Coraggio Consulting Prince William County School Board Meeting, Wednesday, May 1, 2024 Date: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia Length: 3h 8m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUvzJYgQJc 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 2026-11-01. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:01] - I'd like to call this meeting of the Prince William County School Board to order. A motion in order for the approval of the meeting agenda. Miss Vice Chair Zargarpur. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended. Mr. Chairman. - Second, Ms. Williams, any discussion? [00:00:17] Please vote. All in favor, aye. Aye, any opposed? Okay, any abstentions? No, all in, looks like it passed unanimously. One absent, all right. Moving on to the motion to enter closed session, Motion is in order, Ms. Zargarpur. [00:00:36] - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. I move that pursuant to section 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia 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 pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1. [00:00:59] Two, to discuss with division counsel and staff actual or probable litigation specific legal matters involving staff and students pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A 7 and 3 to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security of school facilities, the safety of persons using such facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A 19. [00:01:26] Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman. Williams. I second. Any discussion? Okay. - Aye. - Any opposed? - Okay, no opposition, no abstentions. The motion passes, and at this point, the Prince William County School Board will now enter closed session [00:01:41] and return in approximately one hour. [00:02:46] - Prince William County School Board is now returning to open session from closed session. We will first have closed session certification. A motion is in order. Vice Chair Sargent Board. - Mr. Chairman, I move that pursuant to Section Code 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, the closed session of the Prince William County School Board meeting of May 1 2024 be certified by adopting the following resolution. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William County School Board hereby certifies that, 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, [00:03:24] 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. Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I have a second. - Any discussion? Please vote. [00:03:52] - The vote is seven yes, one absent. Wall, motion passed. - Moving on to closed session. Action items, a motion is in order. Ms. Zargarpur. - Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in closed session. - Do I have a second? [00:04:07] - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Any discussion? Please vote. [00:04:25] - The vote is seven yes, one absent. Wall, motion passed. - Okay, at this point we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and it will be led tonight by our student representative, Isabella Aversano. [00:04:54] Okay, thank you. Moving on to our Thriving Futures Focus. Thriving Futures Focus is an opportunity to highlight the exemplary work being accomplished in our schools that fulfill our vision that every student will graduate with the knowledge, skills and habits of mind to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. [00:05:12] We dedicate this time during our meetings to recognizing students, staff members and schools that have earned an honor or award at the state or national level. 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. [00:05:29] Tonight, the school board will recognize our 2024 National Association of Home Builders secondary construction management competitions, first place winners. Our team exceeded best practice standards in one or more topic areas related to school excellence for students, teachers, and staff. [00:05:50] Vice Chair, Ms. Lisa Zargarpur, who also represents the Coles District, which this all happened in, will introduce our award-winning students. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. The National Association of Home Builders of the United States strives to protect the American dream of housing opportunities for all while working to achieve professional success for its members who build communities, create jobs, and strengthen our economy. [00:06:14] The NAHB Secondary Construction Management Competition recently held at the International Builders Show, IBS, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Four Charles J. Colgan senior high school students, led by advisor Tim Mason, earned first place for their project submission. [00:06:31] Their winning entry involved developing the full pricing and management schedule for a high-end custom home in an upscale community in Park City, Utah. With great honor, the Coles District would like to recognize Colgan High School students, Zane Blair, Rhea Butler, Aurora Ramos, and Ethan Reyes. [00:06:49] Let's give them a round of applause. And representing Colgan tonight is Assistant Principal Chad Cavender. Additional honor goes to Rhea and Aurora, both recognized as outstanding students. [00:07:07] This is significant because Colgan was the only school with two students to receive this recognition, and only one of three high schools to be recognized. The Coles District would also like to acknowledge the founding faculty member and longtime advisor of the Colgan NAHB student chapter, Tim Mason. [00:07:24] Mr. Mason, would you care to share a few words about these remarkable students and Colgan NAHB student chapter's journey? - Good evening, Chair Lateef and esteemed members of the board. Not a lot to add to that, except that I do wanna thank you for your time, and I sincerely thank you for recognizing and celebrating the deserving achievements of these remarkable group of students. [00:07:46] Thank you. - Mr. Mason, that was really short. what i think um you're making a habit of i think is this the third time we've seen you or second time in a row this is the first time coming in here uh colgan has been recognized the third time we were rookies of the year in 2020 and we were third place in 2022. nationally nationally third place nationally and this year you were first place nationally correct correct that is incredible i I mean, you know, we can't thank you enough for your time, your commitment to this program, [00:08:26] and I'm just, I'm really thrilled and excited about it and hope you all continue this great success. And to the students, congratulations from all of us. And before we take a few pictures, Dr. McDade. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. Congratulations to each and every one of you. [00:08:44] And also, Mr. Mason, thank you so much for your steady hand and guidance for our students. Zane, Rhea, Aurora, Ethan, you really represent and embody the profile of a graduate. You are critical thinkers, you are resilient, you are innovators and visionaries and global collaborators. [00:09:02] You are ready to have post-secondary success when you leave Prince William County. And we are just so proud of the work that you've done and how you have represented both Kogan and Prince William County Public Schools. Congratulations on a job well done. We are PWCS proud. [00:09:22] - Thank you, Dr. McDade. Would the teachers, families, and friends who help support these students please rise in recognition of your hard work in ensuring our students' thriving futures? Will the parents please stand and families and teachers back there? Woo! Give them a great round of applause. [00:09:41] I know this wasn't easy. They had to go, I think, was it a terrible place? Las Vegas? - Las Vegas. - Right, right, right. And they achieved, and I think, am I correct, Mr. Mason? Mr. Mason used to teach at Colgan, but now you've moved over to working for the county? - Correct. - Is that correct? [00:09:56] but you still work with our students. - Yes, I do. - We can't thank you enough for your dedication and commitment for the students and to the school and to the school division and your enthusiasm for this and to all you students who worked so hard, we can't thank you enough. [00:10:12] So at this time, I think we'll break for a picture, correct? [00:10:15] All right, we'll meet up front, everybody. [00:12:31] Okay, excellent. Well, thank you all very much. It's always my favorite part of the evening. We are now moving on to the adoption of the consent agenda. At this time, Ms. Zargarpur, a motion is in order. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended. [00:12:49] - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Yep. - I second. - Ms. Williams, any discussion? Okay, please vote. [00:13:11] - The vote is seven yes, one absent. Wall, motion passed. - Okay, at this time, we're moving on to 1201, approval of acknowledgements and recognitions. - Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the acknowledgements and recognitions as recommended. [00:13:26] - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I'd like to second it. - Any discussion? Okay, I mean, great. Please vote. [00:13:48] - The vote is six yes, one abstained, Tridentic, one absent, Wall, motion passed. - Moving on to citizen comment time. Those citizens who signed up in advance with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they're called to the podium. 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. [00:14:07] Please use proper decorum manners while at the podium or you'll be asked to step aside. We ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and refrain from any clapping, cheering, or jeering to avoid disruption in the meeting. If you do not do so, the board will recess and I'll ask that the room be cleared to restore public order. [00:14:22] Tonight, we have six citizens signed up to speak. When I call your name, please come up to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Our first five speakers, just so you all know, the order is Donna, well, we'll go with six. Donna Babcock, then Magali Hurtado, Cindy Richmond, Matthew Reed Zwieg, Jennifer Donnelly, and Hugh Donnelly. [00:14:44] Donna Babcock, Babcock. - Are we on? - Good evening everyone, school board members and Dr. McDade. I'm standing before you tonight to gain your assistance and insight in understanding why we as a school system have discontinued using the Prince William County Code of Behavior Procedure Manual. [00:15:08] As an instructional leader in Prince William County, I am truly baffled and lack an understanding as to why the manual even exists. I have read it cover to cover, and many staff have worked hours and hours, including our legal department and you, and the PWCS school board to provide the staff and the administration a document that provides the school specific guidelines in maintaining an orderly and safe environment for all of our learners. [00:15:40] When inappropriate behaviors have escalated to the point that learning is impeded in the classroom or to the point that safety of our students is placed into jeopardy, interventions from the administration are a critical component within the scope of behavior management to ensure fluid learning continues and our students are safe. [00:15:58] However, many, many teachers and staff throughout Prince William County are reporting that when the situation requires administration intervention with the disorderly, aggressive, and/or violent students, the PWCS Code of Behavior is basically tossed out the window. [00:16:14] Instead of following the guidelines set forth by you, the school board, the administration and many of the buildings has made many choices to discredit and humiliate the staff who have encountered the disruptive, disorderly, and aggressive and/or violent students. Rather than providing the offenders consequences their actions and holding these offenders accountable for their actions as per the pwcs code of behavior it becomes the staff's fault that the aggressive behaviors are escalating and therefore no consequences are deemed necessary as students internalize that the administration does not hold the offender accountable for his or her behaviors and that there will be no consequences for their [00:16:51] actions the inappropriate behaviors escalate as teachers and staff internalize that they will be shouldered with humiliation and the discrediting because it is their fault that the students are violent and acting out. The inappropriate behaviors escalate. [00:17:06] Classrooms become disorderly because of all parties are brazenly aware that the administration had abandoned the Prince William County Code of Behavior Procedure Manual and do not support the honest efforts of those entrusted to educate our most precious commodity, our children. Board members, this message was previously sent to each of you including documented evidence of several of the injustices that have occurred within just my building. The descriptions are not unique to my school and are but examples of situations that are occurring throughout Prince William County. As a leader, sometimes it becomes necessary to take a stand even if it means standing alone. It saddens me the [00:17:44] number of arrows that keep flying towards the invisible target on my back because as a leader I dare to speak out and speak up about the injustices the administration has dealt the staff and students at our building due to tossing out of the pwcs code of behavior procedure manual thank you thank you magali hurtado good evening my name is magali hurtado my address is on file with the clerk and i'm an occoquan district resident and mom of two prince william county students i was looking at the updates to the [00:18:21] code of behavior and would like to ask that you review edits uh on the chart lists are listed as all pages 44 and 46. when you define harassment and bullying the name the new definitions say "to include victims of a group protected from discrimination." [00:18:39] How about everyone not on those protected categories? Shouldn't your definition say to include, but not limited to these categories? I assume kids who are not part of any minority are also bullied and harassed, and the way the new code is written seems to omit them from this protection. [00:18:58] I'm sure that is not your intent. One of my kids, different topic, One of my kids is a student at the amazing Old Bridge Elementary School. Full disclosure, I also work at the school, but I am here solely as a parent, and based on comments that I heard from the community, in which I have been active for a long time, before I was a county employee. [00:19:20] In conversation with another school mom, she shared a rumor that Old Bridge was getting so many new preschool classes, including for two and three years old, that several of the general education classrooms would be put on trailers. When I heard this, I asked for clarification from the school principal, and I was hoping a professional response along the lines of, that would be crazy. [00:19:42] Instead, her professional response was, at this time, all students in general education will be in regular classrooms for the next year. Not super reassuring for the long term. Old Bridge and many schools in the area went through a very intense boundary process about six years ago. [00:20:03] And just because the current administration wasn't here, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Many of you were here, and we lived through it. We made it through, and it was hard, but we achieved the goal to remove trailers from all of our elementary schools in the eastern side of the county. It seems like the current agenda is to ignore and disregard everything that was done in previous years. [00:20:22] A new high school plan for years? Scratch that, delay it some more, and let's do something else instead. No trailers in elementary schools on the eastern side of the county? Great, but not anymore. So, it's like we're destroying prior achievements to push through and check boxes at the expense of the current students