Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Meeting - August 26, 2025

Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 0h 58m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O6iC4C05qs

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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[00:00:32] - Mrs. Garza, would you please call the roll? - Yes, ma'am. Chair Sieber. - Here. - Vice Chair Spall. - Present. - Mrs. Stevens. - Present. - Mrs. Brescia. - Present. - Ms. Miles. - Present. - Ms. Brown. - Here.

[00:00:49] - Dr. Jones. - Here. - Ms. Breeden. - Mr. Emun. Thank you. Madam Chair, we have a forum. - Thank you. Dr. Emun, do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda tonight? - No, ma'am.

[00:01:04] - Can I get a motion for public meeting agenda approval? - Chair, I move that the school board of the city of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented. - I have a motion by Mrs. Stevens, seconded by Mrs. Brescia, that the school board of the city of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented.

[00:01:21] Is there any discussion? All in favor, any opposed? The motion carries seven zero. Seeing no spotlights tonight.

[00:01:37] Okay, I'll go to board committee reports and I'll go first to the educational support and finance committee led by Mrs. Spall. - Good evening. We had a meeting of the educational support committee today And our sole topic was the Stop, Start, Continue Town Hall.

[00:01:55] I think it's the name we're using, a full name. We have had 250 responses to date. And I believe that the polling has closed. 137 of those were parents and 66 were community. So we got somewhat of a good response for back to school.

[00:02:14] We've identified for breakouts the topics, the following topics, which are going to be calendar, grading, communications, and bell time. those were the areas of interest they got the most checks so we will look forward to seeing everyone at METS from 6:00 to 7:30 on September 11th and I believe our format is going to be are we saying that are we saying that the format is going to be one-third of the program will be an information session

[00:02:53] about these topics we'll have the experts speaking about them then we will break out in reference to the topics and then we will have a brief question and answer session after the fact thank you so much thank you Mrs. Ball okay next up is public comments do we have anyone signed up okay moving right along consent agenda can I get a motion for that chair I move that the school board

[00:03:27] of the City of Manassas approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Stevens, second by Mrs. Brescia, that the school board, the City of Manassas, approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 7-0.

[00:03:47] First up tonight on our discussion agenda is the Jenny Dean Elementary School construction update. Mr. Kefeller. Good evening, Chair Seberg, Vice Chair Spall, members of the board, and Dr. Newman.

[00:04:10] I'm pleased to provide the July update to the construction of our new Jenny Dean Elementary School. I'll start with the overall status. The project remains on time and on budget. We continue to see steady progress at the site. We have an average of 80 to 90 workers there on a daily basis.

[00:04:31] On the site work, the waterline loop around the existing school has been completed and all underground utilities at the rear of the school are now in place. The summer work on the side parking lot was finished and the construction fence was relocated and the site was cleared to prepare for our students' arrival on the first day of school and that went very smoothly for the arrival and we made a few modifications to buses in the bus loop, but things have gone very smoothly since students returned.

[00:05:00] Within the building itself, the masonry crews have topped out both the administrative wing and the gymnasium and additional crews have begun the high work on the north wing of the new elementary school. The steel materials are already on site and the steel subcontractors have secured the FAA permits for the crane operation and if you go over there right now you will see the crane that is stacking the roof line with the steel trusses and I will provide an update on that at our next meeting in September and so that steel work is currently underway and

[00:05:38] that is a significant milestone for our project. Regarding the concrete work, all of our slab on-grade pours are complete, except for the mechanical room, which will be finalized once the last utility connections are in place. The contractor in Skanska, who is our project manager, continue to work closely together with the school and with our city, and everything has gone very smooth and according to plan. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I have pictures here um you see lots of walls over there and and from the time these are pictures were taken to

[00:06:13] what you see now a lot has changed um and so i'll be providing the the august update next board meeting uh here's some of our steel that will be installed that's going up uh we see our windows and our walls so it's looking more and more like a school it's very exciting and um so it's a very exciting product that's happening there and you'll see a lot of progress that's happening the weather has been very cooperative for us and we continue to be on time. Great. Great update. Any questions or comments from the board? Seeing and hearing none. Thank you very much. See you next time.

[00:06:54] Next on our discussion agenda regarding accountability, Dr. Jennifer Quesada, Executive Director of Accountability and Finance, will present an overview of the new Virginia Department of Education Accountability System, the school performance and support framework. Dr. Quesada. All right. Good evening, Chair Seberg, Vice Chair, Spall, School Board members, and Dr. Newman. Tonight I'm going to provide an overview of the Virginia School Performance and Support Framework in advance of the state's release of performance reports later in September. Most of my slides are taken directly from VDOE presentations with some minor adjustments as needed. Before I start, I want to provide some background information

[00:07:32] and context about what this presentation will and will not include. VDOE has made changes to the accountability and accreditation systems for rating schools for 25-26, which is based on 24-25 data they're always a year ahead with the ratings the accountability performance framework is designed to align with federal requirements provide school performance information and identify schools for support the accreditation system is focused on compliance with state codes I will share a comparison a couple of slides the purpose of this presentation is to provide you with an overview of the of the performance framework the accountability system the purpose this presentation is about the system itself not a report on performance I will be back to present the results of this

