Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Work Session - November 6, 2025

Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 1h 45m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh-xtAF-fsg

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] I move that the school board certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business that is lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened or heard, discussed or considered.

[00:00:21] Second. I have a motion by Vice Chair Spall, seconded by Mrs. Brescia that the school board certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard discussed or considered is there any discussion all in favor any opposed the motion carries six zero I move that the school board of the city of Manassas accepts the resignation of PERS 2526-0220 from Osborne High School for good cause and

[00:01:00] without prejudice. Effective November 7, 2025. Second. I have a motion by Vice Chair Spall, seconded by Mrs. Brescia, that the school board of the City of Manassas accepts the resignation of PERS 2526-0220 from Osborne High School for good cause and without prejudice. Effective November 7th, 2025. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 6-0.

[00:01:29] We will now take a 10-minute recess. First thing we have is revision of the recess policy.

[00:13:05] So it was, we saw also what the attorney gave back to us in terms of the number of places that recess is discussed in the MCPS policy book. And so after talking about it with Dr. Newman and Mr. but I can't do this on my own obviously I have to bring it to everybody the idea and the recommendation is that we have our attorneys write a recess policy and consolidate these different regulations regarding how it's supposed to be run underneath that recess policy including somewhere along the lines preferably in the policy part itself that no you know that Virginia statute does not allow kids

[00:13:44] be assigned laps during recess or any similar kind of yeah ma'am I think the pushback about all this and I don't know if it has to be legal or if it's our health safety healthy schools but the request for the teachers is what is acceptable right instead of that what do we do what's acceptable is teacher

[00:14:16] consequences you just can't do it recess is protected so and because and to the benefit of the doubt of anybody how this has gotten kind of mixed up along the way there is no one place you can go look that is what is the recess policy it as a new public school so i think we should write one i think we should make it clear and consolidate the piece the regulations where it's mentioned and put it under the path make a

[00:14:55] regulation in favor yes fall did you have something to say no i'm in favor and you're in favor yeah i just i just wanted to know that i don't see any place in the school building where behavior can be excluded or um separately from our code of conduct a code of conduct is across the board in every space so um and i'm a little bit confused as to why there is um issues in regards to that because

[00:15:29] if there are behaviors then there are guidelines for behaviors to be addressed um but taking it on your own and punishing kids on your own during recess is going against our policy unfortunately

[00:15:45] new statute. Yeah, so we're all on board. Great. Did that satisfy? Satisfied. Okay. Next is student outcomes board updates calendar. So this was, I put this on originally. We talked about it a little bit. This is now the revised version coming back in terms of what we're going to get through the school year on our updates. I think it looks great, honestly, but if anyone else has any other thoughts, happy to entertain that as well.

[00:16:22] Just to remind everybody, the genesis for this came out of BSBA, wanting to talk more about student outcomes, and so it has been iterating through that. We might decide that we don't want to do this at all and that the discussion is fair to have, but I like this.

[00:16:40] I'm happy about it and would accept it if everybody else. That's good to me. November and December, so. Because we only have that one meeting, right? Is that why? Anybody else?

[00:16:58] All right. Moving along. That's a well-dated discussion. Ms. Diana Brown would like to bring the assignment forward for additional discussion focused on reviewing and analyzing further data. I wasn't aware there was going to be more discussion.

[00:17:14] I thought we were going to have the data talk. I thought that was the reason why we met today, the main reason why we met today, to have the data talk with each other. If people still want to discuss it, I'm open to that. Yeah, I thought we were going to look at the data and talk about it.

[00:17:36] We lived on September 9th, right? The agreement that we made at the last working session was that we were going to have data talks, and I went out of my way to even put in a tentative draft of an outline that any of our cabinet staff could help us with the lead on that, but again, I'm open to discussion if anyone else wants to discuss it.

[00:18:06] I just, for the record, I just want to know that anybody, any government body should be invest in having data talks, not just data being presented to them, but really, I think that hearing each other's perspective on what we are processing and how we are processing can add to our own understanding.

[00:18:28] So that was the basis. But I'm one of seven, so if the board wants to continue to discuss it, I'm open to that. And if the board wants to drop it, I'm open to that as well. I'll do my data talks with the cabinet and with Dr. Newman. I've never done a data talk, so whatever you've got in mind, I'm happy to participate in.

[00:18:49] Like, I don't know what I'm, I don't know, I don't know. You can't do it all the time at work. It's a bread and butter. But I did send an agenda. I'm not sure if it wasn't shared, but I did send an agenda up. I know, I'm trying to find that email.

[00:19:06] I can share that. Can you share it again? Thank you. And it was a draft agenda. I mean, I'm sure that if we wanted to do it, the cabinet can probably polish it even more. It was just something that I did very quickly just to give you an idea what it will look like. But again, my understanding on the last working session was that we had agreed upon, and I did review the session that we had agreed that we were going to do it, and that was the main reason why we were having this meeting today.

[00:19:35] Items were added to this meeting, but the bulk of the agreement was that that was going to be the meat and potatoes of this meeting today. I honestly think in everyone else's defense. No defense. No. No, because like Sarah mentioned, they've never done this before.

[00:19:53] So for us, we do data talks after all our SOLs. So this is normal for us to do this and abnormal not to talk about data amongst the group as opposed to talking about it when it's presented. You get it presented, then you come back to the table and you look at it to form goals and to press forward.

