Coraggio Consulting
Prince William County School Board Meeting, Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs-FZ3xkzik
Official School Board page (PWCS): https://www.pwcs.edu/about/school_board/

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 2026-11-04. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] I would like to call this meeting of the Prince William County School Board to order. A motion is in order for the approval of the meeting agenda. - Madam Chair, thank you.

[00:00:16] I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended. - Okay, is there a second? - Madam Chair. - Any discussion? At least a second, thank you. Any discussion? Please vote.

[00:00:54] - So the vote is five yes, one not president vote, Jessie, two absent, Lateef, Raulston, motion passed. - Moving on, the motion to enter closed session, a motion is in order. - Madam Chair.

[00:01:10] - Ms. Jackson. - I move that pursuant Virginia code 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 that the Prince William County School Board enter closed session for the following reasons. One, to discuss with staff the appointment, transfer, release, assignment, and promotion of specific officers and employees under Virginia code section 2.2-3711 A.

[00:01:30] One, two, to review disciplinary matters for specific students that would involve the disclosure of information containing scholastic record for individuals and receive legal advice regarding same as provided Virginia code section 2.2, dash 3711A, two and eight.

[00:01:47] Three, to discuss with division council and staff actual or probable litigation and legal matters pertaining to the school board and specific staff and students including matters involved in the Freedom of Information Act under Virginia code section 2.2, dash 3711A, seven and eight. Four, to consult with staff and legal counsel regarding the legal requirements and procedures for collective bargaining by school board employees, which requires legal advice and guidance as provided by Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A.

[00:02:14] Eight, five, to discuss with division council and staff resolution of litigation involving opioids pursuant Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A. Seven and eight, six, to discuss with legal council and staff members the acquisition of real property for a high school Woodbridge area, which is subject of litigation pending within Prince William County Circuit Court and where a briefing in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and litigating posture of PWCS pursuant Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A3 and A7 and seven

[00:02:54] to discuss and receive briefings by staff members relating to the security of school facilities and the safety of persons used in such facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant Virginia code, section 2.2-3711A19.

[00:03:15] - Thank you, is there a second? - Madam Chair. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Okay, is there a discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

[00:03:38] - The vote is six yes, two absent. Lateef Ralston, motion passed. - Okay, the Prince William County School Board will now enter closed session and return to open session

[00:03:49] in approximately one hour.

[00:04:55] Prince William County School Board is now returning to open session from closed session. The motion is in order. - Madam Chair. - Ms. Jackson. - I move the pursuant Virginia code section 2.2-3712, the closed session of the Prince William County School Board meeting of March 1st, 2023, be certified by adopting the following resolution.

[00:05:16] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William County School Board hereby certifies to the best of each member's knowledge. One, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board.

[00:05:42] - Is there a second? - Ms. Wall, I second. - Thank you, any discussion? No, seeing none, please vote.

[00:06:08] - The vote is six yes, two absent. Lateef, Ralston, motion passed. - Moving on to closed session action items, a motion is in order for 10.01. - Madam Chair. - Ms. Jackson. - I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presenting in cross session.

[00:06:28] - Is there a second? - Ms. Wall, I second. - Thank you. Discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

[00:06:48] - The vote is six yes, two absent. Lateef, Ralston, motion passed. - Okay, thank you. Moving on to 10.02, a motion is in order. - I'm Chair. - Ms. Jackson. - I move that for the reasons set forth in the Student Management and Alternative Program Department's SMAPD letter of January 27th, 2023, the Prince William County School Board confirm staff's recommendation for the expulsion of student MS23-105 and that the Prince William County School Board also approved the conditions and recommendations for readmission.

[00:07:22] Any non-traditional education eligibility determination contained in January 27th, 2023 letter, the student's placement at the time of readmission if recommended by SMAPD and SMAPD's recommendation regarding eligibility for computer-based instruction while on expulsion.

[00:07:39] - The student shall be eligible to petition for readmission effective 365 days from the date of the school board's decision. - Thank you. And before we move on, I wanted to share that Chairman Lateef will not be here this evening if he was called out of town.

[00:07:56] I think we need to vote on that. Yeah, do we have a second on that motion? - A second. - Ms. Williams seconds, any discussion? Okay, please vote.

[00:08:18] - The vote is six yes, two absent. Raulston, Chairman Lateef, motion passed. - All right. So now we will move on to the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll have our student representative, Chance Williams, lead us in the pledge here tonight.

[00:08:35] Thank you.

[00:08:57] Great, time for one of the most enjoyable portions of our school board meetings, which is launching thriving futures. We dedicate this time during our meetings to recognize students, staff members of schools who have earned an honor or award at the state or national level.

[00:09:13] We appreciate how these honorees have positively represented Prince William County Public Schools and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments. So tonight we are excited to recognize several state athletic champions, and I will lead out.

[00:09:31] As the Gainesville Magisterial District Representative, it is my pleasure this evening to introduce the first group of students. I'm thrilled to recognize our state champions in gymnastics and swimming from Battlefield High School.

[00:09:46] So let's see, you got a lot of names here. Ryan Grotoff with a score of 9.75 is the state champion on the balance team. Can you raise your hand? Where are you? Okay, there you go. And Jordan Ignacio with a score of 9.7 is the state champion for the floor exercise.

[00:10:04] Raise your hand. There you go. I want to add that Jordan tied for third place on the balance beam and Ryan placed second in the floor exercise. Their coaches are Emily Ignacio and Mary Henry. Can coaches raise your hand? There you go. Okay. I invite one or both of, well, I invite you to come forward to share a few words about our gymnasts.

[00:10:28] I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate Ryan and Jordan on behalf of Mary and I. They did a very excellent job this season. On top of competing for Battlefield, they also do club gymnastics, so they have very busy schedules. And they had the team competition on Friday and individual on Saturday.

[00:10:45] And for both days, they did very excellent. And we're just really proud of them. Congratulations, girls. Thank you. Very awesome. Thank you so much for coming here so we could congratulate you.

[00:11:03] Battlefield High School can also boast about state champions in swimming. I will begin with Camille Spink, raise your hand, there you go, who earned first place in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle relay, and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

[00:11:21] Madison Richardson is the state champion in the 200-yard freestyle relay. You wanna raise your hand? Okay, there you go. 400 yard freestyle relay and sophie hayden there you go we're in first place in the 200 yard freestyle relay and 400 yard freestyle relay and emma hannum that's our last person right is she here yeah okay there you are we're in first place in the 200 yard freestyle relay and elissa sagal earned a first place medal in the 400 yard freestyle relay wow congratulations everybody um our coaches are jay thorpe and evan brandt um the administrator here tonight supporting all of battlefield high school

[00:11:59] champions is assistant principal Chris McMillan thank you for being here coaches please come forward to share for you remarks about our swimmers I promise I won't read all this but first I just wanted to thank the board for inviting us and and having this recognition I know that means a lot to our girls we had an excellent season and I'm just so proud of these girls they couldn't have done any more at state than they did and it was just an outstanding meet had a couple things I did want to mention really quick we do have two seniors that are going to be departing us that's Emma Hannum she was

[00:12:39] state champion in 200 freestyle relay this year but she was also careers state champion three times in her career and also a three-time All-American next year she's going to be swimming at Marist College and then Camille Spink state champion in four events this year but also a career 12-time state champion 20 time all-american and Olympic trials qualifier and she's going to be swimming at the University of Tennessee in the fall 23 I'm sorry I slighted you I'm

[00:13:15] sorry there's so many they just get lost sometimes and then with our returners Sophie Hayden this was her first state championship and she's projected as an all-american in that event Madison Richardson state champion in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle realize which she is projected to be all-american in both of those events and was an all-american for us last year as well and then Alyssa Sagal our freshman state champion of the 400 freestyle relay I did want to mention that she was second in the backstroke I think that does count and then projected all-american in that event as well as the hundred

[00:13:54] backstroke you know with these girls I never cease to be amazed by what these ladies accomplished in the water, but I'm most impressed by the great young people that they've become. They understand what it takes to succeed, and they have the drive to make it happen.

[00:14:11] I couldn't be any more proud of them. Thank you, ladies. Thank you very much. And the family members of these athletes, please stand so we can recognize you, because we know you have a large part to play in their success.

[00:14:39] Thank you very much. and we'll take a photo, I think, after we go through the athletes, okay. We also have state champions in swimming from Forest Park High School here with us tonight, along with a state champ in wrestling. So Mr. Wilk, Potomac Magisterial District, will share more with us about these student athletes.