[00:08:11] framework for MCPS schools once BDOE releases the ratings. By then you'll be experts in the system. So before we start I want to highlight a couple of key changes from Virginia's past accreditation rating system. One, the new system is going to have a weighted index score for each school rather than multiple separate indicators. Two, like the accreditation ratings in the past there are some adjustments to SOL scores in the accountability system that are different from what you're going to see when just pass rates are posted. One, failing scores for English learners, students who've been in the US for less than three semesters are removed. This is a change from the previous accreditation

[00:08:46] system when it was up to 11 semesters so this is a significant change. This aligns with the federal recent what they call recently arrived English learners it arrives with aligns with federal guidance. Second failing scores are removed for students enrolled in a school for less than 50% of the school year. In the past this adjustment was made for students enrolling after the 20th day of instruction at elementary middle school or the 20th hour of of instruction in high school level courses. Three, English learner progress is included in the mastery component, and I'll explain more about this in later slides. And four, growth is measured using the Virginia visualization and analytics solution, which is a mouthful, we'll call it

[00:09:24] vivos, at least for the 25-26 ratings. I say at least because there's questions at the state level about whether they're continuing with that contract, so stay tuned. This next slide shows the comparison and how VDOE has separated performance from accreditation. The left side shows the Virginia school performance and support framework, which will be used to rate school performance and identified schools for targeted support and improvement. The right side shows the accreditation system and how it's now focused on compliance with statutory requirements. I'm going to explain each one in more detail. Let's talk about accreditation first. The state now has accreditation ratings focused solely on compliance with eight components that are listed on this

[00:10:01] slide. All of these components are found in the standards of accreditation, which are codified in Virginia code. None of these are new. They've all been things that we were expected to do in the past, but the accreditation system also had the performance component combined with it. So the remainder of this presentation is going to focus on the school performance and support framework.

[00:10:20] So this framework generates an index score that looks at multiple factors. For elementary, intermediate, and middle school, it includes mastery, growth, and readiness. For high school, growth is replaced by graduation. Once index scores are generated, schools are put into performance categories once that happens in addition schools can be identified for federal support and improvement which is the third third level down in the arrows so schools can be identified for comprehensive support and improvement this applies to title one schools only and it's the state identifies the lowest five percent of title one schools plus any high school with a graduation rate less than 67 percent for comprehensive support and improvement based on the

[00:10:59] performance of all students schools are identified every three years and this This fall is one of the three-year identification periods. Targeted support and improvement is another way they're identified. Schools with low-performing student groups are identified for targeted support and improvement annually.

[00:11:14] This can impact Title I and non-Title I schools, and it occurs by comparing performance of student groups at those schools to schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement. So it's a whole long matrix of if/then statements that they use.

[00:11:31] next slide provides us some additional detail about the components of the framework so mastery this is where SOL performance is counted so students are awarded points based on their level of performance on an SOL test again we'll go into more detail about that growth this is where how a student I'm sorry this looks at how a student performs relative to expected performance which is based on their past SOL performance and the performance of students statewide students are awarded points based on whether they meet exceed or do not meet expected levels of growth again we'll get into more detail on that one as well readiness so this is where absenteeism rates are included at all levels as well as how students demonstrate post-secondary resident

[00:12:09] readiness in three areas enrollment employment and enlistment it's in this area also that students who graduate taking additional time most often our English learners and our special education students including those who earn an applied studies diploma this is where we get points for them also and Then finally, at the high school only, there's a graduation component, and this is the percent of students in a given cohort who graduate within four years with an advanced or standard diploma.

[00:12:35] Unlike the on-time graduation rate and the graduation and completion index that was part of the previous system, this does not allow for what are termed sliders or those students who are able to slide into the next cohort if they remain in school, our English learners and our special education students who are allowed more time by law to graduate.

[00:12:52] All right, now we're going to look at how the waiting works. This slide shows you that at each level, there's a different weighting. And it shows you the breakdown of elementary, middle, and high school. I'm gonna walk you through a more detailed discussion of each one in MCPS and the specific components.

[00:13:10] But this is a graphic that you'll see on the state's website that just shows you that at elementary school, mastery is weighted the highest. At middle school, the readiness piece jumps up some, growth goes down, mastery goes down. And at high school, you've got mastery at half, and then readiness and graduation make up the other half.

[00:13:28] Once the index scores are computed, schools are gonna be assigned a performance category rating based on their total number of points. Those four rating categories are distinguished, which is schools with 90 points or higher. On track, 80 to 89 points. Off track, 65 to 79 points.