[00:20:13] That's usually what we do. I'm just so confused because on September 9th, I asked a whole bunch of questions and took a whole bunch of minutes. the appropriate time for the discussion so I so this is a very brand new format for me and so I walked into this being like okay well the you know that this was your idea your item that you would be leaving a talk and now I'm hearing that that there's a kid that there's a cabinet element and I don't like this is not landing with me I'm happy to participate I brought my notes back right I'm happy to participate but I don't know everyone's kind of looking at each other not knowing where to start I'm happy to start if someone starts it do

[00:20:52] want to start Diana did you find the we had requested I just wanted to make sure that we just had this conversation for insight and share understanding and it was to help the borderline their collective a share understanding of what the data shows why it matters and I didn't say that we can base this or anchor this on the presentation that Dr. Casada gave us so I think that was

[00:21:30] shared I thought it was shared with the whole board to have us guidance but it may have been miscommunication if you guys were not included I just said everybody was so before so are we going to do it or are we going to discuss it I just want to be clear all right so for the framing so this data conversation is about understanding where students are thriving and perhaps if there needs to

[00:22:09] be a focus then we could look into that collectively so that way we can speak the same language or have a similar message a collective message sometimes this data can be used to inform future priorities but this is not a talk to evaluate specific schools or the superintendent or specific teachers or content levels it's pretty much for share understanding and then of course I wanted to make sure that before we begin the conversation that there's an understanding that there's a difference between getting a report and

[00:22:48] interpreting our report when we interpret reports that includes a little bit more as in analyzing drawing conclusions together as groups or small groups sometimes it helps us identify patterns and then it helps us come back to the table later on to even the smaller decisions being informed and anchored on data because now we are sharing and similar understanding

[00:23:22] and I gave some examples it could be something as simple as why attendance drop in a certain month that would be an example once we know that it's not enough to know that say in March attendance went down but perhaps we can look at some of the factors that influence that and so the purpose for today for this data talk was to understand and evaluate and if there are areas in which we can act then or we can anchor ourselves then that would be another point as well and just to preface

[00:24:01] everything here is the data talks are typically to again understand and it's not we don't need to defend anything because data is data so we don't need to be defensive of anything so if we can agree on that we're not accusing or attacking or you know again this is just for understanding so any questions about that purpose okay all right so I had proposed that we spend about 15 to 20 minutes doing an overview of the data

[00:24:37] with a deeper dive lens and I would I did request if we can have a cabinet member do that but maybe that went off and that request didn't get through but we could actually just review it in small groups the groups are to review Dr. Casada's PowerPoint and then break into the same two groups and just talk about what do we see and and then I asked some questions in there but you guys can ask some more questions you can add some more questions under three

[00:25:12] that if we break in groups of two that may that you may think are important so number one will be to review the presentation and then in the groups of two because we want it to be a little bit more intimate to go ahead and look at for example what patterns of changes stand out most where these are just guiding questions you don't have to answer all of them but where are we closing any gaps and where do we remain why and then talk about what conditions and supports might be contributing to a strongest area and what might we need to learn more about

[00:25:53] deciding anything if anything so those are just some guiding questions but we can add more guiding questions or in your small groups you can add more questions yourself that once you look at the data may come up and you guys can talk to each other and then we can come back as a whole group So 15 to 15 minutes should be more than enough to do that, the review, and to look at some guiding questions.

[00:26:21] I just, since you've done it and Dana's done it before, do you think we could break into groups of three, two groups of three? Sure. Sure. Dr. Jones has done it as well. I haven't been tired. This is all. And Dr. Newman is here, too.

[00:26:38] So we could do a group of two then, Dr. Jones. Okay. - Unless Dr. Newman would like to be excluded from it. - Two groups of three. - Groups of three, all right, okay.

[00:26:53] - So two groups. So then is one group gonna do reading, the group do math? - We'll just look at the data. We'll look at this. Step one is look at the presentation together. And then step two is going through the guiding questions.

[00:27:10] And again, if you come up with other questions once you look at the data together that you may want to ponder. So 15 minutes should be more than enough for us to do that in groups of three. But if you end up needing more time, you can adapt.

[00:27:26] But we need to make sure we don't take more time than allotted that share. It was September 9th, right? Yeah, it's in our board document. Is it? I'm sure it is. Okay. Thank you. All right.

[00:27:45] So we'll do one, two, three, and then we'll do a modified version of four. Okay. So one, two, three, look at the data together, and then go through some guiding questions and then we'll come reconvene and share with each other who's going with dr newman or who's going dana you want to leave one group oh yeah that's fine i think dr newman his staff has already done the the data dive that's what i wanted to say i'm

[00:28:23] interested in seeing what happens with this but i don't know if i'm really that interested because staff already does this is what this is what they do yeah i'm fine with the report from them about where we are and where we're going and I have just a clarifying question and I don't know how this really if it does or doesn't pertain but dr. Newman just mentioned that miss Williams finalizing her own individual school goals is that

[00:28:55] something that we could be made privy to I mean is that is that gonna get us in the end where you're trying to go where I'm trying to go if you can pull down First and foremost I don't want to force this on anybody I again my apologies because I thought we had agreed upon doing this but I am open to dropping it because I really do not want you chair to feel like you need to go through this

[00:29:35] process the whole point of this is for us to align our own understanding they spend a lot of time aligning their own understanding they went through that process together but we haven't gone through that process and I really do believe the importance of aligning our own understanding but I'm one of seven so I don't want to force this on anybody oh what I was gonna say is if we could put the PowerPoint presentation up and maybe we can walk you through the way that we do a data talk and then you'll understand why we do it this way it's

[00:30:10] It's just like when you get data, even as a teacher, you look at your data, you try to figure out, okay, you know, what should I have done here? What should I have done there? So it's more of like that for us to kind of go through it with a comb, not to ask questions to the staff, but for us to evaluate, you know, how our schools did.

[00:30:30] That's really what it is. Another clarifying question, though, is this something that you then share with your school board? So, no, we don't share it with the school board. I'm talking about this is what we would always do. I'm just trying to distinguish.

[00:30:45] No, no, no. What I'm saying is that Ms. Brown is wanting to do this as a group because it's different from when they present you information, you ask the questions if you're unsure about something, and not all of us ask questions because we may not be unsure about things. But this is a different thing where we're actually talking among us about what do we notice, what do we wonder.

