommodating for our families and if we cannot and if the school cannot be communicated cannot if the school and the family cannot communicate that threatens the student academics yes thank you miss miles these are just a few questions have we tried all calls that are for our parents who may not be literate in their first language because I know that is in the past I know in other districts that I've worked for has been very beneficial because even though you may assume that a parent is able to read in their first language they may not be and just so that we are getting the message whatever

[01:22:22] message that may be to everyone and because I know you mentioned how the navigating the translation options are not working and and I know even for me personally when I'm working with my students whose parents aren't able to read it's it's just the reality I'm just making sure our parents know when events are across the board if they have several different students at different schools that they actually know when these events are happening so they can show up. That's a challenge but one of the things that I encourage our schools to do especially for division-wide events I enlist the help of our family

[01:22:58] liaisons to make direct calls while we might do one you know at the division level we might send a text message we might send an email having that school based person call you specifically we try to go through and we look at the analytics on the things that we send out to see how many dropped calls were there how many failures were there and what were those reasons so that we can work with the front offices and encourage them to do more with the outreach you know following up with the families to make sure that they are privy of the information as I said before that goes beyond that even with

[01:23:35] the extension of other languages while what we put out goes out in English and Spanish if you haven't if you don't identify with Spanish you receive it in English and so we're looking at other ways that we can I remember at one of the stem nights we had signs up in the in the building with multiple flags and languages that were represented so that families could indicate to us if they needed assistance just with the icons you know it wasn't necessarily that it was something that they had to read but by the time they saw oh that's my home country we were able to get people on the line to assist them and so definitely

[01:24:13] looking for more ways to do that. Right. I appreciate that. I know it's just hard because sometimes the parents won't reach out and they won't tell you that they have that need. The other thing is also across the board, I know some of the schools are incongruent. Some schools are, you know, doing lots to get that word out.

[01:24:29] And I know using the app, to me, is just such an efficient way, especially if you have multiple kids in multiple schools. So it's just that's one thing I would encourage us to make sure, you know, the schools are doing the same thing so that whether you go to Round or Wings, you're going to get the same kind of communication.

[01:24:47] That's correct. Yeah, and it's all about training. It's about stopping and recognizing that there are opportunities. You know, from our office, we definitely try to encourage them to utilize your events calendar on your website because it does feed the app. you know, following up with families, making sure that you put these items in your newsletters and things.

[01:25:08] So trying to make sure that all of us across the board recognize the importance of staying on top of those updates and following through with families. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Radford. Great update, and it's nice to see the work of the IRAC committee bringing forth some changes and improvements in both communications and student services.

[01:25:29] Thank you all. Next up on the discussion agenda is the budget development calendar. Mr. Taft-Kelly is here, director of finance, he'll present, oh my goodness, item C, communications and community relations, Mrs. Al Radford again, along with Carol Hart, executive director of Manessa City Public Schools Education Foundation, and Mr. Jimmy Conroy, president of the Education Foundation.

[01:26:04] so you kind of did my job. There you go. Yes, so I just wanted to quickly say that the Education Foundation, the Communications Office is the liaison to the Education Foundation under our leg of Community Relations. This past year, last April, in fact, we were able to add Carol Hart as our Community Relations Coordinator, and one of the roles that she plays as she serves in that capacity is as the executive director of the foundation and so tonight you're going to hear a little bit about what we've done over the past year Jimmy

[01:26:41] Conroy our Education Foundation president is here with us and so we're excited to share some of the great things that the foundation was able to accomplish this year or this past year Carol's gonna be in charge of the clicker all right my name is Jimmy Conroy I know all of you so thank you so much I'm here representing as the president of the Education Foundation of Mass City Public Schools. I earned my education through Mass City Public Schools and it's beyond priceless to me. It has prepared me for the leader both at

[01:27:18] my work as well as in my community. I strive to pass this on to the next generation of students by making the Education Foundation a partner to all students along their education journey no matter their age or grade level. We have our Executive Director Carol Hart. She's excited to have completed her first year as the Education Director or Executive Director of the Mass City Public Schools Education Foundation she feels like she's accomplished a lot and she cannot wait to continue supporting the students and teachers in that city public schools in the 25 26 school year I'm going to go over the board directors

[01:27:56] obviously myself I represent United Bank as the president of the foundation our vice president is Janae Monroe professionals by design our treasurer is Chris Peden of Peden accounting our secretary is Kristin Kiefer of Generations United our Manassee City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Newman and Al Radford for the director of public communications our executive director Carol Hart Melissa Boyle of Lockheed Martin Diana Brown of Manassas City Public Schools School Board Roslyn Gideons of UVA Health Tia Nelson of Manassas City Susanna Steen of Micron Technology Incorporated Chris Taylor

[01:28:32] who's sitting behind me at this she was she's still there as the CTE director of Manassas City Public Schools Karen Todd the Nova Community College Northern Virginia Community College and Robin Williams who is also sitting me of red student reality this is our FY 25 goals this was the goals we went in with so scholarship and grant process we wanted to streamline the scholarship application process review current teacher grant application process and update teacher grant application processes to reinstate the program in the 25 26 school year our board development was to add new members to

[01:29:10] the board our fundraising goals was to hold one major fundraising event solicit new corporate and individual donors and set up online and text giving. Our website was also part of our goal to select new website host and update the website and review our bylaws and update current bylaws to be more accurately reflective of current practices.

