Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Work Session - September 25, 2025

Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 33m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERqAB9kYIQU

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:47] School of Lean is called to order. Would you please stand for a moment of silence, all and by the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of 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.

[00:01:25] Garza, could you please call the roll? Yes, ma'am. Chair Stenberg. Here. Vice Chair Spall. Present. Mrs. Stevens. Mrs. Brescia. Present. Ms. Brown. Present.

[00:01:40] Ms. Maya. Present. Dr. Jones. Here. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a quorum. Thank you, Mrs. Garza. Dr. Newman, do we have any additions or solutions to the agenda this evening? No, ma'am. And I have a motion for the public meeting agenda approval. No, great. 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 Vice Chair Spall, seconded by Mrs. Brescia, that the school board of the city of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented.

[00:02:13] is there any discussion all in favor any opposed the motion carries six zero okay we have a few announcements number one being that we are live streaming right and these microphones pick up any little sound any little sound any side conversations so just to let you know about that also I'm gonna be passing

[00:02:51] this around throughout the year our schools will be presenting to City Council and traditionally we've introduced the principal do you guys still want to do that I have some face time with City Council all right so we'll pass that around seems like everybody's into that and then um just a reminder that um on 10 23 we have a work session held or we're holding that date for a work session and that will be to go

[00:03:27] over superintendent's goals for this school year so we won't have this kind of work session we will have a work session on superintendent goals that's close yes and it will be closed can you do the

[00:03:41] I'm sorry chair. It is October 23rd. Is that at 5 p.m.? Yeah. Okay. You can send me notes if you want. We're going to be talking more about that process a little bit later tonight. Will that be only one session of that or could it spill into another one if we know? I hope it doesn't. Okay. It shouldn't. I'll say that. It shouldn't.

[00:04:10] I will now be here on the 23rd. Can I participate via Zoom if necessary? I mean, yeah, I'll line it up. Okay, thank you. And then let's see, Mrs. Fall, did you have a question about that?

[00:04:27] Superintendent Schultz or something? I just wanted to announce that there is a BSBA supervisor, superintendent workshop, evaluation workshop on September 30th. so there is time so both register and attend I think I've been twice is it all day or I think it's like a nine to two okay thank you I appreciate it thank

[00:05:00] you are there any other announcements okay going into our main work session agenda and this part of our work session is set aside for board members to introduce ideas and propose topics it allows us to gauge interest decide what can be resolved today and what may need to move forward to a regular meeting for discussion we have 17 business items to consider some may be ongoing business

[00:05:37] items and some may be newly proposed to keep us on track please use the graphic organizer when presenting your new business state the topic note if it's tied to student outcomes explain its significance and share your ideal outcome for today so let's stay focused concise and on topic so that we can make the most of this time together and our first item a is discussion of the grading policy and i'll go to miss brown who brought this forward yes so um thank you thank you chef um i was proposing that the grading policy

[00:06:13] be referred to the policy committee for revisions so that we can narrow down a role which should be limited to adopting the policy but not dictating the regulation meaning how it is reviewed and implemented refined that would be best it will serve all of us including the community to delegate that to the

[00:06:50] experts in the field which is the superintendent in his cabinet and the teachers who are actually using it and can give direct feedback to the superintendent it will also eliminate all of the political noise that's going on and it will keep us from nursing or advocating implicitly or explicitly any hate constructs about our students and our teachers or any biases about our students and our teachers.

[00:07:21] I think as a collective we need to take a stance on this and just do what is right which is govern and let the superintendent do the regulation. So my ideal outcome would be for us to send this back to the policy committee which I think that's the appropriate committee to revise the policy and then bring it back to as an action item to the collective so that we can vote on it no need to coordinate for the regulations okay can I have a show of hands for

[00:07:52] appetite for what is Brown okay okay great unanimous okay we will do that thank you for bringing that forward miss Brown um item B proposed business MCPS school board priorities for the 25 26 school year this is something that we traditionally do at our retreat. We did start it there. It's been ongoing discussion. This WOSH has helped us through some of the brainstorming activities and in documenting what we think are

[00:08:26] priorities. What's important about this is we serve together as a board. It's good to have documentation of what we actually prioritize. And the preliminary one was done, and I guess I will ask for comments on these priorities.

[00:08:48] Mrs. Loach, did you want to say anything? - Okay. - We're looking at the FY2026. We have number one is strategic plan, we have number two is stakeholder engagement, and we have a blank point of victory.

[00:09:08] - This is Russia. - So my feedback is kind of just overall on our approach. I think priorities is actually the wrong word to use for this because our one priority is, oh, are you missing it? - Yeah, we don't have it. It's an attachment. On Board of Education.

[00:09:23] Okay. Yeah. I think I printed it. Under IMD. Thank you. Because the one priority is student academic success that we have in our strategic plan. Thank you. So I think that what these really are are goals.

[00:09:39] Like what goals do we want to gauge? I think we should be clear as to what the priority is. The priority is only one priority, and that's supporting our student academic success. And then what we are talking about here are our goals. So it's just kind of a, I do think it's important, actually, to make that adjustment linguistically.

[00:09:59] And I see it as, for staff, these are special to the school board. So staff has a strategic plan. That's what they're working from. That is their priority. Our priority is to support that work and maybe other things.

[00:10:17] So, I mean, the strategic plan covers everything. But was there anything else you wanted to point, like, do you have an, Mrs. Ball? So I'd like to find a way to do both of these things.

[00:10:33] I like to state a priority, but I definitely think that the next thing to do is to, you know, dig into it and at least know ourselves, you know, what the goals are that are really attached to this. I mean, when I look at this, it's really boiled down from a lot of priorities for us as individuals.

[00:10:58] And so, I mean, I feel represented here, not a problem. my number three might be you know something or number two and you know stakeholder engagement and vision storytelling kind of both but we do have you know the CIP and a facility study and a new strategic plan that we really need to work on in terms of vision so I think that that's that's an important addition you know what we need to tell the world that we're working on you know

[00:11:36] just don't when it comes to the goals you're right you know I mean it is one it is one goal how are we gonna get there well we're gonna have priorities and we're going to you know work on those priorities so I think I think it's all important I think it all needs to be spelled out and we may need to practice this year and be ready for January you know to do to do both things because it

[00:12:04] to late in the year. Dr. Neiman? I said, can you tell me what you wanted number three to be? Oh, vision? Vision work, vision planning, vision stakeholders. Well, stakeholder engagement is number two, so it could be stakeholder engagement and vision, you know, if we don't want to have three. I mean, I don't, I'm not looking to look it up. There are things that, you know, we're already going to do. We're already going to do a facility study. We're already going to do a CIP. We're already going to work collaboratively on a strategic plan, but I don't think that we should overlook those things, personally.

[00:12:41] Ms. Ma? When I look, I thought when we mentioned this before, the last time we talked, that three was, we were thinking about doing equity and access for all and inclusion, since those are very large things that we all agree on in both one and two.

[00:13:00] It's already, yeah, it's already in our strategic plan. Well, but taking it out of strategic plan and stakeholder engagement and making it to a three because it's listed twice right it's listed twice and it's also one of the things that's major if we look at what we've said it's a lot of the bulk of what we all agree okay yeah so that was just a suggestion i thought and then that way we can streamline um those different items into that one three anybody else um so number two is a no-brainer and i think that's the easy one for us

[00:13:37] to do, I think it's really important, the storytelling, the equity, and all expenses. And I think they fit nicely on the number two, not necessarily we need to have a number three. This is a big elephant. And so what we need to focus on, I caught your word that you say that you want to support our job and our role for this priority is to support the work that the superintendent is doing with the staff. And so I just, and when I think of supporting and our priorities, I mean that it will be in the forefront so that we can make those decisions as far as

[00:14:12] budget or as far as time etc etc right so when I think about that I I guess for me it would be part of another piece that I want a percent but I guess for for sake of time right now what does the superintendent and the staff believe is the more important for me right now I think if we were to focus on something right now and get the more bang for a buck will be B under number one and C because those are the two pieces that we really need to be aligned and

[00:14:51] collectively pushing forward the rest of this stuff we have tons of staff members that are already with realigned we already had talent that is looking to secure that workforce sustainability we have things in place right now to make sure that we don't have overturn of assistant principals and principals so that we able to retain them and then equity a we already can work through number two so for me it's like can we just like hold on to the pieces that we really need to focus on to improve student outcomes which is student

[00:15:29] achievement academic excellence attendance and engagement and that belonging is one of the pieces that we need to figure out how to translate to kids and families because that would take care of our attendance so are you proposing making the list shorter and that's what I'm proposing because I think behavior SEL mental health is a priority we have lots and lots if we are thinking like governing right so what are our priorities that we're going to be telling people that we are what's more important to us this year right it's for this year what do we want to focus

[00:16:07] collectively on it has to be tangible i see number one i could reword it i would put student outcome this is something we're already talking about in our work even as we go through these work session items that has got to be our focus and how we do that is through the strategic plan and like i see i mean i see student achievement student outcomes as being the most important thing we do and then i think also equity and assess for all is important and then attendance they have to be here for us to do that i see those is like the top three to me um i think our storytelling is definitely

[00:16:45] important but i think maybe the board doesn't have to be we don't have to be the ones it's actually um in the forefront of that but i do think that's important too but i think student success for all the student outcomes is the most important thing to do so we're thinking to make number one i like the idea of changing number one to student outcome is everybody okay with that yeah that's good yeah so for strategic plan people or just student

[00:17:15] outcomes mrs fall i i still would argue that um i think that it is our job to set um you know the direction of the ship and to talk about our vision for an extended future you know it is our job to do the now but it is our job and it is not exclusively our job but prior but a big part of our job is to say where where we're headed and to set a course so um i mean i will shut up about it

[00:17:52] after this but i have a strong commitment to vision because you know i don't know that we'd be talking about storytelling if we hadn't been talking about vision all long before a lot of people even got here you know i mean we weren't in the same situation that we are right now three years ago or five years ago so i mean some things that we're starting to take for granted which is great are things that weren't there in the beginning um so i agree i think vision and

[00:18:25] those all those pieces are feasible and we should be making them a priority because also we cannot put a bury our heads in the sand we have a very negative uh reception and part of it is misinformation and part of it is that we haven't been able to tell a story in a consistent manner so a cohesive way you know i mean there are people out there that are saying good things there are people out there's not an actual plan and you know in my mind I can envision what a plan could do for us I'm not saying I know what the plan looks like but I know what

[00:19:05] it could do if it was all right so what I miss now oh I was also looking I keep seeing talent and workforce sustainability and I feel like it should be with our stakeholder engagement um you know because that hat has a lot to do with strategic operations and the celebrations and recognition so right so I was thinking that that should go maybe move underneath there and then the student outcomes would be the behavior it would be BC and D or a can still be a

[00:19:40] to ABC and D so what I have so far is number one everybody's okay with student outcomes right and under that we'll put support year for the strategic plan yeah and then detail B and C or all of them and I still consider II under number one but well I see what Dana saying also because I see the connection to what

[00:20:17] City Council does as far as the races as far as helping us do different things that will be that will make us more attractive in the city for staff so it's it's a stakeholder because they have their stakeholders in our yeah any of these you go in many places yeah but if we do in student outcomes then it will fit nice more appropriately under stakeholder engagement and I'm okay with legion aid and there I just think that right now I guess I'm hyper focused

[00:20:54] on our student achievement and attendance it's just one thing yeah it's just yeah um and then number three vision work so we're we would be addressing this priority of vision work when we talk about the cip planning ahead what's our next school we're going to need to rebuild that type of thing okay so that would be number three uh it would be i have vision work as the title for number three do you guys like vision planning vision work what do you what do you like And under that, I have CIP, facility study, and strategic planning for the next five years.