[00:31:06] So it's kind of like that. And then we kind of say, oh, well, I noticed this, I wondered that. And it's more of us being able to talk in a more casual atmosphere as opposed to where someone's at the lectern and we're asking them questions, which is very different from this talk.

[00:31:22] It is different, but does that not supersede then? Maybe we should do like one and just then we'll understand. That's what I'm thinking we should demonstrate what a data talk is, because I think that there's some confusion as to what it is. Yeah, I think it's just making you as an individual, us as a group, just dig in a little bit deeper.

[00:31:42] What do you, like, you were given a presentation and say, say if I was a principal, I'd present this to my staff, but then I'm also going to ask them, I want you to go back and look at it also. Because to me, you have to keep looking at it to know where you need to go. So just give it another set of eyes on it and just kind of looking to evaluate where we're good, where we're bad, what changes we may need.

[00:32:02] So it's just, I mean, this is a way to continuously look at the data. And we are a collective, unfortunately, and unfortunately, we are a collective. So I know maybe Risha has mentioned that she asked a lot of questions.

[00:32:19] She looked into it. She had a very detailed review of the data, and she has a very strong understanding. But that's not enough for the collective. So is everyone at the same level where she is? Or because she has taken a deeper dive, is there a perspective that she can share with the collective here that will improve our own understanding?

[00:32:43] So it's kind of adding value based on your own understanding of it. And so coming together is really important because as we go out there in the community, we have one story to tell. And is our story really anchored on a very strong understanding of the data?

[00:33:02] Or is it just on one presentation that we received in our own, a very own interpretation of that? So hearing from your fellow board members will just add a lot more value to that understanding.

[00:33:19] And that was the basis of me wanting to engage us in this conversation. so but we can we can drop it because again I don't want chair to fill up collective here is not just me okay let's maybe we if we do let's just my second question is is this then always going to be so that so in your view we would still get the report that we get and then we would still take a work

[00:33:56] session like this is a value-added opportunity for every year I mean I do and I really feel like there are big pieces like this that may lend themselves to the same process but I think that SOL scores or outcomes at the end of the year is one of those big pieces that the collective added value may be beneficial for all of us and honestly and surely like anytime they present something to us when we're on the lecture like it's so different than us sitting around and

[00:34:32] discussing it it just is um because we can kind of go back and forth like what do you guys think what do you guys think usually typically when they're presenting we're asking them questions we're not asking each other questions we're not sharing so that I feel like that's also the thing where we're doing now we can kind of look oh you know this is what I thought you know I'm just trying to make sure we're not overstepping our boundaries as you know school board because the the information has been sliced and diced already i mean so we just we want to make sure we walk the

[00:35:03] right line that we're not you know recreating a situation that is a staff level exercise but i'm more than willing to go through it you know at least this time and let's see i mean let's see what really comes out of it but if you know if these guys are already done their school um analysis yeah by professionals not you know I mean at what point are we going to say oh no you have to pump the brakes on all that because we think this you know I mean I just don't want to go I'm I'm I'm 100% fine with a story and I'm 100% fine with us all being on the same page

[00:35:41] that's a no-brainer how do we get there I you know again I've told I've confessed many times if I knew better I would have done better so I'm more than happy to try something but I do want to make sure that, you know, if we decide to course correct something today, what does that really mean? We're not deciding on course correcting anything. We are just talking to each other about what we're seeing. Okay. For example, if Sarah's in my group, she has shared with me that she has a deeper understanding in all of this. I'm hoping that I will gain something from her

[00:36:19] insight and so and then for us to share together so we're not making any decisions on this this is just an opportunity for us to calibrate together about something as important as a student's performance I mean this is student outcomes you can have a show of hands to move forward with the data discussion all right we'll move forward so we're going to look at the PowerPoint and then we're going to go through the guiding questions under three if there

[00:36:53] a bit of questions that your group comes up with then by all means add them these are just guiding questions and I don't know if that's I don't know if they want to participate or not but perfect perfect perfect all right all right so Dana you want a group and sure so are we gonna sit in new spots and then go over this slide again as a six or are we gonna just jump into our groups

[00:37:31] you're gonna go with your group review the PowerPoint together and then go through the guidance questions number four number two and three over two and three yes and then we'll come back together and share yeah and then if time allows it and we'll do a modify four which is it one more piece but we'll go to two and three and see how that goes okay so who's got the data oh you got the data ready and you have the questions oh I made space for you oh did

[00:38:05] you go there you could use my laptop if you want the question Alba could you put the questions on the board yeah I guess we're going to be looking at the data Okay, so on slide 7.

[00:38:44] Does she send that via email? It's in your report. Jill, will you document notes of what two wonders? So who was going to... What was it? Our wonders? Yeah, what patterns or changes stood out most to us?

[00:39:02] Okay. And changes. So I said we, the first order of business is for us to take just a few minutes each slide and with the guided questions like what patterns or changes stand out most to you and maybe where are we closing gaps unless you want to come up with a different question yeah do you like those questions from elementary so what patterns or changes

[00:39:40] But yet in grade six, there was a transition, I think it was though, you know, during grade eight.

[00:40:00] I have a question. Yes. So does that have to do with the transition in each of those grades to last year? What would you get out of that?

[00:40:23] When you look, it's on slide 17. If you look how the cohorts move, like you can see the high action. I don't think that's not how kids go.

[00:40:39] Even the 6th graders undershot what they're... Are we allowed to bring staff members in to answer questions?

[00:41:08] Yes. If they're willing, yes. I did notice that from grade to sixth grade, there was a negative decrease there. and then goes back up and then goes back to high school so 7th and 8th grade you said high school wasn't on there and of course that was what it is so when I was so again 6th grade was plus 4 6th grade you go on the diagonal you see like 3, 3, 4

[00:41:46] 4, 5, 4 6, 3 And now, remember everything changed, and sometimes the changes that the state was in place are on level across grades, so there's a lot of pieces, and then like five to six, went down slightly, but six to six, went up, right, and so, but yeah, seventh and eighth grade has been a challenge, and it was a challenge, you see it, you often see that, and like, is that, it doesn't make sense.