[01:29:33] And we did all those things. So that was, we like those check marks. Our financials, as you can see, from 23 to 25, our revenue has considerably increased from 23 to 25 and our program costs have gone down in 2025 but we see those picking up with teacher grants coming into the picture for 2526 and then our focus for the FY25 was scholarships college and career readiness and

[01:30:00] community engagement I'm gonna hand it over to Carol all right so for scholarships this year we gave out a total of thirty five thousand five hundred dollars to sixteen students and that is actually an increase from the eighteen thousand five hundred dollars we gave out last year to 12 students so I'm just going to go through I'm not going to read all of them but I do want to highlight we did have several new scholarships that were offered this year one of those was the dream in Nova Osborne scholarship for five hundred

[01:30:39] dollars we also had a new Mason E Dayton scholarship and that was provided by the Kiefer family for the amount of one thousand dollars and we had Stewart Vetter Community Leadership Scholarships and basically the Manassas Volunteer Fire Foundation graciously donated $20,000 which was divided up among two Stuart Vetter Community Scholarships and then they also offered two WT Merchant Scholarships and each of those scholarships was in the amount of $5,000 which is a record I think for how much we've been able to give

[01:31:16] Also new this year were two United Bank scholarships and Jimmy played a big role in getting those for us. They were $500 each and one focused on leaders in the community and one focused on values.

[01:31:33] And then you see the WT Merchant Community Scholarships again, two at $5,000 each. And then finally, as I dealt with Gamma, they also gave a scholarship again this year as well.

[01:31:49] And there's just some pictures there at the bottom. We had several different presenters, a lot of the organizations sent their own people to present the scholarships, which was awesome for them to be a part of an evening. Alright, we also this year had some pass-through funds that totaled $56,270.

[01:32:13] And the funds were donated by all kinds of different groups, Aurora Flight Sciences, Lockheed Martin, Old Town Strong, Prince William Chamber Foundation, RRMM Architects, Swift, and UVA Health. So the fitness lifestyle design watches at METS, that came from a grant that Rhonda Brown wrote to UVA Health, and they passed those funds through the foundation to be distributed. Swift donated another $10,000 to continue the community garden at METS. Aurora Flight Sciences donated $1,000 to go to the 8th grade VEX Robotics class at METS.

[01:32:50] And Lockheed Martin donated a total of $10,000, most of which went to desktop CNC machines at METS. And then we did have a little bit left over that we were able to purchase a few other CTE things for, like the laser, the Glowforge.

[01:33:07] Glowforge, yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. We also, our MM Architects generously donated $5,000 dollars that went to mcps for teacher appreciation and then the prince william education sorry prince william chamber of karma commerce foundation donated five thousand dollars to specifically be used for the rise program and with that we were able to send home five free books with a hundred and eight students total hundred and eight and they were from all five

[01:33:47] elementary schools and these were all students on reading plans that could use a little extra support so they got five free books and there's some pictures there the kids were so excited I took those pictures at Hayden when they got their books and they were quite excited to have new books to be taken home with them and then Old Town Strong they made us the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts for forget whether it was this first second or third quarter but they were able to raise approximately forty five hundred dollars and with that they

[01:34:25] decided they wanted that to go to purchase pre-k classroom libraries at all five elementary schools now it's making our FY25 supporters that was our champion circle was the William E Carlson charitable fund the champion Circle is ten thousand dollars or more. The Travelers Family Trust and the Manassas Volunteer Fire Foundation. The Scholarship Circle ranging from five thousand to up to right under ten thousand is the Prince William Chamber

[01:35:00] Foundation, RRMM Architects, United Bank, UVA Health. Academic Circles from two thousand to right under five thousand is the Parrish Family and Old Town Strong. The Golden Apple is from five hundred to up to two thousand and there's a I'm I'm going to read them, but it's important.

[01:35:17] Art Factory, Aurora Flight Sciences, Chris Peden, Dreamin Nova, Higher Ground, Kappa Foundation of Woodbridge, the Kiefer Fens and Family, Lockheed Martin, Redstone Realty, Versailles, Cares, Cyber Grants, and I'm not good with this, this is you, Xi, thank you guys.