[00:21:35] And I think we're going to hear more about facility planning. Okay. All right. So are we good with that? Yeah. All right. Let's move on.

[00:21:53] Item C is our legislative priorities. And Mrs. Stevens sent us a template to use, and we need to turn those into Alba tonight.

[00:22:16] Sure. Do you guys want to have the priorities, Alba can reformat it, and do you want to officially approve it at our next school board meeting so that we can present at the joint meeting?

[00:22:32] Are you okay doing it through email? I mean, it's really primarily for us. I mean, there's no harm in putting it on the consent agenda, right? No. That's what we gave it. Okay. Let's do it. Is that all right? That means we would look at it via email.

[00:22:48] No. Consent agenda. Or docs. okay so we won't see the development of it all right all right uh legislative priorities anybody have some i did not take a picture i didn't take a picture um also mrs fall and i will be attending the the psln meetings with the regional group in october there's two meetings and they're going to be talking about legislative priorities then too so i did tell um mrs stevens that of course we'll

[00:23:23] pass along everything to the whole board but that it's coming it might be late when do we need to have those approved of a legislative priority well we have the meeting with the joint meeting oh okay so when mrs stevens summarizes everything she can submit that to staff for input

[00:24:02] and then um we can have it on our discussion agenda first meeting in october and then the action agenda second meeting in october because we present at november yes yeah we want to have a lot of something like that okay all right if anybody else has anything to be considered for legislative priorities we need to get those into mrs stevens any time is needed to we don't have it ready we can always wait second meeting okay sounds good um item d discussion on school

[00:24:42] presentation format so this is when it um schools will present to us we need to decide do we want all schools to present to us or just um certain schools to present to us and what we would like them to present to us all schools you want some schools do we have enough meetings in a year to I think in the past, it has been one from each level, right, Osborne, that's intermediate and then one of the elementary, and I would be two elementaries.

[00:25:22] Can you give me more context? Why do we have this? We already have the schools presented to the council and we're there. Yeah, it's a little different. So you were asking earlier about data from like SOL data, VALs, and all that data.

[00:25:45] They can take their data and present to us saying this is what happened in the spring of last year, this is what we're doing to address it, and this is what the results we've seen so far. So this is one of those times where we readdress the data. And the performance framework, because that will be out of it.

[00:26:03] Yeah. Maybe that's when we decide. Right, well, it is kind of hard because it's like if we pick an elementary school now to do it and then it turns out we pick one that is with distinction but one of them is off track and we fix it, you know, we might need to wait until we have the performance framework to do that.

[00:26:28] Yeah, because the topics, we're going to have to go back to those priorities, so the topic is student achievement and attendance, so it will have to be on one of those things this year do you want them to pick the topics that we want them to present or are they just do is we could follow what we did last year and then when we get more information if we need to change it up then we can do that I don't like a format last year what did we do last year bring up Alba from the - Let's see what meeting is this from.

[00:27:06] I looked at the Osborne one. - I think in attendance, I remember she did. - There were no numbers in this presentation. It was just lots of-- - October 22, 2024. - They split it up by the performance indicators, which are going away now as a thing for under the new performance framework.

[00:27:29] And a lot of words, not a lot of data. Find it as valuable as previous versions, which were more data-centric graphs and things. so I did have a question so I guess if I had a vote I would say all schools and I was going to ask if Bava would be included in that if we're not headed in the direction of all schools then I'll kind of reformulate what I'm thinking of what we're going to ask for we don't have any

[00:28:02] I just like to work backwards like what is it that we perceive well actually thank you chair for always pushing me to use this little dandy dandy what is the ideal outcome of these presentations what are we searching for that or what is it going to support um i think if i'm asked to come to present to a group of people as an educator i need to know so that i can make it meaningful

[00:28:41] yeah it's really to support the board in our work so like dr newman asked me what do you guys want to see in these school reports and now i'm asking you okay I want to see, for me this year, I want to see attendance. I want to see those reports from 3K all the way to high school.

[00:29:06] I would like to know how certain things are conducted, like how many CLTs they're having every week. Just things that are tied to student outcome, like how many ESOL teachers do you have, how many ESOL students do you have.

[00:29:22] Things like that, to me, having those data points help us understand the real bones of the school. and why maybe this is the reason why this or this is the reason why that. So, like, knowing how many, and that's one of the questions I've asked, though, how many teachers do you have and, you know, how many teachers have 30-plus years and some have 10 years and some have five.

[00:29:47] Just having more of a, like, purview of the school because we don't know these things. Yeah, but I don't want to get in the position where we are evaluating teachers and we as a school board are saying this is what's wrong. That's the superintendent's role. But it's just to give us an idea of what, because a lot of times what happens is people make judgment calls and they don't know what that school is or what is behind those curtains.

[00:30:13] And so this is more of a more of a transparent thing. To me, it's more transparency than anything else. See, for me, that's a very informational one page handout for every school that we can create very quickly for all of us to have. It may already exist.

[00:30:31] You know, I look at those parts and when I speak to principals, I get to do something. So for me, again, you know, I'm going to bring you all back to that balcony, you know, like, what is it that we want? And I think attendance is one of those issues that we really need to figure out.

[00:30:52] Right. So I can tell you, I think I hear you. I think I'm picking up what you're putting down. so we usually do get attendance separately as a uh as a as a presentation you know we got one in the you know we got one halfway through the school year you know we get them either yeah we we get attendance for the division like a separate thing what we're talking about right now is you know we got our division you know overall division presentation on september 9th and that covered all of the schools and did uh actually was i thought pretty granular this year in terms of

[00:31:31] of what it looked like but are there any schools in particular that we want to take a closer look at and the school principal comes and presents to us what their data was last year what they're doing going forward and I do think and I keep coming back around to you know we're gonna have school performance framework scores coming out very very soon and I just really don't think that we're gonna be able to I think that new things are gonna come up as soon as these framework scores come out, because if we do have a school that, for example, needs intensive support, well, what happened there?

[00:32:05] There's a thousand ways you can get to need intensive support, and that could be because of your scores, that could be because of your federal designation. You know, there is another layer here that we're kind of missing, so I think that, so what we're talking about is, which schools do we want to hear from? I want to hear from Mets.

[00:32:23] Vice Chair Spall was first, and then Dr. Jones. So for me, I'm not necessarily interested in just calling out certain schools because I think that when there are celebrations and successes, I want to know how they can replicate that.

[00:32:42] You know, how did they celebrate that success and how can they replicate it when the success occurs? So I'm looking at a more 30,000 foot view where I've got that I'd be happy to share. But, you know, mine is like student achievement, climate and culture, programs and instruction, staff and professional development.

[00:33:00] And maybe that's more similar because of the way that we do things here. But, you know, family and community engagement, facilities and operations, celebrations and success stories, challenges and needs, and then looking ahead. So for me, like, it's a much more comprehensive if we're going to have them report.

[00:33:17] And under climate and culture, we can have attendance and chronic absenteeism. But I don't want to just hear from the people that are struggling. I want to hear from, you know, I want them to braid in the teacher that got, you know, 100% in geometry. Like, that's a good time.

[00:33:32] I mean, I want to, when we're telling us, we're talking about telling our story, I want to tell a complete story. That's where I think, what is the ideal, what is the board's ideal outcome for this, that thing? Right. So so I can agree with you that if that if, you know, if this is a framework that people are willing to look at or adopt, maybe it is more of, you know, just share a flyer, you know, but the flyer would be updated yearly, you know, so that everything that's new is is on there.

[00:34:08] And, you know, I don't know. I think if we figure out what is it that we want, then we can ask for it. So we're doing. I just want to say, I honestly think all schools should come to the school board to present.

[00:34:28] I don't think you just want to come when your scores are low. And then there are also a lot of celebrations in all schools, even if their scores are low. I think when principals are preparing to present, it's labor-intensive. And all of them are like, what's going on? Is this going to be good? Is this not going to be bad? But I think we need to be very specific in what we want.

[00:34:47] Because otherwise one principal may be talking about, you know, I have these programs, after school programs, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing this. And another school may show you, oh, look at my new furniture. So it's not the same presentation. So I think we have to be very specific in what we want.

[00:35:02] But I think we would want them to share their celebrations, you know, what are they doing that's new and different. Because sometimes even principals get other ideas from other schools when they see, oh, they're doing that, let me try this. But I also think you want to hear about their test scores, you know. What's their vision for the future?

[00:35:19] But I do think all schools should participate and we should be specific about what we want to see. Okay, let's just do the schools now. A show of hands for all schools reporting. I have a question. Can we do that? Yeah, just logistically.

[00:35:36] And also from like a staff time point of view, like what kind of, if all everybody is doing is spending time doing presentation, then, you know. Well, central office will come up with a template, right?

[00:35:51] they just once you tell us yeah this is this is what i have so far and then we'll hear from mrs miles i have a school profile handout something that we can hold on to and keep it on the website and the school quality profile is there too but this is sorry okay jump in this is sorry i mean you know areas where a school could use school board support you know resources policy alignment funding like this is an opportunity to dive a little bit deeper you know with what with what i have it's got building updates you know all of this information is available to us but it's not

[00:36:31] necessarily aggregated anywhere in its entirety you know and if you say you know when our international night is every year and you know who has pep and i mean i think if it's if it's uniform it could do a lot of good okay so this is what i have we want to hear about school performance. We want attendance rates. We want all the scores, SOLs, VALs, whatever else. We want to hear about their successes. We want to hear how they're dealing with the needs for improvement.

[00:37:08] We want to hear about events and if they're doing PEP and if they're doing anything new and different. Yeah. I mean, again, I can share. Can I talk, please? I made my hand a couple times ago. If we could maybe focus on glows and grows, because if we focus on that, we will also highlight, like you said, the students' achievement, or we're also highlighting what those teachers did in the school, too.

[00:37:38] And then also, we're also making our teachers look at, or our schools have some grows as well, like, hey, what do we know we need to improve on? and having them being more introspective because like you said, it needs to be more than just a presentation. It needs to have a purpose behind it. The other thing, and I'm going back to what she said at a school board meeting about what are their needs, like what has the needs of the school and the priorities of the school. Like we're discussing our priorities as school board members well what is that administrator or that team say this is what we see as

[00:38:17] priorities and it also shows that they're aligned with us and maybe we can say wow we didn't know that was a priority of yours you know so we'll get some more information from them I think if we if we focus on those things too Mrs. Brescia? I still have a logistical question of how we fit nine schools into - Three and four in school for three meetings.