[00:42:17] and if we see any conditions that may have affected that or you know be an

[00:59:29] indicator for the outcome so anchor and those two we have some comments but we want to give you guys the opportunity no we think you guys should you should go first I'm still doing that why we do what we do some observations these are observations that we made doesn't mean that they're right or that they're wrong they're just plain observations based on our collective understanding okay so these are observations so starting off with the reading performance we looked at grade five that went down minus nine and those are the tail end of our

[01:00:07] COVID kids so these kids were kindergartners during COVID so they had to suffer virtual learning and some of them probably have not caught up yet at this point in time we also looked at we maintain percentages in many of the area so that was that was good we didn't have great drops so that we were kind of maintaining you know up one or two but we were maintaining but we saw that biggest drop in the fifth graders and we yes and we so we said some of them still need recovery um and then uh we also looked

[01:00:41] at students with disabilities uh and we look how we're trending down with that and we talked about But even the state is low when we look at students with disabilities in reading. So we kind of talked about, we would like to know how many students are there, well, how many students, you know, each, when we're looking at students with disabilities, just how many students are we actually looking at.

[01:01:02] And then we started, if we had subgroups, we wanted to know how many students are per subgroup. Because once again, when you just look at the numbers, you don't know how many students there are. And we looked at the EL numbers, that that is a low number for both the state, even we talked about Virginia's trying to increase rigor, but the state average for EL students is at 33, and Manassas was at 33 in 2024, and this year 32.

[01:01:33] But we talked about that's really low with the state trying to increase rigor. What are they doing as far as trying to increase the performance rates of our EL students? And that's what we also want to know when we're looking at EL students, students with disabilities, black, Hispanic, and white, what are our actual numbers?

[01:01:50] So we can kind of see how many students we're actually talking about. We talked about, let's see, what else? We talked about performance of schools. What is the execution? So say, for instance, Ms. Brown talked about when she was in one school, they did data talks.

[01:02:08] And so she said the administrators were relieved of some of their duties so they could do data talks with students and look at your, this is where you are, look at your goals, where you want to work on. So she said that really helped her students raise their scores. And we also talked about is what being done, is it consistent in every school?

[01:02:25] So those are just questions we have as far as that's concerned. And then we talked about seventh and eighth grade math. We talked about how those students, those are our lower scores, and we talked about those are probably the students who are not taking the actual one or the geometry at this time, so what can we do to booster their math scores, and this is something that started, you know, in third, fourth, fifth grade, or exactly what's going on, that their scores are so low, since those are the students who don't, like I said, don't apply for not taking the however math, so that's pretty much what we said.

[01:02:57] Okay, so similar outcomes. I'm talking about patterns. We saw an overall reading regression for fifth grade. We also zeroed in on that, but our conclusion was more that it was different standards necessarily. I think combined with COVID information is probably very accurate.

[01:03:22] We also noticed that there were very unique outcomes based on school. So when you're watching the schools, especially in the elementary schools, some of the information wasn't as surprising over time if you're watching what's going on.

[01:03:40] With our staff help, you know, we came up, came with the conclusion that this information is actually being really closely watched by staff. And, you know, we've been kind of delved into the seventh grade math issue. We agreed that this is a valuable exercise to ask staff for more information, but also that this report was prepared with great, you know, detail and intentionality to make it easy for us to understand because, you know, we already have a staff that's doing these deeper dives.

[01:04:14] But, you know, there may be something that's needed beyond, like, the report, the way that the report was explained, again, by Dr. Quesada, made it make more sense, you know. So maybe we do need to hear it twice, but maybe, but the way that, you know, Ms. Brescia came prepared on the original night you know if we had all put that amount of intensity into it we probably would have come out with some questions the staff would have then come back to answer and we would have had something like this that may have been a little bit more fruitful because we

[01:04:46] had you know looked at looked at this or asked questions the night of but that's I have leveraged unique I don't know what that means yeah did we talk about the science I know we were just talking about science and just having the um thinking about why we do this because if there is something that we see that kind of stands out maybe we can say hey do you need more support or do you need this and then we can you know give you guys the who will to say hey yeah why don't we add such and such to the budget but we won't know unless we kind of kind of do a fine tooth comb with it

[01:05:24] And it's just nice to be able to kind of look at it together as opposed to just asking questions to someone like kind of standing there. But I appreciate this because that's answering questions. Yeah, she did great. Yeah, I've heard through the grapevine that other school boards sometimes have pre-meeting.

[01:05:42] You know, is this a night that we might want to be able to just go over it once before the meeting and then hear it from you so that, you know, we're not hearing it the very first time? I mean, does anybody think that that would be a useful exercise?

[01:05:57] I can see this working. I just don't, you know, I can see what we said was if we had, you know, done this in an original ordinal fashion and we had asked questions that needed to be answered and that caused a little bit of a deeper dive and then we had that and let's say something came out where they did need more resources for science, Well, then that would have been a perfect time today to put it in the evaluation.

[01:06:26] So that gives Dr. Newman all the time and attention that he needs to say, okay, let me figure out how to fix, you know. Not that we're talking about anyone's evaluation. No, no confession show. Yeah. It's just something maybe we should do first. We dive in right into connecting to the actions.