[01:35:38] Silver Apple is from 100, right under 500, from Marian Hill, Sonia Vakos Luna, and Melissa and her friends up to a hundred dollars are listed below system all right so we've already gotten FY 26 underway we have received some big donations from Micron and Lockheed Martin Micron has already donated seventeen thousand dollars to be used specifically for literacy and after

[01:36:15] working with our English language arts specialists at central office what we have identified to use that money for is to purchase the Newzella program for science and social studies at Mets Middle School and this program will provide current articles at different reading levels that can be used by teachers to not only reinforce reading comprehension but to delve deeper into certain topics that they're going to be studying in class. Lockheed Martin has given us a total of $14,000

[01:36:49] And $1,500 of that is set aside for a 2026 STEM scholarship for Osborne High School. $2,500 of that is donated to buy supplies for the MCPS food pantry, which is located at Metz.

[01:37:07] And then $10,000 is to be used for various CTE and STEM supplies. And we've already spent almost around half of that for robotics textbooks. So Lockheed Martin has been very generous this year, as has Micron already.

[01:37:29] So our goals for FY26, we are going to implement the Innovative Educator Grants. I have the board approved the new process that was proposed, and I've already been to three schools so far to detail the new application process, and I will be getting to all the rest of the schools before September 15th, which is when the application will open.

[01:37:52] Board development we are going to develop and codify new board member selection and onboarding processes We need to be sure everything's written down So if you know god forbid I get hit by a truck somebody coming in will will know know what to do We're also hoping to add some new members to the board this year Fundraising our first annual pancake supper went well. We raised over three thousand dollars So we're gonna hold a second annual pancake supper sometime in the spring And then we're going to start researching possibilities so that hopefully in the next fiscal year

[01:38:29] we may be able to introduce another fundraiser in the fall. So we're going to start researching the possibilities for that now. And just be sure that various policies and procedures, that everything is written down and is in a place where everybody has access to it so that we're fully transparent on how we operate from things like onboarding new board members to recording financial transactions, just being sure that everything is written down.

[01:38:59] And then we're hoping to continue to improve our visibility with networking events. I personally am going to try, as my personal goal is to try to get to at least one networking event each week for most of the year and also to start a quarterly newsletter, and I'm hoping to get that first one out at the end.

[01:39:21] I'll go by the school quarter, so by the end of the first marking period, hopefully I'll be able to get that out. I've been building up a contact list, and I'll be sending it to all those people and all the division-wide personnel as well.

[01:39:40] - I just wanted to thank everyone. Thank you guys for everything you allow us to do for the students and for the staff with our teacher grants coming up. We're very excited about that. Thank you for Diana Brown for being at our meetings. We really appreciate that, and obviously, thank you to everyone from National City Public Schools from the Education Foundation.

[01:39:59] Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? Ms. Brown. Could you guys go back to the golden apple, I think it was called? Silver apple? The silver, yeah, that one. So anyone can become a member, can be given that prestige of being a silver apple for $100 to $499.

[01:40:24] Can you forward to the next one? Oh, the previous one, I guess. That one, that one, $500 to $2,000. So I just want to challenge, could it be a collective donation?

[01:40:41] So I'm going to challenge my fellow board members for us to become golden apples so that we can contribute to all of this effort. So I just wanted them to see that. I do want to see our name there in the very near future.

[01:40:59] Ms. Miles and then Dr. Jones. just want to thank you for all your hard work I know it takes a lot of work to get donors you know boots on the ground is hard and I know you were able to you know give scholarships grants and programs for students our schools and our staff so we really appreciate you and the work you're doing thank you and I think it's especially to say that it's great to go and get them but it's even harder to keep them so that is where Carol's coming with that newsletter and really promoting our donors so thank you Dr. Jones I know you say you're looking

[01:41:37] for new members tell me exactly what are you looking for in a new member new board members so we're looking number one for people who want to be on the board because they believe in our cause not because they're building a resume so it would also be nice to have people on the board who have certain skills that we whether it be social media marketing or finances or whatever we would also like to see our board demographics maybe more closely mirror the demographics of our

[01:42:16] school division so I think those are the main things we're looking for I was gonna say we need to represent obviously our board needs to represent our community and our board should also represent our students I would say what's the time commitment for those who are interested yeah typically we have one meeting a month if you're on the executive team we also have another meeting that coincides in that month now if there's an event going on obviously we try to plan that out but typically it's one to two meetings a month I will say I am a

[01:42:51] product as a teacher of a donor giving us supplies in our classroom and so I reach out just to the teachers you know you may feel like you you need something you know fill out that form because it's worth it and I was able to give scholastic news to my my second graders our whole second grade team and we had 11 second grade classrooms so it was such a blessing it was in Manassas Park but I just I just appreciate what you're doing so much so thank you Vice Chair Spall yes I just wanted to thank you for the presentation back to the