[00:14:58] - This is exciting 'cause I was at Districts and I saw the team beat Colgan, which is always nice, sorry. Thank you, Ms. Wall, it's my pleasure to recognize Dawson Trung, state swimming champion the 100-yard breaststroke and delaney bookstein state champion of the 500-yard freestyle both attend of course the amazing forest park high school their coach is julie denard miss denard please come forward if you'd like to say a few words good evening and thank you for having us here tonight i am so proud of these two i have had the pleasure of watching them swim the last four

[00:15:37] years and they have gone out on top of their game in the high school swimming they have balanced year round and high school swimming perfectly and they have led their teams this year as captains and they have done so with great sportsmanship and i'm just so proud of them so thank you thank you um also i was able to be at forest park for senior night this year but we are very proud of our state wrestling champion tyler stewart tyler won the 215 pound weight class got to see

[00:16:15] it's streaming on facebook so congratulations um he is here tonight with his coaches tommy alloy and aj eversley gentlemen please come forward if you'd like to say a few remarks hello good evening i'd like to thank you all for having us and recognition of all these state champions as well as tyler um he's had a great season you know something like wrestling uh it's a very long and grueling season you know it's a very tough sport um along with you know multiple workouts a a day weight management on top of that it's a very tight schedule you know to manage for such a long time but he managed it perfectly you know he got

[00:16:55] what we came for and got his state title at 215 so you know congratulations and we look forward to see what he has in the future so we still undecided we're still working on that at the moment but um I'm sure it's gonna be nothing but great things so thank you for your continued support and in recognition of all these state champions so congratulations to our swimmers and Rustlers and Forest Park High School.

[00:17:24] We're proud of your accomplishments. Very exciting. I'd like your family members to please stand and be recognized. We have some Forest Park families and parents. Again, we know how important parents are in the success of our students.

[00:17:44] So before turning this over to Superintendent Dr. McDade, I want to add that we will continue to recognize our state athletic champions at future meetings, including the girls wrestling state champion and indoor track champions on March 15th. Dr. McDade I'll take it from here. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I want to just echo the sentiments that you've heard tonight and congratulate each and every one of you for your amazing accomplishments.

[00:18:09] I know as student athletes it's it's a really grueling schedule you have to juggle all of the commitments to compete but you also have a pretty rigorous academic load as well and so it takes a lot of sacrifice for that and the characteristics that you demonstrate such such as drive and persistence and diligence and resilience are all characteristics that will take you through life and our transferable skills so you are to be commended congratulations you have served represented your teams your school and our entire county and school division well and

[00:18:45] we're incredibly proud of you keep up the great work thank you dr mcdade let's take a short break now and take a few pictures um starting with the battlefield athletes and then we'll conclude with

[00:19:00] with a group picture of the Forest Park athletes.

[00:22:22] - All right, thank you. We are moving on to 13.01, adoption of consent agenda. A motion is in order. - I'm sure. - Ms. Jackson. - I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended.

[00:22:40] - Okay, is there a second? - I second. - Ms. Zuckerberg, second. Discussion. - Hi. - I just wanted to-- - Ms. Jessie. - Yes, I want to make a comment on 1309, the month of the military child. I was at Springwood Elementary, and they are a purple star school, and they had a breakfast for military spouses, and I met the head of the military liaison person for the school system, Ms. Kimberly Simpson, and I've been looking, you know, I love data, and I've looked at the data for quite some time.

[00:23:15] When we look at the data for students' performance and military students, they outperform most of us. They outperform the county, and it's consistent and I've had several military spouses work for me and they hit the ground running. So I wanna congratulate Springwoods and to the military spouses and to all the military families.

[00:23:37] Thank you for being a part of our school system. - Okay, thank you. Anybody else? Ms. Zuckerer. - So on 13.20 is transportation employees week. I wanna thank everyone who works in transportation from scheduling to driving buses to repairing our equipment, things like that.

[00:23:59] I know it's been really hard the past couple years and I had a wonderful talk with Mr. Bach just recently about some ideas that we have for the next year. But I wanna thank from the bottom of my heart those of you who do this work. I know the days can be very long.

[00:24:15] You're not just driving a bus, you're driving our children. You are driving K through 12. It's a big job and I really appreciate it. And really also quick, there's theater in our schools month. I have had an opportunity in the past few years to see some of the theatrical productions that our kids from elementary, middle, and high school do.

[00:24:36] So it's, a lot of hard work goes into that. A lot of parents volunteer to do all kinds of things from sets to costuming to getting their kids back and forth to rehearsals. So I just wanna put a shout out for that too, thanks. - Yeah, I wanna echo some of the sentiments Ms. Jessie made for the military liaison.

[00:24:57] I was blessed, my wife, my father-in-law is a veteran and served in Vietnam and having that unique perspective of marrying into a military family has been great. And the Potomac District has a large portion of military families, which is why so long I fought to make that a fully funded military liaison position, why Jen Wall and I created the 9/11 Curriculum Committee to honor the patriotism of our country.

[00:25:24] And it's been an absolute pleasure. I was able to sit on as a parent, the Ashland Purple Star Committee in Ashland, I think was the second elementary school in the county to earn that a number of years ago. So it was a great experience. I want to thank our military families, the students.

[00:25:40] You know, it's very transient depending on where the deployment is or where the location is. And I want to thank our school system for all we do to support those families. - Ms. Williams. - Thank you, Madam Chair. - I just wanna echo what previous board members have said and I also want to give a shout out to our Procurement Officers for Procurement Recognition Month.

[00:26:04] We don't talk a lot about, yes, Mr. Wallenford, I see you giving the cheers 'cause I'm always highlighting as someone who has dabbled in procurement how tough and tricky that job can be. Our finance department, our procurement team consistently receives high ratings and keeps us on track and in alignment and that's very important.

[00:26:21] I don't know how many of us see generally and on our consent agenda, there's always a contract award for something or another, which means they're constantly doing the work to continue to keep our school division up and running and in compliance. In addition, I know that we have Youth and Art Month and I just wanted to commend our clerks for continuing to provide our boardroom with wonderful student art.

[00:26:44] I see that this month we have Ripon Middle School up here And it's just always a pleasure as an art person, and I wanted to highlight music in our schools. I know Ms. Zargarpur did not, but she is our music teacher, so I just wanted to speak to that.

[00:27:00] I think we have wonderful arts programs here in all of our schools. They're all a little bit different, depending on what it is the program is related to, but we know that arts and music are integral to learning. So, thank you.

[00:27:16] - And I will add also for Music in Our Schools Month, Value of music education cannot be, cannot say enough about how valuable it is. I know for my own family, it's been probably one of the most rewarding aspects of the education that they have received in Prince William County Schools, that we have a very strong music program.

[00:27:35] A lot of our schools have just top-notch programs and it is so important for students and often just adds to the quality of life. So I wanted to highlight that. There are a lot of great things on this agenda. We could all talk probably about every single one of them.

[00:27:52] Are there any other discussion? Okay, seeing no further discussion, please vote.

[00:28:11] - The vote is six yes, two absent. Chairman Lateef, Raulston, motion passed. - All right, moving on to citizen comment time. Those citizens who have signed up in advance with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they are called to the podium.

[00:28:28] The citizen comment period for regular school board meetings is one hour and citizens may speak on agenda items or other topics germane to the operations and policies of PWCS. Please, as a reminder, please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium, or you will be asked to step aside.

[00:28:44] We ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and refrain from clapping, jeering, or cheering to avoid disruption of the meeting. If you do not, the board will recess, and I will ask that the room be cleared to restore public order. Tonight, we have eight citizens signed up to speak.

[00:28:59] When I call your name, please come up to the podium and state your name and address for the record, or you may say that the clerk has your address on file. So our first speaker will be Marty Weaver, followed by Carol Fox.

[00:29:21] - Hi, Marty Weaver, Occoquan. Privilege. My dad and mom were 20 and 14 when they eloped in 1950. I was born 16 months later with two brothers born three and six years thereafter. My mom completed the ninth grade.

[00:29:36] My dad graduated from high school a year late because of a sickly childhood. We started out as a family in the inner city of Columbus, Ohio. I attended kindergarten in a public school that was decades old, but I was just excited to go to school. Then I went to the neighborhood Catholic school for first to third grades where I was a poor white girl who was privileged to be in another old building with kids from the Catholic orphanage down the street.

[00:30:02] And that orphanage was also where my great-grandma on my mom's side and her three siblings went to live after their immigrant mom died and when their railroad worker dad couldn't take care of them. And they were listed as inmates on the 1900 census at the orphanage asylum.

[00:30:19] And my dad's dad was dumped in another orphanage in Columbus after his parents divorced. My grandpa left there as a young teen to live on the streets because that was better. He lied about his age and joined the Navy at 16. My mom's dad lost his left leg as a kid in a sledding accident.

[00:30:37] He used crutches his entire life. Well, until late in life when his other leg had to be amputated below the knee because of diabetes. Then he used a wheelchair and still lived by himself. But that was after he had been married for many years and raised eight kids.

[00:30:53] And he drove a stick shift car, using a crutch for the clutch. No special vehicle. So my story began with some hardship. No privilege. My family worked hard, valued education. My mom made sure we could read and comprehend.

[00:31:08] She took us to the library and read with us. Remember, she only completed the ninth grade. Did I mention I was bullied as a kid for being cross-eyed? I graduated 10th in my high school class of over 200. I graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in nursing, and I became a certified critical care nurse for 12 years in the ICU/CCU.

[00:31:29] I used the lessons learned from my parents in raising our son. I volunteered during our son's education at all grade levels. He worked hard and with our support, graduated fourth in his class from OP's, first class of the SEBS program. He went on to graduate from the Air Force Academy.

[00:31:45] No one did my work or our son's. We reached our goals not because of privilege, but because of hard work using the opportunities that were afforded all of the students and parental involvement. So stop the whining about equity. Hold students and parents accountable.

[00:32:01] Stop making excuses for why someone can't succeed on their own merit. You don't need more money, pools, Steinways, indoor tracks, equity people. What it really takes is involved parents. Let us. Some say it takes a village, but not when the village is led by some idiots.