[00:38:40] - It's been done in the past. - It's been done in the past. - Is there a timeframe we have to do it in? - It's just not very valuable if we're doing it in June. You know what I mean? - Right, yeah, 'cause I know for the city council, they have it written down like-- - It is gonna take up a lot of our meetings.

[00:39:00] - Yeah, so. - I just don't know, and I'm speaking just because I've been on the other side of this, And as an administrator, I just want to know what the purpose is.

[00:39:18] And I'm still, we're still not landing on the purpose. And a lot of the stuff that you guys are suggesting, the cabinet presents to us already as a whole. So perhaps taking some of your ideas for the Glows and Grows and we focus on one area, like tell us about under the student outcomes tell us about your best practices that are giving you results and talk to us about academic excellence what does that look like in your building

[00:39:56] and see i can i can wrap my head around that and i can even bring stories of my students and my teachers and make it meaningful to you guys but to just put all like all of the pieces for you that's a lot of work for me as an administrator. I'm just gonna be honest.

[00:40:13] Maybe you have a theme. What am I getting back. So our job as a school board we're supposed to be the liaison to the community so a lot of this is us as our community representatives understanding just what's going on in the school and get it wrapping our heads around it and I just think we're operating right now from an incomplete set of information because we do not know which of our schools are with distinction on-track off-track or even tentative support because that information I think would alter the content of what we're asking Do you want to table this to another time? I would agree with that. I think we can wait

[00:40:51] also I don't think we need to ask any of the schools for anything that we can read on the website. It needs to be stuff that we don't know basically or can't find ourselves. Okay well you have ideas Dr. Newman of some things that we want we'll wait till more of the information comes out and then we'll and central all this come up with the template that the admin can use the principles can use to make it easier and do you have a comment oh so we were

[00:41:28] tabling this is like for in the meantime well I mean we might decide well I said we don't we're operating from an incomplete set of we might change yeah we might change course when things come out so I think we should just I guess We all took our notes and now it's on video so we can go back and watch the video if we want.

[00:41:50] Item E, Election Day. Okay. It's just tape. It's just tape. Don't do anything. Until we have just been a couple weeks. Yes. The school board will discuss the impact of election day on the division, specifically whether schools should remain open on that day and what operational or logistical implications that choice would have.

[00:42:13] And we do have information about what is already going on. We all have this. many different professional development trainings that are being conducted what are the thoughts i'd like to hear from dr newman what the main implications will be as far as um equity and as far as financial like are there any implications that we need to consider before we even discuss

[00:42:48] we do have three outside um groups that are coming into that day two of them we didn't pay for already yeah can we reschedule or no how fair is it if some people are in a

[00:43:23] course and other people aren't right here at all yeah yeah definitely all or nothing yeah unless there's a lot of training but to some at 12 what are the expectations for 9:00 to 12:00 or the start of the day so so lunchtime you have to keep the schools open planning typically I mean the classroom classroom

[00:43:57] time I I personally and I'm just gonna put this out there I'm very patriotic about my community service and typically I have to take that day off work because it's something that is a value for my family so I will advocate that if not this time around that we the calendar committee ever handles that to consider using this day however we want to do it but given the teachers that day

[00:44:32] so that they can also have that opportunity to go vote to take their family. And it also alleviates, again, you know, as an administrator, and Dr. Jones may have experienced this, there is a lot of things that we have to do when they are voting, during voting day. It's not just as easy as, you know, blocking an area and assistant principals and principals are tasked with the supervision of all of that to ensure that their teachers are good to go,

[00:45:09] all the things that are happening that day, that bathrooms are accessible, security, there's a lot that goes on on this day. So in all the districts, I have advocated for that day to be just an off day, however we want to call it, you know, or label it, so that it meets the calendar needs.

[00:45:33] You're talking about in the future? Yes. Not for this year? Not, because I don't know if we're going to be able to do it for this time around, but I'm saying the calendar, committee should be looking into I'm advocating that we keep that day sacred for families to go do their civic duty and vote this is pressure I mean I personally have no problem with putting ID any idea through the calendar committee in terms of how you strategically roll out plan for a professional development like for me in September for this November I mean it's

[00:46:08] it's it's just a no and when I am when I listened to the request and even when listening to this discussion now I'm not hearing the word students right like and if we're trying to keep students at the center I mean our students are you are need our instructors to be performing at the top capacity professional development is valuable and needed and we've gone through the trouble of developing a professional development strategy to support those good student outcomes that we all hope to see so it is something where you know maybe and we shift things around in the future like you're saying maybe election day you

[00:46:43] the PD comes in on some other day but if we're keeping students at the center there is no way and I also am also very patriotic about my service on election day I'm out there I will be out there I'm sure I'll see several of you out there on election day but you know the original request was based on safety concerns and I am just as an elected official a very patriotic person and not willing to buy into any kind of narrative that it's unsafe to go to the polls or to our school building on election day you appear even I don't think that was what was said

[00:47:20] however we just landed on our priorities and student outcomes and we have a talent and work for work for sustainability so I think that falls right into that and student that comes is not just for students it so I did not read the request as that. I do know again as an administrator that there are safety things that I need to look for when I have the public coming in into a space that typically does not have that many

[00:47:56] visitors at one time. So I understand the nuance of the request. Ms. Fox? Are any of these professional learning um online or is it all in person okay so only a few but mostly in classroom okay definitely looking forward i know our neighbors um typically you know manassas park usually has a virtual work day they've in the past also done parented your conferences on that day

[00:48:29] and also prince william usually doesn't schedule our pds on this day it's more of a you know work in your classroom all day you know because people go to vote or some people are going to take off anyway and then they end up not even being there so maybe just looking forward maybe we just should follow suit or at least look at that okay may I have a show of hands to keep the calendar as it is this year and to consider on the next go-round which would be sometime during the school year next year for the following two years for the calendar future calendar just as a consideration it's too short notice right now to change it and it's too much

[00:49:09] money that's been invested all right our next item item F bullying prevention month everybody has a copy of the proposed proclamation is there any changes or does anybody add anything typically we have we would do a proclamation early in the month and then later in the month staff would present what efforts were taken I don't know would it be Miss Jackson that does that oh Miss Jones

[00:49:43] I just have a question how are proclamations done because I know two months like Hispanic Heritage Month we didn't do a proclamation and for Black History Month we didn't do a proclamation is it just the SBA that brings these or these we don't do every single one but if you would like to see one just bring forward okay I was just wondering anyone else is it is it part of plan to hear about this what the schools are doing that is continue if we're

[00:50:19] supposed to wear a certain color or something let us know we've done blue hats we had knitted hats sure every student yeah just the caveat I could be going to do proclamations then we have to be you know not just Hispanics and opportunity but there are several others so the board really needs to be inclusive in that if that's what we're going to start doing i would think that that would be good to be but is there

[00:50:54] a volunteer that would like to read the proclamation okay the next meeting october 14 14

[00:51:17] probably spotlight uh are you gonna vote can we have it on consent agenda that's information yeah and then is spotlight after that's fine that's good all right item g consideration of professional development for the board miss diana brown will lead a discussion regarding a potential professional development opportunity for the board centered around the speed of trust

[00:51:52] so I know that we often talk about we need to build our trust and or whether or not we trust each other or we should trust each other but trust is an intention intentional action with specific behaviors attached to it and working at the speed of trust is a book so I'm I was proposing that at the very least we adopt a book study together because the faster way the fastest way for us to build a report and work more effectively is to build that to take

[00:52:31] advantage of that speed of trust and really focus on those intentional behaviors so I do have some handouts that I can give you I think I share with you chair yeah I share the official proposal from the company that runs the program I did attend a three-hour session I have the book so it I'm gonna I wasn't it's on board doctors we're not everything that you have and so so

[00:53:08] that you guys can get you guys can get it could be a one day they can do a one day training they can do they can give us we can buy a pass so that we can do a synchronous learning together and have discussions together it's up to us it is this could be as expensive as buying seven copies of a book or really investing in ourselves to to grow together and the most important part of

[00:53:42] this is that even if the board changes the people that remain behind are well versed and the speed of trust in the behaviors and the intentions and it will be an easier turn around with the new board members to get them to be at the same speed of trust so I think it's something that it might be beneficial for us so I just brought it to you guys for consideration and what is the

[00:54:17] outcome you prefer I would like it so very least yeah I want to I want to build or I want to build our level of trust I think that is going to be to bring the best results as a board and we take two step forwards and three steps back sometimes but I think it's because we're not aware of the behaviors of the intentions in this book really spells it out in a very simplistic way and it's

[00:54:50] it's on your own but it's also a collective and it brings kind of bridges that accountability this is pressure so when we say read the book together what is that what's that together part like we all just get seven copies and like I don't and we had this because I know that there's a but like in what kind of work sessions we can take five ten minutes to discuss whatever we have and I have different ways of doing it very quickly do we do like a

[00:55:27] chapter and then after a work session the next version that to me would be easier like you have like two weeks to break this chapter and then you talk about it well the generalists are very they can come and give us the whole one session a three hour session did everybody read the proposal that was included no expensive I think it's for that $4,000 but that includes I did didn't know I did do the numbers for up to 30 people it doesn't matter how many people you have for that amount of money and so that would give the

[00:56:02] superintendent a little bit of leeway if they wanted to include his cabinet or some principals and system principals and speed of trust training so that price tag it could be for up to 30 or more so i'd be more than happy to read the book um i mean a lot of what i think uh this some of this building trust and like you said you know it could stay with us after even after this board was here it did happen with master board training and we did try to continue master

[00:56:37] board training um and so i don't know that i'm ready to totally switch gears at this point in time because we weren't in in the end able to to make that training happen um but i am more than willing to read the book and i can make it very simple and very easy right payment i guess later payment so well and we've we've had the fierce training before but that didn't seem to help it's the thing is is if we're going to go into any board development training we all need to be on

[00:57:09] board all of us and we all need to commit the time and you know i i don't know if i like board development i would read the book too um i don't think we can commit staff to doing this because they're already doing development through fierce and through disk and all that i i and i hear what you said chair um and i agree we we have done that um but i believe that this will give us the i guess the elevation that we need because this addresses specific behaviors personal behaviors

[00:57:48] things that we are doing that we may not think that intentional will you know strip us of our trust and um you know the confidence that we are putting on each other so i think it's just going to bring awareness about the specific behaviors behind building trust and the things that we do to rob ourselves from that i would just ask at least two weeks to read a chapter from myself because that's all i guess well i'm just so we've had various facilitated sessions right i'll read any

[00:58:26] book you give me i'm a big reader i don't it won't take me too in two weeks i'll probably finish the whole thing i'm pretty fast um not a problem that's not a problem my concern is that we have had previous attempts at professional development that were facilitated that did not go well. And so to have the seven of us facilitate ourselves, I'm concerned that we're not setting ourselves up for success. I mean, I'll book club with anybody, but it's, you know, I don't want

[00:59:02] to stir up, you know, I don't know that this is, I just don't know. I'm a little concerned that we will are not capable of facilitating ourselves and that this won't be successful once again I'll read the book additional money at this time but to me trust is value is I you gave my trust by your actions so we'll read the book out there I can't say but I am what I'm willing to read okay show of hands who would be willing to read the book okay could you please I would say no let's

[00:59:40] just read a little bit and see how it goes. I feel like the work sessions we may need a mediator kind of like what we did with VSBA because I think with having an out even if it's someone who isn't reading the book but who can kind of like help us. Can I just say maybe we read the book and then we reconvene because you know we we're already almost in October and we're going be planning for January maybe that's a time when you know we could try ourselves or maybe you can appropriate you know another person to try to help us but we

[01:00:17] worked hard to get a January retreat so like let's start thinking about how we might be able to use that actively so item H proposed business data session retreat on SOL data Miss Diana Brown would like to discuss having a dedicated data session or retreat for the school board to review and unpack sol data discussing implications for goals and priorities all right so my thinking is that um that it's critical that we as a board

[01:00:52] the seven of us take that one day or half a day to review this academic data together And not just relied on the description or what others are sharing with us.