[01:43:27] donor the qualities or experiences that we're looking for as you recruit new board members a lot of your donors appear to be board members is there a an amount that that board members are supposed to either donate or fundraise yes we currently have a $1,000 give or get which can either be a personal donation a donation from your business a donation you've raised from other people or an in-kind donation for example our treasurer chris peden he does our taxes yes so

[01:44:02] that you know counts as his in-kind donation okay um and i know the foundation is i think 33 years old um so just we have to walk before we can run but is there a plan to um build a reserve or some kind of an endowment just to make sure that we can keep this going um just a long-term plan and there's always a nice long-term plan for that I don't think there's one set in stone yet but that has been brought up a couple times so obviously that needs support it needs support from the community it needs support from the board members we've been calling this the reboot year I've been doing this for

[01:44:42] quite a while now because it's close to my heart it's something that I do outside of my work outside of my children outside of my family but I do think and agree with you as well that that is something that we should work towards the future. Anyone else? So if anybody watching tonight would like to donate where can they go and do that? They can go to our website which is info@mcps

[01:45:18] sorry oh the websites at the bottom of the page www.mcpsedfoundation.org there is a donate button right at the top on the main page and that will take you and you can donate online and how can they become a board member where do they go for that well we are still kind of ironing out that process but we do have an application that needs to be filled out and once the application is filled out we we meet with potential board members and to see you know if we align

[01:45:55] but we're still kind of ironing out the details because the process hasn't ever been really written down before so we're kind of trying to still iron that out a bit assuming you have to be 18 or over I'm assuming okay well thank you miss Hart mr. Conroy excellent update presentation we appreciate you we see you out in the community showing what Manassas City Public Schools is all about we really appreciate um the foundation's work please give regards to the rest of your board

[01:46:27] for us thank you thank you for your support next up draft 2027 budget development calendar mr tapped mr kelly mr kelly yeah good evening chair steberg vice chair spall members of the board and dr newman uh what you have before you is the 2027 budget development calendar and i want to talk through some obvious changes to the calendar for fy 27 as you can tell from the

[01:47:01] calendar we have combined the capital improvement and the FY 2027 budget into one presentation this is to align us with what our surrounding districts do as well as to prepare us and give us the best information available the revenues from the city and the state typically come in a little later in the year and so this will allow us to have that information available I also want to point out that in previous years the calendar has included various topics for the budget work sessions what we've noticed especially last year given some

[01:47:37] of the uncertainty around the budget is those topics typically had to be changed at the last minute or adjusted due to the information that we have the time and so I just wanted to make sure that before we put anything on the calendar that we had the information and that we had the most accurate information that we put out there and so we will adjust and add topics to the calendar as we approach some of the dates but for now we just want to get the dates on the calendar and make sure that you all are okay with what the calendar is going to look like for FY 2027 and before I go I think you'll be remiss to say that the

[01:48:10] budget process is going to line directly with all foundational supports so put that out there and with that I'll take any questions that you all may have any questions or comments from the board everybody everybody cleared their schedules and put this on right um I so with the schedule when is the last moment that we can say okay I want to add this or I want to suggest this how does that work because I'm still new at this I'm wondering sure so as you can see the schedule we'll have multiple work sessions the last work session which

[01:48:47] will be the last of the final markup will take place on March 16th and then we will present the final we'll hope to get the budget adopted at the March 24th board meeting okay because I know beef our last budget we kind of had like last-minute moments where we wanted to add so just want that clarification is it a week before that meeting that we would have to you know send in what we would like added or is it two weeks like what is that process and so ideally that work session will be a week before the adoption and we would hope to have at

[01:49:25] that work session all all changes be final so that way we can we can put them into the budget and make sure we have the presentation ready and prepared for 24th meeting mrs. pressure I also I kind of want to address the question that you have the I think that this is a great topic for the handbook in terms of how the budget is built and developed because as a new member and it wasn't so long ago that I was in your shoes you sometimes don't know where to go with your ideas that impact our salaries or staffing or other things like that so I think that that's something that we can work to put into the handbook in terms

[01:50:05] of how you know where the ideas are supposed to go so that we have the best possible chance to you know we have an orderly process and deliberate things accord you know in an orderly way and not be rushing and jamming at the end we did have an unusual cycle this year for a few reasons one of which being that we did have so many new members but I think that we can add some clarity there for you I had my own question the facility study that we were discussing probably a a zero percent chance that that will be completed by december 4th 2025 right it would be highly

[01:50:42] unlikely to be completed by then correct because i can see that might have a cip impact at some point but probably too late for fiscal year 27. that's correct any other comments or questions okay moving right along we're down to our action agenda now and um we're back to student code of conduct chair yes ma'am i move that the school board of city of manassas approve the school year