that everyone says they care about. [00:20:44] As a parent and member of the community, I want to invite all rich elementary parents to stay involved. My experience tells me these rumors always carry some truth. This administration has been particularly good at trying to sneak changes without community input, like when they tried to change our bail times, and they were forced to revert them after they were announced because of community reaction. [00:21:07] So thank you, that's all. - Cindy Richmond. [00:21:36] - Hi everybody, my name's Cindy Richmond. I'm here as a concerned parent. My address is on file. Thanks for allowing me to speak tonight. So I wanted to first start off by sharing some of the data that was provided to me in the 2023 Washington Boards of Education Guide. [00:21:51] So the average number of students here in Prince William County per school is 948. When you compare that to other counties, the average for them is around 782. In high schools, there's 33 students per classroom teacher in Prince William County. [00:22:07] In other counties, that average is 24. In middle schools, it's 30 in Prince William County. In other counties, it's closer to 22. Furthermore, and this is what I'm gonna talk to you about in the handout here, Prince William County ranks as the second lowest in total fund expenditures per student, but surprisingly, the second highest in school board member salaries. [00:22:30] These disparities are alarming, but they really only scratch the surface of the report that we're gonna talk about. There's a lot of information in there, particularly how poorly compensated Prince William County teachers are in comparison to neighboring counties, but that discussion's for another day. [00:22:48] Today, I wanna specifically focus on the information that I provided to you, and this is data that's extracted straight from the Washington Board of Education Guide. So what's this data telling us? When I look at this, it tells me that in Fairfax County, Montgomery County, Prince William, Loudoun, those are counties that are bigger than us, or comparable, which is mostly Loudoun. [00:23:10] What that's telling me is that they are spending around $18,000 per student in their counties. For us, in Prince William County, we're spending about 15,000. So that might not be a lot, $3,000 per kid, but then when you think about that for 91,000 kids Prince William County, that number is $273 million, all right? So then somebody made me aware that there's actually data for 2024. So I thought, oh, you know what? I bet you that disparity, you know, maybe they're working on it. Maybe it's going to go down. Well, when I look at 2024, [00:23:50] what it tells me is that we're only increasing funding by child by $984. And then when you look at someone like Loudoun County, which is comparable to ours, theirs is $1,200. So it might not be a lot, $200, but $200 per 93,000 students, that's over $18 million. So I'm here tonight because I just really want to understand if someone on the board has really thoroughly reviewed this report and this information and then raised awareness across the board. It's really hard for me to understand if key decision makers in the county would see this and think that it doesn't require action. I think it's essential for the community under school to understand what the school board's [00:24:29] doing with this information, because I feel like we can't continue to have meetings like this without, you know, addressing why this data is specifically saying that. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Matthew Reed-Zwig. Matthew Reed-Zwig. Okay. Jennifer Donnelly. Good evening. [00:25:03] My name is Jen Donnelly, and my address is on file. I'm here to speak tonight on behalf of teachers, Teachers who are forced to work in a hostile work environment while administration sits back and allows it to happen. They are more worried about their accreditation than the safety and well-being of students and teachers. [00:25:23] The story I'm about to tell is unfortunately not an isolated incident, nor is it just happening in one classroom or one school. It's happening in all classrooms everywhere, all in the name of restorative practices. The teacher I spoke to told me about an extremely aggressive and violent child in their school. [00:25:43] The child had bitten, clawed, scratched, head-butted, kicked, bruised, and even broke one teacher's nose. The student has rarely been sent home for any of this, including when he broke the teacher's nose. This child is attacking fellow students from kindergarten through second grade. [00:26:02] The parents refuse to allow the child to be placed in another school, and the administrators allow that child to come back to school day after day. The child is learning at an early age that there are no consequences to their actions. I know that all of you are either parents or grandparents, and would you allow your child to get away with punching another child or a teacher in the nose? [00:26:24] I can say that you wouldn't. The more you push these problems along, the bigger the issues get. The current iteration of the Code of Behavior is full of contradictions and loopholes to ensure that the number of suspensions and expulsions are reduced so that our schools look better. [00:26:41] How will those accreditations look when our county is on the national news for an unthinkable tragedy that was allowed to happen under your watch because you didn't want to enforce consequences. In one breath under policy 747, you say that the school board has a policy in place to enforce and coordinate the school division's efforts to provide a safe school environment conducive to teaching and learning. [00:27:04] Where was this policy when the teacher was punched in the face? Where is formulating and implementing school rules when kids are kicking and cursing at teachers? Why are you thwarting Virginia code 22.1-279.3, where you would assist the schools in enforcing the standards of student conduct and compulsory school attendance in order to educate, maybe education may be conducted in an atmosphere feel free of disruption and threat to persons or property and supportive of individual rights. [00:27:35] I implore you to vote no on the code of conduct as it is written. Thank you. - Hugh Donnelly. [00:27:55] - My name is Hugh Donnelly. My information is on file. I wanna talk to you about an incident that just recently happened at Marsteller School. As you know, my wife and I are involved with the parents' rights groups, Moms for Liberty. So we are contacted by students, teachers, and parents all the time about incidences. [00:28:15] This incident happened Friday at a track practice or a track meet. The mother has wrote a letter to the principal trying to find out what happened. It was confirmed by witnesses, but in a nutshell, her student was harassed and chased around by a group of other students. [00:28:38] When she addressed this to the principal, the principal said, well, that's not under the definitions of the code of conduct. So in talking to her, I went to the code of conduct and it actually says group assault is at any school related activity the way that is strictly permitted uh prohibited a student who participates in group assault results in the distribution of school or school related activities and subject to disciplinary action now this means it's it's it's the two or more people with an intent of doing harm so they [00:29:15] it's not even not even assaulting them physically they could be assaulting them verbally so she was denied her due process and she came to us uh you know for some answers but after reviewing your code to contact the 49 pages of information majority of it was based on restorative justice and and and dei but the biggest thing about restorative justice is it's a practice of an emerging social science so this is not even proven yet it's emerging that we're following and if as anybody [00:29:53] watches the news today uh it's not working in society either but yet we're forcing it through the school system trying to work things out with students when they do harm to other students and teachers you guys are the professionals you guys are the educated leaders in this country if you see something that isn't working you should be trying to rectify it and and in my opinion as a taxpayer you're spending a lot of money into programs that are not working restorative justice does not work for the teachers as miss dr babcock mentions today [00:30:30] as my wife mentioned other other teachers have said this and this is once one school that my son goes to in our area which is from patriot high school feeds into picture the whole county and we know this is not working and we need you guys to fix it you're getting you're getting paid and and we want you to do your jobs. [00:30:54] Thank you. - That concludes citizen comment time. We're moving on to 1401. A motion is in order, Ms. Zargarpur. [00:31:10] - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the development impact statement for the Bradley South rezoning. - I have a second. - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I have a second. - Any discussion? [00:31:26] I mean, that's what you asked for. - Mr. Chairman, could you- - Ms. Tradenek can, what? - I was just gonna say, could maybe you provide a little, want to say why we're doing it this way? Well, so I'll open it up for discussion. So Ms. Trudanik? Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't realize we were voting on these each one by one. I thought they would be in a group. My apologies. That's how they're posted in the agenda. Okay. My apologies. Didn't realize that. So these impact statements come before the board. They normally have a we vote [00:32:05] to accept or deny the project saying we recommend approval or denial to the BOCS and it goes to the BOCS for them to look at. We are now removing that statement from these development impact statements, but we have left them on the agenda. [00:32:25] Therefore I ask them to be separated out of consent because I'm not sure why we're voting on them if that statement is not there. So I'm just letting the public know because it looks very similar to what we had before. it does not have that statement on it anymore. [00:32:41] I think we should either make the statement or not, but not put this out there with nothing on it. And that's why I asked for these to be separated out. That's all. - Just to clarify, development impact statements are done by the school division in response to requests from the planning commission regarding any projects being recommended for zoning changes or development or new homes. [00:33:06] We don't send these to the BOCS, we send them to the planning commission. So that's number one, clarification. Number two, historically, this board has made these impact statements, primarily over the last few years, as we're required to make an impact statement, but when we had a lot of development, there came a time when there was, the planning commission asked the board to consider also weighing in with an opinion on whether or not they support or oppose a impact statement. [00:33:40] And so it became tradition of the board and the public is used to seeing us vote on all the impact statements. And typically the board has historically opposed any project that increased capacity in the school division, which means we've kind of opposed almost every project. [00:34:02] Then what happened was the laws changed a couple years ago for proper laws down at the general assembly. It used to be that the planning commission, the BOCS could then take our impact statements and use them to ask for proffers. The laws have changed. I'm not as clear on the proffer laws as I used to be, but they have limited the extent to which jurisdictions can demand proffers or mitigations from developers regarding impacts on the community, whether it's road construction, whether it's adding seats to schools or giving schools property. [00:34:39] So we've also looked at this and said that, you know, the planning commission and talking to BOCS members, they felt that, you know, if we continue to have these oppose or support statements, it becomes more difficult to, within the limited framework they have currently of asking for proffers, makes it a little bit more difficult. [00:34:59] So because they're just impact statements, many members on the board have come and said, you know, we should just go ahead and approve the impact statement as the statement that says, what does it do to student population and how does it impact the school? [00:35:17] And does not require a statement from the board to support or oppose them. And so this is just impact data points for the planning commission to do their job where they make the recommendations to support opposed projects. But we provide them all the data possible. And so at some point this, as Ms. Tridentik pointed out, this can become something that becomes staff to staff, But because the school board is used to doing this and the public is used to seeing us put every project up, I think as we change the way we do things in relation to the new laws that come out of Richmond and the new posture that the BOCS [00:35:57] and the planning commissions are taking on looking at different projects and what they ask of us, I think it makes sense for us tonight to at least vote on them as the statement is written. And so moving further, I'll take opinion from board members. [00:36:14] And I know there were a number of board members who didn't want us to just take them off because they felt like it was appropriate to be transparent on the fact that we are weighing in on each of these projects. So I think we'll move forward with a system over the next few weeks and few months on how best to do this, where we'll be voting. [00:36:36] So tonight, all you're doing is voting on the impact statement as it's written, which the impact statement takes no opinion one way or the other. just states exactly what is going on. In our regulations, it doesn't require us to make a opinion on them. [00:36:51] And so that's why we're doing this. We're making some changes, but at this point, we're putting it up in the name of transparency for the public to take a look at. And then moving forward, we'll have a different approach as we figure out what's best with the planning commission and the school staff on how to move forward on these things. [00:37:07] Ms. Williams. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we were asked several boards ago to make that designation when the school divisions were no longer specifically asked or are able to ask for proffers. At one point, school divisions themselves were legally allowed to do that. [00:37:24] So when the law changed, the BOCS asked us to then weigh in. That was also around the time that we worked more collaboratively with the BOCS and the planning office to ensure that our development impact statement was part of the packet that they get from the planning office, the board members themselves, and it was also sort of like a way for them to know exactly how the development was going to impact the school division. [00:37:53] But as you were saying too, the proper laws have since changed as well, so they're limited in their abilities and what they can ask for. To me, I feel like this new impact statement is the same information minus our approval or disapproval, which is just a short summary. [00:38:10] it doesn't really change the impact statement itself because we're still saying if it's going to be, the development's going to make our schools overcrowded or if we're not gonna have enough resources, the information is still there. I am 50/50 myself about whether or not we continue to include it on the agenda, but I do know that it won't disappear. [00:38:30] It will still be publicly available to anyone who would like the information and how the particular project may impact magisterial district and it'll still be included in the information that gets sent to the Planning Department and available for review for the BOCS but in the past two board cycles our development impact statement has not really garnished the division a lot of flow-through proffers where the BOCS is then rewarded a proffer by developer and then they in turn provide funding or land or something of that nature to the school division due to the development [00:39:06] being made i'd also like people to understand too with these a lot of times there's confusion when it comes to new developments that you can get a development approved by the bocs in 2024 it may not even be built until 2029 2030 maybe 2025 belmont bay is a good example the development was approved years and years ago they've stopped started twice on building and adding houses so i think that anyone who's interested in um seeing how developments are done from start to finish and and the impact that it's made on the school division I would highly encourage you to reach [00:39:42] out to the planning office and to your supervisor to get a more in-depth look. What I will say is that I am very excited by the continued collaboration between our division and the BOCS and planning department as someone who served on a committee years ago to help bring that together I think that it only continues to improve and as long as we're able to maintain that open line of communication and provide this statement um i think we're still providing the necessary information to the planning office and to our citizens at large who are interested in learning more so thank you thank you miss williams mr wilk yes sir i just have kind of a quick kind of point [00:40:21] of order or a question so by voting yes i'm basically acknowledging that this is occurring basically you're you're essentially approving this is the statement that goes to the bocs for now yes the planning commission yeah you're a quick learner i'm sorry i'm supposed to ask the quick that's right so the recommended action the recommended action on the agenda item is that the prince william county school board approved the impact statement as presented and as presented it does not contain a for or against that statement which we've removed and um anybody who's interested there's a school board regulation that sets out the kind of essentially the data elements [00:40:59] that go into the impact statement so what you're verifying is we have prepared a statement that contains those data elements, such as enrollment increases, population impacts on the division's schools. Ms. Trudini. Thanks. I just feel the need to also say that while I appreciate being educated by my fellow board members, these do go to the BOCS after they go to the Planning Commission. [00:41:28] I do work for one of the Board of County Supervisors, so this does come across our desks when we're reviewing all of these cases just to be clear everyone thank you fair enough okay if there's no objection i'm going to ask that the board take all of these in one vote does anyone have any objection so the motion would now be redone as um yeah i would ask that the board um if yeah we do have a motion on the board all right so let's vote on 1401 that uh please vote on 1401 put that one up, that motions, please vote, okay. [00:42:05] - The vote is six yes, one no, Tradenek, one absent wall, motion passed on 14.01. - I'm gonna make a motion that we take 14.02 through 14.07 all in one, we combine all those. [00:42:23] If there's no objection from the board, let's take that as one vote. Okay, so all in favor of, yeah, do I have a second? Ms. Williams, second. Okay, from when I said there's no objection, but no worries, I know we're splitting hairs over here. [00:42:45] Fine, all in favor of taking 14.02 to 14.97 and approving those as written, please say aye. How about raise your hand? That's great, okay. And then any nos? [00:43:01] Did you get a no over there? Okay, and then any abstentions? No abstentions. Okay, and we have our non-voting member abstaining. Excellent, very good. and then we will then, and wall is missing. - So that would be, so 14.02 through 14.07, the motion passed with six yes, one no Tridentic, and one absent wall. [00:43:26] - Right, okay, so that's done. We are now moving on to 15.01, I think, and that will be code of behavior, is that correct? - Mr. Chairman? - Yeah. - Is there any way that we can allow our student representative to go ahead of this presentation. [00:43:44] I know it's her last month of school and in case anything were to go long tonight, she has the ability to go home and get some rest and study and do all of that. Is there a way we can allow her to go before this presentation? - I can wait, I appreciate that, but I don't wanna throw y'all off or anything. [00:44:03] I like hanging out with you guys. Okay, thank you though. - All right, no, I appreciate that Ms. Averson. I mean, I think, you know, when the students sign up, they typically do sign up to try to be here for the whole meeting and student code of content. I actually, I mean, where are the next discussion is as pertinent as any to the student representatives. [00:44:22] So I would love to have her here for this as well. So I think there's no better point in the year to have our student representative weigh in on the code then on the code of behavior. So at this point we will go to 1501. This is our new proposed 2024 code of behavior information. [00:44:41] And we have Ms. Denise Huebner here. And Dr. McDade, do you wanna introduce it? - Sure, thank you, Dr. Lateef. As you know, we work to continually improve the code of behavior and we update the code of behavior annually. [00:44:58] And this evening you will learn about updates for the 24-25 school year. I do have present tonight our Associate Superintendent for Student Services and Post-Secondary Success, Ms. Denise Huebner, and she will be presenting the updates to the upcoming school year code of behavior. Thank you, good evening Dr. Lateef, members of the school board and Dr. McDade. I do have our proposed revisions for the 24-25 school year of the code of behavior and so I would like to just note that all the work that we do in the division is grounded in our strategic plan. So the work of the code of behavior is no exception. [00:45:36] The goal is to provide a positive and safe environment that allows all students to access quality instruction. It's a welcoming, supportive, and learning environment that manages behavior through a partnership with families. And in organizational coherence, our work and our focus this year is really looking for implementation consistency, and that is gained through a common understanding of expectations by not just our staff, but our students as well. So as you all know or are familiar with, under our code, the school board does approve our coded behavior. [00:46:10] There's several reasons that that authority is delegated to our code of behavior. It does allow flexibility for the local needs of the division. So each school division does have unique needs, demographics and challenges. The school board allows to listen to stakeholders, gather feedback and get input on that, which makes it unique to our division. [00:46:33] So the purpose of the code of behavior, as you will hear me say every year, it directly impacts our students' wellbeing and academic success. Its primary goal is to create a safe and focused learning environment. The Code of Behavior, in addition, also outlines expectations for students, but also contains students' rights. [00:46:52] Clear expectations set by the Code continue to contribute to student achievement. The goal is uniformity and consistency, and by approving the standard of the Code of Behavior, it will be a set of rules that our staff and students are able to live by. [00:47:09] We recognize that this is an area of work for us, the consistency of the implementation of Code of Behavior, But again, I'd like to say it's grounded in the work of the document itself and then the focus on the implementation. So we do seek stakeholder feedback. [00:47:25] We have received feedback from our school board members. In addition, we do listen to all stakeholder feedback. And so one of the feedbacks that we have received from multiple people is that the chart of responding to student behavior can be confusing because it does contain a wide variety of responses. [00:47:44] We always consider several factors when we're looking at responses to discipline situations. the age, the ability, the development of the student involved. Progressive discipline, is this a first-time behavior? Is this a repeat behavior, a second time? Discipline is very difficult to be a one-size-fits-all or an if-then statement. [00:48:04] So we do allow enough flexibility for implementation of the code of behavior. One such example that has been brought to my attention, for example, is the use of a racial slur. Someone had brought up a point, why is that a lower level? Why is that allowable to be a level one? [00:48:20] And so the example that I'll use with that is it is never acceptable. When a slur is used between friends in a friendly manner, we like to establish the environment that that is never acceptable and respond to that with a lower level consequence as opposed when it is used as a hate statement, which would generate a higher level consequence. [00:48:40] It's very complex. A lot of investigation and thought needs to take place. And we need to individualize that response to the situation on a case by case basis. We've also understood that there's a lack of consistency. We hear you. I'm excited to talk later about how we are currently addressing that lack of consistency or the concerns with a pilot and other work being done by our level associates on implementation in our schools. [00:49:04] We know that this is an area that we need to do better, and that is our goal. We also have understood that there is a desire for clear guidelines or responses for the misuse of cell phones and electronic devices, and that improvement on the administrative responses of behaviors that are related to discrimination and harassment is needed. [00:49:24] So we have several subcommittees, as you can see, listed on the slide. Dress code, we've received feedback. Implementation, again, inconsistency. Our subcommittee also received feedback about should children be allowed to wear hats. This was not a change that was made in the code of behavior, so there are no changes in our dress and grooming at this time, but I wanted to just note that that was something our committee took under consideration based on feedback from student voice as well as the adults. [00:49:50] We also took a look at our equity and worked to include some enhanced language also gives clear outlining on responses and also reporting of behaviors that are related to maybe potential discrimination and harassment. In our definitions, we took a look at not only our language of harassment but bullying based on a recommendation that is coming from the Virginia Assembly. I'll discuss that in a little bit. We also took a look at cell phones. We clarified the definition. We removed cell phone from being embedded in electronic devices. It is now a standalone area and more clearly defines what the responses to that should be. As always, we always [00:50:25] take a look at our regulations. We have a great team, support from our legal team. Deputy Carol Marchant from our legal team is a help. Our J.D. Anderson, our hearing officer here tonight, they are our legal eagles who take a look at our regulations and help us update and change accordingly. So the summary of the stakeholder feedback is something I've already talked about in general, but just again, oh, I'm going the wrong direction. There we go. So our areas of focus, based on the feedback that we have received, are edits for organization and readability. [00:50:59] We received feedback that sometimes as a parent, it is hard to find the information that you need, and it was redundant, so we've taken out for readability some of the redundancy and streamlined that. Also we're taking into consideration what that looks like online for parents. We'll have the implementation of a new user platform that will be a little bit more user friendly. [00:51:16] It is the same platform that you've had an opportunity to review during the course catalog presentation, so we're very optimistic that that will help parents get the information that they need when they do have questions about the implementation of the code of behavior or responses for their child or appeals. So additionally, the chart of changes -- or I'm sorry, the chart of responses, we had some changes where we took out the tiered, we found that to be confusing. [00:51:38] We've left in the options or recommendations for level of responses. One thing I'd like to point out is the Code of Behavior is a forward-facing document that is really for the public so that they can understand what the rules and regulations are and expectations are. We also have additional supporting documentation for administrators on the implementation, And that is where we really feel like the organization of implementation will be enhanced as we adjust that administrative guide. [00:52:06] So the enhanced information that I referenced earlier, we have included more information about response for harassment or behaviors, those especially related to Title VI and bullying. We also have put in more additional information about prevention and proactive supports for student behavior. [00:52:23] The best scenario would be not have behavior to respond to. is the key to success, a focused learning environment, and that comes with our Tier 1 instruction and our preventive responses. Say again the definitions we've talked about already and any updates that would be required by our General Assembly. So one such update that is under consideration by our General Assembly is the definition of bullying. You'll see in blue on the slide the recommended addition. This currently has been proposed to be amended by our governor. It is sitting if those those amended changes were denied by the House and Senate. It is [00:52:59] sitting waiting for signature by the governor. That is due by May 17th. And so the blue language that you see if it is signed on by the governor will be embedded into our definition. So that is a definition that is has been approved by the Virginia Assembly. We have incorporated that into our current code of behavior for awareness and discussion consideration. So I think that's It's notable that the inclusion of the basis of actual perceived membership of a victim in a group that is protected from discrimination pursuant to the Virginia Human Rights Act, and those particular categories are race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, [00:53:36] childbirth, or related medical conditions, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or military status. Additionally, we have heard the feedback, bullying is a concern, and in response, we We wanted to highlight some of the recommendations from VDOE that will be a focus of implementation for us during this year and the coming year. [00:54:00] So first of all, having clear behavioral expectations is a must. Students need to be aware and understand what the expectations are. We need to reinforce positive behavior in the hopes of preventing that behavior, but also we need students to feel safer in the classroom and know appropriate responses. [00:54:18] That does not mean that we would not respond to situations again. When bullying behaviors occur, we will respond with sanctions as appropriate, but we also have to positively praise those desired behaviors that we want to see. It's important that you establish policies for reporting incidents of bullying. [00:54:35] I'll be talking a little bit more about a reporting in the next few slides. And importantly, adopting a multi-tiered system of support. This falls under Dr. Ashley Ryer, Associate Superintendent of Special Education, who is here with us this evening, as well as Dr. Barker, who is our Director of Tiered Interventions and supports, and so that is recognition that the Virginia tiered systems of supports provides a framework that allows us to focus on prevention and interventions across all levels. [00:55:03] A