[00:32:17] Parents matter. - Carol Fox. - Good evening, Carol Fox on file.

[00:32:35] Last week I came before you and I gave you information about the four data centers that are under construction 1/4 and 1/4 mile of Tyler and Pace West. I know now that you are aware of this, but I really don't think you believe. So tonight I brought pictures of the construction site showing you, this was taken place, this was taken on the top floor of a stacked condo.

[00:33:00] The second picture is the street view of the condo. I did circle the light post so you could see how it looks in real life. This condo is just one block from Washington Street and the street entrance to Tyler and Pace West is directly across the street.

[00:33:17] At this time next year, the interior work will be underway and the turn on date for this data centers are expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the summer or fall of 2025. That gives you two years, two years to prepare.

[00:33:32] You need to hire your consultants to tell you what you will need to do when one data center comes online, and then the second, and then the third, and then the fourth. You are approving contracts tonight. How long did it take to determine the scope of work for those contracts? Who put out the work bid?

[00:33:47] Who reviewed the contracts and chose how to award the contracts? Have you started planning yet for what's gonna happen to your schools in two years? Who went to the Department of Environmental Equality on Monday, meeting on Monday? I did not see any of you there.

[00:34:03] It will be a reality that these data centers will use diesel generators in place of electricity during times of stress on our grid. That will occur during May, June, September, and possibly into October of the year.

[00:34:19] These will be at least six generators for each data center running. The one that they're currently under construction University is 300 megawatts. That will take six 50 megawatt generators. So we have a real time to start planning for it. The noise pollution that's going to be coming with those data centers not to mention the air pollution that will be coming to affect the children that we have in school that have asthma and other illnesses. So have you planned for this? What is your plan? Have you all started looking into it yet? They're money that you're going to need special money to fix these schools

[00:34:57] because they're going to need special windows and special things going on with them. Or maybe it's better if you just build new schools someplace far away where it's quieter. Have you talked to the County Board of Supervisors about increasing your budget? Remember, every dollar spent on the western end will be less money that you have to spend on the eastern end, on Mr. Jesse's new high school and track, and all the other schools that need help on the eastern end.

[00:35:21] I really feel sorry for them. We all are going to be in trouble with our money that has to be appropriated out in the next few years. Thank you very much. Have a nice evening. Thank you. The next speaker is Stephen Spiker, followed by Magali Hurtado.

[00:35:40] Hi, good evening. Stephen Spiker, my address is on file. I'm addressing you today on something that is often overlooked, which is buses. I know we were just talking about that. So I know that you are, of course, aware we're facing a bus driver shortage in the county.

[00:35:57] I know that you guys have outlined some steps to address that. I really do appreciate you for that. Given that we're in the middle of the budget process right now, I just want to impress upon you that this needs to be more top of mind. for a very simple reason buses are not just a matter of operations or logistics this is an academic concern I'll take you back to last December Thursday the 15th we were anticipating an ice storm around the region other counties and areas in the region announced a two hour delay but not in Prince William Prince William we announced that our schools would be closed we were the only ones to announce that and it was due solely to the fact that we didn't have the bus

[00:36:35] drivers to accommodate a two-hour delay. So notifications went out, emails went out that it was going to be a code orange or asynchronous learning, meaning it's still going to count as a school day. But I promise you on that short notice with parents scrambling to find coverage for a school day, no learning got done. Essentially, schools get credit for a day of instruction that every student was absent for. We learned a lot of lessons during the pandemic, but perhaps the most central one is this, kids need to be in classrooms. Virtual learning was and is a disaster.

[00:37:11] And as looking through the budget materials, I actually really do appreciate that you guys delineate between what's considered instructional spending and other spending. And so I will repeat again and want to impress this upon you, anything that keeps kids in classrooms should be considered instructional. In the meantime, I beg of you, please improve communications with parents when buses are late, buses are delayed. This is an immediate failure and one parents are seeing nearly every day. To put it simply, the app doesn't work half the time and school officials have to scramble to update their parent, update

[00:37:47] parents. This is on top of all the work that they have to do normally and this is not tenable. This has come up at SACI meetings I've been to. It's been brought up at every single Parent Advisory Council meeting, sorry, Principal Advisory Council meeting that I help lead and I hear frustration from school officials because they actually don't have any control over this. I also hear this frustration from other parents as well. The worst feeling a parent can have is not knowing where their kids are when it's time for them to come home. And every parent has a horror story. They check the app and the bus is halfway to Culpeper. But we have no recourse to ask for updates from our school staff and I know because we asked them about this. They can only send communications to us

[00:38:26] when they know what's going on and sometimes that's not even till the bus is leaving the parking lot after it's been routed back to the school to pick up kids who don't have a bus to take them home so please help out our kids help out our school staff and help out our parents by addressing these communications issues and keeping kids in classrooms thank you all right thank you Magali good evening my name is Magali Hurtado my address is on file with the clerk i work at one of our schools not instructional staff but i'm here today as the mother of two

[00:39:03] Ulbricht Elementary students and as what you would call an involved community member like the nosy lady on everyone's business. I'm beyond grateful for the education and nurturing my kids are getting at Ulbricht. Their teachers are truly extraordinary and they go to great lengths to keep the kids learning and engaged. Both of my kids are thriving and loving school. They get get they get great great great sorry and I really do not worry about where they stand academically or emotionally my kids participate in several extracurricular activities and I have the opportunity to talk to other kids and parents from

[00:39:39] different schools in the county on regular basis so I know I am not alone in the concern that I will be sharing today I do understand that a lot of the testing requirements come from the state and our county must follow them but we need your help advocating for our kids and to work with our county leadership to minimize the overwhelming amount of testing our kids are taking.

[00:40:02] I appreciate the fact that we are making decisions based on data, but I wonder how close are we to crossing that line between using data for decision-making and turning our schools into data-collecting places instead of the teaching institutions they need to be.

[00:40:21] With all the data we are collecting, is there a way to quantify what the overtesting is doing to our students? How are we feeding their anxiety and what that's doing to their emotional health? How much actual instruction they're missing to take yet another test?

[00:40:38] What is this doing to our teachers who want to teach? How many opportunities to engage and connect are they missing because they have to spend so much time testing and grading? I recently received a letter from the supervisor of testing informing parents that the Department of Education, Virginia, developed a new type of question for the SOLs and now students in certain grades need to take a field test to test the test a test to test the test it would be a cute tongue twister but it's actually the reality of what we're putting our children through I don't know how long that test to test the test takes but assuming it's 20 minutes what can our students do with

[00:41:14] those 20 minutes especially the ones that need additional support there needs to be a better way I want our kids to love learning to be curious and engaged and not to be driven by just trying to do good in the test and we need your help for that thank you all right thank you next is Oveta Scott followed by Patience Jeffries good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board madam chair

[00:41:51] and dr. McDade my name is Oveta Scott and my address is on file with the clerk although the agenda was changed I'm still going to speak on what I feel our updates to our education system for the second quarter in my new role as an elementary math coach I have witnessed what I believe is the reason for low performance in some classroom and that is the lack of content knowledge from the presenter of the instruction now I would never stand here and blame my colleagues but a real educator will take time in planning and how they will

[00:42:27] execute a lesson to their students I will state that the failure of students not receiving important content knowledge falls on administration and I don't mean the building principles I was reviewing a decimal calculations I was reviewing decimal calculations with students and I asked them if they could tell me what a decimal is not what it looks like but the definition not one student could answer me from that grade level I went to our 25 page unit curriculum guides and the answer was not there nowhere does it state to give background information so that students understand what and how a decimal works

[00:43:05] I know what you're thinking that that's the duty of the teacher to provide that understanding but how can they have admin hires individual without background content knowledge in math history science or language arts the chaos the KLC has various solutions to assist teachers in delivering effective instruction the new and popular answer are the canvas modules it has a huge buffet of many examples to supplement instruction instructional coaches who are support staff who can't find the time within the school day to provide

[00:43:44] assistant needed to struggling staff or students since they rotate between schools but my favorite is the professional development staff meeting which wastes time talking about cute classroom management techniques that doesn't address the need for giving time to develop real engaging lessons for students my answer is simple teachers need uninterrupted planning time with their coach mentor or department chair to truly unpack content to meet the objectives required in SOL strands. However, with the 45-minute planning at elementary and the new

[00:44:22] seven-period schedule at the middle grades, this is a challenging task to achieve. Thank you. Patience. Jeffress. I'm not a public speaker. I stand before you today as a concerned parent. I had to write

[00:44:55] down what I wanted to say because honestly, I am livid. It is not ethical, morally, nor politically correct to act out of anger i'm a mother who has an important responsibility to set an example of how to properly handle situations however the school system has responsibilities as well what type of example are prince william county school study on february 15 2023 my son was sexually assaulted in a urinal while using the bathroom in belmont elementary school a student grabbed his

[00:45:31] genitals there were four children present in the bathroom because the other three who happened to be friends with the other child said it didn't happen my son sat in class with the same boy who assaulted him the very next day he was expected to continue coming to school but i pulled him out on monday february 13 2023 my son told me he didn't want to attend school because the previous monday a child had pushed him down while playing and says something obscene i can't say it um he

[00:46:11] was not suspended nor were the other children um i made administration aware that my son didn't want to come to school because of this reason in january there was a child who took bubble gum and stuck it in his genital area and threw it on my son that child was not suspended in november december he was in a fist fight with a child the child pushed him to the ground

[00:46:45] my son fought back my son nor that child were suspended in october there was a child who punched him while waiting in the line to be picked up from school and the teacher saw it and simply just told him not to hit none of these children were suspended to my knowledge so the thing that i'm attesting today is the privacy policy i understand you guys have to protect the privacy of the parents but in a situation like myself and my sons we should know what's being

[00:47:22] done to the children that are doing him wrong because everyone is telling us that something is being done about it but then when you turn around nothing has been done um and i i'm standing today against bullying and something needs to be done about it my child is a victim of it thank you

[00:47:43] thank you um next is pedras prater followed by jalen custis good evening board dr mcday my name is pedras prater i'm from the neafsco district just want to say good job thank you for serving i'm here because i think we can do a little bit better and this one today is for you chance

[00:48:18] williams is for jalen white um and i'm talking about everything rolls back towards suicide In 1985, the second leading cause of death was suicide. I was born just a year before then.