[01:01:11] I think if we take that time to unpack what we see in a space together, we can be able to share our understanding and then take that collective ownership.

[01:01:29] Because I believe, I haven't been here but nine months, but I believe that if we expect our teachers to do that with their principals, if we expect our superintendent to do that with his cabinet, that we need to model the same.

[01:01:46] And we need to engage directly with the evidence that is telling us how we're doing, where we are, and really we need to be able to talk to each other about where we want to go together.

[01:02:02] So I think reviewing this data together also will give us a time to align our thinking and figure out if there are any gaps in our understanding or it may just bring about some ideas that we may not have considered that could actually improve the student outcomes priorities that we talked about.

[01:02:24] Because if not all of us are on the same line field with the understanding and with how we can use this information, then we're not going to get where we want to go.

[01:02:40] We're not going to get to that vision. And I have never belonged to a cohort of any type where I didn't sit with them and go over that information. So whether I was a teacher, whether I was an assistant principal, whether I was in another board, there was always time for us to come together to share our understanding.

[01:03:05] And I know this is kind of wonky and it's my first time in governance, but I just think that just having others interpret what the data means is unacceptable to me. We need to interpret what it means to us by looking at it and by sharing our collective understanding of it.

[01:03:23] I'm sorry. I'm just going to point out the irony of having a trust conversation back to back with a insinuation that we cannot trust the, you know, the presentation that we were given, which, by the way, matches the school quality profile.

[01:03:47] like i you know and so it is so i just i just want to i just want to point i just want to point that out like this is uh there is a rich irony there um and we had a meeting on the data and i shared my thoughts everyone had a chance to do that and i am you know i'm a yeah i'm a i'm a i'm a researcher I'm a digger. I'm happy to go as deep as you want to go, but the intent of this is important to me,

[01:04:25] and I am going to bristle at the implication that we're being misled or anything amiss is happening here. So it makes me hesitant to agree on that. We're here as a team. We're here as a governance team and we have a bigger team and we have a whole family of monassa city public schools employees

[01:04:56] we have to be going in the same direction if we um you know took the data aside and just kind of brainstorm it we might be missing a lot but that's why we rely on staff to present the data to us which is accurate um and the opportunities to consider data that you know we have to think about our role as a school board member and some of the times we'll be doing this is well the September 9th meeting you can do whatever you want independently and come back with questions

[01:05:33] in the school presentations to the school board throughout the year sounds like we'll be getting this data and be discussing the data and it will be the leaders of the schools telling us how they're addressing it that's what we want to hear our October work session we will be considering the data as we set goals for the superintendent. Our mini retreat in January, we may be considering the data again. The superintendent's mid-year evaluation and the superintendent's end-of-year

[01:06:06] evaluation. Those are all times where we consider the data. Ms. Miles? I do agree with Ms. Brown in some aspects that having it presented to us and that be the only time that we talk about it as a board um in my mind i just read a whole no i mean since then that that was we're going to talk about it more but i think that because some of even the things that i'm saying tonight is because

[01:06:44] some of the data questions i have um i think maybe just a recap of the data like like uh we had our board meeting they presented it and then having a meeting after that we're that is focused just on that it doesn't have to be a whole day but just where we just talk about it if we have questions just in conversation that we want to kind of bring up amongst ourselves to kind of grapple with okay why this why that and some of the players that presented it to us can be there as well to answer

[01:07:18] questions that maybe we obviously can't answer ourselves um would be beneficial i see the benefit from it because i know as even an educator at the end of the year we talk about data um or data and we look at it piece by piece we we talk about it as a grade level and then we talk about it with the administrator and then we talk and we we have multiple opportunities besides what because you're talking about superintendent schools but the data specific to that i think it's important when it's fresh in our minds so that if we have any questions or we want to see other pieces to make us understand why this or whether that it would be beneficial and I don't think that it would not be

[01:07:58] a beneficial moment to do so and I think we're going to get another by the way when the school performance framework comes out we are getting another presentation that incorporate on October 14th we're getting another data presentation if you will and then after that we're convening again to see what and traditionally it has been organized by school like let's hear from you know a certain subset of schools. I mean, if we want to do something different and say, I want a deep dive reading across all the division, you know, we could do that too. We can do whatever we want

[01:08:32] in terms of our next, you know, whatever our next subset of presentations are. And I'm totally fine to do that as long as our trusted experts are in the room. Of course. Yeah. And I agree that they need to be here because there's obviously questions that they, we can't answer and we may have questions that we can ask them um but the October 14th I I realized they were presenting to us during our televised which these are televised now too but outside the work session and I think that it's hard to come up with all the questions that you want to ask during those times these are

[01:09:07] a little bit more laid back and I feel like maybe them presenting to us during a work session would be better for us um as opposed to in that fashion but that I know that that that's just the way we've always done it but well the public needs to see it and the public would see it because these are they're televised but I just think that we just use this time a little bit it's a little longer you know we have a little bit more time to kind of like comb through things that's just a suggestion

[01:09:38] thank you for the feedback um and Sarah under number three creating transparency I have to declare my intent to you. This was not to rob anybody of trust, but we can, you know, just try to refrain from blaming. The reason why we need to sit together as a board and review this data is because everybody else has done so, and they have been able to talk among themselves about what

[01:10:12] exactly concerns them. We haven't had that opportunity. You may have brought up some things that concern you. I may have read some issues that concern me, but together we haven't really looked at this data and say, hey, this is concerning for us as a board. Also, I'm not hearing anybody in their feedback telling me what do the data trends demand of us as a board as next steps, and how do we want to lead differently going forward based on what we see and what we have interpreted so that's the reason why data talks are really important at all levels

[01:10:52] and we are at the top of this and if we are not able to reflect together as a board then I'm afraid that we're not going to be growing because today if I post this to you all why do this data trends demand of us as a board are you are you going to be able to answer me because I'm trying to figure it out. And again, I'm coming from a place and my intention again, I'm new at governance and I want to do this job well, but I want to know what this demands of me as a board and how I want to lead

[01:11:27] differently because of four years from now, I will not be sitting here with the same results. I don't want to be here with the same results. And so I've been going back and just checking on all the trends and making the connections myself, but as a board, should we be doing that together?

[01:11:49] And that was the reason why I wanted to bring it, not because I don't trust what's being interpreted for me. I think part of one of the, I did like a little agenda piece, was to begin with the presentation from the academic data that we received and begin to talk, you know, in groups or pairs or as a whole, what that meant to us.

[01:12:14] What did we see? What did we hear? But that's what staff is doing. That's what staff is doing and presenting to us. And we have the opportunity. You can ask any question you want at the school board meeting. But as a board, what does that mean for you? And you're my chair, so how did the data transfer the past four years in this year, demand that we react as a board, and how do we want to lead differently?

[01:12:38] one thing one reaction i mean that's why we're looking at this data and deciding what we want from the school presentation i was just going to you said in pairs if you guys will have to decide what you want to do but uh the two-on-one meetings could be a start you said pairs up just because and excluding the other five i i think that this i i thank you for that feedback i do welcome that but that's again separate that's a separate that's separate not collective i understand that and i

[01:13:18] understand the collective the overall what you're trying to get but what you just said we could start off a pair that was just throwing it out you know in the retreat day we can we can do pair and we can do whole group during the retreat day or the half a day so i'll take that it's okay if it's okay if the board doesn't want to do it i i just thought it was important for us again i want to reiterate that i never belonged to a cohort that did not want to have data talks or reflections i even have data talks with my students to set goals um so it is as basic as that so for me it

[01:13:52] just doesn't i don't understand but i'm willing to accept you know the will of the board if you guys don't want to have this conversation dr jones had her hand up for quite a while and then Ms. Brescia. Okay, I can understand you want a deeper dive and I think in the school board meeting there are probably over 30 questions and so it's kind of hard to remember the answers to all those 30 questions so I can understand you wanting the board to come together and further analyze the scores and and also when we eventually hear about the performance levels and all these other things how do we put that in context about what do we need to do and we should be thinking about

[01:14:32] what we need to do not always thinking wait for someone else to tell us what we need to do but we should have some ideas about what we need to do as far as test scores so i mean i can see your thought just to for us to further talk about it just to analyze more and to dig deeper uh once we do get the result and like i said there were lots of questions and i don't even think all the questions were asked because we would have been there a long time i mean i sit beside my fellow school she had lots of questions she definitely did not ask all her questions i'm not picking on you but i think even some questions won't ask because of time limits and constraints i think yeah this round just wants a deeper thought okay mrs brejette and i will pose the question

[01:15:11] right well as this is i think we are kind of losing track of what we're talking about because it's kind of evolving even right here on the table as we're talking about it like if we want to have a work session where we get uh a you know where we get to revisit the all that data and we all talk together with the people who are who were presenting it before and who are in the best position to help us through that and have that discussion i'm uh you know i am fine with that

[01:15:47] although i do have a degree of trust i was frustrated and i will express a degree of frustration that you know on the meeting on september 9th that there were multiple board members who said i have questions but i'm not going to ask them and i'm looking around like this why not this is the meeting of the school board like ask them ask them like this is you know and maybe we should all make a mental note next year order dinner ahead of the data presentation time uh so we can all get comfortable but you know i want to economize our time we already spend so much time together as much as i enjoy it um and if we feel the need to do it this year

[01:16:26] for whatever reason i just would hope that we could find a way i don't think anyone is saying no to data talks, I heard that come out and that's not the position I'm representing at all. Yes, data talks. Yes, on September 9th. Yes, on October 14th when the school performance framework comes out. Yes, after that, when we decide what our deeper dives are, which have historically been school-based, but might be something else, you know, we might decide to ask for a different presentation. We might decide to ask for a work session at that time. So, where I am.

[01:16:59] Mrs. Paul. Yeah, I just, I don't want the conversation to end without just noting that, you know, Member Brown said four years from now, you know, I won't allow us to be in this position. And there were a lot of things that took place before you got here to make you, to make everyone feel welcome, feel included.