universal prevention program is key, activities that support students while also implementing interventions but does not replace sanctions. Prevention is not a replacement for consequences. So speaking around the reporting, one of the things that we will be implementing for the 24-25 school year is an online bullying reporting form this is an option that has not been available in the past we hope that this allows greater access for our stakeholders this is not the only way that bullying can be reported we are at schools are expected to act on any report of [00:55:37] bullying whether it be written verbal and taking into consideration the child's ability to report that additionally we're enhancing our resources so that students can find resources and parents can can find resources. We're working with our communications department to increase our communication to our stakeholders to not just identify bullying behaviors by other students, but helping parents recognize are the behaviors in your own child that might lead to a bullying situation. So again, mentioning our focus on prevention and support. Restorative practices can complement each other in a positive climate culture in schools. I do want to make a clarification. [00:56:16] Restorative justice is not something that is being implemented in our school division. Restorative justice is something different. Restorative practices are behaviors and strategies where we help children understand their behavior and engage in appropriate social behavior. [00:56:33] The implementation of restorative practices in PBS does not replace consequences. It is in alignment with the code of behavior and the model policy, which is given to us by the Virginia Department of Education. School staff can leverage restorative practices and positive behavior interventions to create a comprehensive approach to behavior management emphasizes prevention, early intervention, positive relationships, and restoration of harm. [00:56:56] But again, I do want to be clear, restorative practices do not replace consequences when appropriate. Restorative practices are really based on success skills for students that promote good citizenship. It helps us with raising self-awareness and again these teaching behaviors would be encouraging students to engage in self-reflection, so understanding their emotional responses and how they can control them. So that feeds into the self-management piece. [00:57:20] So self-management is really effectively managing emotions or responses to situations. It's really having social awareness, making sure that the relationship skills are there for students. We can teach that through modeling that in classroom lessons. And it also helps effective and good decision making. So again, teaching the behavior by discussing ethical dilemmas, critical thinking opportunities, and really responsible decision-making, all of these in combination with prevention are a key to success. [00:57:51] When disciplinary behaviors or behaviors that require discipline occur, there are responses. It is not a replacement for consequences. Two very separate things: prevention, after the situation if there is a sanction, then repairing and recognizing and learning from the behavior. [00:58:07] I did mention that we are really focusing and working hard on our implementation of the coded behavior. At the start of this year, during the summer of 2023, all school leaders participated in the training and how to respond to and investigate complaints of bullying as well as the implementation of the Code of Behavior as part of our legal hot topics. [00:58:29] At the start of the 23-24 school year, principals from all levels and central office staff formed a discipline work group and this was with the purpose of fostering consistency and equity around discipline referrals and the equity around those sanctions that are delivered and and how we document behaviors across all levels and appropriate interventions, preventions, and supports. [00:58:52] So this is an area of focus for all of our level associates taking a look at is the coded behavior being implemented with consistency. This is a work in progress for us. We are aware of this and we are owning this and this is where we are dedicated and focused during the coming year in addition to the work that we've already achieved this year. [00:59:12] Additionally, in October we had a training. work of a larger project that will be happening but addressing discrimination harassment so recognition of behaviors that are unacceptable based on race stereotyping hate speech like racial slurs insults racial bullying really talking about the legal standard for what is title six understanding how to report and investigate talking about coding and how to address these behaviors and really understanding again the classroom supports and interventions related to the behavior and supports for victims the discipline work group that has been formed is working on a phased approach. [00:59:50] It's a three-phased approach. The first phase is really identification of professional development that is in need and working on the consistency of the documentation. That is in progress now. I'll show you a little bit later the specific modules that we will be working on. The second phase would be the implementation of the professional development and expanding on common expectations, data review, and feedback from school staff. [01:00:11] And phase three is once we reach that level of consistent implementation, really focusing on the why and the trauma-informed pieces, that go along with responding to disciplinary fractions and really looking at proactive use of different management systems and interventions. [01:00:30] So in addition to the professional development that I may be talking about, we're gonna talk about continuing coded behavior as part of our legal hot topics. There are many aspects of our coded behavior that are legal in nature. And so we appreciate the support of our legal team that will be helping with that. We will have on-demand Canvas courses for our school leaders. [01:00:47] We will be engaging in training for restorative practices administrators and teachers monthly presentations at special education update meetings so that we're ensuring that our students with disabilities and the discipline processes and procedures are on track and we will have on-site workshops by for school teams by our team and student management and alternative programs here you can see a list of the really differentiated professional development that will be offered with the goal of making sure that all of our administrators are on track we have modules for new administrators those for our security specialists who engage in the discipline process as far as investigation and a refresher for all [01:01:25] administrators our next steps would be to move this coded behavior to the platform that is the online platform really looking at revision enhancement of our administrative guide which i spoke to which is really how we train and expect our administrators to implement the code of behavior and this is the goal of supporting consistent implementation we're expanding our professional development offerings for teams we're holding feedback sessions with administrators and and stakeholders, and we're increasing those opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback. [01:01:54] Our monthly subcommittee meetings will take place on a regular basis for the division revision team. So we will immediately upon the approval and publication of this year's code of behavior, start our feedback cycle, developing different data points that we can monitor and track for revision for the next school year. [01:02:11] And we hope to enhance our communications and resources available to all stakeholders. So I thank you for your time this evening. - Thank you, Ms. Huebner. - At this time, we'll open it up for questions that the board or comments that the board might have. Keeping in mind that this is our first kind of read of this and we typically get feedback from the public, feedback from the board, feedback from school staff to make any revisions or updates or edits prior to this coming to the board for a formal vote. [01:02:44] - Thank you, Dr. McDade, for reminding us about that. Mr. Wilk. - Okay. Thank you, first, Ms. Huebner for doing this and giving us a presentation today. You know, you've been very instrumental in this and you were at the vanguard of the COVID pandemic when this first started, so we thank you for that. [01:03:03] I have not forgotten that, so thank you. And my thoughts are not particularly a criticism of you or any specific department, but of the system in some sense itself and thinking, putting things in the context that this is not, our division is not isolated when it comes to these increased behaviors and what we're seeing now across the country. [01:03:33] I do believe though, that we could leverage and be at the forefront of change by enhancing this document. And in the past last year or any other year, last year or any other year, 'cause these are just the meetings that I just love in May for the code of behavior. [01:03:56] I think looking at what I'm gonna talk about more in the theme of, I was more vague in my criticism. It was broad, it was more of a theme. This year, I've tried to be more circumspect about it. [01:04:15] When the tiered implementation model came out last year, and we broke down specifically what escalated to what level, what came to another level, and for once, I flipped. I was more auspicious about what the future was gonna hold in this division. [01:04:34] and I actually voted for the Code of Behavior. Unfortunately, what I have seen unravel in the course of this past year is the complete opposite of what I thought would occur. [01:04:51] And so my thoughts and what I'm going to speak about for the remaining time, I'm channeling the volumes of emails and phone calls from parents and staff and teachers that I've dealt with this year. [01:05:08] I've taken their calls, I've sat at Panera Bread, I've listened to these stories. and to my chagrin i don't feel like things are being resolved and i feel helpless as a board member that i can't be there or do what i need to do for the people and so tonight is my chance to advocate for some changes whether it passes or not i can do the best that i can do in my capacity as a single board member of a collective body so going through some specific things that i know [01:05:44] there's other members but i'll try to be more succinct about this i reference when i went through and literally went through the whole document i reference page numbers and things and some of this you know i i can send you after this when we start talking about dakota behavior and the implementation of it as you've touched on today that there will be more oversight there will be more collaboration analyzing data but because this is a parent document and it's it's it's the the [01:06:19] public facing document first of all i think i would like some type of inclusion of a statement to some extent that the superintendent and the school system and a team or some regard will regularly and routinely review these bullying cases at the individual school level the goal to aim at the effectiveness of the disciplinary actions to ensure consistency behavioral consequences across schools now i know we already do this but i think i would like it in writing to further assure the families that this is a process an ongoing process a living document [01:06:56] that we are managing this and i think it's another step further to supplanting site-based management with more consistency and oversight from a county level and i think that would go a long way and again these are just i'm not giving you questions unless you want to jump in but well i i would just like to make a comment on that I 100% believe that the ability to monitor at the division level will be available with the reporting form that we're implementing that is one of the goals and the reasons that we are doing so it will allow us to see all the way from top down to the school level [01:07:32] more consistently when there are bullying situations that need to be monitored so I hear you and we definitely will take that under consideration one additional thing Mr. Wook is is that we did, as you know, we have our internal auditor doing an enterprise risk management for the school system. [01:07:49] And he requests different topics to be able to audit. And discipline, school discipline is one of those topics to do exactly what you're describing, auditing the level of consistency or norm practices and implementation. [01:08:04] And even if, because the audit office is small, even if we have to outsource that, is the goal to do um in the upcoming school year so we'll be having a full audit of discipline practices thank you um thank you next area of concern i think teachers who are not here tonight dr babcock and others have firmly illustrated a concern of ambiguity between what goes from a [01:08:34] level one to a level two consequence using classroom disruption as just one example how many times does the same student have to disrupt class before it moves to a level two and this again is not for you to give me a number on the spot this is me more or less speaking rhetorically in some sense and going to where i want to go this i i feel like this language and this structure [01:09:08] is ambiguous and it it leads to like this nebulous of understanding not only from a parent side but a student side but from a building administrator side because what how many times does it occur it's not going to be the same people have you know we're humans and people have different you know beliefs perceptions of things and stuff like that leading to inconsistencies across buildings and so for me i'll just say it i want a firm number i want a firm number on how many times [01:09:48] because what i'm hearing from my principals is they are under the gun because figuratively they are under the gun because parents want to know well why did you do this this time or why did you do this this time or that time there's no consistency and and i feel like we're not backing them up and yeah one might say okay it could be a cop out that you know the principal can put it back on the board or the school system and say well i i don't know this there's no guidelines but i feel like that is our job to establish the specific clear concrete guidelines on using the example again [01:10:27] just of one in many of classroom disruption because it is a problem i it across the board and i don't know what my colleagues will reiterate but with especially with our educators you have students that are continually left in class disrupting the learning environment for other students you have some maybe getting referrals more than others you have some buildings that aren't processing referrals for weeks at a time so this is a huge problem for me where it comes to the ambiguity of what goes from a level one which again i'm all for you know again [01:11:05] tiered intervention you know having you know the the engagement the collaboration with the student the family but at a certain point something's got to give and that lack of consistency is i think a a huge problem across the division. [01:11:24] I've said this at our meeting. I believe it should be a uniform policy to have in-school suspension as an option for every building. It should not be site-based management. It adds another level of behavior. If my colleagues and everyone is concerned, and I know we are about kids being removed with exclusionary practices or outside of a building, I believe every building, so when we're on, I'm using page 54 that explains the difference between short-term and long-term suspension, I want in-school suspension listed. [01:11:57] And again, these are just me. So again, I'm not, this is what I would like. I think it needs to be an option because I think it could be a deterrent and hopefully curtail some behaviors. I think with some kids, it's not a punishment if they're sent home, but it sure would be if they