[00:13:44] And needs intensive support, which is below 65 points. It's also important to note that schools identified as targeted support and improvement would have their category rating lowered by one. All right, so the next four slides, we're gonna show you how the model works mcps it's important to note that the elementary model published by vdoe does not apply to our elementary schools since we do not have science tests in our elementary schools as a result the weighting of the reading and math tests is increased at our elementary schools i will note a consequence of this on a future slide so at elementary mastery is 65 percent of the total

[00:14:19] score and for our elementary schools this means reading is 27.5 percent math 27.5 percent and English learner progress 10%. Now I told you I'd tell you what English learner progress means. That looks at the performance of our English learners on the WIDA access test that they take at two different points in time to see if they've meet designated progress targets. Obviously then it's going to only include students who have two scores available. Growth is 25% of the total score split evenly between expected growth and reading and expected growth and math. And then finally readiness is 10% of the total score and at this point

[00:14:54] that's solely looking at chronic absenteeism. Intermediate model. So our intermediate models follows the state's published elementary school model. Okay, so this is what elementary schools across the state, basically any school up to that does not have eighth grade is part of their elementary model. So again, just like for our elementary schools, mastery is 65% of the total score. But you see here that reading and math are each 22.5% and science is 10%. The English learner progress is 10% just like for our elementary schools and growth and readiness are the same at our intermediate schools as they are at our

[00:15:31] elementary schools. Okay for the middle school here are the breakdowns. Mastery is 60% of the total score, 20% of that is reading, 20% is math, 10% science, 10% English learner progress. So growth is 20% of the total score split evenly again between expected growth and reading and expected growth and math, each of those at 10%. And then readiness at the middle school is also 20% of the total score. It's split evenly between chronic absenteeism and performance of students in advanced coursework in mathematics.

[00:16:03] That's another 10%. Basically, that looks at the proportion of students who successfully complete at least one high school level mathematics course and SOL by the end of eighth grade. Finally, at the high school level, the model gets more complex, just like the previous accreditation model, because there are so many more indicators of performance at high school. So mastery has the same components, but it's 50% of the total score as opposed to 60 and 65 at the earlier grades.

[00:16:29] So again, in this case, reading counts for 15%, math for 15%, science for 10%, and English learner progress for 10%. And again, across all grade levels, reading is SOL performance, math is SOL performance, science is SOL performance, including VAP, so including alternate assessments, and English learner progress is the same.

[00:16:49] Readiness counts for 35% of the total score, with chronic absenteeism counting for 5% at the high school level. That six-year graduation rate that includes applied studies, also 5%, and the Ready for Life 3E framework is 25%. I'll explain that framework at the end of the presentation, but I will do my best. And then graduation counts for 15% of the total score.

[00:17:09] This is that four-year federal graduation indicator that includes standard and advanced diplomas and does not account for students who stay in school who have more time to graduate. Now we're going to dive a little deeper into the mastery component. This slide shows you how the mastery index looks at each level in MCPS. SOL performance and reading and mathematics are weighted highest at the elementary school model in general, but even higher within MCPS. And as you will see on the next slide, it's easier to earn a higher index score in science than it is in reading mathematics because of the way scores are computed in the different content areas. I'll make

[00:17:45] that make more sense hopefully in just a second. If I can turn the page. So this slide uses colors and to help walk us through how points are calculated.

[00:18:01] Basically, what you need to know is that a school gets points for every student who participates in testing. The number of points depends on the performance level of the student. So students who earn pass-advance get 1.25 points. So you kind of get extra credit for a student who scores pass-advance on a test. Students who score pass-proficient earn one point.

[00:18:20] Students who score basic, which means it's fail basic in reading and math, so it's closer, it's failing but closer to passing, or fail a science test at any level or any high school level exam, get 0.75 points.

[00:18:35] And students who score below basic, which is only applicable in grades 3 through 8 in math and reading, earn 0.25 points. So let's walk through it. So this shows you, if you look at the top, you see 100 students who are taking a reading test. 40 of them score pass advanced, so that school gets 1.25 points for each of them, or a total of 50 points.

[00:18:55] Another 40 score pass proficient. So the school gets one point for each of them for a total of 40 points. 10 students score basic, so they get .75 points each for a total of 7.5 points. And 10 students score below basic, so they get .25 points each for a total of 2.5 points.

[00:19:13] You add all of those up, you get 100 points. To make the point I was making earlier, if, however, this were a science test, there would be no below basic level. So all 20 who failed would get .75 points each for a total of 15 points, and the school total would be 105. So it is easier to score more points in science and on high school level tests because there is no differentiation of fail into two separate categories.

[00:19:39] All right, here comes the fun. So this slide talks about the growth model. There's no test on this, I promise. You're not going to be quizzed as you walk out. So as I mentioned earlier, a student's expected growth is determined based on their prior testing history as well as the statewide population of students who took the given assessment.

[00:19:57] Statistical modeling is used to determine the individualized expected growth targets each student for the growth component of the index schools are awarded points based on whether students met exceeded or didn't meet their expected growth target so you look at the bell curve and we're going to walk through that so students who exceed expected growth meaning outside one standard error of measurement so far to the right on the screen would earn 1.25 points that's that same extra credit like for past advance students who make their expected growth or slightly above so within that first band would earn one point and then students who score slightly below expected growth so within one standard

[00:20:35] error below the expected growth earn point five points and students whose growth is significantly below an expected level would not earn growth points so this new system includes mastering growth as separate factors the purpose of this slide is to provide some context as to why it is possible for a student to show mastery but not growth and it is also possible for a student to show growth but not mastery so this side slide includes trajectory lines for four hypothetical students. Student W shows mastery in both years, past proficient in year one, and past advanced in year two, as well as high growth. So you see the line going up on an angle. Student

[00:21:14] X, in contrast, shows mastery in both years, but expected relative growth. So they just, they stayed even. They passed in fourth grade, they passed in fifth grade, but their growth did not accelerate. Student Y fails the test in both years and shows low relative growth. So their performance is going the wrong direction, right?