[01:17:20] I mean, a lot of effort went into making a third day for board development training. I mean, there were a lot of things that we wanted to do to have, to situate ourselves, to be in a better position right now that did not go according to plan. So, I mean, I'm more than happy to make a new plan, but I don't want it to be completely overlooked. Efforts were made and, you know, it didn't go the way that we wanted it to, but that doesn't mean that no one recognized that there were new people coming or no one recognized that, you know, that we needed

[01:17:58] to have further deep dives into a number of topics and some of those could have evolved through master board training into a lot of different things that we wanted including you know diving into data which I'm not opposed to it's just it does feel a little frustrating because trust is an issue and I'm welcome and happy to delve into that and to you know to make things better starting now today but we've had some roadblocks so and and some of them I think

[01:18:32] were avoidable so I'd like to make today a new day but I don't want there to be an assumption that there wasn't an effort made to avoid some of it I'm not even aware I I don't even know what I'm not making the connection that you're making so I apologize for that this is as simple as it was expressed I just believe that as a cohort we need to meet and talk to each other about what concerns is about the data stated and what does it command of

[01:19:09] us and how is it going to help us lead differently so we get better student outcomes that's it no blaming no expectation other than together we're better and I think I just want that in regards to this because we just said that student outcome and excellence is our priority so we take time to do all kinds of things for retreat and so I just thought this was important but I'm not willing to take more time after this if if it's not something that this is

[01:19:46] project and then I will call the question so I'm going to ask since we do have another presentation coming up on October 14th the school performance framework and we are reopening the discussion anyway about the additional presentation format is the best outcome for this item just to wait until we go and digest all of that I think that we should probably still want to do the work session right now have a show of hands to have a dedicated data session

[01:20:21] or retreat for the school board to review and unpack sol data yeah is it a work session or a retreat well yeah right yeah right we're not having any other retreats no yeah work session just another time yeah work session i mean when we get to it and maybe a data work session what what would the timing of this be?

[01:20:49] - After the October 14th. - Yeah. - Well, we have to revisit this anyway. So why don't we just revisit it when we have all the data? 'Cause it's also a weird year. Usually it comes out at the same time. So we're doing this and we're kind of limping along and making this up as we go.

[01:21:05] - After the October 23rd, 'cause I think that has already taken all day. So after October 23rd, when will that be the beginning of November? - Do the 29th? 27th 28th 28th we have a meeting where you say something we're here on the 23rd anyway we're not going to be two of us are not going to be here oh yeah

[01:21:46] and i want to make sure lisa gets ample notice when we have you want to do it in as part of the mini retreat yeah many retreats in january yeah that's too far no i i would say in november early November. Can we throw out some dates? Do we have a work session already scheduled anyways in November? We do not. We have a lot going on in November. We have one school board meeting. Which is that? Yeah, the 5th of November. And then we've got joint meeting

[01:22:24] on the 6th. Do we have any news about hearing? Okay, can you, in the coming day, talk with?

[01:22:53] I mean, the data would come out. Oh, the 9th, 6th, 7th, 8th, yeah. We just wouldn't have it presented to us. Yeah, we should wait. Yeah, that's going to be presented to us on the meeting, right?

[01:23:12] meeting there's nothing god bless it there's nothing on my calendar for the 16th of what october which is what i like but if we yeah i can do i say it's not here on the 16th i'm not here i'm away from the 15th or 25th 25th and what about the 28th do we have a meeting on the 28th the 30th about november 6th after the legislative breakfast that would be at like 10 30 in the morning yeah you're able to take the whole day - Dr. Jones, are you here on the November 6th?

[01:23:48] - I am, yeah. Nobody has stripped. - It's for me. - There's an airport job there. - What are the hours? - 9:30 to 12:30. But our legislative breakfast is gonna be.

[01:24:04] - 8:30 to 10:30. - Well, can we do the one session of five on Monday? - Yeah, would that be a, do the five? - Or we can do it a one? - One, two, three? - Three is fine, five is fine.

[01:24:20] - The legislative breakfast is like the one we did before. - At the museum. - I mean, I'm gonna, it's easier and cheaper for me to only pay for one block of childcare. - Yeah, yeah. - So, if I am doing...

[01:24:36] - I mean, 12 o'clock is fine, 11:30, I would be fine, I could do it at 11:00. - Can we do it right after breakfast? - She needs to go to a job. - Airport job there for CTE.

[01:24:53] - It's a big deal with it, but not. - I know. - And Aviation Academy is... - We're missing Baldwin Intermediate's back to school night right now. - Okay, okay. Noon here, noon here. 10:30 is fine. And I can serve lunch. Yeah, I don't, I have to take the whole day. Noon here, serve lunch on 6.

[01:25:11] Does that work? We have stop time. Sure. Yeah. Yes, that'd be great. I would have to. Well, I mean, I just want to confirm if it's before school lets out. Okay. Because that's a huge deal for me. He said 12. I just said that breakfast is going to be at the meeting.

[01:25:31] Yeah, I can't. Typically, it's over around 10:30. So if we have that work session here at noon, then it gives us the time to get here and also, you know, I can find lunch. Yeah, I just can't take that whole day. So I need to go with one or the other. Which would you rip? You can't take the whole day?

[01:25:47] I can't take that whole day. No, I can do the, because we already have two days we're taking for, in November. Yeah. But I can do, I just won't be at the legislative breakfast. I went to the last one. Is it, do we all need to be there? We need to have forum.

[01:26:03] How about that Friday on the 7th? We'll stay later on Friday. That's a staff holiday. The Senate? No. No, ma'am. Jill and her holidays. And then again, you know, if we just do a work session on that day.

[01:26:21] On the 6th. On the 6th. And that way it can just take a half day. And or. I can do 1030. Or the 30th. Do we have, are we closed on the 30th? We have a joint meeting on the 4th. It's still before, November 6th is still before.

[01:26:40] - No, we're gonna get that in October, never mind. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the six at five, is that good for you, Dana? - No, I can do six at five. Can we do the six at five, or no, we can't do that. - Can we do 10:30?

[01:26:56] - I can do 10:30. - How long do you think it is? - It's hard for Dana, I don't want to, I don't want to cross spaceship to them, I'm sorry. - It's hard for you, I can do 5:00 p.m.

[01:27:12] - It's okay. - I can do 5:00 p.m. - You sure? - I mean, it's just money. Yeah, I mean, if that's okay, but if that doesn't work for you guys, I don't want to...

[01:27:31] It's hardship for everybody, I understand, so it's a big request, so I feel better. Is November 13th not a work session? Possibly hearing. Okay. I do not have that done. If we don't 13th...

[01:27:47] If you don't have hearing, so just schedule it now for a work session and not hearing. Okay, I can do that. And you get to go to the airport, you don't get to pay extra for childcare, and you get to go.

[01:28:04] Yes, thank you. And I can still go to the legislature. And hopefully there aren't some kids that we're delaying by not having payments. That would be tragic. So we'll have to reschedule a hearings date if we have any. Yeah. And the kids are approved.

[01:28:20] There is a Gov School meeting on November 13th to 7/8th. That's right. A meeting? i mean there's the gov school has a um let's just do november 6th oh you are supposed to go just do november 6th that's fine i'm gonna schedule a doctor's appointment that day Just be okay.

[01:28:46] Excuse me, can you just say what we're doing? No. Our meetings are noon. I'll get you, Dr. Smith. Thank you. We started at 5:00 early. We've got two hours. Two hours, okay. You know, we'll just do the meeting.

[01:29:02] Yeah. I'm sure we can do November 6th. It's okay, because it seems like everybody else works for everyone. It's okay. Where do we land, people? November 6th is fine. November 6th? I don't want her to have to rush.

[01:29:18] I don't like that. We're doing it at noon, though, right? You said noon. I'll make whatever work. Are we back Tuesday? Yeah, November 6th at noon. That's what we're doing. I have it in my calendar. It's ready to go. November 6th at noon.

[01:29:33] November 6th at noon. Okay. All right. The 6th at noon. This is what happened in my calendar. Rush. I hate being rushed. Yes, legislative breakfast. It's always been 30 minutes.

[01:29:49] Yeah, second. Great, yeah. We're at like 3:15 so I can pick up children. Okay, great. On this day. Yeah, November 6th. All right, moving ahead. Item 9, Student Outcomes Board Updates Calendar.

[01:30:08] Ms. Bresha. Great. So if you guys recall from our retreat, oh, wait, hold on. I see a second. What we're saying? The Student Outcome Updates Calendar. Does it have to do with Student Outcomes? Yes. What's that all?

[01:30:27] It is significant because we had decided that we wanted to focus more on student outcomes, get more presentations that had to do with student outcomes, but the presentations have not moved forward because apparently the clarification is required in terms of what we were asking for.

[01:30:44] So my ideal outcome is that we clear that up and we can start either following this calendar or discarding this calendar and bringing peace into the land. So, so what is our, so what officially is our feedback?

[01:31:03] Because I liked the, what I, what I recall from our retreat, what I recall saying was that I liked this, but what I wanted was a, you know, that also in September, we would include something like, you know, the SOL assessment data, like all of the scheduler.

[01:31:21] Bullying prevention. Right. You know, whatever, not just, because these are kind of new, you know, you guys, or went through all of the academic subjects and broke them up into different ways we could see them, which is good, but, and so I like this, but also wanted to see added to it what we were already doing.

[01:31:50] And I don't know if that's clear or not, or if people disagree with me and want something else, but I wanted to bring it back up for the discussion. - I do remember this, that we wanted to be proactive, and I do remember this discussion.

[01:32:11] There were specific things that some other members wanted. So I don't know if they've been captured here. Mrs. Stahl? I think it's a good start. I haven't really, I've been having to put together like my own idea of what the presentations were going to be just by rote memorization year after year.

[01:32:34] There's nothing on there that I see from the top of my head that I want to see, but I think we can add to this that happened here. But we do know. I agree with SOL, you know.

[01:32:52] Right. Like, you know, we know every September we get the SOL, you know, every October, we may not get, you know, accreditation signs. I don't know. In the winter, we get attendance, you know, mid-year attendance report, you know, whatever if the things that we get just kind of regularly get it added to.

[01:33:14] Can we open it up to the cabinet to see if they find any relevant information that we may have missed in here that they already are doing well we made that oh you made it that is that does not anything you are that was just what we could add or delete things if we wanted to we

[01:33:50] did get the the pd and the hr up in september right the update oh that was great so are we going to continue to build on this or what do you guys want what do you want sarah you brought it forward so what is your I want clarity I mean I want to receive these presentations like yeah I want to receive these presentations I think world language CT would be great updates to get in October literacy be

[01:34:30] great in January math be great in March and all like all of that just in terms of us from like a and maybe this is something and please it's not even here but I have been procrastinating our for development reconvening on the handbook So maybe we just leave this the way it is.

[01:34:47] You guys did a great job. Good job, Cabinet. Proceed with your presentations, and we ourselves will work on, because I think part of it was what new board members can expect the year to look like. And so we will develop on our end what new board members can expect the year to look like and add things like October goal setting and mid-year review to all that other kind of stuff.

[01:35:14] We'll move to two from September. I see a couple things that are missing. Like, I know we did a SPED data.