had to make up all those NHIs and sit in a room for seven hours. [01:12:24] Threats, I brought this up too at a previous time. Although we know internally from the processing side for the training and our staff and the whole, you know, what we do as a system, when these threat assessments are undertaken by a collaboration of groups, you know, law enforcement, school security, whatever, I get it. [01:12:51] Nothing against the threat assessment necessarily. My problem is I've heard of numerous cases where something may not be deemed a threat, yet the act in itself, in my opinion, was horrific in nature. [01:13:11] And because it wasn't deemed as a threat, the consequences aren't there. The student is back in the building right away the next day because it didn't fall under the guidelines of a threat assessment. And I know we talked about this, and the training on the back end doesn't, you know, preclude adding additional disciplinary actions. [01:13:36] But I think it's important to have something in that section about specifically outlining that just because the situation may not fall under what is deemed a threat under the threat assessment, and the proper disciplinary actions will apply to that specific case. [01:13:57] I know it's not on there right now. I know, again, it's something that you referenced to me that this is something our division leaders, principles no but i think it needs to be in there as clear guidance for the families for the students as a public facing document because all this stuff that we do with the threats in my opinion are superfluous if we're not actually going to punish the perpetrator and again i can give tons of anecdotal examples of what i've seen and heard this year but that's not going to really help right now i think we get to my point is again what i said is a threat assessment necessarily should [01:14:33] not dictate the discipline every time so i appreciate you highlighting that mr will because it is two separate processes our threat assessment focuses on assessment of risk it is exclusive or independent of a sanction for an inappropriate or a violation of the code of behavior so i appreciate you allowing me to have the opportunity and i do i hear your feedback on how that could enhance be enhanced in our document thank you two more things and then i won't do a round two don't worry okay thank you um next thing you touched on it earlier and i think it was me maybe not, maybe others too, about the racial slurs. [01:15:10] Yes. During the time that we're living in, where we have anti-Semitic writing in one of our high schools and one of the restrooms, where I have families telling me all the time, and it's not just one or two or threezy, fourzy, this is a large contingent of my families having their students repeatedly called the N-word or a student with a different sexuality being called the F-word, repeatedly. [01:15:40] I'm sorry, but especially at the secondary level, I don't think the first use of a racial slur should be a level one discipline. At a secondary level, you should know better than to use that word, whatever we deem as hate or whatever. Again, my opinion, I don't believe, in my opinion, again, that that is a level two, a level one, starts at a level one. I either think we reclassify it, and again, I'm just one person on this board, reclassify or redesignate it, [01:16:20] because again, I feel like we should set the example and say, no, we're not tolerating in our school system just because society is going all haywire, that a student, especially in the secondary level, can just willy-nilly say that first time, level one is less severe, let's just say discipline, than any type of suspension. [01:16:50] we add in school that could be put there as uh in between between uh one day suspension out of school suspension but i i just i can't fathom it i understand the position that you gave and i appreciate that i understand the other side of it but my position is i i do believe it arises immediately to a level two versus a level one my position on that so understood i assume you're referring to the chart the chart that is located on well depending on which copy or version that that you have page 34 through that. [01:17:22] So I do, there are a range of behaviors and I am in agreement that is never tolerated, should never be tolerated. So I hear your feedback. - And then lastly, for this round, maybe I'll say more, sorry, Dr. Lateef, but I think this hopefully ends it. Bullying is a huge topic. [01:17:38] I mean, our system is saturated with it everywhere, elementary, middle, high school, wherever, anywhere in the east, west, central, not really confined to one area in our county. And I understand looking at what the state says is bullying and I quote, "Bullying does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument, or peer conflict. [01:18:02] Students who believe they've been subject to bullying are encouraged to report such conduct to a school administration." I'm stuck on what is deemed ordinary versus what is deemed repeated. [01:18:23] And how many times is repeated? How many times does a little kid have to be called not going to say the explicit but the word before it's not horseplay or an ordinary act i again i understand the state is pretty gray in this area but i don't think that means that we can't set a specific number i i i just don't because i think this can persist because of this this guidance of [01:19:01] of ordinary versus repeated, it just, again, it's nebulous, it's vague, what does it, one of the principles A interpretation of that versus principle B, how about the same building? Principle A has three APs, A1, B1, C1. [01:19:19] There's going to be different beliefs on this, and I understand, I appreciate the training that's coming or more training that's happening in the modules and stuff like that, but unless I believe have specific infraction numbers in my opinion i don't believe we are really going to tackle the issue and i'll leave it at that so i thank the board for letting me have my moment my peace with this and uh i yield my time and just to remind you mr wilke you feel free if you have any edits [01:19:54] on the book you have two weeks to send any dot you know changes or requests through council or to Denise Huebner directly as recommendations that you'd like to see in the thing. And we'd certainly entertain that as we move forward. And then just for clarification on your point, I think it's a good point, but much of it's in the code for the state. [01:20:16] But I do think your question on the specifics of the teasing and all of that, like that becomes much more challenging and subjective. And Ms. Huebner, do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, that is one of those challenging things as Mr. Wilk points out, the code is not clear. [01:20:34] I mean, at what point, and that's a really good question, does what they deem as not bullying become bullying? - Right, understood, and I appreciate the passion that you all put in the dedication to reviewing the document because it is an important document that guides a lot in our division. [01:20:52] One answer to that that I would say is that the thing that I'm very encouraged by that is different from last year is the amazing work by our level associates with our group, pilot schools the voice is everyone's voice it's not just the principal it's the teachers and we're learning a lot from that there have been several surveys that have been given that's been provided really good feedback anywhere from response time or questions about responses and so really gaining a better understanding of some of the challenges that our teachers have on the ground floor and not just understanding them but actually putting a plan in place to resolve them so the things that you're asking about and talking about are not for me to answer alone [01:21:28] it's really a group and norming our expectations as a division what do teachers feel is an appropriate you know number or instances examples we need to hear their voices our administrators need to listen to those voices we need to listen to our administrators as to what their challenges are i would very much love everything to be very cut and dry and black and white and disciplined it is one of the most difficult gray areas and that's why we take time and care to investigate to understand each situation and respond individually but i do understand the importance of getting clear guidelines and parameters so that school teams can implement accordingly [01:22:03] can i just add something to that sure i want i i to your point i i with the state thing i don't know if our attorney general would sue us if we said three times does not count as you know i mean he probably would no no i don't know about that i might want it to be two times no true um i hear you i taught over 10 years ago in the classrooms in prince william county and i know this was a different administration back then but the same things persist today i had [01:22:39] a student that was continually disruptive disruptive disruptive disruptive i don't know how many referrals he received from me i did try to build a relationship with him i did i even tried bribing him with candy on days he was good i tried but it wasn't enforced my referrals were tossed back he was put back in my room i even was recommended by the principal to move the next grade level and teach him the following year my point is i i just feel like i hear what you're saying about getting [01:23:18] the voices and stuff like that i just feel like it's been a long time and maybe we have to take more drastic measures. Ms. Williams. Thank you Dr. Lateef. First I want to thank you Ms. Huebner and everyone because I know there's a team behind you as well as our public who weighs and our students too who weigh in on this. I like to call it a living document because it does undergo changes repeatedly and to my fellow board member Mr. Wilk I'm glad you're sitting down because this [01:23:53] may be the first time we've served together with 99% of things that you just said I actually agree with. We're usually on opposite sides of the table. Yes, between you and I. I think overall what Mr. Wilkes speaks to is a concern that we all hear and that is really a true understanding of how we implement the code of behavior. Most of us hear one-off stories from a teacher who comes or a family member or a student and it's hard to [01:24:28] piece together those one-offs and then develop a code of behavior that addresses each one because we all know that everyone is an individual what I may deem as inappropriate another family will not last year was the first time in ten years of me serving on the board where I had a parent who said that we weren't disciplining their child enough because they don't have time to do it when they go home. So I recognize that it seems to, I want to acknowledge that it seems to be the case post-COVID that we have sort of a different breed of students if you will, [01:25:05] a different definition of what is acceptable in society depending on which generation, what parent you talk to and what generation they come from, what country they may come from, what is normed in their household. I think that that is one of the hardest things or the most challenging aspects that we face when dealing with the code of behavior because what i may deem as inappropriate may not be the same i mean even in my to use my household for an example my older son and his friends may say the n-word to each other i am 100 against that they're adults [01:25:42] um you know i don't allow that in my house when they step outside the door i can't do anything about it but i have a 10 year old who i express all the time that is not normal uh behavior in in our house that is not acceptable, I do not agree with it. Yet, I know if I go in the back door, out the back door and they're all hanging out in the back and I happen to sneak around, I've heard him say it, had to call him out on it. [01:26:01] Because in the group that he's hanging out with, that is acceptable. And I think that is a good example of the challenge that we face every day in our school division, depending on the person that we're dealing with on what is and what isn't acceptable. [01:26:16] Which brings me to the part I do disagree with Mr. Wilk, and that is when we get into the practice of adding a number. When I hear that, it immediately brings me to the three strikes you're out rules, which we know was completely ineffective and actually caused more problems than it was of help. [01:26:34] I'm cautioned to say that because there are so many different regulations that we also have to adhere to. Whatever the state says is the definition is at the base of what we absolutely have to adhere to. So I think that's something that we don't really talk to our parents about a lot. [01:26:53] Over the past two years, I've heard a lot of parents and guardians come to us and say, well, why don't you do it like this? You're the schools, and they're missing the component, which tells me that we're not doing a good enough job of saying we also, we have a code of behavior, but within there are layers that we are required to have because our general, our governor says, signed a bill and made a law. [01:27:16] Our county codes, there are other additional policies layers that we don't have any say so within as a school division as to what what the language is the verb is or how we're going to implement it which is why i'm always encouraging people to reach out to their general assembly members i also hear from our public and from families which is something we don't speak to a lot and we heard a lot this year about teacher assaults and things of that nature in my own personal discovery it's often children who are fall under the umbrella [01:27:51] of special education and in self-contained classrooms or something very similar or maybe they're a student that's spent some time in general education and other times in more dedicated special education classrooms. I was wondering if you could speak to the disciplinary process and how it differs a little bit for special education students versus general education students and with acknowledging that it's not still not a blanket layer of discipline but I we don't really address that and I think that's become a major issue a lot of our public will hear someone come up and say teachers been [01:28:28] punched in the nose and later I'll go speak to the the teacher and the teacher oh yes because I work in a self-contained classroom and I don't think that that there's a lot of acknowledgement about that so if we could just for our own education and the public's hear a little bit more about about how the special education layer impacts discipline sure absolutely i will allow dr ryer who's our associate superintendent for special education speak to that thank you absolutely miss williams so once again there's sort of a two-fold approach one is the prevention and then there's the response of when our students with disabilities do have behaviors that interfere with the learning environment from a prevention point of view this is where we're really looking [01:29:08] for the student's programming, their IEP, the way that their special education teacher is working with them around behaviors, we do have things such as a functional behavior assessment, a behavior intervention plan that we would hope to be putting in place to help prevent the likelihood that a student with a disability would have behaviors that reach that level. [01:29:27] However, when they do, the code of behavior does apply, the code of behavior applies to every student, however, at a certain threshold, when a student with a disability is removed from receiving their special ed services there is a requirement and this is guided by the regulations for the iep team to meet and have a discussion around whether or not the students behavior was caused by or is related to their disability thank you i just we don't really talk about that i know as serving on a disciplinary committee we do see students who are under the special education umbrella so that