[00:21:33] And then student Z, though, failed the test in both years but showed high relative growth, like significant growth. So this is why it can be beneficial to look at both mastery and growth independently because you can see how those two things sometimes are the same, sometimes work together, but sometimes do not.

[00:21:51] And this can give credit to students who are making growth but have not hit that 400, that passing target. All right, the final component of the system at the high school level is the readiness component called the Ready for Life or the 3E framework. The E's represent enrollment, employment, and enlistment. Students can earn points in each of the three areas, but only one value in each area. So enrollment refers to students completing coursework that meets post-secondary requirements. So this highest point total would go to students who earn

[00:22:27] associate's degrees while in high school. Students who earn qualifying scores on AP exams or dual enrollment credit can also earn points based on the number of those credits, right? So the more, if you've got students who earn a three or higher on an AP exam, which is what's considered college ready, they earn three of those, they get a point in this system. Or if they take three dual enrollment classes and get a B or higher. So that's one level. You look down and it's like, okay, one to two of those, either AP or dual enrollment, you get 0.75 points. And then 0.5 points is if you take, any

[00:23:02] student who takes an AP exam or who gets takes a dual enrollment class and gets a C gets 0.5 points. So there's the logic I suppose is to give credit to students for attempting the higher level work and you get more credit the more successful students are. The employment section refers to CTE accomplishments. So students earn points in this category based on the amount and level of what they complete so to earn any point students have to be a CTE completer and then the level of points depends on did you will work from the bottom this time

[00:23:39] if you come a completer who completed a high quality work based learning experience would get a half a point that bumps up if they are CTE completer who earned an industry credential bumps up again if someone is a completer earns a credential in a high demand field or they have a credential and a work-based learning experience so you can see how these things build on each other and then the highest amount of points is if they do everything right so a student could earn points in the enrollment category and in part you a student could earn what's up to 1.25 points in enrollment up to 1.25 points in employment and then

[00:24:18] enlistment refers to students meeting military entrance requirements as measured by scores on the ASVAB or armed services vocational aptitude battery students can get points in each area as I said but only one score in each this replaces what was the college career and civic readiness indicator or CCCRI in the previous accreditation system there's been much discussion and debate over the past year about the various components particularly the employment one and they really they made adjustments to that just recently yes

[00:24:53] okay so video we recently provided their timeline for when they will be updating school quality profiles with new data first they announced that they will publish federal pass rates which are basically the unadjusted scores on the assessment tab of the school quality profiles by the end of August so that release should be imminent once released we will present that information to the school board second they announced that they will publish school performance support and school performance and support framework results by the end of September again once they publish those results we will present that information to the school board as well finally this slide includes some links to video

[00:25:28] information. The first is a link to what VDOE calls their resource hub, and that has a lot of additional information for the public or anyone who's interested. The second is a link to a document with an overview of the framework. It's a little four page document including some of the things that I've talked about tonight. And then the third is the link directly to the Manassas City Public Schools School Quality Profile. So this is in Board Docs, those links are active in the Board Docs document. All right, thank you for the opportunity to present this overview to you tonight and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[00:26:01] Thank you. This is gonna be very helpful when those scores come out and we're able to match it up. Any questions or comments from the board? Mrs. Stevens? So first of all this is very meaty. There's a whole lot going on in here and I feel like we're going to want to hear different pieces of this again with further explanation because this is something very new and very different. My first question for you is can you repeat what you said about the title one schools you had mentioned

[00:26:35] something about sure so um title one schools only title one schools can be identified at the federal level for comprehensive support and improvement this is not something that's new i will tell you that monassas city public schools has not had any schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement in my tenure here and going back so that's the piece that applies only to title one schools and then um if we can go to slide six talking about and i know i missed part of it um

[00:27:14] id'd every three years what was the difference between annually and every three years so the comprehensive support i just mentioned that's for title one schools only they're identified every three years and they would stay in that designation for three years okay the other targeted support is identified annually which means that you can be out of it after one year okay all right thank you

[00:27:37] And then when we're talking about growth and mastery and you showed the two different, the four scenarios, you have the student with, you've got here, past proficient, high growth, past proficient, expected, relative growth, and you have fail and low growth, fail and high growth.

[00:27:55] So you can actually, students can count, earn for both of those, for mastery and growth. They're like past proficient and high relative growth. I'm going to go back to this just to show you. So students are included in all three of the components.

[00:28:16] So let's use elementary school or elementary intermediate school. So students SOL performance, right? So at our elementary schools, third and fourth grade performance is in the mastery component, right? As well as the English learner progress. In the growth component, all students, again, for our elementary schools, it's only fourth grade because they would have to have two years of SOL testing to show growth.

[00:28:38] they would be in the growth component. Readiness is chronic absenteeism, so K4, all students would be part of that component. Does that help? - Yes, yes. - Same thing at each level. So the index, students are parts of each, are included in each part of the index at their respective level if it applies to them.