[01:51:14] 2025-2026 code of conduct as presented second i have a motion by vice chair spall second by mrs stevens at the school board the city of manassas approve the school year 2025-2026 code of conduct as presented are there any discussion miss miles um i know i mentioned before when we were talking about it that i would like to add those two lines um just to give clarity about dress um because someone's success of the way they feel successfully is different

[01:51:52] um so i'm still opposed to not adding that especially since our neighbors prince william which is a very big um district seems to think that that would be great to add so i'm still in favor of adding it i know we have to vote but i just wanted to make sure we already discussed that we did i just wanted to i know i i still want to make it known that i still would like to add it okay we don't need to belabor the point we've already decided on that mr gefeller were there any changes from the last time we've seen this other than the naming no the only thing that changed from the last work session was we added standards of student conduct along with code of

[01:52:28] conduct as a way of transitioning to align with our school board policies that that we recently adopted from vsba it talks about the standards of student conduct so you will see both terminology in the the new student code of conduct wonderful okay i have a motion and a second any further discussion all in favor aye any opposed the motion carries 6-1 miles opposed okay school

[01:53:03] board operating protocol this item was discussed at the july 22nd school board meeting the school board city manassas will now consider approval of its operating protocol miss breja did you have have anything you want to summarize um i'll make the motion and then i'll put the summary in the discussion so i will move that the school board of the city of manassas approve the school board operating protocol as presented second i have a motion by mrs brezha second by mrs stevens at the school board the city of manassas approved the school board operating protocol as presented

[01:53:36] is there any discussion i will briefly discuss um this is you know been a long ongoing process the draft that everybody sees and for the red line everyone sees in front of them when it's adopted the red line you know the edits will go away and it will be clean the notable this came out of our our final VSBA I shouldn't say final who knows yeah holds our latest most recent VSBA governance training what we all discussed there a notable addition included so to some clarity around the

[01:54:12] consent agenda and how to engage with the consent agenda and we removed the item regarding superintendent spotlights because we felt that that would be better situated in the handbook that topic just generally and that aside from some line edits is basically what we have here this school board operating protocol that we are voting on today does not include any remedies we will address that separately mrs stevens um i just want to say thank you to everyone who's provided

[01:54:47] input on this this was very much to a collaborative effort with considerable considerable deep well thought out discussion and conversation that has allowed us to finally get to this place and so i'm actually excited that we're going to be voting on it anyone else okay i have a motion seconded by mrs stevens that the school board of the city of manassas approve the school board operating protocols as presented all in favor aye any opposed the motion carries 7-0 okay we're now

[01:55:25] to the point where we're at board members comments and i'll go first to mrs brescia all right welcome back students we are going to have a great year i can feel it the best thing about day one is day two so it has been a real pleasure attending our various open houses new teacher welcome events and finally our first day festivities today thank you to everybody behind the scenes who made all of those things run smoothly I also enjoyed the chance to get to know our community with the get to the scoop event that I that was put on by myself fellow board member miss miles and city

[01:56:04] councilwoman Teresa coats Ellis it was great to hear from the community while we offered free ice cream near Stonewall Park pool I learned from our students that there is an appetite for a snowboarding club so anyone who wants to sponsor that get right on it otherwise we heard feedback on a few items and particularly the new OHS tardy protocols which was great it was a worthwhile event thank you to miss miles for taking the lead and I look forward to the next opportunity I wanted to highlight something on our consent agenda we had special education advisory committee report and it's just a handful of meetings through the year with such a small group of people but reading that

[01:56:43] report is really like wow there's a lot that happens there's a lot that they did as a group I'm so proud of that group and what they've accomplished so I just want to hit a few items that was in there we do have an upcoming steps program which is a series of workshops designed to help families understand the special education process the first date is September 10th it will be structured like our pet meetings with a dinner serve beforehand and then programming so the dinners at 6:30 and programming at 7:00 the first topic is the role of the parent so far as in high frequency vocabulary and abbreviations there are

[01:57:19] eight total workshops planned each of them on different topics so watch out as each of those are advertised sib shops are coming in the spring this year which aims to support the siblings of children with special special needs the report also contained the results of the special education survey that was sent out to families with special needs children the glows included demonstration of content knowledge the teachers the bus drivers the use of positive reinforcement and encouragement safety communication relationships consistency staff that students talk more and that the academics are challenging grows

[01:57:56] included communication which was funny that's in two spots and support from administrators consistency more service inclusion support for duly identified GT and sped kids more funding more staff more rigor and more frequent updates I want to give my kudos to the dedicated members of SEAC for a great year last year and look forward to another wonderful year to come anyone who is interested in getting involved can come to see experts meeting on September 17th and that's it for me thank you miss pressure miss Brown thank you I want to

[01:58:35] I begin my comments by welcoming families back to school. We truly appreciate your trust and look forward to a great school year full of growth. Congratulations to our new hires. Welcome to Manassas City Public Schools. We are excited you have chosen us to share your time, gifts, and talents.