[01:06:45] So what implications does this talk or this, all of this information have, not just some process but also an allocation and so we can keep it broad that way but i i want to go back to one caveat i think every person here prepare for that night um but perhaps we all come with different perspectives about whether or not our questions should be reserved for them later or whether or not we truly understand how to look at patterns so i do want to give credit to the whole board

[01:07:24] for being prepared that night but to your point um i think a free work session before the data so that we can have the data talk with them um may be beneficial um and then it'll give a little bit more transparency to the constituents you know because they will hear a little bit more of the background and then when the presentation is done then we can it will be like a general but I do for action purposes I think that is a perfect outcome this is pressure I'm concerned with doing a work session before a you

[01:08:03] know regular meeting presentation on this would be it would delay possibly by weeks the regular meeting presentation right and I think when that comes out so news stories are being written that moment right you know like this came out on Tuesday and we had it on the neck at the next Tuesday we had our presentation and we wouldn't you know if we had okay can everybody meet for work session then okay and now after this do we agree to do that now it's a month later and whatever perspectives we have to share as a board as individual members as a

[01:08:41] a staff is you know it doesn't get the public attention that so I mean I think that this is fine I'm happy to digest I'm having to digest out at any time but doing this afterwards you know I don't want to miss our the window where we have everybody's attention to give the regular meeting I am not sure if we're

[01:09:17] speaking the same like are you saying that a consequence of us meeting before this presentation would have been that the presentation might have changed well maybe no well i guess maybe i'm confused what you're saying because when we have a work session we schedule that separately and if we're having a work session where we're doing a data talk and then it's only after that data talk that this goes on to a regular meeting agenda now we're talking about weeks i'm just talking i mean And what I was envisioning was just something brand new.

[01:09:49] I've heard other people do it, but this is just like a pre-meeting, literally the night of the presentation. Here's what we're going to say. You know, we can formulate some of our own thoughts. It's just walking us through it. Sometimes looking at it without hearing Dr. Fasada say the word is not as full-bodied for me anyway.

[01:10:09] I'm a much more oral learner. You know, so I can look at it and jump to lots of conclusions why grade five, you know, had issues, but like none of them that I came up with were what you guys came up with.

[01:10:25] And so it's a valuable talk, but hearing from the actual expert why they think it happened is, you know, I mean, that's the only direction we really should be, I think, you know, at least like that's where we should be leaning in, not whatever I can conceive in my mind, which is a lot of stuff.

[01:10:42] Well, in addition to that, had she not been here, we would have had that question. Like, for me, just a question about science curriculum. I can't answer that. You know what I mean? So it's great to have you guys here. If you review the material, it's just the material has stayed the same. And if you have that question, you could ask that question at the meeting.

[01:11:00] That's what the meetings are for. Right. And I did ask quite a few questions. However, I still think doing it this way is beneficial, like, hands down. any member can initiate a board you know like I mean I find to do that it after but I think we should keep the keep it on our when it comes out put it on the as soon as possible regular meeting and I think that if we want to dig you know we have something that we came up with after that presentation down the dais any single member can put it on the next work session that's

[01:11:39] true your idea having a pre-meeting and that can also be optional for board members so for anybody who would like to do that before the meeting so sometimes we have to meet before the meeting okay I'm gonna be okay with that as well it's a pressure there's really no such thing as an optional school board meeting that's true must be us it's either if there's going to be more than three members we must advertise it well yes but and so and if you are not there you are marked absent and it's first speaking just for myself I like to keep my number of absences

[01:12:16] as low as possible so it there's no there's no really such thing as optional I know you're talking about pre perhaps so it's not like weeks later but as soon as maybe the work session before we have the session that it the school board meeting maybe that could be it so like we say that we want it presented to us at our work session the work session before I mean that could just be an easy but if we're here already you know what i mean like well they're only able to put together the presentation once there's a public release and i do not want to delay the

[01:12:56] us putting that on our regular meeting and i also don't want the work session to turn into the meeting of record right like the meeting of record is the regular meeting and i i want that to come out i mean that they're all yeah because the regular meeting is the one that gets viewed the most is the one that is paid attention to the most and i do not want to delay um or give any impression that there's something we're trying to hide or move or massage that's not your intention i see your intention but it could be distorted like it would be very unusual i don't think there's a

[01:13:33] single school division that that does it a month later puts it in the regular meeting a month later you know what I mean? Or could we do it the opposite way, have the work session after to discuss it further if we would like? That's not a fact though that it will delay. It's an opinion. It's your opinion. So if it will delay it, then we can say no. But it's not a fact. We act as though that would be a fact. So we could have a pre-meeting the night off or we can have a work session before the week. If it's a priority of the board, we plan accordingly and we prioritize

[01:14:09] the time so it's not a priority for me to get this level in the weeds i rely on our professional staff present the information interpret the results and come up with the plan and inform us i would say too leading from all of this and maybe memory doesn't suit me well but was there anything that needs to be added to the budget based on the data that you so that's something i guess budget work session, but are those, do we have a list of those things? Because that's important information, I feel like.

[01:14:45] So if you just go back to last year, there were things put into budget. Okay, gotcha. So we consistently do that every year. Okay, great. Ms. Brescher had her hand up. I mean, I'm fine with this. I'm fine with having our regular meeting, everyone come prepared to that regular meeting, and then after, and then do a data talk after on one our regularly scheduled work session i don't think we need to it's fresh in our mind that's fine too yeah i don't think we need to reinvent the wheel that's fine too i mean we do have a lot

[01:15:23] of sessions for budgets and equally so this data is important because it's too success so we need to give it the same passion we give our budget work session which we have like five of those And we don't have one designated to talking about data.

[01:15:41] But I regress, so. Part of that, I think, is because, you know, it is a stated job of ours to set the budget. You know, it's implied that we're going to follow. I do understand that.

[01:15:57] But student outcomes, this is student outcomes. So we just need to make sure we have that as an important thing as well, is all I mean. Mrs. Breja, then Dr. Jones. We have three jobs, which is, so the budget has a separate process because that is one of our enumerated and sole responsibilities.

[01:16:15] The other one is the superintendent, the hiring of the superintendent, evaluation of the superintendent, and the third is policy. It's not actually operational. So where does student outcomes come into that?