[00:28:55] - Right. Okay, yeah, that actually makes sense because looking at it this way is very different from the way we've always looked at just accreditation. This is many more moving parts and pieces to it. When we talk about WIDA progress, how is that being identified as being sufficient progress?

[00:29:17] So the federal government has identified targets, and actually Virginia in our accountability plan that has been submitted annually, whatever, has identified targets for English learner progress based on the level, the English learner level of the student, as well as their grade level. So there's different targets for K through 2, 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and so on. And so a student gets a point or a yes or no based on whether they meet that designated target. Does that help? Yeah. And then, but it doesn't

[00:29:53] matter how long they've been in the country. That's not factored into WIDA growth. That is not. So that's their level, right? How long they've been in the country impacts the mastery component because newer students who take tests and fail can have their scores excluded.

[00:30:10] But that is a much smaller window in this new system than it was in the past system. And that new smaller window lines up with the DOE. With the federal. Federal. And that's the way that it's been for federal accountability in the past also.

[00:30:26] Okay. Now, my last question, and this is, I've always wondered about this. So, Virginia required us to start administering the VGA, the Virginia Growth Assessment. That plays no role in any of this. Correct. And we don't have necessarily a purpose for the VGA anymore?

[00:30:46] So, I do know, so there is, the way our schools use the growth assessments is to look kind of at like a benchmark type assessment. there's a lot of conversation going on at the state level about the growth assessments and the ability of school divisions to select something else so there's a lot of conversation about that because back in the day in the accreditation system it was solely the SOLs and they added the VGAs and now they're kind of backing away from that as perspectives change so all right well thank you I'm sure when I go home tonight I will think of many many additional questions because this is so meaty and there are so many moving parts

[00:31:25] to it but thank you for giving us such a quick concise rundown if you will so thank you miss miles yeah I had a quick question about how we're measuring growth I know you mentioned the access tests of course with the English language learners but as far as our elementary students who don't take that so well are we going to be using vowels or how is that going to be no that's a great question the the expected growth is only using SOL data so at the elementary level it would only there'd only be growth scores for our fourth graders and so it would be fourth through eighth graders that are that have growth scores okay because you said the two years you need two years yes so fourth

[00:32:05] through eighth okay okay and I think because I was kind of confused about the waiting like if you could go back to the slide that showed and I'm sure other people would like you know whoever is watching right now would maybe have the same questions when you look at the models and you broke down how that's determined so when you look at the percentages so can you give more of an example say as to say 10 students get or a class size gets this how are you determining the percentages and how are they going to determine whether or not

[00:32:43] that 60% like I'm really confused as to how how they're determining the score or the the rating of the school based on this because this okay so for the mastery right so each student in or each student is given a score of 0.25 0.75 1.0 or 1.25 right so and then that is multiplied by a factor so okay so that that would count as for reading in elementary school it counts as 27.5 percent of the total score so say you had a score of 80 right

[00:33:20] that would be multiplied by 0.275 right in the growth again each student's given a score of 0.5, 1, or 1.25. That's then multiplied by the weighting factor and added into an index. For readiness, our chronic absenteeism rate, each student is yes or no, chronic absenteeism, chronically absent, sorry. That gets added up, it gets put in, and it's 10% of the total score.

[00:33:47] And so they all get combined mathematically. It's like if you think about a teacher grade book, and assignments are given different weightings, that's how this is working. Each one is a different grading category. Does that help? That does help because I guess so if you have a school that doesn't have that chronic absentee, you know, issue that they're working with, but they have higher SOL scores, it's going to benefit. So if you have maybe low SOL scores, but a great absentee rate, it's going to kind of balance it, which I think is great when you look at it. So that way you're not just looking at their SOL scores, you're looking at the whole school and like how they perform in all areas, which I think is a great thing. So yeah, all areas are combined into

[00:34:25] one whereas in the past system all those areas where their growth was measured very differently but they were all there but as separate pieces growth was added into mastery right in the combined score remember the combined scores that we had so that was one piece and then absenteeism was a whole separate indicator here it all is combined together with different weighting thank you and down here any questions miss Brown thank you I wanted to know if it's possible to expand a little bit on VAP and maybe the impact of that

[00:35:00] I know that it's 15% for SOLs and math and reading, so just expand a little bit and reference who takes those assessments and the impact for us. So, okay, so the VAP assessment is the Virginia Alternate Assessment.

[00:35:22] There's another A in there that I'm forgetting, but Alternate Assessment Program. So that is for students for whom the SOL tests are not appropriate. These are students who are being assessed on alternate SOLs. This is sometimes our students with more severe disabilities. And so the VAP assessment is a more appropriate assessment for them, but they get a score, a passing score.

[00:35:42] They get a scaled score just like you do on an SOL test. This is just showing that those are combined, that they're included in this model. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for the question. Yeah, I wanted the public to hear that as well. Ms. Brescia.

[00:35:58] Thank you for this great presentation. Some of my questions have already been answered, but I want to ask a little bit about the point categories, how it's broken down 90 points and above between 80, 89 points. It looks like it's slide nine. So we have opportunities for half points and three quarter points and all this other kind of stuff. So if you have 89.75 points at the end of the day, you're still just on track.