[01:58:56] Welcome to the family. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Coach Mike Johnson for his dedicated service. People talk about the importance of first impressions, but our last impressions are equally as important.

[01:59:11] So coach, regardless of what happens next, I want our last impression to land on dignity and respect. Your impact on students, families, and the city of Manassas is worthy of deep recognition. Sir, you are not defined solely by your next deed.

[01:59:28] You are the sum of your character, and from what the community shared tonight, that is something to be proud of. So thanks again for your service. In regard to the action, the resolution I proposed tonight that was voted down, I will continue to advocate and persuade my fellow school board members to consider it.

[01:59:46] I do believe this resolution is needed. The notification within 24 hours for any personnel action likely to generate public interest and media coverage is needed. I would like to also define the significant, what that significant impact may be so that our leadership, um, and our superintendent, a superintendent understands the threshold. Um, it will provide the required details such as the nature of action, effective date, public statements, so that we can speak accurately and responsibly with our city.

[02:00:22] And it will also create accountability. Um, I am all about transparency and trust. And I think this is needed because the risk of misinformation spreading before we are informed is too high of a cost. So I am relentless about advocating for the right thing at all times. I never gave up about streaming our work sessions and I left no stone unturned regarding that proposal and the outcome speaks for itself. And just speaking on that effort, I would like to take a second to thank Councilmember Sonia Vasquez Luna and Tom Ossina for providing direction and support for that proposal to stream our work sessions. And thank you everyone

[02:01:00] And again, I echo what Ms. Stevens noted about the protocols. It was persistent consistency and collaboration. So I appreciate everybody also for their patience. I'm very happy that it passed today, seven to zero.

[02:01:15] That is the goal. So for all of you out there, please follow me on Facebook at Diana Brown, proud school board members to say the rest of all my community attended events. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brown. Mrs. Stevens. Thank you.

[02:01:30] first happy first day of school for mcps i hope everyone had a successful first day and is ready for day two tomorrow please as i always say as you go to work and go to school in the morning watch out for our students who may be driving to high school standing at bus stops walking to school and our children on school buses they are our most precious cargo and so we need to keep an eye out on them over the past two weeks I've had the opportunity to attend and participate in several learning experiences to support our local school division on the 25th I attended the VSBA conference on education many

[02:02:09] workshops and participated in the following sessions developing a division-wide strategic process for integrating generative AI enhancing learning and resilience through integrated student support in a community school environment board norms and protocols answering the call and common legal questions from school board members and then on the 29th I had the opportunity to attend an event I've never attended before I really didn't know that much about it it was the 2025 Virginia School Safety Executive Forum leading the way in school safety the goal was to provide a unique opportunity

[02:02:47] for decision-makers to hear from their peers and colleagues and facilitate meaningful change in let in support of legislation governor's initiatives and best practices in crisis management critical incident response drug prevention and relationship building and a special note which is really quite informative was the keynote speaker from an organization called safer schools together who discussed navigating the digital threat landscape um these are things i look forward to sharing with my fellow board members at our next workshop because i think we have some opportunities out there to make our schools a safer place for all

[02:03:24] students to deal with digital threats to deal with physical threats and then on the 30th I was at Osborne where Dr. Chapman presented excuse me the student learning and safety seminar the team from OHS was there the focus was on preparing students for successful high school high careers after high school with a focus on attendance, grades, and pathways to success.

[02:03:50] And there are just a few things I wanted to share. This school year, all Osborne students will have planners. This past year, 96% of students who were not chronically absent passed all their classes. In addition, we do have two, Osborne has two dedicated liaisons, not just one.

[02:04:12] In attendance, to help starting to address the attendance issue, there will be a new attendance code called PNR, which means present but not returned. That's for classes that have a break for lunch because sometimes students go to class, they go to lunch, and then they don't come back, and there was no previous way to code that in the system to help us all be informed.

[02:04:34] Osborne High School has a food pantry. Our liaisons have partnerships with health service providers. They can help with rent, utilities, and et cetera. If you saw on my Facebook page, I did have a post about all the services that are available to struggling Osborne High School students as far as academics are concerned.

[02:04:54] And another new thing that I think is really exciting, our liaisons at Osborne have decided that they will host after-school hours from 4:00 to 7:00 PM on the first day of the month at Osborne High School so that more families will be able to access their services and receive support.