stays to me that they're still we still follow the code of [01:30:05] behavior but sometimes the outcome is different because the special education team of the IEP takes over some of the disciplinary actions that occur and we don't I don't think I can ever remember us speaking to that I think that's an important acknowledgement because it's not necessarily the same in the way that it's implemented thank you Dr. Ryer sure and those would be individual discussions around the unique circumstances that relate to each student's you know unique characteristics of their disability thank you thank you and then that the I just want to echo again mr. Wilkin and what I've heard a lot of is [01:30:41] and I recognize to miss you near thank you for pointing out this is our second year for or going into our second year for tiered approaches so I know in a division that started it takes a long time to implement things with fidelity and that is something that our superintendent has made an outstanding commitment to having things implemented division-wide with Fidelity and we've had a lot of changes in our staff as well we have new principles and things of that nature but what I feel is important is how do we as the the school division assure our public that our staff is being trained with Fidelity [01:31:15] they are given the same information at the same time and that they have an an outlet to go to, to reassure them for the support? I'll start with that question. - So the question is about the training, in training and training? [01:31:32] - Yes, 'cause I, you know, as we saw here on one of the slides, it says that there's modules. Does everybody have to go at the same time? Is it just for principals? Is it just for APs? And then how do we know that they're going to implement it? Because we hear that a lot from our public. - So we're very much in the progress of evolving our modules. [01:31:49] The modules that were listed there were specific for those that are actively engaged discipline implementation process from a disciplinary like the administrative standpoint, our school leaders, our school safety staff that does investigations. The next layer of that is we do our pilot group where we're getting together and talking about what the needs are is how do we turn key relevant information to all staffs in a consistent manner. And so we are in the process of reviewing resources and I assure you that it is a requirement that we review the code of behavior and expectations at the beginning of the year with our staff and the goal of that will also be discussing implementation with consistency and understanding of effective strategies not just [01:32:27] to respond but for support and rectifying those situations in the classroom. So preventative, reparative, moving forward. So you have the promise that it is a requirement for us to review the code of behavior so all staff is trained but we are currently in the process of developing those modules. It will not be something that's in addition to the currently developed professional development plan. Staff members will know ahead of time what they are required to do. This will be delivered at the school level through their school teams thank you and then following along with that what could we do as a division or one of the things that i say a lot is we code of behavior [01:33:06] comes at the beginning of the year anyone who has a student you know you go into the very interesting portal to online register i'm gonna leave with that to re-register your student or enrollment for the year if you're a new family but it's sort of a check the box right it's almost like you're you're scrolling through a warranty. [01:33:25] This has always been a problem of mine for years, even though I love the new version of the Code of Behavior. It's a one and done situation. So could we as a division incorporate something like this into maybe like our Title I, or push that information out throughout the year, have like a mid-year review, because it almost doesn't get looked at again until your student gets in some sort of situation, and then you have to go through and find it, and then you think, I think a lot of people feel like coded behavior is written as law, and it's not the same. [01:33:56] We're not in a court of law, and there's flexibility for a reason. But I feel like it's only reviewed once a year, and that also causes problems. I'll take that one, Denise. I think one, you know, ultimately, we have to be responsible on the school division side for implementation across the board and norm practices across all schools. [01:34:19] we we don't really have a mechanism for ensuring that you know parents are reading it or signing off on it certainly we can ask for a signature to say that they reviewed it but regardless of that we got to implement the code of behavior so i think um we can certainly add to our family engagement series where we do the trainings and information just to inform parents or even have you know a webinar where parents can get information a couple times of year but regardless of that we've we've just got to do a good job of making sure that we're fully implementing our code of behavior [01:34:58] i do think that there is opportunity and i know that um the needs along with our level associates are working really hard for the upcoming year to improve the training that we offer i think that we and i know that we will be doing more reviews of in case studies of like how certain schools are handling the exact same behaviors to determine whether or not what the differences are and why so that we can address those so there's there are things that we're putting in place to bolster our current practices around implementation of the code of behavior but ultimately whether certainly we want our parents to read it we want our parents to be fully versed on it but whether they do or [01:35:38] or they don't, we are responsible for enforcing the code of behavior. And I do believe that we can do more to provide information. And that could come through our family engagement series. But I think from listening to this discussion and from what we've already discussed internally and some things that we're already trying to put in place, we do recognize that there are differences in the way that sometimes the same infraction may be implemented from school to school. [01:36:07] And we have been trying to determine why that is. And some of it could be training, some of it can be changes in staff, et cetera. And so those are the things that we're working through now. But I hear everyone on the board as well as from the public, and I certainly agree too, that across the school system, we do want families to at minimum expect that there's going to be consistency and norm practices in the way that we implement and enforce the code of behavior. [01:36:38] So certainly we're taking all of this feedback and making adjustments as we can, and we will certainly implement a few more opportunities to engage parents around the code of behavior. But I just wanna make it clear that there's not a whole lot we can do in terms of what the parents decide to do in reviewing the code of behavior. [01:37:00] We have to be responsible for what we do on our implementation end. - Thank you, I appreciate that. And the last thing is that if we didn't do that, at the very least, maybe having some webinars on what bullying is and what harassment is, because those are the two words that I hear often, just even in casual conversation, and everyone seems to have a very different definition of what that means in addition to what the state says. [01:37:29] And I know that language is complex, and so I think it's worth at least having information accessible to families and parents not just in the coded behavior but maybe throughout the year or even signs in a building right and you know you go to the doctor's office it tells you your rules regulations what your rights are it may just be helpful because everyone does have a different definition of what bullying is and you know again like i in my house i'll say a ctu student going on to graduation that to me means an automotive student or a you know culinary student i just had a discussion with my mother and she said oh ct student oh you mean one that takes [01:38:07] it and they're going to a four-year school and i was like no we're talking same words completely different definition especially with all the changes that are made at the state level i think it's really important and of course generationally wise my version of bullying is much different than my mother is much different than my children's which is still different than the state so i think that will also help provide some fidelity and understanding for our parents especially when a a student comes home and says I was bullied today it may be a case of the behavior just started today which does not fall under bullying may be harassment may not you know it may be a lots of other things versus when a student said [01:38:43] this has been going on for over a week or three days and I think it's a very important designation for our families to understand because it does make a difference in how the discipline is implemented too so I just want to thank you again and your entire team for all the hard work that you forth with this document, and I appreciate you taking the time to really not only listen to us, but to make the changes, because that's really important. [01:39:08] So, thank you. Mr. Trudenik? I just want to thank you again for this presentation. The first time that I heard it in the two-by-two meetings, you said in regards to behavior expectations, you used some -- and I -- sorry, first, I want to also say what Justin said. [01:39:34] All of my questions are not directed at you, and I totally understand that you guys put a lot of work into this. I appreciate Dr. McDade saying that it's implementation that needs to occur. Sorry, real quick, let me do this first. The Code of Behavior is a huge topic of conversation and concern within our school district. Parents, students, and teachers alike have provided a lot of feedback regarding the Code of Behavior. I'm fully committed to addressing the concerns and issues raised by the constituents in the Brentsville district. [01:40:03] Safety has always and will always be a top priority for me. Personally, as a parent, I've witnessed over the years the inconsistencies in enforcement, lack of support for teachers, and the absence of consequences for children. So these are some of the things that I'm going to talk about and address. I have a lot of questions. I don't think I'm going to get through all of them, and I would love to send them to you all. [01:40:25] But I do think it's important to ask these things because my constituents filled out a survey, hundreds of responses came in, and there was a theme, a lot of agreeing, and in the survey a lot of questions that were asked that I want to be able to address. [01:40:43] But one of the things that you said in that, in our 2x2 that I didn't hear you say tonight, but you might have said it, in regards to behavior expectations, you spoke about self-management and behavior telling a story. Can you? Sure. So, you know, when we talk about awareness and self-management, there's skills that we look for for our kids. [01:41:04] We want self-awareness, right? So how is your behavior impacting other people's or your decision-making? So there's the self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision-making, which are really the tenants of what we talk about when we're talking about prevention or really understanding what we reference like restorative practices. [01:41:23] really good citizenship their success skills and how we teach kids to be successful is is anchoring in on these core tenants and so when we talk about our self-awareness how it impacts the learning environment others in the learning environment so we encourage students to engage in self-reflection about that really talking about the social awareness the impact that you have on others in your classroom you know negative impact on learning so we really want to help kids manage those behaviors. So it's a combination of all the things that you've talked about because when there is a behavior, I think every teacher, every administrator, we want all children to do well. I think [01:42:02] most kids come to school wanting to do well as well, but there's certain things that happen and there's an underlying cause. So we take a look at all of these and try to get at the root cause of why is this behavior occurring and then we implement, you know, some strategies and focus on these different skills so that kids can be successful. Thank you. In regards to the tiered responses to student behavior, you know I have heard up here that we're all different, right? [01:42:31] And we're all going to respond differently. So how one teacher responds is completely different than how another teacher responds. And there's a very long list, tier one, tier two. I've gotten more contact from teachers recently and in the last year when running in regards to these kind of things and the different implementations that occur when it comes to these rules. And I just tier one, you know, recognize reward appropriate behavior, class meetings, teaching. Are there challenges in implementing these tiered responses [01:43:10] effectively? If so, how are they addressed? Is this taking away from instructional time and causing a breakdown in classroom management to stop and enforce any of these things? You know, a class meeting for one student's behavior it I mean one teacher can do it one way and it can be effective and another can do it another way and it could be effective neither are wrong different and are they both following it and who is even following up with that you know so teacher a is not is not following the tiers teacher B is but how do we know teacher a is it these I know that's a lot of questions but it's all [01:43:49] lumped into one of of how do we even ensure that these tiers are being implemented so it that is great question how do we monitor that you know there are expectations that we set and really through the use of our referral system and looking at the data and really asking and listening to our teachers you know what are you seeing what was the success of this not just having it be a one-and-done like you know go do this but going back and reflecting based on the data that we've seen we see a pattern of behavior here what were the responses so including our staff in helping us understand what is [01:44:26] going on and what has been effective and as far as the implementation piece okay so is it fair to say that these tiers are implemented differently across the division currently i can't speak specifically what's happening from school to school yes okay okay there's no way in the number sheer number of schools and classrooms that we have it is impossible to say that um the way one teacher or admin approaches a tier is exactly identical it's just not and what works for one teacher in a particular classroom with a group of students may not work for another and with [01:45:02] a different set of students right so that's that's all going to be relative to the approach the teacher takes the behaviors within the classroom so there's zero way for us to I don't want to sit here and pretend as if we have a way to monitor how the you know a tier could be implemented some of it is recommendations for ways that a discipline can be approached I mean, and then others are hard and fast. [01:45:27] This is what should happen if this incident occurs. Yeah, and I think the resounding feedback that I'm getting to is, you know, that makes it hard when you have different kids at different levels, different schools, you know, or a child in one classroom that does the same behavior as another child and they're both treated differently and responded to differently. [01:45:52] It makes it confusing for the parent, for the student, for the teacher. So just pointing that out, I'm not saying that there's anything that can actually be done other than making it more