[00:36:28] That's a great question. In the past, the state has had a tendency to do rounding, right? So 89.5 and above could be 90, but I don't believe that until I see it when we get previews of these reports, so I don't know.

[00:36:44] So in the past, they've counted like 89.5 would be 90 in previous models. So if they're consistent with that, then that would be the case. But we're not sure what... We will see when we see their reports. We see. Okay. So that was one question. Another question. So the English learner progress is now 10% of the mastery component. And I know that the English learner progress, because it's a federal thing, had been reported on the school quality profiles. Did it have any previous role at all under the previous accreditation?

[00:37:17] So in the previous accreditation, the English Learner Progress, that metric itself did not. However, our English learners who showed progress but had not passed an SOL were part of that combined rate. So if you think back, we'd have stacked bars.

[00:37:34] They were one of the categories, but only in reading. So it was in the reading component of the accreditation. So English Learner Progress is counting basically for the first time? It's counting as its own thing for the first time and fully because before you could have had English learners who made progress, but they passed the SOL, which is great, but then you weren't getting credit for their progress.

[00:37:56] The one concern, though, with this is that the federal targets are typically in the 50% range, 50 to 60% range, and you can have your school hit the target, right, but then they're only getting out of the possible 10 points, you're still only getting five and a half of them.

[00:38:16] So the way they're doing, the way they allot the points for English Learner Progress could be fairer than it is, in my opinion. So back on growth, everyone's favorite. Yeah, this is the toughest one.

[00:38:33] So because growth is individual, it's possible that a growth target for one student is, you know, you would need to improve by 20 points and another student might only need to improve by 10. That is true. Okay. So I just want to get that out there. And I don't have an easy formula for you to say if then.

[00:38:51] It's not really that way because of the statistical modeling. And again, they haven't shared with us the raw data for us to be able to compare and figure that out. And Vivas has been around for a while, and there have been some interesting things with it. But this is a new use, and we have not gotten that backside.

[00:39:06] Nerds like me haven't gotten the backside access to it yet. And I myself, I do not have kids who have ever taken an SOL, so I don't really know this. Are students informed of their growth target? our families informed so again this is a new a new thing and it's coming from the state it's not something a lot of it is it's modeling based and so no they haven't been in the past because in the past it was not part of an accountability system so we're waiting we're really building and we meaning videoe let me make that clear is really building and flying the plane at the

[00:39:46] same time and painting it and refueling it and all of those things at the very same time I'll do respect to them I'm sure they're watching the so one of my questions was asked by miss miles about you know how what if it's your first test right you don't get growth for that but you answered that already saying it you don't get growth until fourth grade so not having a fifth grade in our elementary schools we don't have an opportunity to earn growth there we have smaller percent of students who are eligible for that but that's taken into account because your denominator is only those students for whom you could

[00:40:24] have a growth score yeah so that's a neutral it's neutral but the better the bigger the population the more opportunity you could have but it you're not penalized doubly by that gotcha that's all for me thank you thank you thank you this is really in-depth I'd love to meet the person that came up with all these formulas I guess in the end I want to know for just the general lay person you know I'm looking are we gonna see something that says points

[00:40:59] available points earned performance okay well well let me say that we will be getting in schools will be getting reports and they'll be published on the school quality profiles what that exactly looks like I don't know but there will be breakdowns to some extent so I just don't want that measurement will be so they will I doubt like standard error of measurements gonna be I think it would just be points available points earned in each of the categories for a school for the overall population and then by student group also okay because I see it here points available points earned and performance score or

[00:41:36] performance state target met yes or no and then a score zero to four but it'll be something that something like that but again can look at and say and okay and then maybe one day personally you and I can just say you know if a kid got 450 on all their SOLs to make it simple and they're not an English learner and or absent 10 days a year, you know, what kind of score that looks like.

[00:42:01] I just can't conceptualize, you know, how we're going to get to 1.25 or, you know, 1s. I know what you said. I understand it, but it's just what it looks like. It would be helpful. But good luck, everybody, in deciphering.

[00:42:18] Our kids are great. I'm sure we're going to be fine. We're going to grow. We always grow. So I have no doubt that we're going to show what we can do. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Quesada. very helpful information um and we're looking forward to as everybody is what those scores are and what they mean for us and where we go from there thank you on the action agenda tonight we have the draft budget calendar before us for an approval that's not the first time we've seen it we've all had a chance to look at the dates and chair i move that the school board of the city

[00:42:56] and Manassas approve the FY27 budget calendar as presented. Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Stevens, seconded by Vice Chair Spall, that the school board of the State of Manassas approve the FY27 budget calendar as presented. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion carries 7-0. All right. We're already at school board members' comments, but I'm going to go first. Did I miss anything? No? I'm going to go first to our student representatives. Welcome

[00:43:30] and welcome back and I'll go first to Miss Braden and they're going to come up to the mic uh the microphones the solo microphones are not working here tonight so we're going to use the podium thank you Miss Braden um good evening everyone I hope everyone has had a great start to this school year um in the midst of this back to school season I want to remind all educators student peers and staff to treat and include all students as if it was their first year in this school system because