[02:05:13] And last but not least, I was at the new teacher luncheon recently where we served all our new teachers and our new staff members lunch and got to meet them. I'm very excited to have these new staff members join us. I look forward to them being members of our MCPS family, and I look forward to seeing all they do in the future.

[02:05:32] So thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Stevens. Mrs. Miles, your turn. Yes. So I first want to say I hope everyone had a great first day of school. I was able to greet students at Metz Middle School as the middle schoolers stepped off the bus, so that was really awesome. It was just wonderful to see the energy of the staff that awaited their arrival, and just the kids were really eager to start the new year.

[02:05:52] I'm just really excited about the possibilities that this new school year holds and the fact that I'm actually a part of it, so I really appreciate that. I also appreciate and respect the outpouring of kind words for former coach Mike Johnson. It was awe-inspiring to hear his impact, you know, on the former and current students.

[02:06:11] So we don't want to, I don't want you to think that we didn't hear you, but we appreciate you coming out and supporting him. Just a few things that I've, I feel like this school board meeting is so far away from some of the things that I've done. So it was in July that I did a visit also the VSBA Annual Conference on Education.

[02:06:32] was able to visit a new CTU program and I spoke with other local school board members and area districts and it was just a great day of learning and collaboration and I'm looking forward actually to some of the ideas that were presented there to be able to share them during a work session so look forward look forward to that I also got to attend my first convocation which was really awesome on August 1st and let me say I was just really impressed impressed by our cheerleaders, our screaming eagle marching band, and the color guard. And during that convocation, staff was encouraged by several members of the

[02:07:10] community. We had the mayor there, of course the superintendent, and Chair Seberg, and Mr. Kefeller also spoke. And we talked about our theme for this school year, which is Rise Up, which challenges our staff to be ruthless, intentional, student-centered, and empowered. And I just, I love that, that we have that theme just to remember our why why we do this and the convocation ended with a dynamic video created by our students and hopefully others will be able to get to see that soon but it was just awesome to see our students on the video and just some of the students that I knew I'm just talking about how

[02:07:47] wonderful there's their teachers are how wonderful the schools are just out of the mouth of babes right so you may hear things about our schools but hearing students and talk about their praises and about the teachers and about how the schools are impacting them is just awe-inspiring it's just wonderful to see that I also was able to attend some open houses I went to Baldwin's Baldwin Elementary's and Round Elementary's and it actually was my first time at Round Elementary I'm sad to say but it was excited to be able to see the parents there because you know when you go to different schools you don't get to see everyone but I was able to see the new administrator there which is I'm excited

[02:08:25] about her being being our new administrator at Brown and she was handing out ice pops to all the kids and greeting every parent as they left and every family and I thought that was just awesome and just having all the administrators had smiles on their faces and everyone was just happy to see the parents which I know as a parent when you see the staff excited to see your child. You feel comfortable sending your child there. But I was just happy to be able to go to these different events. I can't attend everything. You know, I have children, but I try my best, and I know all of us do, to attend as many things as we can. And I really appreciate the

[02:09:04] fact that our board, in some aspect, one of us is there. And so if you ever see us, you know, at the events, make sure you stop by and talk to us, because we want to greet you as well and get to know just everyone I think that's it I tried to make sure that I wrote everything down but I just hope that everyone has a good week and a great great school year thank you miss miles dr. Jones I first want to extend thank you to the Manassas Education Foundation your continued support to our school division does not go unnoticed students are thriving because of your scholarships and the return of the grants we greatly appreciated by our

[02:09:42] teachers your investment makes a lasting difference I also want to thank the Immigration and Refuge Advisory Committee for all the resources that you're recommending to our school community. Over the past few weeks I had the privilege of attending several events that showcases the heart and soul of our community. July 25th I did the custodian and maintenance luncheon and the Osborne High School Band preview. July 28th the new teacher luncheon. July 31st Osborne High School summer graduation. August 1st the convocation where Mr.

[02:10:12] Goodfellow reviewed the Manasseh City Public Schools strategic plan and Dr. Newman Share Rise Up, ruthless, intentional, student-driven, empowered. I also attended the education support committee meeting on August 5th. And then on the 7th and 8th, many of us were busy. I visited all nine schools during their open houses. It was wonderful to see students eagerly meeting their teachers and ready to start the new year. Many schools are also providing school supplies to the students, and that is truly a generous gesture. On August 8th, I also attended the ribbon cutting at Hayden Elementary. I encourage everyone to visit Hayden's library to see the beautiful artwork created by Mr. Hart whose children

[02:10:50] attended Hayden. His contribution is a gift to the school and community and outside the school you'll find posters with a QR code that have links to activities and maybe it may be coming to your school soon. Today marked the first day of school and I visited several buildings to witness the excitement firsthand. Teachers and students alike were ready for a great start. As a mother I am a mother of two African-American males, and males of color and African-American males hold a special place in my heart.