[00:48:35] The leading cause of death amongst teens now, number one cause of death is suicide, right? So when I'm sitting back at home and I'm, you know, of course, working for the Department of Education, and I learned that they've given several million dollars to Virginia Department of Education to address mental health issues in our classroom, I can only hope that we're taking a new approach to addressing the underlying issue.

[00:49:02] I'm also taking time to review legislative priorities. The past 30 days, there was a bill that worked itself through the Virginia Senate. It was bill number 18, and this talked about introducing curriculum, age-based appropriate curriculum into our schools, similar to models in other states across the nation, that would equip the students with the tools necessary to identify before they become into a crisis situation how to prevent suicide.

[00:49:33] Virginia addresses mental health by stacking on counselors, which I think is great. What I'd like for us to do, this is my Ask Dr. McDade. I had an opportunity to review our legislative priorities, the one that was mentioned before us September 7, 2022. Currently, it does not mention supporting legislation that deals with mental health curriculum. And if I need five board members, I will call each of you all, and I'll make a stronger case. I think next year, we need to introduce that line item.

[00:50:08] Just to say that as a school system, we want our lobbyists, Mr. Council, to support bills that support mental health curriculum in our schools. Thank you for your time.

[00:50:24] - Thank you. - Mr. Jalen Custis. - Good evening, Dr. McDay, Madam Chair, and board members. My name is Jalen Custis. I reside in the Woodbridge District.

[00:50:41] On Monday night, I had the opportunity to attend one of the public forums about the new AI screening technology that the school board is considering implementing inside the middle and high schools. I thank everyone here for conducting that. It was very informative.

[00:50:56] However, most parents, at least in the district I live in, were very concerned about the drugs that continue to get inside our schools. These AI screening technologies, they are very amazing for preventing guns and weapons getting inside our school, but it does not detect drugs.

[00:51:12] Fentanyl and other drugs are affecting our community greatly and leaving a negative impact on our families. Don't get me wrong, guns, weapons are unacceptable inside our schools, however, there are way more drugs and contraband getting inside our schools than weapons.

[00:51:28] One parent at this meeting made a very valid point that we should add drug-stiffing dogs, not the stereotypically scary dogs, but more child-friendly dogs that will quietly and effectively detect drugs inside our schools. Another big issue that parents brought up was bullying.

[00:51:47] They explained how their children were getting bullied and that the administration at their schools did nothing to hold those bullies accountable. One parent told me that she pulled her elementary-aged child out of school in my district because of the bullying. That elementary kid, they shouldn't have to worry about that.

[00:52:06] And it's very, very, very unacceptable. I have seen it firsthand, the bullying that occurs inside our schools. Most students don't report these isn't it's because they believe nothing will be done, and rightfully so. I have seen the disrespect students have given teachers.

[00:52:24] Why aren't these students being held accountable? Why aren't they facing proper disciplinary actions? You may ask me, what does this have to do with safety? How can a child be safe in their school if they're getting bullied on a daily basis?

[00:52:41] How can a student effectively learn when another student is openly disrespecting a teacher? Weapons, drugs, and bullying must be addressed and taken seriously to keep students safe. My name is Jalen Custis, and I reside in the Woodbridge District. Thank you.

[00:53:02] Okay, thank you, everybody. That wraps up our citizen comment time. Now we'll move on to student representative time. Tonight, we have Chance Williams, senior at Forest Park High School with us on the dais. Chance?

[00:53:18] - Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening and happy Women's History Month. Throughout Black History Month, I took the time to define with my sisters exactly what history is. History is each and every one of us. I have made history. This board has made history as it is mostly women.

[00:53:36] Dr. McDade has made history as the first woman and the first African-American to lead Prince William County Schools. No doubt her leadership, changes in implementations have made history. It is important to make sure we are educating our kids of all ages on exactly what history is.

[00:53:53] History isn't just something that happens hundreds of years ago. We make history every day. Last week, I had the opportunity to lead a youth town hall panel hosted by Mayor Derek Wood of Dumfries. On this panel were students from various grade levels in Prince William County Schools who came together to address issues across the school division.

[00:54:12] Mr. Wilk had the chance to hear some of the concerns student body, but I'm here to make sure our entire board both hears and receives the message. There is an ongoing issue with Wi-Fi and internet connection within the county. As the majority of students complete work online, it may be time to revisit the internet speed and availability, especially at our IT and online CTE schools, whose students constantly access advanced programs that require higher bandwidth. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, drug use within teens has risen drastically following covid it has noticeably increased in

[00:54:48] Prince William County schools we are punishing the many students rather than the few who use and or distribute drugs high schools are choosing to close bathrooms rather than take strides to find those using drugs fake drugs are circulating throughout the county with fentanyl overdoses and Percocets instead of addressing it we are hoping students will alert staff in reality the process of informing school staff or snitching on someone isn't as clean and neat as the county makes it seem.

[00:55:17] After seeing someone use drugs or witnessing something against the code of behavior, students must write a witness statement, sign it. This is bad practice as we are training kids to provide reports and sign documents without parental knowledge. We are then punishing these kids that write reports.

[00:55:34] We are then exposing the kids to the person, which may lead to retaliation. If you want to use students as a resource for information, we must make it fair, safe, and a clean process to protect students who choose to alert to illegal activity.

[00:55:49] Many will point out the see something, say something. And while it is a valuable resource, many students don't believe it will accomplish anything. I want to continue on to mental health. As rates of student mental health concerns rise, the county is prepared to support its students.

[00:56:05] The CDC recently released a report saying that one of the top three leading causes of death for adolescents from 14 to 19 is suicide. Our counselors need time to focus on student mental health concerns. sometimes a phone call won't fix the issue. When students experience negative feelings, sometimes a phone call just can't solve the problem.

[00:56:25] It takes work, and perhaps a conversation is all that's needed. Students need to have a vent space to be able to talk about their thoughts, their feelings, without worries of hospitalization. Some of our students face incredibly horrible or difficult home circumstances.

[00:56:41] Often school is their only outlet. We want our students to be able to talk openly and honestly with counselors who are ready and willing to listen. Students are dealing with a lot. We have a pandemic, drug use, unsafe schools, anxiety, college applications, and classwork.

[00:56:58] We all have off days. We should not let those off days throw our students completely off course. The county is currently pursuing metal detectors, specifically Evolve Express security systems, to deter weapons from entering our schools. But those who really wish to do harm will find a way.

[00:57:15] The Student Senate was afforded the opportunity to participate in a demonstration and discussion on the Evolve Express system. And truthfully, its implementation worries me. It is time to stop reacting and start acting. We cannot wait till someone tries to bring a weapon into school. We must prevent that from happening in the first place.

[00:57:32] And the way to do that is to see what motivates someone to bring a weapon into a building. Most of the issues the county is faced with tie back to mental health. To address the drug use, what causes teens to want to smoke or vape? It's often due to depression and the want to fit in as everyone's doing it.

[00:57:48] What causes someone to want to bring a weapon to school? It's often anger or mental illness. To help your students, you must understand your students. One of the main things ailing your student body is mental health. How our schools are dressed it can be the cure.

[00:58:03] To close out my remarks on a positive note, I'm going to drop a lot of positive things going on across the county. As of right now, we have a robotics team from nearly every area of the county going to the state championship this Friday and Saturday in Dalswell VA. Also this Friday is the Forest Park High School Multicultural Night, which will showcase the diversity and backgrounds throughout the county.

[00:58:22] As I've stated before, Prince William County is the 10th most diverse school, 10th most diverse county in the nation. We intend to highlight this diversity. This event is completely student led and looks to be a roaring success. Student representative applications open this Monday for all rising juniors and rising seniors.

[00:58:42] Being the student representative to the Prince William County School Board can only be defined as extraordinary. I have learned so much and had the chance to be the voice for so many of our students. This is not a position to be taken lightly, but it comes with a chance to make change. That concludes my remarks, thank you.

[00:59:01] - All right, thank you very much. Move to item 16, superintendent's time. Dr. McDade. - Thank you, Madam Chair. In addition to the athletic success we recognized earlier this evening, I would like to share that Prince William County Public Schools provides multiple opportunities for students to excel in the fine and performing arts.