[00:44:06] we do not know who has just transferred in, who has just moved to Virginia, or who has been in Monastery City Public Schools their whole lives. So I just want to remind everybody that we should treat everyone the same and include them, engage with them, and introduce them to everybody as if they were a brand new student. That's really all I have for tonight, but I appreciate Dr. Quesada informing us that our English, highlighting that our English language learners are slowly getting the credit that they deserve in our accountability system so thank you so much for that presentation

[00:44:40] um thank you thank you miss braden and next we'd like to introduce you to mr amoon who is our second student representative we welcome you to this role and we look forward to what you have to say so okay uh thank you you know for everyone picking me thank you for everybody who uh you know took the time to come and watch everything uh first i wanted to you know compliment you on your presentation i thought it was really thorough and it was it was pretty cool so like

[00:45:16] amelia um my my kind of i didn't really have any comments again you know about this um i just wanted um to bring up a little problem i guess i've noticed um it's not like immense it's not like an immense problem but basically a lot of there's like you know new students you know like Amelia said and you know at any school any like new student will they'll face a lot of challenges you know they have to get used to the new school they gotta make new friends you know maybe some of the teachers their teaching styles they're not used to everything and I don't know I wanted to

[00:45:55] think of you know solutions to that I just wanted to propose like you know something maybe like and this is for all schools not just Osborne because you know there's lots of people who can you know elementary middle everything like that so i don't know um i just wanted to see if anyone like there could be something called like peer buddies you know people who've been at the school before they're used to it then they can help the the new students uh feel welcome just feel you know they like they belong there they don't feel all alone um and it will just be uh i think a helpful thing

[00:46:30] for the new students that that's really all i had well thank you mr imoon that is um good for us to check out yeah and we'll let you know if there's something already being done yeah or maybe what we can do better thank you very much thank you now I'll go to Miss Brown good evening everybody I'm gonna be very brief I want to extend my congratulations once again and welcome our student representatives Amelia Breeden and Hena Eman thank you for being here for your willingness to serve I also want to thank the new appointed staff thank you again for choosing us you're

[00:47:07] part of our family and just a reminder students and families I know that we heard a lot today about how students in their progress will be measured but I just want to take you back to basics it's not complicated just make a commitment to attend school every day that's one of the most important things that you can do ask questions if you don't understand something in class or if you didn't understand anything about the process of school structures parents students get help if you need help and then make a commitment to be present to

[00:47:43] learn and grow the rest will take care of itself thank you thank you miss Brown mrs. Stevens thank you first of all to our school board reps thank you for bringing up how we need to treat each other in the schools treat everyone as though it's their first time being in the building because you don't know who's new you don't know who's a transfer you don't know why they're a transfer assume everyone is new and we treat them all with respect so I really appreciate that that gave me a slightly different perspective that I hadn't thought of in the past so I really appreciate it I like the idea of peer buddies everybody

[00:48:19] needs a buddy they need to have someone they know they can go to my comments are going to be very short as well remember schools already started there's buses out on the road there's teenage drivers out on the road there's kiddos walk into school and there's kiddos at bus stops as the days get shorter it will be dark outside when some of our students are at their bus stops so please pay attention as you drive to and from work every day watch out for the school buses when the red stop sign and red flashing lights come out you have to stop that's the law and it's to keep our kiddos safe so have an enjoyable rest of your summer and

[00:48:56] welcome back to the school year thank you mr. Stevens miss miles I want to welcome our new student representative, Mr. Hanok Emom. I hopefully am pronouncing that right. And welcome back, Ms. Breeden. I appreciate your commitment to being a representative for your school and to the school board.

[00:49:13] I know this is a time commitment and you're that voice to the students, so we really appreciate you. I'm really excited about the September 11th town hall meeting. I wanna thank everyone who participated in the survey. This was a vision I had months ago to give our community and staff another opportunity to share.

[00:49:30] And I appreciate the efforts of Dr. Casada and the board members on the Education Support and Finance Committee for bringing this to fruition. So thanks for your hard work on that. Next week, don't forget, Mets and Osborne are gonna have their back-to-school nights. So check their websites for details.

[00:49:46] And my comments are kind of short tonight as well. But before I end my comments, I wanna share some quotes. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. And that's by Jim Ryan. And success is a sum of small efforts repeated by R. Collier, and I just want to add to what Ms. Brown said, and motivation, yes, you're motivated to start the school year, everyone's excited, but remember, you need to have those good habits by coming to school every day, setting those alarms, I know even as adults, we have to set alarms, so we're on time for school, don't miss the bus, you know, especially, you know, your parents

[00:50:24] are at work, so they can't take you to school, and I speak from that, because I'm like, my kids need to get on the bus to but you have to do that every day and as you're making those small efforts every single day you're gonna have a great school year and so those small efforts repeated over time studying making sure you're getting the grades that you need to get so that you are prepared for your SOL so I just wish everyone just a wonderful school year and just keep focused and just study the school year as well thank you thank you miss miles wise words mrs. Brescia thank

[00:51:00] you so I agree with everyone who's gone before me yes come to school make a plan to go every single day unless I'm gonna add a caveat you had the stomach flu that we had last week don't come to school if that happens we are we've already missed a day of school in our house unfortunately I hope everybody else has had a smoother return and I'm excited to see our student reps here and hear more about how the school year goes and hear your thoughts as things unfold since we last met I was able to attend in my dual capacity as a school board member and also as a mom the kindergarten popsicle party put on at