[01:16:33] This is our student outcomes. We have three jobs, two student outcomes. We create a budget that supports student outcomes. We create policies that support student outcomes. guide the superintendent in a way that supports student outcomes and I'm fine to if this is what people want to do I'm fine to do it I'll data all day long and I'm fine to use our regularly scheduled programming to do it I don't want to you to do it and incorporate more talks but we do have to be careful that we're not overstepping where we're supposed to be talking about our data so I would I would like to thank Ms. Brown for bringing Data Talks to us and I think we can move on

[01:17:12] to our next agenda item. Ms. Brown, does that satisfy your... Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. Next is School Board Professional Development. Ms. Diana Brown will continue to lead a discussion on the speed of trust.

[01:17:31] All right, Tina. So the PowerPoint, you still have access to the PowerPoint. a reminder that there are two slides for every part of the book that we are reading we're reading the first wave which started on page 45 if I'm not mistaken and we had agreed to go to page 75 those were the notes I took the last time and the first wave it includes for the four force of credibility but we only got to the first one I believe from our reading which is integrity as we

[01:18:08] continue to read the first wave which is self-trust we're gonna dig deep into intent capabilities and results but for today integrity are you congruent I found the chapter really enlightening because I even myself had a lot of misconceptions about the congruency of integrity sometimes when I say I'm gonna lose ten pounds and I don't lose ten pounds I'm like I keep my commitment I'm not being true to myself but it explained here the difference between a commitment and just a goal so

[01:18:46] and that shouldn't affect your understanding of integrity but for the purposes of my share i went to page 66 i'll give you a second to go to page 66 and in the second paragraph where it says so how does humility manifest itself in leadership and in life um and it notes that a humble person is more concerned about what is right than about being right and about acting on

[01:19:21] good ideas and then having the ideas about embracing new truth then defending outdated positions and it's about building the team uh rather than exulting self about recognizing contributions rather than being recognized for making it so that is my share for today on page 66 second paragraph anyone who would like to go

[01:19:48] next can go next I had circled 63 in italics what I think I really like actually is how to increase your integrity for number four am I open to the possibility of learning new truths that may cause me to rethink issues or you can redefine my value um i mean i think that you know we're all here to do a job and we're learning to listen to one another um in a way that uh you know nobody likes the idea of redefining

[01:20:27] their values but you know we're all open to rethinking issues and i think that you know we're starting to make some progress in that way did you say face 63 68 oh so well i said first 63 I got something circled there if anybody else wants it.

[01:20:45] All right. 68. Okay. I was in 63. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right.

[01:21:00] Next. Anybody who would like to go next? It can be one word, one phrase, and one sentence. I'll go next. All right. Page 46. I underlined that. They were talking about Buffett. They said he has not just a reputation, but a track record.

[01:21:17] I thought that's important. Everybody has a reputation, but also a track record, so if you cause me to mistrust you over and over again, even if you're trying to do better, I'm going to remember your track record, so I think you want to try to be honest at all times because your track record does fall.

[01:21:40] That's how I'm going to see cards, right? Yes. And I did page 58, the word interrelatedness, that you cannot have, you can't be shining in all three and then missing one, but you have to have all the four and go on track.

[01:22:02] Okay, on page, I'm trying to, because I'm on my Kindle, hold on, it's page 48. Every time we do make and keep a commitment to ourselves or set and achieve a meaningful goal, we become more credible.

[01:22:23] So that just I'm a goal setter. And I think that just it's very important that not only to make goals, but also when you achieve them, you know, it builds that trust and that confidence in the people that are that you're leading or that you're in a relationship with, I feel like, too.

[01:22:45] So I had some other ones too, but there were quotes that I thought were just, I had never heard them before. And I was like, oh, this is a really powerful quote. And I'll read just one. It was about by Albert Einstein.

[01:23:01] Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with an important matter. So it's just page 49. Yeah, 49. That one. Yeah. I'd circle that too. Yeah. It was a really good quote. So, yeah. I forgot my book with all my highlights.

[01:23:20] but it did have it was similar to dr. Jones about reputation and track record okay let me read just one more this one on page 57 that this character is revealed not by how many powerful people you impress but how you treat people who

[01:23:38] lack power yeah page 57 yeah that was a good one so um just a reminder again um there is a summary of the chapter in the powerpoint um and if you come across any resources that you would like us to look into. You can send them to Alba, but at the end when I'm done with the PowerPoint,

[01:24:17] I can resend it. But I'm adding links in there of just different things that I thought would be great. And for the first one, the four course of credibility, I already included a link of a talk that I thought it was great, you know, just to hear it from them. All right, so how many pages do we want to read for a next time and are there any questions or more additions I just want to say that for me I'm sorry did we miss you I'm just

[01:24:53] saying about going forward um I it looks like our addition was you know printed in 2018 like it's not aging really well for me you know I mean when he's holding up like the Walmart corporation as you know trustworthy I I just, you know, they don't even pay people enough to be able to afford a living wage.

[01:25:15] Like, I just, I mean, I get the premise, and I appreciate it, and I'll keep going if everybody else wants to keep going. But some of his colleagues that he's identifying as trustworthy are just not buying it at all. I was also talking about, I love the speed of trust, but there's some caveat based on color in our country, that the color of your skin determines how people trust you, whether you have integrity, you have the qualifications, you have a great resume.

[01:25:50] So that was really hard for me to, like, read because it's not, he's in a different lens because he hasn't experienced that, and I have. So I just, so it was hard. I'm like, I really want to read this, though, because I want to learn, and I, and it's saying some great things, hands down, but, so.

[01:26:08] I mean, so going at the pace we're going, a couple pages, you know, I mean, one core at a time, it's not a problem, but I just, I don't know, I just felt like I wanted to say that, because I just, I don't know, it just, to me, it has to be super long. And I would just say, if you guys can just trust the process, yes, some of the, some of the things will come out that way, but there are some grounding systems in here that still can be impactful.