[01:35:29] We got SPED data from, I forget his last name, the one gentleman. Yes, Macyak. And we also got information from Mr. Emil, too. So, like, I think that should be added because they gave us presentation. Yeah.

[01:35:45] And I think that was, like, in May, wasn't it? No, this was just from we were having our board development meeting. mr jordan made this recommendation that we go for the big content areas not so much like the hr okay okay but we can do what we want mr jordan just makes recommendations so this isn't the whole calendar right it's not the whole calendar this is this is just

[01:36:22] the working documents academic uh but you didn't put it you didn't put in like uh So should we review this like each work session and see what you know I mean should we add it like in a working fashion or so part of this is we're kind of talking about two different

[01:37:00] documents of two different purposes right like you guys put this together like okay this is our academic content areas and this is a schedule that you guys are gonna see it and we as a board I think are thinking about maybe something separate which is when you come on you're elected to the school board congratulations this is what you're here is gonna look like you know you can expect your attendance updates here and here you can expect your HR updates here and here you can expect your we get access updates here and here and we can but we can do that I can't we just add it to this so it's like in a different colors another I mean we just we need our own box and and based on the

[01:37:39] student outcomes and priorities what does this match priorities of what we want because it's a lot of I remember from January sorry no I just remember that coming from January it was like informational dump and just lots and lots and lots of presentation without an anchor of purpose like why are we discussing this now what is the relevance of it now and what is it that we as a board need to act on and so I think

[01:38:13] when we first brought it if I'm not mistaken it was like the new people we just wanted to know how we can be more efficient with this and again overburden our staff to do all this information of them just like the principals not having to report to us for the sake of presenting but what is the purpose what is the ideal purpose because I can read a presentation so so do you want this to be important well I mean

[01:38:51] we can we can do it I mean I asked about the calendar and then they told me they didn't have clarity and so now we're all I just I just whatever it is I just I think we should look and see, are these topics we really want them to report to us on, or are these beneficial?

[01:39:12] That's probably the, maybe the board development could do that. Well, the generation of it was, you know, was Mr. Jordan, who's not here to defend himself. These are maybe things his board did? No, but it was, you know, a suggestion to us in our governance training that we try to send more of our time on how the kids are, you know, So now that's how the kids are, what the kids are capable of doing and covering each of our content and covering each of our content areas in the case of doing so.

[01:39:46] And, you know, if we don't see a value in it, then we don't, you know, then we don't and we save everybody a bunch of time. I see value in all those things. Yeah, I see value, but I just, I don't know.

[01:40:02] I think I need more details about the things that are on there because some of them are big. say like a seal of biliteracy fitness for yeah the industry credentials is that the cte industry like the okay so maybe having like a synopsis of what it actually is just to give us can we do this take time we'll take this back to cabinet give some descriptions bring it to the next work session

[01:40:35] and redo the months that things will be we still have to possibly schedule nine school weeks yeah right in the midst of those yeah so what and people who want and just so we have a preview of what the school how the schools are doing all right now I think it's a fight this way we support and that's why that's what I'm wondering

[01:41:12] should we keep some of the old things but I can see the benefit of the community because when they present to us this is a school board meetings right yeah then the community gets to see and is so I can see why the presentations can be relevant I just yeah I just remember thinking that there were a lot of presentations and not enough time for us to take action on things that I thought were relevant to governance I remember that discussion a little bit

[01:41:46] but you know again i was new and i'm still new and i just i want to focus on governance and there was a lot of time being consumed by all those presentations okay so we're going to come so i just want to clarify you have what you you are you feel okay all right i'm not going to talk to you next week and you're going to be like i don't know okay back in another work session board Development Committee is going to consider putting in the handbook or something.

[01:42:21] Okay, item J, special education updates and/or special education audit. Mrs. Brescia will lead a discussion regarding special education updates, special education audit. Okay, so following my fierce team graphic organizer here, yes, this has to do with student outcomes, specifically our special education student outcomes.

[01:42:40] It is significant because our special education student performance has lagged the state by double digits for quite a while now and I my ideal outcome is that we agree to I we agree that we either need a dedicated special ed presentation because this is not a problem personally that I understand very well and what's actually going on here and I did ask you know on September 9th you know what are we doing to address this there was a long list of things that were given but to me that bullet list that was given as an answer to a question you it deserves

[01:43:17] its own attention so that is one potential outcome the other potential outcome and this is something I have discussed you know with you and Mr. Rockefeller in the past if there are some kind of outside consultants that we might want to engage to look at our special ed department since we do seem to have spun our wheels on this for a little bit which is apparently something you guys have discussed amongst yourselves in the past so those are or we could do both of those things.

[01:43:49] So that is my idea I'd like to see. - You do it? - Both of you, I thought it was good.

[01:44:08] - That's an answer, good job. - When the number of special ed kids that we had wasn't really the same ratio as some of our surrounding jurisdictions. - We were the highest in the state. - Yeah, so I don't know if that's still the case or not, but if our caseload is much, much higher proportionally than other areas, that's still the case.

[01:44:33] Good to look at it, I mean because that was very I thought meaningful when I heard that, but I do not know, that's what I said but I haven't compared us to others. I'm sure you've looked at the numbers. I have no doubt about that. Okay, item K proposed business revision of the recess policy. Mrs. Brescia. Technically the wellness policy. Yes.

[01:45:02] so does so following our graphic organizer i would like us to consider a restructure maybe is the better term does this have to do with student outcomes honestly no but the reason why i think this is significant is this has come up every single year i've been on the school board and becomes a distraction to the other work that we do when it keeps coming up over and over again my concern is that our policy is not clear and so families do not have a clear way of understanding what our expectations are for what you are and are not allowed to do recess and

[01:45:40] specifically i'm talking about um you know either taking recess away or having kids run laps or walk laps at recess they are not supposed to do either of those things but it does and it has happened every single year that i've been on the board you know there's always some complaint that it is happening and when i go and i have you know just even as myself trying to look this up like okay where's recess where's recess where's recess well it's under wellness and wellness actually spends most of its time on nutrition and so i would like to my ideal outcome is that this is referred to

[01:46:20] policy and that we at least split it into two headers like one that is nutrition and one that is physical education and activity so that the expectations are outlined a little bit more clearly about what you are are not allowed to do at that recess time and it can be more accessible is your spell so this is a problem that's been decades long and when I was on health advisory board which is now called school yeah safe and healthy schools it was our directive to look at

[01:46:56] it and we did put out you know messaging that said you're not allowed to full recess I mean teachers with whole recess I'd be happy to you know look at making it a policy but these regulations though is this defined in regulation that's something we need to do well I agree it's not right right well that it is currently addressed in regulation but there's but it is a statute and therefore could be policy that you cannot assign a physical activity that that may cause physical discomfort on the statute said,

[01:47:35] which is what Walking Laps is here. There's an actual statute on that. - But you have to prove that it's cause-intensical. - And that, and it's statutorily that, you know, it's at least 20 minutes long and is unstructured, right? So it could be a policy if we want it to be 'cause it isn't the statute.

[01:47:54] Now I am totally open to other suggestions in terms of how we make this problem stop popping up every single year and every single decade, you know, apparently like if if this is not the solution it's not the solution then that's fine but it it does keep coming up so i think we need to be specific because i know even as a teacher if it's not specific you're gonna you're going to access it especially if you have a very challenging class and you feel that's the only way to be able to discipline your students and you're not getting support you know it is a tool it is something right so if we're not specific and we don't mention like lapse or we don't mention like a specific but it's not a legal tool it's not legal

[01:48:34] to yeah you know it violates a statute right what i'm saying though is i think if we're going to do it we need to put like in parentheses i.e lapse i right well you know what i mean like that's we should put that because otherwise if it's not in there and this comes down to you know well i didn't say that i couldn't do that it only said discomfort you know what i mean you you will get teachers that will walk around that.

[01:48:57] Right, well, and I think that walk around that, I see what she's wearing. Yeah. Like, laugh around it, maybe. Yeah. I am for, because I've been in two different districts that did this, Virginia Beach and Fairfax, where we did do a policy that states that recess may not be withheld for disciplinary measures.

[01:49:21] So that's good. but i am not for that regulation and that micromanagement because then with that that's for the superintendent to make sure that his principles are you know just going and applying the policy so um because the laps walking the laps that's an example but there are a thousand other examples and that's where we fall into the little slippery slope when we start saying this this and

[01:49:54] that um it teach teachers can kids can do i kids can do walks they and and i mean we this is a simple solution and i don't know if it's a big problem i know that you keep saying that you had reports but i mean it is as simple as pe or teachers or grade levels having buckets of manipulative you know and different things that they can do during the recess because you still have to keep it somehow structured and give the kids activities to do and walking in fairs kids like doing that and it it does I know what you're saying

[01:50:33] if a parent believes that but it could be just a simple redirection to that principle to that student is not I don't think it's a problem that's affecting all of our students I don't I sure spell yeah I just want to clarify I'm I am against withholding recess but I'm personally not again labs I think I do so I was in a VSBA like law session where they said specifically specifically assigning laps and recess is illegal in Virginia like and that's that's coming from Stacy Haney's law firm who said that well you need to put

[01:51:12] that in a regulation so I stand corrected and that is and that lots of that was what lots of teachers and they love a lot of teachers love walking labs this is the purpose would go to things like vsba so we sit in sessions and we learn something and bring it up so the idea that force and physical exertion that's what it says like you can really look at what they say like walking laps or running and doing push-ups those kinds of things can be viewed as corporal punishment but then the legal education of treatises in the

[01:51:47] court decision they had to consider where walking laps is strenuous physical activity so it's like the extreme not walking like in pairs like they can walk if the kids want to walk in laps but i mean anything that you demand like we were recessed but you didn't behave so now you get to walk in laps that is not acceptable but if it's punitive but i think we need to mention that because there will be teachers to use it and I mean I will say as a teacher it was done with it yeah and this is something we do have our own attorneys and we can get our you know Sarah goes to the VSBA and here's something thing like you know one of the

[01:52:26] outcomes is we could and you know we kind of do our a lot of school divisions have run their policies through their own attorneys anyway so maybe this is just the conclusion is we ask our you know we all agree to ask our attorneys you know our teachers allowed to assign laps at recess and then that answer goes to the policy committee for further I want to hear from Dr. Newman are the teachers assigning laps at recess of punitive is that a problem that is that has occurred in the schools and you know it like on a regular basis or what is it

[01:53:00] isolated incidents it's a pervasive one school has happened more than the others So we've had conversations with principals, principals, had conversations with staff since our last conversation.

[01:53:17] We had not received that concern since then, but it has happened in one school. I hope they will come.

[01:53:34] Okay. So we want to get our attorney's opinion on punitive lapse. Rewrite the policy and have the policy committee determine.

[01:53:51] So when we do get to a more finished product, if you want to have the Safe and Healthy Schools advisory review it, just for stakeholder input, because there's all kinds of medical and mental health professionals on that committee, along with parents and teachers and students too.