[00:51:35] the PTO at Baldwin it was an excellent event had great turnout and I made an I made it a mission of mine to go through and talk to parents about how their school year was going these are up for most of the many of the families there it was their first time going to public school for their oldest kids for kindergarten, and the preliminary reviews were great. Everybody had great things to say, so that was really good to hear. On a more somber note, I also attended the Boys and Girls Club Prince William Regional Board of Directors meeting, and in light of depressed fundraising and the changing

[00:52:11] economic circumstances here in the region, the Washington area generally, of which Prince William is only a part, has been forced to close more than about half of its clubs. There were 22 clubs serving Greater Washington before this and Boys and Girls Club has been forced to close 10 of them leaving only 12. This is included locations in Fairfax which is really unfortunate and I really regret for those communities that they've lost that resource. I'm happy to report that none of the Prince William clubs were impacted including the Manassas Club so I want to shout out to our Manassas Club and congratulate the team there for weathering that storm. We

[00:52:48] are very lucky to have them and to continue to have them as a resource for kids let us not take them for granted I also I neglected to mention at our last meeting that several weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in a focus group hosted by J Lark on this new school accountability system and I did make the point to the auditor from J Lark that the new system makes it difficult to compare schools across jurisdictions because of you know we don't have a traditional grade level format so how we look compared to some our neighboring jurisdictions is going to be different just because of how those

[00:53:26] points are counted and it did seem to strike a chord with him and he did take a lot of notes and he was excited to hear that so we'll see if anything ever happens with that but spoiler alert probably not so going forward I just want to remind everybody that between now and our next board meeting that most or I think maybe maybe even all of our schools will be having their open houses so I encourage all of our families to make a plan to attend and to get valuable information to launch their successful school year and finally I'd like to speak just a little bit on high expectations in light of this new

[00:54:02] accountability system as we all heard today one of the changes that has the opportunity to majorly impact us are the changes regarding our English language learners and the performance on WIDA access testing and I think it's really important for us to understand that and for our community to understand this shift because it is a big one. But also, if we are serious about delivering on a culture of high expectations, we have to be very careful about how we approach and how we talk about these changes.

[00:54:31] And I want to make sure that we are approaching it with a positive and encouraging mindset. I want people to hear from me, our kids to hear from me, and I hope from all of us that we can do it. We can do this. We can meet the standard that has been set for us. And I'm not naive. I have no doubt that it will be hard but I know that we can do hard things into this division I know that because I've seen us do hard things before so the school year just started let's make it a great one thank you mrs. Bregia before I go to dr. Jones I do want to say that the Osborne back-to-school night is actually tonight it did start at 6 o'clock with classroom visits starting

[00:55:07] at 6:30 so if you're not tuned in or not a parent at Osborne you're probably there dr. Jones all right I want to welcome my student representatives tonight and Amelia Breeden welcome we're now entering the third week of school so I'm sure both parents and students are selling into routines I encourage all parents to look for information on back-to-school nights and parent as educational partners pep meetings both meetings will continue to provide valuable information to you to help assist your students for a successful school year having served as a teacher in middle school and the

[00:55:44] assistant principal in high school and a principal in elementary school and a current school board member i have first-hand knowledge of the importance of parent involvement in their children's education i strongly encourage you to stay involved pre-k through 12. and also plan to attend the town hall meeting on september 11th um 2025 at mets middle school from 6 to 7 30.

[00:56:06] also attended the backpack donation that was on friday afternoon so special thanks to creating foundations for hope and helen serrata the cfh community liaison and the lions liaisons from the schools picked up their backpacks and they will be given to our new students so when they come they'll be ready for success also remember the fall sports are starting soon so check out the schedules for golf field hockey competitive cheer volleyball and football and anything else that i may have missed and also students are conditioning for winter sports so check out those schedules and set goals for the school year and reach out for help if needed we're We're here to help you whatever you need.

[00:56:44] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jones. Vice Chair Spall. Is it Senior Sunrise next week? September 5th. I just wanted to shout out to that because that's new since I've been gone, but I like it.

[00:57:00] I guess just a word to our broader community as well as the folks here tonight. As we wrap up tonight, but more importantly as we're beginning a new school year, I want to leave you all with one simple truth. In today's world, we're going to really reap what we sow. The words we speak and, yes, even the posts that we make on social media us shape how others see our schools, and more importantly, how our children see them. When we choose negativity, we risk planting doubt in our kids' hearts about their own schools. But when we lift up the good, when we celebrate their teachers, their hard work, and their successes, we cultivate pride, resilience, and belief in their future. Our children are always watching us, and they will

[00:57:40] carry the seeds we sow. Let's make sure they grow up with the confidence that their schools and their community believe in them. I know I do and I know this governance team does as well. Thank you. Thank you Vice Chair Spall and it's my turn and I have no further comments. Thank you. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Chair, I move that we adjourn. Second. I have a motion by Vice Chair Spall, seconded by Mrs. Stevens, that the school board meeting adjourn. Is there any discussion? All in favor?

[00:58:13] Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 7-0. Thank you all.

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