[01:26:38] Sure. You can have the whole book, haven't you? No, ma'am. Oh, sorry. It's some great information, I would agree. I'm a little bit ahead. I go to the first two chapters. And there are resources that are up to date. And so that's why I put in a link for the four course of durability that was done recently.

[01:26:58] So they are building this, continually building this. But you're right, Dana, the lens is from that perspective. But I still think there is value in that. And there is value on your experience, and I can attest to that experience.

[01:27:16] And then sometimes, and it's not only just trust in general, but being an authority in a particular area, if you are of a different gender or a different race, the trust is a factor.

[01:27:31] But it's good to be grounded on good principles, And I think right now, I found it really helpful to go through the four principles. If Dana can look beyond her lens and issues, I definitely can.

[01:27:51] I would have been remiss if I didn't mention it. And I'm glad it opened up a different discussion. And so, you know, the people are feeling somewhat the same way. But I'm fine. You have next assignment. I see you holding lots of pages there.

[01:28:07] Yeah, can we not? How much should we read? Can we just stop at intent? We decide. Can we just do intent, the core too, so we can kind of grasp that? Because I feel like if we do too many, then we're not kind of internally.

[01:28:25] Intent goes to 93. Yeah. 75 to 93. Does that work? Okay. Yeah. So 75 to 93, intent. And we decide when we want to discuss this, whether we want to do it at our next work session do we want to do it do we want to come back to me when we we don't have a work session this month all right and we don't have one next month so sorry January well actually we haven't scheduled any work sessions and still

[01:29:02] after all that especially when you guys have three hours. I don't know how long it takes everyone to get through those pages but one of the good things about BSBA is you guys kind of have a lunch where we all sit at the table in a couple weeks that real work so it's not a meeting hey we're there for board development yeah okay so the 19th or the 20th when we're at a

[01:29:37] conference one day we have a special lunch so they weren't saying Wednesday you guys have that lunch but then some of the board members are not going to be there for that lunch so on thursday when you break out for sessions you can come out with your lunch okay that's the 20th thank you dr neiman that's good yeah all right okay thank you everybody okay on to our next which is seasonal planning and i'll go to mrs miles although uh

[01:30:15] ms vice chair spall did have some comments on this so okay no i just i just was wondering if in the past were do we do anything as a school board to to give back to our staff or is it i didn't know if we participated in it we do not okay we have not okay what we do is prove salaries insurance i understand i know for anything else cuts into but we don't have a separate budget for school board nicety I got you because I know during our teacher week you know we we did that

[01:30:50] sign so that's why that's why I was wondering I didn't know appreciation yeah yeah that's true right so that's why I wasn't sure like if if we wanted to do even if like Thanksgiving or Christmas do we give bonuses to our staff or anything I know I was that was a joke I was just saying I like even a card or something that we get I mean I didn't know we have nothing on the

[01:31:24] we have signed holiday cards okay do you want to do that yeah that's fine I just did remember I wasn't in this spot last year at this time so that's why I wasn't sure so we send cards for nine schools and we leave it in the vestibule I mean in

[01:31:56] there we do we send Christmas we send holiday cards yeah it was one with like a picture on it of a student had drawn or something okay that was nice that was nice so we had it the other suggestion I had because obviously we don't have nine schools

[01:32:31] would we be opposed to like I had looked up something where it was like you you help one school you know for just a morning you bring in breakfast for their staff and we obviously it comes out of our own pocket but it's just like to give thanks to our staff I didn't know if that was something we ever did in the past okay it's just I mean teacher appreciation so it's only teacher appreciation. Okay. You can do whatever you want as a parent. If you want to sponsor METS and bring breakfast for the whole staff, it's a lot to do. Or you can help PTA when

[01:33:11] they do those efforts as a parent. Well, yeah, it was, it was definitely not going to come as a parent. I was talking about, I didn't know if we as a school board did anything like that. So it was more of a question, but also I know we participate in the Christmas parade and I didn't hear anything about that so I didn't know what the plans were for that I'll go to Mrs. Spall vice chair Spall so a couple things um one is that in our two-on-one Dana and I but I haven't discussed it with anyone else um and it's really hard now because we're all on TV but um

[01:33:45] if we all because everybody now on this board is more like proficient on and I know the word facebook comes up all the time but if we took like out of the hat a secret santa name and you know started just highlighting one school over the holidays like if we all got assigned to school just to try to you know um yeah or whatever your social i mean i'm not trying to micromanage it but just a like a secret santa kind of thing i mean um it would be obvious pretty fast who had what schools but you know it's just something kind of fun we could do between thanksgiving and

[01:34:22] when we leave for winter break as an idea. I mean, I'm just trying to think of new things and places where we already are pretty good. Like, everybody seems to have. What would Secret Santa do? You would catch your school being good.

[01:34:38] Right. There's no money involved. We do that all the time. Well, I know, but this would be a concentrated effort. Well, it was similar to what I said, like, with bringing, you know, it was similar to that. Well, it's for you. It's for you. Yeah, right. There's no money involved. Logistically. nine schools and seven members.

[01:34:55] Well, we'd all have to do, I mean, we'd have to all make a conscious effort to do Mets in Osborne, you know, as we always do. I think school board members should always look for the good that's happening at our schools and absolutely publish it. I mean, I don't know. It becomes like a strange competition.