[00:59:21] National Arts Education Month, which encompasses music in our schools, theater in our schools, and Youth Art Month, takes place every March. This month highlights the values of arts, such as dance, media, music, theater, writing, and the visual arts in a child's well-rounded education.

[00:59:41] Our schools recognize the educational value of the arts to teach abstract thinking, innovative practices, and intentional play. And our teachers work to nurture the unique talents of our students, encourage creative exploration, and develop comprehensive skill sets transferable across curriculums.

[01:00:01] Because of these benefits, the strategic plan sets a goal of increasing student participation in fine and performing arts programming by 5% through access to opportunities like auditions, concerts, and exhibitions. We want all fine and performing arts students to participate in at least three extended learning experiences each year.

[01:00:22] I invite all students, family, staff, and community members to attend at least one of our school events that spotlight the glimmering talents of our rising stars. March is also Women's History Month with International Women's Day recognized on March 8th.

[01:00:39] This historic day founded in 1911 by the International Conference of Women was established to reflect, appreciate, and celebrate the contributions and impact of women throughout history. This year's theme is celebrating women who tell our stories.

[01:00:57] When we make the conscious effort to weave women's voices into our intertwining story, our history becomes more inclusive and comprehensive. As the United Nations declares, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal in itself, but a key to sustainable development, economic growth and peace and security.

[01:01:20] Be sure to look for features from the division and our schools throughout March as our school staff members and students recognize the barrier-breaking achievements of women in history. And speaking of breaking barriers, national school social work week is an opportunity for our community to acknowledge the challenging but rewarding work of our school social workers and thank them for their heartfelt compassion in changing lives every day with the history steeped in improving attendance and making connections between home and school the national association of social workers

[01:01:58] designate the week of march 5th through the 11th to recognize and celebrate the women and men who who support students with mental health, behavioral challenges, and provide family support. Often unsung heroes to students in crisis, I want to thank our school social workers for their transformative work with our students and the countless contributions that they continue to make to our communities.

[01:02:23] In conclusion, National Read Across America Day is held annually on March 2nd to celebrate the magic of reading. Tomorrow, PWCS celebrates the joy of reading and the transformative power of literacy. While our schools have many activities planned to celebrate reading, I hope our families will compliment our school's efforts to cultivate a love of reading by encouraging our students to read at home.

[01:02:48] Together, we can partner to ensure a book in the hand of every child. Yesterday signaled the last day of Black History Month. And in closing, I want to thank all of our schools who invited me to attend their Black History Month celebrations.

[01:03:03] many of them which were organized for students by students. It was inspiring to hear our students' voices and witness their many talents on display as they recognize the impact and influence of notable African-Americans in our nation's history.

[01:03:20] At this time, I would like to invite our chief financial officer, John Wallingford, to come forward as a part of the superintendent's time to provide a brief update on the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2023-24. The last presentation that we provided, we did inform the board and the public that there were some changes at the state level as it relates to funding and the impact that that may have on our fiscal year 24 budget.

[01:03:47] And so we do want to give an update as we do have a few sessions coming forward before we vote on make any decisions on the budget. And so we wanna make sure we inform both the board and the public of the updates that we are aware of to date. Mr. Wallingford.

[01:04:04] - Thank you, Dr. McDade, Mrs. Wall, members of the board. Brief update on what's taking place in Richmond with our friends in the General Assembly. On February 25th, the General Assembly adjourned, excuse me, adjourned CNA DA, sine die, and couldn't resolve the differences that they had between the House amendments and the Senate amendments to the governor's introduced budget.

[01:04:39] So what they did was they passed what has been referred to as a skinny budget, and that budget actually reduces revenue to Prince William County schools by just a few million dollars in both fiscal '23 and fiscal '24.

[01:04:57] We shouldn't be too nervous about that reduction. The General Assembly is going to have to come back sometime in the next several weeks and resolve, the difference is that they could not resolve in conference.

[01:05:13] One other thing that I wanted to mention, and that is the hold harmless on the VDOE calculation error that everybody's aware of. You've heard that they've held us harmless, and that's true to a certain extent. They've held us harmless to the extent of about $800,000 in fiscal '23 on an error that was about four point three million dollars and then in fiscal 24 they have not held us homeless at all expectations we're still we received information some of this information I got today at two o'clock there's still information coming

[01:05:50] out we don't know when they will reconvene in their special session and so what we're doing is we're paying attention closely I speak with Jim counsel almost on a daily basis at this point to try and make sure I know what's going on and those are my remarks thank you madam chair I also would like to provide an update on security and then we can take questions from either John or burn at that time but we do have a short presentation we did have three community meetings thus far one at Gainesville one at Freedom and one at

[01:06:29] Woodbridge and then we have a webinar that will be held tomorrow with demonstrations on the AI technology that we have shared information with the public in the board on and so I do want to provide the board with a summary of what we've learned thus far and so at this time mr. Verne Bach will bring some qualitative data that we've gathered from the three meetings that we've held thank you dr. McDade and good evening madam chair and board members I'm happy to be here tonight and I'm here tonight to update you on our engagement efforts

[01:07:04] that have been occurring across the district over the past month and a special thank you I do want to thank all of our risk management staff who have been out with us during the presentation our school safety staff to include our community service officers our school community service officers our school security officers Prince William County PD police department leadership have been out to the events as well and folks from evolve I just want to update you really these these updates or engagement efforts across the community

[01:07:41] are focused on a multi-layered approach to safety and one of those layers is the weapons detection system known as evolve and you know I've been in front of you we presented this information at the joint board meeting with our school board and the board of supervisors just to reiterate to you that just a few points about the technology it really is designed it's it's not a metal detector system it's designed to detect weapons and ignores harmless items coming through your typical household items it's touchless it has ten times the rate

[01:08:16] that's people can pass through than your traditional metal detector and it's a very effective system just to highlight to you some of the community engagement efforts that we've been involved with this really starts back as early as February 6th engaging with our elementary principals around this technology and demonstrating to them and then followed by on February 9th meeting with our secondary principals and demonstrating this technology to them we did present to our Student Senate on February 13th and that was a very engaging evening we got some great questions from our students that evening

[01:08:56] and I wanna thank our students who participated. Later that evening, we met with our Safe Schools Advisory Council and demoed the technology. And then most recently, February 22nd, we presented to the Gainesville High School community, or it was a community forum at Gainesville High School.

[01:09:14] We had folks from all across the county, and I think we had about 70 folks attend that evening. Each session, we've had a QR code where folks are able to submit their questions real time while we're going through the present, the multi-layered approach to safety, including the evolved technology.

[01:09:32] And we answered all the questions that we received throughout each of those evenings. And again, we followed that evening by February 27th at Freedom High School. Again, had about 70 folks in attendance that evening. And then last night we rounded out our in-person sessions at Woodbridge Senior High School.

[01:09:52] Again, between 65 and 70 folks. Wonderful questions throughout the evenings. We will have, and I wanna put a plug in here, we do have one final session that's scheduled tomorrow evening at seven o'clock. It is a Zoom webinar session.

[01:10:08] We will be doing a demonstration there and engaging in entertaining questions and feedback that evening as well. At each session, we did have interpreter services and we will have interpreter services on our March 2nd, tomorrow evening webinar.

[01:10:26] Again, I wanted to reiterate, folks who participated were able to submit their questions and feedback through QR code. I'll show you a little about that data. I just want to share with folks that on our district website, underneath risk management, we do have a tab there for our weapons scanning technology.

[01:10:46] There is an active feedback link there. So folks watching tonight, if you couldn't make a session, you can submit your feedback through the website and provide your questions there as well. And we'll reach out to you as best we can and answer those questions.

[01:11:02] I will say the majority of the feedback that we've received has been very positive. We've had a lot of media focus over the past several days through NBC4, DC Now, ABC7, and Inside Nova. have all featured the technology over the past several days and through the QR code feedback, we've received over a hundred questions.

[01:11:23] And here broke that down and tried to synthesize that data as best we could into some categories that you have in front of you there. 48, the bulk of the questions were around the device operation. We did have some questions around how the data would be stored and if we're storing the data on students and if Evolve would have access to that, they do not.

[01:11:45] That is data that's stored locally with us. The general safety question, you know, is this safe? Is the radio frequencies emitting from this device safe? And then six of those questions were miscellaneous. And then you can see the breakdown of who asked those questions.

[01:12:02] And so 84 questions from parents. We did have some students participate, some community members, or eight from employees, I'm sorry, and one from a student. and we did have some from community members as well. I do, again, wanna stress, tomorrow night we will have our webinar.

[01:12:21] For folks who couldn't attend, that will be at 7:00 p.m. Information is on our website there for that, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. One additional point before I prepare for your questions.

[01:12:38] We did, at the end of the culmination of every evening, We allowed folks to come up on stage, folks who wanted to walk through the technology with a test piece and go through the technology were able to do that. Our evolved folks were on hand to answer questions from families as well.

[01:12:54] So I think overall it's been a very productive engagement and looking forward to rounding it out tomorrow night. And we did add one additional engagement session. Dr. McDade is asking us to come out present to the Human Rights Student Leadership Council on March 16th.