strict. Like Mr. Wilk was talking about, I also had the same question. [01:46:09] How many infractions are considered repeated behavior? Who gets to decide how many infractions it takes to escalate actions? Who makes that final decision? Because when a teacher says, this child has done this one too many times in my classroom, I'm handing them over to administration. [01:46:27] the administrator then places a child back in the classroom like then what do they scream uncle? Like, who do they get to help them at this point when they've when the child has made these multiple infractions? And I'm just trying to figure out, like, what what is the next step in that? [01:46:44] Or I'm sorry, you know, that that is that would be a decision. You know, that happens at the school level because that's who's with the teacher, with the students every single day, the discipline team at that local school. if the recommendation is to consider more defined recommendations or requirements on you know how many times a repeat offender or a student with repeat discipline in the same particular code then should be disciplined in a certain way if that is the recommendation then we take that under advisement bring it back to the working group to determine you know a recommended number [01:47:23] even with that it still is a recommended number but it does give guidance to schools as to when it's time to say okay we've done everything that we can for the when it comes to this particular in situation or incident with a student so that's what i'm hearing as feedback to to come back and determine uh revisions to the to the actual plan and that's what i'm taking you know a lot of these comments to be because there is no way that we can in good conscience accurately address what individual situations happen at every different school across 100 schools it's not possible for us to do that we would just be making stuff up at that point so i'm just being [01:48:02] honest you know we don't know um what where there is some leverage for subjectivity in some spaces with how to handle discipline in schools where the school team actually knows the student and understands different dynamics with students and families so we can't answer those kinds of questions uh for what happens in individual schools but we can take the feedback that you're giving us on things that should be considered to try and bring more clarity and definition to recommendations in the code that may lead to um you know different ways that discipline is [01:48:41] implemented across the board that are problematic and that's what we're taking this session to be and then we'll come back with with edits when when ms hemer talked about going back and getting feedback when Mr Wilk was speaking she was really referring to the fact that tonight we couldn't say oh we can do three or we can do we want to engage the actual working discipline working group that helped give input towards this document and respect that process and then have them weigh in on okay well what would it be if we gave a recommendation for what schools should consider when you have [01:49:16] repeat incidents and so that's what I believe Ms. Huebner was referring to at that moment so everything that you're saying we're taking copious notes to then go back and look at ways that we can improve the language um but do so in collaboration with the the committee that's comprised of teachers and parents and administrators so that you know it's not one or two people in a room just making the decision for the whole system i appreciate that um in regards to the pages um i did i did go through and look page by page to take notes um i will send these to you too so that if if we [01:49:52] miss something it's you know I understand that this is a lot um this is again in regards to implementation and enforcement which I I understand is different but the wording in here I think is where I'm I struggle a bit to say okay if we change this a bit and I don't have a suggestion for you how how to do that in a better manner I'm just pointing out that these things are a little bit confusing like page 19 prohibited items of clothing who deems bare skin as detract as distracting like who's who's measure of what is bear is distracting page 20 who decides if it could cause a disruption does each school get to choose which I [01:50:31] yes the answer is yes each school gets to choose so that's just a point you know pointing out that in regards to profanity mr. Wilk I echo your sentiments when you're speaking about profanity and rules are our code of behavior page 22 says shall be subject to OSS is this required profanity threats verbal abuse towards teachers and this is that line you know shall be subject to OSS shall be is not you know that doesn't mean that it's an immediate [01:51:06] action when they threaten use profanity again what one person deems as profanity and another doesn't but good golly our poor teachers because you know If a student said a certain word to me that I think is profanity, that I can't use up here, that deems, to me, inappropriate, and then they're sent to the office and sent back. [01:51:34] Those are the kind of things that I think make it difficult. But page 25 also says, no student shall use. What is the consequence? There's nothing listed there. The example that you used earlier about if they say they're friends and they're saying those words to each other. [01:51:53] But like, you know, Ms. Huebner, if I say that you're my friend and then I call you that name and that day you're not feeling it. And so you report me and then I get in trouble. But wait, we were friends. But then also like these are children at the same time and another child hears another child say that word. [01:52:10] Well, he said that word. How come I can't say that word? A racial slur is always wrong no matter who says it. And I think that when we blur those lines in that gray area, it opens doors for people to say and do whatever they want. [01:52:26] And then if someone's offended, or if there's feelings, then we do something, but it's not the fact that it's just wrong that we can go off of. Because it should be, you know, that it's just wrong to say that to someone. And it's a learned behavior too. [01:52:44] Like if people are, again, saying it, you know, kids are gonna think, okay, well, I can do that too. And in your home and in a school is completely different. When we give our babies to you all during the day, you know, we expect that the environment they're going to be in is safe and respected and when that when that's thrown around all the time it's difficult as parents um so i definitely agree with um mr wilk in regards to that and i again miss hevener i'm not asking you to to do anything as as far as that goes um page 16 smoking and [01:53:19] vaping um it is no secret that our children are aware of the lack of discipline and consequences um in our schools because these things happen every day every single day in our schools and it's not being handled and i'm okay to sit here and say that it's not an isolated incident it's not a one-off it's not only in one school it is happening in every high school in our county smoking and vaping is out of control in our kids bathrooms it's out of control um it's not being [01:53:55] upheld 100 what we have listed is there plans to crack down on this more and i i'm not talking about with the evolve machines i'm just in general i i also have gotten feedback from teachers that they are not allowed to discipline that behavior they're not allowed to go and remove the kid they're not allowed to do those kind of things what are we doing to help teachers with this what are we doing to help kids that don't can't enter the bathroom because if they do then they're you know they're involved in whatever's going on in that bathroom um sure so one thing i am aware of [01:54:33] it's not my initiative so i will i may do a phone a friend but i do know that our team in risk management our school security is conducting a group a focus group on how to address vaping and that would include responses and consequences and that is just in the beginning stages but i do know that is a focus for us through that avenue thank you um the restorative practices that you that you talked about you said restorative practices do not replace consequences right i would just like to say restorative practices should not replace consequences but it it is [01:55:10] happening you know that is again in all of the responses and the emails that i'm getting it is it is happening so it shouldn't but it is um i also don't and i want the teachers to hear me when i say this very loud and clear i do not think it's due to a lack of training for our teachers i think they are trained on this um i i think it's again the implementation and the enforcement and and the lack of consistency that is the struggle, you know, through and through with the things that I'm asking and the things that I'm talking about. [01:55:47] Is there any risk to our teachers when not enforcing discipline in a certain way? Like, are we covering them in some way? [01:56:02] I'm sorry, I had it written down better than that, but to protect our teachers when they don't follow the tiers, Is it, is there flexibility in that? [01:56:20] - I'm sorry, I'm not sure. - I know, I need to ask it more specifically. I will move on and then if we have time to come back, I will come back and ask that more specifically. Thank you. - I'll do Mr. Jesse and then Isabella, if you wanna weigh in at any point, let us know. [01:56:40] Mr. Jesse. - The biggest problem we have is that we're working with people, get rid of the people, we'll get rid of the problems. - It is, and I said that in all sincerity. The trouble we have, we have what, 20, 30,000 staff, teachers, the people interpret and have different levels of tolerance. [01:57:10] You know, I can be talking to somebody and they say that you're yelling at me and I look at them like, what are you talking about? But to them, I'm yelling at them. So they go to the next classroom And the person has a very soft tone and easygoing, and they get better. [01:57:31] But that's the interpretation. My understanding, the most read and bought book in the world is the Bible. And the interpretation of what the Bible says is so different among so many people. [01:57:50] We have all these different religions, all these different things, because people interpret things differently. And we're trying to get a policy and a program to have organizational coherence across the board. [01:58:09] It is a long process. I used to work for a company, and what I would say to the people is that what you do at home and what you look at home is your business. [01:58:25] But when you come to this office and when you come to the schools, you have to go by our rules. and if you don't go by our rules that's the problem but the problem is for these kids is their parents have different rules different standards and then they come in and they think that you know i can do this because my parents said that that's the problem that we have to work with so we have to have these rules we have to have the the thing but when we try to get [01:58:58] so specific it's almost impossible as far as the race stuff you know i had a foster parent one time he used to go around saying the n-word all the time it was driving everybody crazy but the problem is is that like others said if somebody next door or you know that in the same room hears it they think it's appropriate and then when they get to school you know it's again I think our problem is that we have to keep working. [01:59:36] We have to keep trying to make sure that we come up with these rules and so forth. And one thing I'm concerned about when I hear stuff from parents and stuff is that they're saying that, well, the administration at the school, I talked to them and I didn't hear, they didn't do anything about it. [01:59:59] My concern is then who investigates and who deals with that principle and so forth. The impression I get is that we are investigating ourselves. And if a principal or somebody is accused of not enforcing the regulation, we can't just go and say, did you do this? [02:00:23] And it needs to be looked at by somebody else. Special education is a problem when you know the the kids are prone to violence anyway so the problem i think we have in all of this how long does it take you to come to a conclusion or investigation if a kid does something on monday that we think should be suspended but the principal doesn't suspend it until they look into it on tuesday and wednesday the kid is there for two or three days and this [02:01:02] is what is irritating to people it takes so long to investigate it and it's a there is no good solution in my opinion but we we have to keep working for perfection we'll never get there but we can get better and I think this is what this that you guys are trying to do and I applaud you for doing it and I'm just is this a lot the biggest thing again I go back to the leadership different [02:01:38] leaders in different schools have different tolerance rate and so forth and we got to work on the consistency and like dr. McDade just said you got a hundred schools you got a hundred different interpretations you got a hundred different thing I feel I'm Monday I might accept something on on Tuesday I might not, just because I feel different. [02:02:03] So I applaud you, and I think we're doing the best, but I do think that Justin and the other folks come up with some ideas or some suggestions, but we're not gonna solve this problem overnight. [02:02:19] Thank you. - Isabella, any thoughts? Good, okay, as you wish. Who's next, Lisa or Tracy? We're good. [02:02:36] - I just wanna thank you, Ms. Huebner, and the rest of your staff for this work. I really appreciate you guys working on normalize normal normal practices and trying to bring, you know, organizational coherence. [02:02:51] I appreciate that you're making it more readable for parents, more digestible, and I also think that it is, it does create, so I believe that this code of behavior is gonna create, and it's helping to create a safe, focused learning environment. [02:03:12] and it eventually will bring uniformity and consistency. So I just want to thank you for that. - Ms. Yarger. - Thank you for your presentation. I'll keep this quick. One thing that Mr. Wilk brought up about in-school suspension, my question, and my question is, is there, because this sounds like a staffing issue, right? [02:03:36] We used to have, yeah, space and staffing, we used to have in-school suspension as a regular part of, I remember middle and high school. And our children are a little bit different now. Sometimes they do need a place to take a break. A suspension could also be sort of a, like get you out of an environment to reset sort of idea as well. [02:03:54] So what would we need to consider to be able to implement in school suspensions or a place for people to take a break? I know some schools have it, but to say we have to put this in the code of behavior, then to me sounds like we also have to have space and staffing, so it like, or is that just, I'll put that out there we'll get back I don't know do you I don't know the number of schools that actually are currently utilizing uh in school suspension but I I do believe that um more than even space is staffing [02:04:29] um so if we do if we make that a requirement of some sort then we would have to make sure that there is adequate staffing for that but I don't know that um I don't know and certainly I can't speak for Mr. Wilk. I think it's about what recommendations and options are available and making sure schools understand that they can execute that if they are able to. And that's the clarification I think that it could be easily made in the code. Just making sure that schools understand the full menu of options that they have that they can execute so that no one feels [02:05:08] like that's off the table or they cannot implement it but yes making it some form of mandatory implementation of in school then would we would have to make sure that schools are staffed