[01:35:12] I don't know, you know, I don't know. It's just every school is covered, and we all have breaks. And you decide how you want to... I can't stop the ideas from coming you guys don't have to say did you out here she said she'll win well I mean if you know yeah I think it's a good idea but you know I mean without Miss Stevens here I don't know but so the other things are we can I don't know if you want to do a show of hands or I we do have

[01:35:46] so traditionally we have dantilites on the Friday before the parade yes and what day is that is a Friday evening first Friday December 5th also known as dr. Newman's birthday we'll probably get invites soon enough but yes in terms of

[01:36:11] planning. It's cold. It's dark. Dress appropriately. It's first Friday too, I think. I don't know that we have first Friday's in December. They don't start back until February. Santa comes to town in lieu of first Friday. But there is a March, some kind of Christmas March or something like that, that night, which I think is new. I've never noticed it before. Or it hasn't been as heavily. But anyway, we're on the stage. You kind of have to stay there.

[01:36:41] And snow comes down and Santa comes and the chorus comes and sings, the band comes and plays, the band escorts. It was raining, so I went inside. And then the very next day is the parade.

[01:36:59] Morning. Morning. We meet on Carriage Lane. Carriage Lane. And all these things will come out, but pretty early. Is it 7 a.m.? No, it's like 9. No, because I know what the bridge got. We didn't be early. I will meet you for pictures but I have my own so what do we know what's the theme do you provide those costumes right there is something when I see you

[01:37:33] in our costume you guys walk it's just the walk traditionally we walk and city council walks, we kind of walk together. Well, city council has in the past years done. They've sat in the car. My first year, they sat in the car. Last year, they were hanging off a fire truck because I think they have some members for them walking that whole route. It's a hard thing for them. So they have... They get too warm to walk. They've been on... The year I was pregnant, I was

[01:38:02] in the car with the sales. But this year I can walk. I mean, there's obviously opportunity to make it as big as you want it but it would be on us it would be I mean we wear something festive and you know we have a red coat or something it's a Christmas parade right right so yeah yes people do it's an elf theme if you want to wear your elf costume drag it out dust it off are you wearing yours no maybe an elf hat I'll find an elf hat yeah I'm sure there's nobody

[01:38:38] remembers what you were last year Jo. I do. Okay. But anyway, you know, it's fun. Do we throw out candy or no? We don't do that. No, we don't. We stopped that. Oh, okay. We used to do it. I mean, prior to me. It is our one big parade of the year that we participate in. Okay. You know, an opportunity. We're in the front. It goes very quick. It does go quickly. You can, you know, walk all the way through it and then there's still what 300 more to come

[01:39:16] through so you can you stay and watch it or I mean you have enough time that we we are so at the beginning what I do is I just cross the finish line and then I walk right back and find the float because usually the float is 120 and I'm And we're position number 10.

[01:39:39] Do you know what number you are? Not yet. November 20th, I think they'll let us know. But the fairy godmother of two festivals, so I'm in there. And my float is going to win. Okay. I think Baldwin beat us last year, right?

[01:40:01] Baldwin beat us last year. It's going to be hard, but. Ms. Miles, you had talked about the season of giving. Was there something else? No, it was just, I just was wondering what we typically do. No. Okay.

[01:40:17] Yeah, that was, yeah. It gets to be a really busy season, and there are many individual ways that, you know, we can help. Yeah, I just was wondering, as a collective school board, if there was something that we did, like an initiative or something for, but just, it was a question.

[01:40:33] So we're going to walk, and that's the only decision. We haven't decided on anything else, right? Nothing else. Well, the secret Santa, are we going to do that? I don't want to do that. I want to do everybody. I don't want to focus on one school. Yeah, and we all don't have the same followers either, so it would be weird for, you know, I don't know.

[01:40:57] Is there another, like, compromise to that that we could do? I mean, you know, give it this year to think about. Watch how everything goes down. Look who's asking for help. look who you choose to help, you know, and bring us back next year some thoughts, you know.

[01:41:16] I mean, we've discussed using the bus, an electric bus in the past. We're not really doing as much of electric buses, so I don't know that, you know, that would be the right thing. I was hoping when we bought this building that it had, like, a place where we could store bloat.

[01:41:34] That's not what happens with this building. There's a basement. I don't know how we can get it in. Yeah, there's no actual... And another property out by the airport, that had a perfect drive-in bay. Yeah. I know. No. But, I mean, there's also ways, you know, in this season of giving, there's a lot of needs of the families in our schools.

[01:41:55] And if you have extra, every school has a pantry, and you can donate there. So, should you reach out to the parent liaisons for that? Or is there, like, a specific? That's what I did. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that was, what is our, okay.

[01:42:11] Thank you. you know what is the greatest need directing things through the student liaison yeah I'm up for success right support them too right and their information is on the website correct okay I think that's really everything does anybody else remember anything are you looking for does that answer all no it does do we do we do a cop like in our area do we do like cop shopping with the cop because I

[01:42:43] know when Manassas Park they did that do they do that here Manassas city oh yeah okay dr. Newman had that in his department report do you want to expand on what the counselors do for usually during the season yeah it's okay okay Oh, it's usually a canned food drive for Thanksgiving.

[01:43:17] Okay. No, yes, Thanksgiving, all of the holiday shopping. They coordinate all of that with the family liaisons, social workers, counselors. Def Jones, Kurt, and I have been meeting, and Carol Hart. We've been meeting with them probably since the mid-September time frame and working with a lot of our community partners who have designated which families are getting what.

[01:43:42] So that's ongoing. Okay. I would love to go to, I know we used to go to the event and we'd actually wrap the gifts for the kids. So if you could invite us to that, I would love to come and see it or. I think those organizations provide them that way.

[01:43:57] So we just provide the names of the families or the sizes of the students and things like that, but we don't actually participate in how they're done. Georgetown South also puts out a list and I think East End and Manassas.

[01:44:13] and I'm just gonna put a little plug in here we really want to do something together maybe making a collective donation to the Education Foundation I'm just saying even $20 each will make a very beautiful you know donation to them so just putting that one it is a season of giving yes okay school board hearing none may I have a motion to adjourn a motion by vice

[01:44:53] chair Spall second by Mrs. Spall for the school board meeting adjourned in favor aye any opposed motion carries 6-0

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