[01:13:13] So we'll be doing a demonstration for that group on March 16th. So at this time, that concludes my report. - Madam Chair, that concludes the superintendent's report. And if the board has any questions on the presentations, we'll take those questions at this time. - Okay, great, thank you.

[01:13:29] So we have Mr. Bach and Mr. Wallingford here. Thank you both for the update on the budget and the community information meetings. Are there questions from board members? Miss Jessie, would you like to start out? - I don't have a question, I just wanted to make a comment.

[01:13:44] You know, I've been here for quite some time and I was talking to Ron Crow and I said, Ron Crow, we've been here since there were big notebooks and it was not just a presentation of the new security system, but you provided information to parents about the safety in our schools and I'm really pleased with the fact that principals do not have to worry about those rock in the doors where doors are open what happened in texas i just think it was well done it was well professionally done i think you handled all the questions well and i just want to thank you guys for a wonderful presentation i want

[01:14:20] to thank dr mcdade and um i think mrs william you went to charlotte north carolina and looked at the system uh my husband said and he's in the audience he said you know you know i feel good about what's happening in prince william county in terms of security and i do too and i've been here for quite some time thank you thank you miss jesse i do want and i did fail to mention my apologies we had several board members in attention in attendance at those sessions so thank you mr wilk and then miss williams thank you um both of you thank you for your service and the work

[01:14:55] you've done um i was able to be at the freedom one which i thought was a very good thorough presentation just a question during some of the q a time some topics came up some very passionate topics came up bullying was one I remember that particularly with freedom did we try to track those people down and get contact information as best as possible so we could follow up on their concerns yes sir we did and and you know we stuck around for several minutes after the presentations invited folks who shared various concerns with us to come down and have con individual conversations

[01:15:30] and yes we did get gather that information and and have passed along and are passing along that information. Thank you Madam Chair. I want to share the same echo statements that Miss Jessie made. I have now attended two of the three sessions and to your comfort Mr. Wilk I stayed till like I think the end we all walked out together with security closing of freedom so I I do appreciate the extra time that was spent speaking to the community members or family members that stayed in the audience that had questions outside and above and beyond on the Evolve system.

[01:16:09] I don't think we can highlight enough how much of a well thought out and thorough presentation was made. I would highly encourage members of the public if they weren't able to make the two, excuse me, the three presentations they've already made to attend the virtual one because it is much more detailed than just the Evolve system.

[01:16:27] We really do speak to the safety and security measures division-wide that we have either implemented, are planning to implement, or in the process of upgrading, there's quite a bit of activity going on. I will say that one of the things that I've noticed is our view as a division of what encompasses safety and security versus our school families view of how they define safety and security.

[01:16:56] So I think as we move forward, it would be nice to maybe outline that or have separate information sessions because it's very hard when you're there and there's a parent or a student who has an issue that they believe falls under safety and security, but we don't necessarily define it that way as a division.

[01:17:15] I think that also causes some friction. So that's not a critique. It's just, it's an operational, how we organize within ourselves versus how a family coming in would view something. And those would be two naturally different things.

[01:17:31] So I think that moving forward, that would be very helpful. And I will agree with Mr. Wilk. I did hear a lot of comments in regards to bullying at the presentation at Freedom and a little bit at Woodbridge, but mostly Freedom. And I think that it might be worth our while to host something with regards to bullying so that parents can be more informed about all of the programming that we do have currently in our division with regards to bullying and where they are at different levels because elementary has a different program in the middle, middle has a different program in the high school, how we also work in conjunction with some community organizations like Payton's project

[01:18:08] and some other things that we've had a long-standing relationship with for years. And I feel that that will sort of close the loop on a lot of those concerns because while we have a different view, it doesn't matter if you're a parent who's upset. And so I think that we should acknowledge that from that vein.

[01:18:26] Otherwise, John, I was wondering if you could speak to a little bit about -- sorry to switch gears, but I think it's important. I know the BOCS just announced or had their initial preview for their budget last night. Just for the public's education, if you could speak a little bit about how that process interacts with our process.

[01:18:46] I think I've run into a few members of the community recently who feel that the BOCS has ownership of the school division because of funding. And I am not the best person from a financial perspective explain how they tie together so something if you could speak to that and how that folds into our budget process so financially thank you for the question so it's actually a very good question financially we are dependent on Prince William County schools both from an accounting standpoint and in the law they must approve our budget what they don't have is the opportunity to control

[01:19:25] how we spend with one exception they can either adopt our budget at the division-wide level and for us this year it's going to be about 2.4 billion dollars or they can approve our budgets on a categorical basis within those categories defined by the Code of Virginia if I recall correctly there's either nine or twelve of those so when there are questions about how we spend and I know the meeting last night there were a couple of questions about how Prince William County Schools will spend their money how much money will be spent on collective bargaining there were several kinds of questions like

[01:20:02] that it would be a reasonable thing for us to share that with them but they certainly don't have control over how we spend it thank you I appreciate that I think that's very helpful because there's a lot of budget activity going on this time of year yes sir and do we anticipate there being a delay I know that we don't that you don't have a crystal ball at the state level but are we hearing anything about maybe a delayed budget approval and if so how does that affect us in our decision-making so another very good question like I said I've I've been speaking with Jim council almost on a daily basis over the past week or two right now we're uncertain as to what and

[01:20:41] when it will happen at the state level tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock I'll be on the phone with Jim saying if anything's happened today and the only thing we can really do is sit and wait we've had two or three occurrences over the past 10 years where the General Assembly did not get their budget done on time and what we've ended up doing is passing an interim budget effectively and then going back for adoption where we get our our our actual numbers so the next week or two really will tell the timeline both for us and for the County Board of

[01:21:18] Supervisors to get things done is very tight there's really not a whole lot of leeway and again the Code of Virginia actually stipulates May 15th they have to be done. And for us, theoretically, they're supposed to have a budget adopted by May 1st.

[01:21:36] So we'll see how that all plays out. Thank you. I appreciate that. Ms. Jackson. Thank you both for the update tonight. I know Mr. Wallingford, I know a lot of things are unfolding. So I appreciate the update and the conversation that Ms. Williams or questions, thank you.

[01:21:56] Will the information that you updated today, will that be on the website for the budget? I know that it's like one PowerPoint, but will you put any of this on the budget website? Yes, ma'am. Two things. This presentation will be on the website tomorrow morning.

[01:22:13] In addition to that, I've left with the clerk copies of our proposed budget book. It's about a 300-pager. It's three or four inches thick. That will be posted on the website tomorrow morning, and you have access to it as you leave this evening.

[01:22:31] you read my mind that was my next thank you um so thank you mr wallingford the other question i have is um about the evolve system um i would love if if it's okay i know that sometimes like the student senate might be a safe place um and work conversations but it would be great to and i know that there's more conversations coming with students to just get their feedback or maybe a summary of the feedback on Evolve systems if that's possible and I know that they included a link to provide feedback from the community we did is

[01:23:10] there a closed date on that we were leaving it open right now we haven't decided when to close that it's currently open on the website the QR code again will be active tomorrow night but there is a separate link on the website underneath of risk management and weapon screening technology and I don't we don't have we haven't discussed any plans to close that down when we announce it if we when we close it yeah yep so we'll do we'll do some communication blasts in the school I'll put it in the end of week Friday letter to just give people enough time to be able to weigh in so it will be definitely open at

[01:23:47] least for another month okay I appreciate that thank you the the information that you put today, will that be posted on the Evolve website? On the Evolve website or our website? Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah, generally what we present here at board meetings is posted, so absolutely.

[01:24:04] Okay. It's hard to find sometimes in board docs. That's why I was -- and then I think -- We can post it on the safety and security. Yes. Okay. And I think that's it. I appreciate your presentation today. Thank you so much.

[01:24:20] Thank you. All right. add that I attended the community meeting at Gainesville High School and I thought it was awesome I especially like the QR code it was a really great way to manage questions I thought that worked really smoothly and I felt like the questions from the community were really good they thought of all kinds of questions that I did some that I thought of and some that I hadn't and I especially appreciated the opportunity to walk through the technology and see it in action i think that was the most fun part but i also and i i didn't expect this but i very much

[01:24:57] appreciated the discussion that came before we discovered before we discussed the ai all of the layers of safety mitigation that we have that we have in place in prince william county schools that we have put in place recently in our schools and then some of our plans to also increase the layers of mitigation because i think it's very important for us all to re you know understand that while we cannot reduce risks to zero there are a number of things that we can do that will greatly reduce our risks in of various kinds reduce risks of various kinds so i really appreciated that discussion and wanted to thank everybody who from the community and also

[01:25:37] staff who who staffed that but also community members who came and i had a question about from mr wallingford and i think it's probably the question that ms williams asked so maybe i already maybe we already got the answer but my question was the impact on our budget process if any as a result of the delays that are happening at the state level and I am assuming the discussion of the May 1st and the May 15th deadlines may make it really tight for us like you said but I guess my question is are we going to move forward with the budget that we have and then if the numbers change then we'll make an adjustment as needed in May is that kind of for what

[01:26:14] we're looking at that's that's the current plan there may be changes coming from the county side as well and um we'll have to adjust and and deal with that on our current timeline unless the general assembly gets done you know in the next week or two which i frankly don't think is likely so we'll still have a work session on the 8th and then we'll have our vote on the 15th that's correct okay all right great thank you are there any other questions anybody