[01:54:21] Does that satisfy your? I'm satisfied. Great. All right. Next item is the town hall, where we'll discuss the town hall meeting held on September 11th including assistance provided. Any follow-up actions or observations from the event?

[01:54:37] We have all had our notes to read and reflect on. And the assistance provided, are we talking about the translators and staff input?

[01:54:55] I think it was the note takers. Any follow-up actions? We've already talked about grading policy. I think if we ever do another town hall, I don't think that you should be put in place a moderator typically when other electives are doing this there is a neutral moderator so that it doesn't occur where people want to get into a back-and-forth argument with any of us and so it's the moderator gets to look

[01:55:28] at the questions and then they get to redirect and time people that kind of thing and it leaves us to be in a neutral stance but we just respond any other notes I mean I do think that we've I think we micromanaged it a little much by like putting up a survey and putting out the topics and determining the breakout sessions ahead of time like I think next time we should open up the funnel and just be like at the town hall and come and what's on your mind and maybe we choose to do a moderator or not but it is because I think it kind of

[01:56:08] transformed you know it kind of transformed the event from you know around you people were showing up for their issues people were not showing up to discuss like a broad range of things with the that is generally school board so that would be my feedback for next so coming out of educational support what we agreed was that we would share the aggregated data on some of which you know wasn't accurate so it was shared by email because but you know we agreed I think this side of the table is educational support it shouldn't

[01:56:45] probably have been called the town hall but agreed it was you know it was executed and the expectations were clear people just you know kind of heard what they what they wanted there's also for people who made it be what they wanted it to be so you know maybe the format didn't work but there's also lots of discussion about how many people came out in general you know I mean I think that the consensus of the of the committee was that that's probably not

[01:57:16] the way that we're being successful in getting feedback because we did provide people multiple opportunities. I think that it was unfortunate that not a lot of staff members felt comfortable coming because it felt as though their bosses are there and so it's very hard when we have central office there to kind of be there if they want to share something so I think that was really tough on the the staff notion. But I think community-wide, of course, we had a football game that night,

[01:57:53] so that made it hard. But maybe we could think about doing, if we do call it a town hall, not doing the survey and just letting people have it at different locations at different times where people can come and share and let it be more like that so that way it's not generated to just topics. Because I think that made it more sour because it was generated towards topics where is it if it was just open to people sharing or asking questions that maybe it wouldn't have been as sour as it seemed I didn't think

[01:58:28] and then you could talk I didn't think that they use the Q&A I didn't think it was very effective I mean everything that was said that night could have been done at a school board meeting with a presentation and citizens comment public comment um so i would want to do that for me again mrs spall i mean i just think in terms of having teachers tell you that they you know didn't feel comfortable coming that's part of the reason we did the survey first i had lots of teachers at our table it was no they they had things they wanted to share and they didn't feel comfortable sharing because their bosses are there like central

[01:59:07] office is there and they were kind of scared to really be open and transparent that's that's what what I mean by that but if we're aggregating the data I mean they if it was a something that bubbled up I mean it would or it would have if we had numbers behind something that people wanted to say you know the top number was 20 20 people well no I mean during the Q&A like they wanted to share but they didn't feel because yeah there's more comments than it was Q&A this is pressure right so I mean they're just gonna be people who are just not comfortable coming to the microphone period and a story and especially at a

[01:59:44] publicly advertised event and public board meeting and my goodness the press was there and all this other kind of stuff like you know there's a lot of people who are just not gonna come and that's why you know we shouldn't in terms of gathering our stakeholder feedback put all of our eggs in a single basket you know town hall is one of the things we can we can do and town hall fits into the civic tradition of manassas city because the city council does them pretty regularly so you know i'm supportive of town hall formats because that is just manassa city residents are

[02:00:18] used to doing it and our other elected body does it i think we should do it too um but you know if for anybody who's expressing any kind of anything you know we should have other avenues that we're constantly exploring for them to be able to you know or you know to be able to share things and And if that's like dedicated surveys on specific issues or a suggestion box or a start-stop-continue survey that's not connected to an event is just aggregated and presented to us for our use of information.

[02:00:57] But I think there's going to be people who are just not going to come to a town hall ever. All right. Ms. Bren, did you have your hand up? um i'm gonna hold my comments chair because but i do want to reiterate so i know that we're being recorded and we've been watched i don't agree that teachers didn't come because they didn't feel comfortable i think um on the other side of that coin um our teachers and our community know that we have made ourselves available they email us regularly dr newman sends

[02:01:38] multiple responses during a week with all the issues and topics so i think that has a lot to do with it that we on a regular basis are available to our teachers to ask to answer any questions that they may have and i it might just be my perspective but we're pretty responsive of that um so i i want to you know just kind of um encourage people to continue to do that to continue to email us um we don't have office hours but perhaps that would change

[02:02:17] but we really do are responsive to our teachers and our community members i'm really involved most of you are out there in the community talking on a regular basis just like i am so i think that has that may be the reason why we didn't see a big big turnout like we wanted mrs ball and miss brown at your you were at the calendar table i was at the calendar table oh calendar table were there any follow-up things on that i think i mean no there were two teachers there and one parent who just wanted to observe but both teachers have served on the calendar

[02:02:57] committee okay how do the process but they were just concerned with the early start and the late finish I think were the main things and just some of the holidays but I think they really want to end in May instead of ending in June yeah and that isn't anything we haven't seen on the calendar survey so the next time around we'll reassess communications we had one parent and one parent who was also a staff member who I think might have been our notetaker too I'm not sure didn't really get that much in the the parent said that they they felt like the

[02:03:36] event was well publicized you know and they knew what the expectations were there was a lot of discussion that evolved or devolved into just talking about why why why do people on social media you know just want to you know eat our own like nobody understands why people can't mind you know the positive thing but and and then the one staff member said that they didn't really have social media so they didn't understand that there was really a big problem you know there was plenty of staff there lots of people to answer questions we did

[02:04:16] have two teachers come over and you know and kind of observe but they I mean the recollection is that they felt like you know social media was a problem also but But, you know, all in all, the one parent had positive things to say.

[02:04:34] Great. I know, Ms. Miles, we're going to be talking about your table a little bit later tonight. So, anything left unsaid about Town Hall? We had to be unsaid. Okay. Next item is update on CREP, the culturally responsive educational practices.

[02:04:52] And I'll go to Ms. Miles. Yes. So, I'm currently on the subcommittee of the CREP. the CREP and so far they have had five meetings. They are planning an event in the Spring Women's History Celebration and Career Fair and this fall they are hosting, we're hosting and advertising a shoe and sock drive and each, I have some information about that. Each school will have a drop-off location and the community, students and families can drop off gently, use adult-sized sneakers and boots as well as new socks and these donations will supplement what boxes of basics

[02:05:32] cannot provide admin administrators in each building have been sent the information which they created a flyer and this information here is kind of old because i had had um only one meeting so i kind of updated it with my notes but that's from our first meeting um but we have a flyer They're already out, and the donations will be collected between October 6th and the 24th, and we're collaborating with each school's family liaison to provide all the materials and information to make the collection process simple and successful.

[02:06:11] And they have asked the administrators to post at school or online the flyer that we gave, and the family liaisons are in charge of finding a large box to collect the donations and have been told to keep the donation box near their school's front entrance.

[02:06:28] And we will be picking up the donations October 27th and 28th, and we created a sign-up genius for participants to sign up by indicating the size, gender, and place to indicate where they're dropping it off. And there's going to be an online inventory, which is really cool, so that way if a teacher or anyone says, "Oh, these students need shoes," they can go on that inventory, the family liaisons, and can see exactly which school has the shoes and the size, which I thought was really nice.

[02:07:00] And it's going to be called Walk the Talk Shoe Drive Inventory. Yeah, so I thought that was really nice. And as far as the Women's History Celebration and Career Fair, we're going to have more information about that, but we are kind of deciding how the Career Fair is going to go.

[02:07:16] So if you have any local businesses that you have partnerships with or you know really well we're trying to get um some of them to participate in that career fair um maybe even women-owned businesses would be awesome too i think but i can give you more information at the next you know when we have another meeting about that do anyone have any questions can we bring the donations to you in the next meeting sure that's fine yep you can do that oh this is i was going to say this is a perfect thing to include in your school board member comments don't sit

[02:07:51] on a report like this I mean you just include it in your comments because it is a committee that you're assigned to and this is good information to get out yeah any other questions all right we will move along yes I can send you the flyer as well so you guys can have the flyer yep um okay next is teacher data analysis miss miles will lead a discussion on reviewing teacher data So my topic or priority is I like to discuss is requesting a data collection on the amount of

[02:08:28] teachers we have in each school. And when I say amount of teachers, just I know we have participant teachers. We have I teach teachers. We have tenured teachers have been here for 10, you know, 10, 20 plus years. And then we have some teachers who are new. So I know that and that sometimes people look at the numbers in each school and that they may have an impact on our performance of our students or the SOL data result. And I know that's come up a few times and it's been told that to me that based on the experience of a teacher or the amount of experience that the

[02:09:07] teachers have in that school, that that may contribute to our scores, whether they're great or whether they need improvement. And so I would like to get information to understand each school and what may have contributed to that success so that we can kind of debunk to me in that narrative that based on the amount of experience or non-experience in a school determines the SOL scores.

[02:09:36] So I'm asking if we could. and if that data is something that we don't want to you know share with the public I don't know how that how that works if that's being a closed session because you don't want to share that I don't know but I just think that it would be great for us especially when we're looking at data to kind of exit off or say oh maybe that is a reason I don't know so but I can't you can't make those determinations if you don't know that information is what I mean so my outcome is just

[02:10:16] get the information to understand each school and what may have contributed to their success or lack of success. And you want to identify it as participate teachers, I teach teachers, seasoned teachers, and new teachers? Right. So just to show like, and obviously no names included, just showing the data of in each school, you know, the amount that we have. I know that the rhetoric that I've heard is that, oh, well, maybe the reason why that school didn't perform that way is because they have a lot of inexperienced teachers or maybe they have more of this so just just to

[02:10:52] kind of put that at rest um and maybe that's something that we are shown at the next work session we'll really talk about the data that could be something to um as a as a piece that we can kind of examine when we're thinking about next steps comments or questions um dr newman is this something that you guys look at regularly yes i mean you know we know we know i know that

[02:11:27] you've said an I statement is that you know that there's definitely a correlation between people that use collaborative learning team when I see new teachers come you know they're fresh out of school they've got new ideas I mean I don't know that it seems like it could be a little bit arbitrary about you know planning outcomes just on tenure but it's very disturbing that

[02:12:03] that conversation is being had that our participate teachers and our I teach teachers are a reason what scores look like yeah I mean that's not even really what I took from that but if that's what I mean I agree you know what I've heard about participate teachers is that they're I don't know I mean we want more so I I don't know about that I mean I'm not trying to draw a conclusion I'm just trying to say are you guys watching it I mean because it's not our role too I don't I don't know that it is our goal there are you know it's opinion base right there are