[02:11:21] Overcoming stereotypes can be challenging, but my sons were blessed to have their father put them on the bus every morning to prepare for the day they would say, "African-American, smart and born to be great." I often share this affirmation with students and parents, and I encourage you to adapt it for your child.

[02:11:38] having to declare the ethnic group or name followed by smart and born to be great confidence is the key send them to school send them to school with it every day today i'm also sharing a poem that i edited that speaks to removing mental and emotional barriers please untie the knots that are in my mind my heart and my life remove the have nots cannot and do not erase the will not may not and might not to find a way to find a home in your heart release me from could nots would nots and should nots that have struck my life and most of all remove all the am nots

[02:12:13] and that may hold me back especially the thought that i am not good enough remember you are smart and born to be great thank you for sharing that dr jones vice chair spall that was awesome i'm excited to announce that i was asked to serve on the audit committee for the vsba an organization that has been championing virginia's public schools for 119 years in this role last week i helped review the vsba's financial integrity ensuring it stays strong transparent and ready to serve our school boards well into the future summer and back to school

[02:12:48] are such fun and exciting whirlwinds it is amazing to watch these events unfold through the eyes of our newest board members thanks to miss miles and dr jones for being so descriptive about all of the summer events that you just talked about i just want to say i am very proud of the speakers who came tonight to speak on behalf of our former coach he is a local icon and the kids he has helped and influenced are real so thank you for coming out Ryan nobody at MCPS wants to limit a student's opportunities for growth I do believe that the missteps in this situation largely occurred in isolation

[02:13:25] without the awareness of other key staff in the school or across the division MCPS is deeply committed to both our students and their success our staff are trained in current best practices and regulations that govern modern athletics standards that have evolved over time while some approaches may have been common before they no longer align with today's expectations our goal is always to ensure our programs meet the standards while fostering safe fair and positive opportunities for every student athlete let's have a great fall

[02:13:59] and then a great year because we each choose to make it so thank you thank you mrs spall um i'll start off my comments where i started today six o'clock at transportation office to greet our bus drivers that were getting ready to take the kids to school and then bring them home at the end of the day it was a great start of the day and visiting other schools just greeting students at many schools but today was more than just the start of a new school calendar it's the start of new possibilities for our students it's a chance to discover grow and dream big

[02:14:37] For our staff, it's an opportunity to inspire and guide. And for our families, it's a moment of hope and pride as you watch your children take the next step in their journey. Together, we make our schools a place where every child feels supported, challenged, and valued.

[02:14:56] Let's make this year one of the great learning, great connections, and great memories. Here's to an incredible year ahead. Regarding communication and a recent situation, Contrary to a statement made by another, an email was sent to all school board members on Friday.

[02:15:22] Board members were notified of some particulars, and a date and time was set to discuss a personnel matter in closed session, which is the appropriate place for this discussion. If there were any questions at that time, it could have been asked directly.

[02:15:41] It is unfortunate that some school board members jumped to assumptions without taking the effort necessary to be an informed school board member. While I have repeatedly emphasized the importance of school board members to read their email, to remain informed and prepared for meetings, I cannot compel anyone to do so.

[02:16:02] This is an important part of our role and it is what we are elected to do. Regarding citizens' comments tonight, I'd like to thank each and every one of our speakers tonight for sharing your voice on something that is important to you and the school community.

[02:16:21] I know emotions run high because we all care deeply about our kids and their pursuits. But the reality is mistakes were made. Mistakes that could have had serious consequences for our schools and our student athletes.

[02:16:40] We as school board members have a responsibility to protect our students and programs, which which means we cannot engage in actions that we would condemn in others. We must follow the rules that safeguard our athletes from forfeiting games, facing sanctions, or seeing programs suspended.

[02:17:05] Every decision we make is with the goal of giving our students every opportunity to succeed, both on the field and in the classroom. school board chair remains committed to supporting our staff in enforcing policies and procedures to include VHSL guidelines so that the student athletes of Manassas City Schools can play. Thank you. I'll take a motion for closed session. Chair I move that the school board of the city of Manassas enter closed session pursuant to exemptions from open meetings allowed by

[02:17:40] section 2.2-3711 part a paragraph 1 of the Code of Virginia in 1950 is amended the following purpose discussion of personnel matter per s 2526-0062 second i have a motion by mrs stevens seconded by mrs breja that the school board of the city of manassas enter a closed session pursuant to exemptions from open meetings allowed by section 2.2-3711 part a paragraph one of the code of virginia 1950 as amended for the following purpose discussion of of personnel matter, PERS 2526-0062.

[02:18:19] Is there any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Are you in favor? Okay, any opposed? Motion carries seven and zero. We are in closed session, or we will go into closed session.

[02:18:35] You can take your break.

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