[01:26:42] else okay super thank you thank you both thank you so um moving on to committee updates item 17 we have two committee updates that will be shared tonight we will start with the safe schools advisory council um ms zagapur and i sit on that committee as board members so i'll ask ms zagapur just on that issue thank you ms wall um so we'll go to january's meeting on january

[01:27:18] 9th the council met to receive an update from risk management and security services on recent school initiatives we discussed updates to the crisis management plan the raptor alert system safety inspections and audit AI technology CCTV installations after action reports in the upcoming purchase of the 880 megahertz radio replacements when one of the things that I I have to say I'm jealous about is some of the improvements that are coming we're gonna have I think some community the community will be engaged on this in March correct yeah so they've made some

[01:27:55] improvements that are just really just streamline some information for families for students so I'm excited about this thing coming out on February 13th the council met to become familiar with the weapon screening technology known as evolved we've heard plenty of here tonight so in in this report we were going to just remind people that we had some community meetings and tomorrow we have the the zoom meeting so if you haven't seen it haven't looked at it please take a look at it it's a big it's a big conversation it's a it's really interesting technology um it wasn't what i expected when i when we got the uh the uh presentation

[01:28:32] at the safe schools it was uh very it was really i said there's it's so fascinating how well it worked we even talked about how it's ada compliant you can um have some of these things at you can move it around your building um talked about like plans that each school would have to consider so it's it's not like they're just trying to put something in the doorway and we're done uh it's it's far more information than um just what we've talked about this evening so um as well do you have

[01:29:02] anything to add to that no okay thank you thank you um i thought that was great so um the other committee update is the school health advisory board um that miss jackson and i serve on and the board met the board meets every three months so it met on february 17th to receive an update on immunization non-compliance within PWCS and to discuss a partnership with George Mason and Partners Clinic to provide vaccines for students who remain non-compliant with required immunizations.

[01:29:38] The division reported some statistics on immunization compliance and as of February 10th the number is significantly smaller than the August 2022 numbers which is a really good thing and it's a testament to the good work that our division employees are doing.

[01:29:56] their focus has been to improve the ability to get information out to families and they're working on increasing student involvement in the messaging as well so that's all really good the other thing is we met welcome dr vanessa gaddis who is president and ceo prince william county community foundation and we had a good discussion about the health and wellness expo that they conduct to bring resources under one roof and this organization operates the chow wagon program and they are planning a community back to school event where they will be giving out backpacks and school supplies to our families in need and that is scheduled

[01:30:32] for August 11th and 12th and they are hoping to also include dental screenings and vaccination opportunities at that event as well which I think is very beneficial it's a very good partnership that we are developing here the two locations will be Freedom High School and Unity Braxton Middle School again this is in August I guess it's never too soon to start planning for the next school year let's see they also informed the health advisory board of a scholarship opportunity for students through that organization and they invited teachers to apply for a number of $250 micro grants for classroom supplies so I would encourage teachers take a look at that and that's the

[01:31:11] update from the school health advisory board sorry it's my turn still so we'll now move on to board matters item 1801 sorry oh oh it's not on here okay sorry sorry sorry okay so we are now on 1801 revision of policy 541 the Prince William County School Board will receive

[01:31:45] information on the proposed revision of policy 541 holidays thank you madam chairwoman I would like to invite our chief human resource officer Dr. Donna Eagle to come forward and provide a brief overview of some revisions that we will need to make to policy 5441 to address holidays that are already exist in the school division but need to be updated in the actual policy.

[01:32:12] - Thank you, Dr. McDade. Good evening, Madam Vice Chair Wall and members of the school board. So what you have today is our recommendation to make revisions to the holiday policy to reflect the four religious holidays that were added into the school calendar in October of 2020 for the '21-'22 school year and have carried forward into the '22-'23 school year.

[01:32:39] These four religious holidays were added to reflect the rich diversity of our division. We're also recommending the addition of June 10th, which is a state and federal holiday. Be happy to answer any questions that the board has regarding the recommendations.

[01:33:00] - Does anybody have a question or comment? Ms. Williams? - I'm just curious, with the language, don't we have to adopt state and federal holidays? It's not really a recommendation, right? - No, we don't have to adopt. Actually, like Columbus Day, for instance, is a state and federal holiday, and we don't adopt that in our calendar.

[01:33:20] So there is no requirement for us to honor state and federal holidays. However, in this case, we are recommending that we do add Juneteenth to our holidays. - Thank you, I did not know that. I appreciate that. - Anybody else have a question or comment on this?

[01:33:37] So this is up for information tonight, correct? - Correct. - And be up for action next time we meet. - Yes, ma'am. - Okay, and I guess in the meantime, if anybody has a question, they can reach out. - Absolutely, okay, thank you. - Okay, thank you.

[01:33:54] Now onto, I'm just gonna check the agenda. Now onto board matters. Last time we started, I believe with Mr. Wilk. So I think we'll start at this end.

[01:34:09] No, did we? V knows, okay. Would you like to go, oh, you will, you'll go. - Yes. - Let's not all jump at once.

[01:34:29] - Okay, so I typically, are we starting? Lock the eye. Okay, cool. Yeah, no, so I typically use this time to rattle off anywhere I've gone in the past two weeks, but I'm gonna do something a little different this time today to address some topics that I've been thinking about briefly.

[01:34:52] for those of you who don't know i am in charge of getting my boys ready on the bus in the morning well why would you know but there you go my wife is a high school teacher and is gone well before the elementary buses arrive so there are parents at the bus stop every morning and i use this opportunity to kind of get a temperature check and learn what their thoughts are about things or concerns first i want to mention the topic that we have had some chatter about outside of cyber bullying, social media plays a critical role in our schools.

[01:35:23] As a parent, I have concerns about any employee posting photos with students in school on social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok that are not open to all parents. I personally would be incensed if I heard from others that photos of my son were on social media account that I could not access without explicit approval.

[01:35:42] I don't believe as a parent I should have to hope a friend request is accepted to see if their children are on a school employee social media account without permission. you're going to post a classroom or school event do it on a public page so that all families can be involved. I do not believe staff should be allowed to pick and choose which parents or citizens can see the school happenings. There is always the option to not have a class or staff page at all.

[01:36:06] With social media also comes the topic of bullying. During my office hours last weekend a parent shared some disturbing stories about bullying of her children last year at school. I also attended into the Freedom Community Evolved session, as I mentioned already on Monday night and the issue of bullying came up again.

[01:36:26] I support the division and the schools remaining diligent when issuing appropriate punishments. Although our goal is to keep students in school, there are times when I feel suspensions are appropriate and needed. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not include my concerns about Dumfries Elementary School.

[01:36:46] Before my arrival on the board in 2016, during the renovation cycle, a decision was made not to complete the overhaul of the building, but given the limitations that currently exist, I would ask my colleagues to consider placing Dumfries on the future CIP, and that will be it.

[01:37:05] Thank you. - Ms. Zagrepar. - Thank you, Ms. Wall. Yes, it is Music in Our Schools Month. I didn't mention it earlier 'cause I was saving a little bit for here. I am a music educator, certified to teach K-12, I have I've taught pre-k actually all the way up through adults and I do believe music enhances your life but there are studies out there that talks about how so just give you a few tonight it enhances your vocabulary students who study piano for three consecutive years demonstrate higher vocabulary and verbal

[01:37:42] sequencing scores the non-musical peers but how does that work in our schools well our children get music once a week for 45 minutes starting in kindergarten And they develop their musical skills all the way through fifth grade, some schools fourth grade, where they're allowed to also take strings classes.

[01:37:58] This is going to further develop their fine motor skills, their aural skills, their spatial skills, all kinds of things that are going to help develop them, not as just a musician, but as a human being. They have the option in middle school to continue with that instrument or to jump into band or chorus.

[01:38:15] They can continue through high school. Music also supports cognitive function. I firmly believe that when you are a new parent and you sit there with your baby and you do the little sing-song things or the little rhymes, this is pre-reading skills and it's essential for what your child needs as they go through school.

[01:38:34] Our elementary music teachers do this every single day. It develops reading and writing ability. It encourages self-esteem, increases verbal memory, boosts IQ in some studies, develops empathy, raises math and history scores in some studies reduces aggressive behavior teaches planning ability encourages perseverance which is a really big deal these days if you look at kids they get so much instant gratification and learning how to learn is really important you can do that through music improves articulation protects against dementia which we don't need to worry about as five-year-olds but when we're like 50 something we go and start

[01:39:10] thinking about those things stop laughing and then facilitates anxiety management boosts standardized test scores refines perceptual motor skills nurtures life happiness also just want to give a shout out to those foundational teachers no matter what you are if you are a foundational teacher you are a preschool teacher a general music teacher a reading specialist a math specialist kindergarten through fifth grade you are a foundational teacher and we can't have amazing programs in middle and high school without you so I just to thank everybody there uh this week i got to watch the osborne park basketball girls basketball

[01:39:46] team win their regional championship so whoo go jackets and i just saw that saunders won another wrestling match uh congratulations to all our student athletes i hope everyone has an absolute fabulous evening thank you all right miss jackson thank you there are as we talked about tonight a number of things the board is working on including the budget and the trainings that evolve i was able to attend the last one last one last week at Gainesville High School where Mrs. Jessie was and Mrs. Wall I'm also going to just remind everybody even

[01:40:25] though it said earlier there's a virtual one tomorrow and to make sure you register ahead of time during the last meeting the last board meeting we approved the boundary for Rosemont Lewis or the school excuse me at Rosemont Lewis and and I appreciate all the community involvement and support behind the current plan the Rosemont Lewis naming will be there too being held virtually one on Wednesday March 22nd at 7:00 p.m. another one at Wednesday March 29th at 7:00 p.m. you can watch the web story on the on the link on PwC

[01:41:02] website and to learn more information about how to register virtually yesterday was rare disease day which affects four to five percent of the population this This day is designed to spotlight rare diseases with the hope to accelerate an understanding and conversations.