[02:12:43] definitely more tenured teachers that aren't willing to adapt to what our you know our methodology is right now and there are new teachers that would accept that is that correct I don't think anyone should speak in that way because there are veteran teachers that have go deep into the CLT process I don't want say there's a new teacher problem there's a veteran teacher problem you just need to look at the the art of teaching and learning and how we can improve that the the finger pointing is ridiculous it's very sad disappointed at

[02:13:23] that conversation Dr. Jones I think all the teachers work hard and some scores are better than others and some scores are better I mean you could be a teacher and have great schools one year and get a different group of students have different schools the next year and it's not that you're a bad teacher but I to me we have principals in the building for a reason and the principals work hard with teachers who need assistance their co-workers work hard with them there's a good fellow Dr. Newman work hard with them there are many people in

[02:14:00] place to help any teachers who's having struggling with test scores but I think that's like that's a principal's responsibility I don't think that's responsibility of the school board to say oh you this school has this many teachers and this is why their scores are low I don't think that's the school board's responsibility I think we support the teachers and we support what they need and Dr. Newman will let us know what that is but I don't think we should I don't think we need a list of what's what teachers are at every school and start pointing fingers and this is why that's happening I don't think we need that and we have people would think we're not their supervisors and I don't

[02:14:37] think that's information we need. I think we should offer support where we can give support and do what we can do for the teachers and the students, but I don't think that's information we need. I will say turnover rates, you know, at schools might be higher than others, and we know this, and that does affect schools, I mean, and does affect student outcome. I know if you have the same teacher over and over again that is excelling, and you see them every year, you build those relationships especially in the higher grades so that does affect student

[02:15:14] outcome I mean that we all know this and so I don't think that it's harmful to know I think it's just a bit of information to help us understand our schools better to understand the make of the school even like we get information about principals who get hired you know just so that we know who they are and um you know who has been hired so i feel like it's not a harmful thing to do but

[02:15:47] i think the request in itself uh was not harmful however the attachment to the the premise that some people have said that this equals that that because some schools have this number of teachers or because there's veterans versus inexperienced or all of those pieces.

[02:16:11] That's a slippery slope that we just are not at liberty of taking because after we're through reviewing that, then it's going to be the next level. So it's because the number of students that look like this in that school and in that other school, and then so we will never get to the bottom of it.

[02:16:30] think we need to focus again on figuring out our own reflection of that data. What does that mean to us? How can we be supportive of the superintendent and making sure that we do have budget, make budget decisions to ensure that we hire competent people and are able to retain them so that they can continue to do the work like the people who are currently in this cabinet who are really working hard to improve teaching and learning and actually i'm going to get on this sub box we all need to support principals and assistant principals so that they can be

[02:17:09] instructional leaders so that they can go and deliver outcomes for us we need to ensure how we're going to lighten their plates so that they make that instructional leadership a priority because they need to be working with our teachers um even if we got the information and even if we can form you know opinions for one way or another what then we still have to go to what can we do with those principals and assistant principals who are they are supporting and those coaches that we're training to work with our teachers that that that that's our focus i think

[02:17:44] so data is great and i don't want you to feel bad about asking for that it's just that the premise It can lead to a lot of ill-formed opinions and can move that continuous story that we are less than because slippery slope, slippery slope, whatever you can fill in a blank.

[02:18:09] Can I have a show of hands on the school board receiving and reviewing teacher data as defined? Thank you.

[02:18:25] Next item, community input on school start times. Ms. Mile. So when I was at the town hall, there were a few community members who issued concerns about the start times at the high school and the fact that it could be a contributing factor to tardies and absences.

[02:18:44] And the other fact was that the schools have switched at times in the past, which also can affect student attendance and achievement. And so would we consider looking at the times and see where we could decrease the start time in the elementary school, that they have leader start times and shorten the time in the high school to be more aligned with the intermediate schools or other high school times in the area, which is 715 to 725. My ideal outcome would be a conversation about end and start times, maybe some options that we can offer the community or a policy that allows us to review

[02:19:24] the start times every five or 10 years, which that way it's not, it's something that's already policy they know this is what we will review it and reviewing doesn't mean we change it it's just we review it to see if it's something that we as a board feel needs to be changed or adjusted i thought during that town hall meeting we had a significant presentation on that and how much it will cost to it wasn't the same topic though it wasn't about um having them aligned it was about

[02:20:01] having switched or earlier start times for high school so instead of having later earlier ones and then so it was switching elementary and high school so So just a little bit of history, that's my recollection, doesn't make it so, but I thought

[02:20:37] we did a lot of analysis on when we changed our high school start time to make it later on why it was most beneficial for our kids, and it had a lot to do with how many kids or watching a member of a kid get on the bus, what have you.

[02:20:58] That's just to orient everybody about what was done when the change happened because it used to be a different start time. The other thing is that it was the will of the board just one or two years ago, I think, to let teachers move rather than have families changing back and forth within five-year time spans so I mean I don't know that you know that was necessarily my favorite outcome but it was that it was the will of the board to

[02:21:38] make to let to let those changes happen on the staff side not on the family side so I mean I personally would support reviewing it every so often I mean I don't think that hurt anything but I what what it does hurt is continually promising staff that we might change it and when yeah you know there wasn't really a will of the board to change it so I mean that's that's the only harm I can see in it I don't personally have a problem with it you

[02:22:11] know but when we do our facility study there's an opportunity where we might look at you know even redistricting I mean there's a lot of things that could come down the pike that you know might necessitate just refiguring a lot of things but I think that you are giving people hope and then dashing that hope if there really isn't an intention to make a change and that that was frustrating for a lot of people you know so sticking with that's the wisdom of the passport how much of a problem is it in the community I mean dr. Newman are

[02:22:48] you hearing a lot of complaints from the community that this is a prevalent issue yeah well they they heard that but then the community members were mentioning the fact that the two were the two that were late yeah changing it to the high school time like swapping it with them so that so that way there's

[02:23:25] There's no bus issue, but then that's too late, obviously. It's too late. So then the other thought was to switch the intermediate schedule, which is super, you know, a little earlier. What? With the high school? Yeah, with the high school, so that they have the earlier time, and then give that 8:30 slot to elementary school, so they're a little bit more aligned with the other elementary schools.

[02:23:50] I just want to make sure that whatever we consider, because we are impacting. know we that town hall it was 18 people maybe I count it and and I think I included some staff members in there this is families impacted so yeah we we should not be thinking about a change based on one or two people's view of course and and the thought was okay so I guess the Osborne would be so they

[02:24:25] they would switch that and then this would switch with that so that way this right here would be on the earlier time would take 845 so they would get a little bit later that way you don't have to because the money obviously no one wants to spend that much money on 27 buses it's just kind of swapping them but I agree that once we if we were to change it it needs to not changed for like years. That's huge. It's a big deal. Yeah, it's a lot and I know even as-

[02:25:00] Everything will have to be changed in school. Yeah. So I, and obviously it can't be easier anyway. And we have nine school presentations. Right. Oh my goodness. But no, I agree with Ms. Brown about seeing if, and that's what I was saying, you know how we do the calendar, we give options, seeing if there's even, you know, put the option of what we have and see everybody chooses that and then put a second option and if we you know and base it on the option and then that way we actually got community input and it's not something that we just said you have to do this you know but if it's a

[02:25:35] problem if it is a problem because just one person affecting the rest of the two schools you're affecting two schools yeah yeah is it a problem Well, that's why I was saying like if you gave an option, it would be more of give the option of what we have, you know, I think you have to see if people even care about that.

[02:26:03] Right. Because you only had one person at your table. There's a few, there was a few people that were talking about it. Okay. Saris had her hand up. Sorry. Sorry. I mean, I think that if this was a problem, we would, I mean, half of everybody here just finished knocking doors.

[02:26:20] You know what I mean? if this was a really big problem you would hear it over and over again second of all it is a big you know one does not merely one does not merely walk into Mordor one does not merely you change your start times like it's a pretty complicated undertaking so I think that yeah I'm always open to you if it does if it does turn out like if I do start to hear more I'm gonna start knocking doors myself before but you know before time too much time passes but you know definitely it's like not a never kind of thing but I would like to see this year

[02:26:57] focus on you know our academics and our attendance and things like that and I don't think and if I thought and if we had evidence that this was impacting our attendance I think we would see that we think we would know that already because at one point adjustment was made to support attendance because elementary students weren't getting on the bus they need their earlier high school siblings to do it and speaking from personal experience there are a lot of of high school you know between being a Baldwin parent there are a lot of high school students that come over and get their younger siblings and so it that

[02:27:34] makes a perfectly intuitive sense to me so I'm it's not an everything it's also for the city I think it's a real rite of passage once you've made it through the Baldwin and intermediate intermediate like years and then you get to build back to METS and then like I mean if you took that from my school I would have been livid absolutely livid so is there an appetite to revisit these times okay thank you for

[02:28:07] bringing it up Ms. Miles it'll be there until it needs to be addressed item P update on meet and confer I just I know that we got the email about meeting confer and more information could you use your yes I'm sorry so I I wanted an update on the meet and convert process. Who will be the players at the table? And are we still planning on inviting MEA and the VP to the table to represent the union? Are we also planning on

[02:28:45] inviting members of the community, such as PTO or PTA president, or is this solely for staff? So it was just, and I think that a lot of those questions were answered, but. Is this topic for priority focused on student outcomes? Yes, because it's important for us to know who serves our students each day and to understand what needs they have so they can serve them best.

[02:29:17] I just had the questions of how will we be informed of what is discussed and will we be given notes after each meeting or be informed at the end of the four meetings? Each meeting. and will we have a time to discuss it like our data just maybe a quick discussion or will that be separate from our work sessions? The idea is that these notes support the budget process, right? And the set of recommendations that come out if we confer we are receiving before our part of the budget process begins.

[02:29:55] So it's about budget? I thought it was more about staff concern. Yeah I mean it's about everything but like we set the budget they set things like you know who gets assigned the bus pickup line or whatever you know the the other workplace conditions because not everything in workplace conditions is under our purview okay so there are some things that we won't be given information about are we going to just get the wrong notes okay and also then are we planning on inviting every like who is going to be invited besides the staff to the table

[02:30:33] okay so no PTO or anything okay sorry thanks yeah I just when I read this I thought we were getting an update I'm eating confer so I am looking forward to hearing how the first one went but I mean I was leaving the house up to you guys but I I'm glad to see you know information just came out today it looks like oh godspeed everyone did that address all your questions yes all right

[02:31:10] item P you made it to Q yes so I've contacted everyone and independently there is an opportunity on BSBA possibly an opportunity to serve as vice chair of our region so everyone did including Lisa said that they were amendment amenable to the idea so it'll just go on consent agenda and then the application will go in and the main job just to repeat for everyone is you know

[02:31:42] just a tip I guess acting in the president of the chairs said you know help help with the regional meeting once a year and then the main thing is to organize an art show and find people who will be judges for that for said art so congratulations well there's no congratulations yet but thank you all for in November I think you vote November at the conference all right

[02:32:20] there being yes ma'am it is do we have a second I I have a motion by Mrs. Brescia, seconded by Vice Chair Spall, that the school board meeting adjourn.

[02:32:38] All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Thanks, everybody.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com