[01:41:22] Oftentimes with a rare disease comes the potential lack of knowledge or study. This month is also Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month which we passed in the consent agenda a few meetings ago. And we'll probably celebrate it at schools but I just want to just again, it's just to bring further awareness to the needs and barriers that people with disabilities, including developmental disabilities, that sometimes face.

[01:41:49] I appreciate celebrating all of these resolutions, including the Black History Month, which just ended, and then the more celebrations that I'm sure schools will have for women's history and other heritage recognitions in the month of March.

[01:42:05] During the last few weeks, I enjoyed attending the Heritage Literacy Night at C. Clay Wood. It was a wonderful night, and I just thank you to Tibberwolves for creating a welcoming environment. And I also got to see a wrestling match for the opening season at the Norgesville School.

[01:42:21] These examples of artwork are amazing, so thank you to Ripon Middle, which is in Miss Williams' district, for sharing it with us. It's nice to sit here and see such exemplary work. I'm looking forward to celebrating theater in the schools month at some future shows.

[01:42:39] good luck to the robotics this weekend and thank you to those who spoke tonight and for coming thank you all right miss Williams thank you madam chair I also again would like to give a big shout out to ribbon for displaying their artwork it's wonderful to see so many clay pieces and 3d sculptures and the dog over there behind the clerk is amazing it just absolutely phenomenal want to again highlight that today is the first day of women's history month I would like to take a moment to honor my fellow women board members.

[01:43:15] We have all served during a historic time in all of our lives through the pandemic. I want to just really give pause and thanks for three of our board members, Ms. Jackson, Ms. Wall and Ms. Zagrapoor.

[01:43:33] You came in during a time where you've never served before. You're still here and still standing. I believe that that and the work that you put through, put in with all of us and some who are more veteran, we all came together and made a fantastic team. And as women, we don't always honor ourselves or give ourselves space to be honored.

[01:43:51] So I wanted to do that and take a moment to really acknowledge the hard work that you put in. To Ms. Jessie, thank you for always being a school board mentor from mine. I appreciate all of the education and love that you have shown me and allowed me to grow as a school board member.

[01:44:08] And also one of our longest serving board members at this period of time too, and for a lifetime of service to our school division. I wanted to thank Dr. McDade for being our historic first woman superintendent of our school division, and to all of our staff who are women who serve.

[01:44:25] We have a very well-rounded and diverse staff here in Prince William County Schools. Our clerks, amazing women. I know Lillian is not here, but special shout out to her. We don't always give ourselves the time to see our own greatness.

[01:44:40] We just get in and do the job. And I thought it was worth noting because it's time to stop and smell the roses while we're still here. So thank you to all of you. Moving on from that, I think the security update has been said and said again. I want to take a moment to highlight Freedom High School.

[01:44:59] I attended the Black History Month program last week. I promised them that I would honor their student entrepreneurs, so I am going to do that. Mr. Jamal Thurman is the creator of his own clothing line to which I had the honor of purchasing a hoodie 'cause I love hoodies and this is it.

[01:45:16] So for all of you, they had student tables. So please, if you're interested in purchasing, he is selling his products. He's building a website now. In addition to Mr. Thurman, Jamiah Golson is a budding hairdresser.

[01:45:34] Jamiah Smith is a budding barber. And then we also have Rosie Chavez who has her own clothing line. In addition to that, Freedom High School will be having a mental health fair on March 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And very briefly, I know I have three seconds if you'll indulge me for 30.

[01:45:51] I just wanna highlight the virtual school programs because we don't talk about them and the new principal, Mr. Gillespie, has done a fantastic job in coordinating all of the virtual school programs. They had an author visit from Gordon Corman, cook along and zoology and a black history month program i'll save the rest for our next meeting but they are wonderful programs so thank you all right miss jesse uh good evening uh b do i have

[01:46:20] that slide slide we have okay this is i have to brag about this you know woodbridge high school is a school of the arts and technology they don't have the titles but this girl is sophia shaha and i think i pronounce it she i she has a voice so i've taught i've called her i said i said to her did you ever think about going on a television show this school has an arts team a choral team

[01:46:57] that's just amazing so the director of the choir Joe Shapiro they gave me a little serenade and mr. Carlos Castro who is project lead the way thank you Lori would you put this up for me look at this guys I think you guys got plaques and all these big banners guess what I got this was designed by Carlos Castro and his art teacher his name is Adrian loving and I wanted to say to them that

[01:47:36] I appreciated them and this little girl Sophia you are a person to watch and mr. Castro mr. Castro is also the voice as you know and mr. Castro is also the person who who does project lead the way and when we do those robotics you know when you go to Woodbridge High School he does all that background work he was doing that work before we had all the help so I wanted to say that the last thing I want to talk a little bit about is a courageous for it I don't know if we have anything for that the courageous for Dr. McDade and I were on a panel when he talked about these four women I think it's appropriate because we're

[01:48:16] entering we just entered we just ended black history moving into women's history these four women and I don't have we couldn't come up with the picture but they are Fannie Fitzgerald, Zella Brown, Maxine Coleman, and Mary Porter. Zella Brown is the only of the four people, women, who is alive today.

[01:48:36] And a lot of people say that Mr. Bevel, and I did know Mr. Bevel, that he was in charge of sending these women to schools overnight. But it was really Mr. Herb Saunders. Herb Saunders went in those schools and told those women, you will be desegregating the Prince William County Schools overnight.

[01:48:56] And I want you to know how important it was for him because I attended his funeral. And at his funeral, those four women were considered to be his honorary pallbearers. When I called Fannie Fitzgerald about the naming of the school, she said, it's been 40 years.

[01:49:12] And I don't know what's gonna happen with history in the state of Virginia, but we need to know our history. And I want to congratulate the courageous four, thank you. - All right, Ms. Williams, did you wanna add something really quick? - Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to be perfectly clear.

[01:49:28] I am not advertising for free. I purchased this in case anyone just wanted to know. My own funds. We have to disclose those things. So I just wanted to make everyone aware. Thank you.

[01:49:44] All right, thank you. I'm going to go ahead and wrap up. It is said that a child that is encouraged grows up with confidence. That's a Ugandan proverb. And I love it, because encouraging a child to grow-- growing up with confidence is a wonderful thing.

[01:50:03] And it's wonderful to see the level of encouragement that our students receive from their families, their teachers, their leaders, and their friends. I want to thank the citizens and parents who came in tonight to speak to us at citizen comment time.

[01:50:20] And I wanted to say that your comments are important to me and to the board. And you help us become aware of issues and concerns that need our attention. So thank you for coming in tonight. These are really busy times. This time of year, it just escalates from here on out until the end of school in June.

[01:50:39] I was able to visit a number of activities over the last couple of weeks. Unity Braxton for a girls basketball game against Parkside, a battlefield pre-assessment concert for orchestra with Bull Run and Reagan Middle students in attendance, which was awesome, a spelling bee at Reagan Middle, a family dance at Gravely, oh my goodness, there were like 800 people in that room.

[01:51:00] It was crazy and fantastic. Bull Run honor roll celebration for seventh and eighth graders. There was one for sixth graders. I didn't make it to that one, but I loved that. It was just celebrating students for doing their core function, which is working hard and earning good grades, learning material.

[01:51:19] And I also got to meet with the newsletter club at Bull Run, and they asked me a whole bunch of questions, and I thought it was really fun. And last night, I met with Battlefield's Principals Advisory Committee meeting, and we discussed the budget. school's budget and then just the division's budget which was a great discussion um i really appreciate the effort that the division is making to um communicate with the community about our safety and security posture and initiatives and seeking community feedback i really appreciate that um two students competing in vex robotics state competition this weekend good luck and best

[01:51:55] of luck to the students competing in the first robotics competition in blacksburg this weekend as well and to all students and music teachers who are involved in orchestra band and choir who have been gearing up for their assessments also best wishes to you and I want to congratulate the team from Bull Run who earned top honors in the stock market game regional competitions I should probably join your team so I can learn how to do that to our many student athletes who've turned out top-notch performances on the court the field the gym the mat but aren't state champions but you're regional champions or district champions we love what you're doing and

[01:52:33] we're so proud of you as well and one final shout out to campbell lascote a senior at battlefield for advancing to the poetry out loud state finals she's one of 12 semi-finalists out of 2 600 students who entered in virginia so that's in march on march 10th in richmond so good luck to campbell lascote and then to all i say by small and simple means are great things brought to pass keep on doing small and simple things and together we can be great and keep up that good work and there being nothing further to come before this board i now declare this meeting adjourned

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