to be able to cover that um thank you yeah and then i said this last year i i believe student behavior is really it's an adult issue it's it's parents it's families it's the teachers um and i do this job every day right i i see all kinds of interesting things i've i've had to shut down classrooms [02:05:40] before i've had kids who have had things going on um i know how hard it is to to um classroom management is a practice it is not the same thing with every group you have things that you might have to to change a little bit so i i recognize those uh those things can be very challenging one thing that has come up here a lot tonight is the um mtss and if you google mtss you'll see a lot of things out there that talk about this pyramid and maybe a a visual would be an easy way to sort of it's not a rule it's just a visual to show you that the base of it is where uh was it 80 [02:06:19] of our kids are supposed to be right we these are the universal things that we do to catch all our kids i see a glare over there or look yeah i was just turning around because we do have dr barker here who is yeah yeah yeah yeah that's your thing right yeah so so like but i think i think the visual is really cool because it because you can talk about it instructionally and behaviorally and if you don't have behavior set it's hard to get the learning done right so we have to have that and then like where I work we talk about rights and responsibilities and I remind my kids you're you have a right to learn you have a right to come here and have an excellent education and I [02:06:57] need to deliver that to you but we all have a we all have a responsibility to be part of a classroom that has the right atmosphere for it. So, do you want to speak to a little of that MTSS stuff? Yeah, I'd love to have Dr. Barker speak to that, but just briefly. [02:07:15] And as far as the document is concerned, I'm hopeful with the new platform that we will be able to embed images in this. Unfortunately, it's difficult because of accessibility, but I would love for Dr. Barker to just speak. Yes, please. Good evening. So, I do have the pleasure of leading a group of MTSS coaches. So we do have 23 MTSS coaches that are, they support all 100 schools. This is the first year that we have been able to stand up that coaching model to ensure consistent implementation of tiered interventions and supports. I also have the [02:07:54] pleasure of leading a group of 13 behavior specialists. So on the behavior side, we also have the opportunity to implement preventative measures as well as responsive measures in order to support students that may exhibit some challenging behaviors. And I do want to add, we are looking into securing additional resources to have in-house, you know, behavioral therapists that are available to support schools, which would be kind of like a push and support that's community driven so we you know we had an opportunity to meet with a particular [02:08:32] partner in the community that is offering services free of charge to the school system so we are researching that to see if it's feasible to support schools where we may have individual students that need more extensive support or intervention even beyond what you've heard here tonight. Okay, sorry, I found my questions. First one, Dr. McDade, you touched on this a little bit, but how does the district involve parents and the community in discussions and decisions related to [02:09:12] the code of behavior? So I know we have a working, do you want to describe the working group part first? Sure, we have subcommittees that has representatives from our schools, and what we ask is those subcommittee members go back and work with their individual stakeholders. That is done in a variety of ways. [02:09:28] We also engage stakeholders through a link that's distributed to give electronic feedback. I will say we didn't have a great response on that, so we are looking at moving forward, how can we do that differently? But we rely on our school-based teams and that electronic link to go ahead and provide information and feedback. [02:09:49] - Thank you. So this is what I was kind of asking before, and you might not have an answer or it still might not make sense, but what measures are in place to mitigate risks associated with site-based management and ensure that teachers and principals are supported in making these decisions. [02:10:07] - Making the decisions around sanctions? - Yeah, and to mitigate any risks associated with the choice in the tiers. You don't have to answer it today. You can say we can get back to you, that's fine. - I'll think I'm not. - Totally fine. [02:10:23] The other thing that I forgot to ask was how does, this is something that I've gotten a lot of feedback on, how does the school plan to increase transparency and address issues such as or surrounding cell phone usage in classrooms, and possibly helping to remove the responsibility of each teacher making that decision. [02:10:44] - That's something that we're exploring division-wide. We're seeing more and more success with schools that have instituted cell phone usage. I hate to use the word bans, but some kind of control for when students can actually have cell phones visible. [02:11:03] I do know that if Ms. Porter Lucas, if you could come forward and just talk a little bit about the middle school pilot, but right now we are piloting our middle schools. Some of our middle schools already and some of our high schools already have instituted cell phone, kind of internal cell phone policies, if you will, that has been successful. [02:11:24] And so now we're going into this new school year, embarking upon a pilot to then be able develop division with in collaboration with the board because the board owns policy but develop uniform policy for the school system around cell phone usage that is the goal but we we also want to be able to come forward with data showing what works what doesn't work and then also do some form of public input on it before we collectively as a whole school system institute a policy but i think the best way to approach this is for us to have something that all schools are adhering to rather than leaving each individual school to their own device in terms of handling it because [02:12:04] it causes a lot of problems for those schools that take on the challenge of doing this without the support of the full school division so good evening 18 out of our 20 middle schools currently have an off and away policy for the day and so we are looking at for next year having all 20 schools pilot essentially that policy off and away for the day and having our high schools in our elementary some of our high school school and elementary schools join the pilot and high school may look a little different we're still working on through those details but we will have that pilot rolled out for next year but it will include all of our middle schools continue with that off and away [02:12:43] for the day on policy for cell phones and we'll communicate that obviously to all of our families as we work through that pilot thank you thank you miss border lucas on page 48 will the bullying complaint form be collected at the individual school level only so with a new process of bullying reporting our goal would be to normalize that and standardize that and so when a complaint form is received in paper we do want to make it accessible in any way shape or form that we receive that complaint we'll be having a process where the school would enter that so that we can see bullying [02:13:21] complaints in the formalized bullying complaints at the division level to for tracking purposes and follow-up purposes and so we'll be using the guardian system in order to do that thank you and um one final question um regarding the surveys have we considered removing the questions that um label level of you know high school middle school whatever there's a i think there's a series of four to six questions in the beginning grade um i can't i'm sorry for division-wide [02:13:58] surveys yeah for parent responses and student responses questions that it's been raised to me that um they although it's a anonymous survey those are identifiable questions so whether if you say whether you're elementary middle or high yeah and then um if you were to fill that out it's it was just raised to me so i just didn't know if we thought about making it completely anonymous just by just giving just the questions and having those be optional versus required like like you cannot continue without answering those questions? [02:14:32] - I think it's important to have those questions and those would not be considered identifiable information because of the sheer size of our school system. If we were a much smaller school system, like some school systems that have one high school or one middle school, then I would say, okay, it's kind of like that same scenario where even with state reporting, if it's 10 or less students, then you don't report because then you could figure out who it is. [02:14:56] But with the scope and scale of our school system, those wouldn't be identifiable because it's too many, you know, high schools, too many middle schools, too many elementary schools for you to simply say your level and then be able to determine who it is. So the actual survey itself is anonymous in that we don't know who's completing it. [02:15:15] And by saying your level, it's just, the number is too large for us to, for anybody to be able to figure out, you know, who it is. - Thank you. - Okay, great. Well, thank you everyone. I'll just wrap up Ms. Hebner. [02:15:31] - Let's go. - Okay, one final thought, and this is more, again, this is not a question. I mean, we're only as strong as we are at our building leadership level. And when our principals do have to lay down the hammer and give out the discipline, and I've heard some of the most unfortunate conversations they have to deal with, some of the most pugnacious individuals that are enablers. [02:15:55] Apple doesn't fall far from the tree sometimes. And as Mr. Jesse said, you know, this is what they're accustomed to. They, again, are not, supporting the decision we as a division have to keep on supporting our division principles so they feel empowered to deliver the appropriate discipline as needed for the students and again i just wanted to add that and i 100 agree with that and there has never been a time where a principal was doing the right thing in support of their students their school community or families that it has come or escalated to the associate level or the superintendent's office where we have [02:16:32] not that I know of have not supported the principal so if it is in accordance with the code of behavior if you know regulation was followed and school leadership is taking the right stance then no one is going against that and saying you know or or overturning the decision oh 100% agree with you that's why I said continue but I mean I appreciate the support from the higher ups for that thank you one other thing I do want to add that I think is important to Ms. Trennik's question about the survey. One of the reasons it is also important [02:17:07] for us to have it disaggregated by like elementary, middle, or high too, because thinking about the data that I shared when I reviewed the state of the progress report on the strategic plan where we were able to see that a lot of our student concerns with culture and climate was at the middle level. If we take that out, then we really don't know where to target the support or target to address where the challenges are, 'cause if everyone's lumped together, you know, and those three levels look very different when it comes to culture and climate. [02:17:37] So it just gives us another layer of information to be strategic about how we approach improvement. - Williams. - Thank you. I just want to have my final comments again to thank you, but to just to remind our public and anybody listening that this really is year two of a new code of behavior, of a new way of addressing these issues in our school division. [02:18:05] We have a new administration. I think it's very easy, I do myself get caught up in, I've heard this, I've heard this, and this has been going on forever. And there's something to note to that, right? Because we have had staff here that have been here for decades. [02:18:20] But we also have people who just started, including our superintendent and many of her staff, and many of the new sort of policies and procedures and way of handling situations is really in its infancy. And I think that that's also worth noting. [02:18:39] Anytime you start something new, you're going to have some ups and downs. I think, and I don't say that to discourage anyone from coming and sharing their story, their lens and their perspective. I just want to caution us board members, public, everyone that to be mindful of that we are in an infancy in a lot of these ways of dealing with or handling these situations. [02:19:03] And so, I know I can get caught up in that, well, you know, you should just do it this way, 'cause it's been this way, or I've heard this. And I say it myself, but I don't want us to do a disservice to the new lens through which we are focusing on and best practices that we are trying to establish and practices that we are trying to norm. [02:19:23] 'Cause I think sometimes that takes away from the new things that we are doing and having them or being able to watch and see and learn to see if they are working or not. 'Cause in some instances it's too early to tell. [02:19:39] So I just don't want to get caught up in that rhetoric. And then I just want to, again, thank the superintendent and everyone for all of the new things that we are doing. Ask the public's patience and understanding and to remind everyone that we are dealing with students in an education setting And what we are supposed to be doing is not only discipline them for when they do things that violate our policies and our regulations, but teaching them how to do better next time so that we're not in the same cycle. [02:20:09] And it's important too to note when it comes to staff and support, again, I'll say it, we have many, many new principles across the division. And we should all deal with each other with a little bit of grace. And that doesn't take away from the fact that if there is an issue because somebody may be new that they need additional support or training, we do have methods to do that. [02:20:33] And I want to encourage our teachers especially, our TAs and support staff to utilize those resources because we are with a new division, a new administration and who has continuously expressed that they want to hear from our staff. [02:20:50] And I've seen the changes from listening to staff voices. And I just wanna make sure that our teachers who may have been here a long time, had different experiences throughout their career within Prince William County Schools, that our new administration is listening. The changes are very visible once we get our staff feedback. [02:21:09] And I also want to say that, you know, people hear focus groups and things like that. We hear that a lot, especially where we live near the nation's capital, that generally means we're just gonna put it over there and then not do anything. And I don't in any way, shape or form believe that that is something that we do here, that the superintendent or her staff does. [02:21:27] I've seen the changes myself. So I just want to reiterate that and just let people know to be mindful that we are dealing with children and we are to set the example and it's not just discipline for discipline's sake, but it should also be a learning opportunity so that when they leave us, they can go out and be productive members of society as well. [02:21:46] So thank you. - Thank you. - Thanks, Ms. Huebner. Dr. McDade, very good. Just a couple of things. I think I appreciate Ms. Huebner that you're gonna work more with teachers to hear what their concerns are. I think as important as it is the administration to support the principals, it's critical for the principals to support the teachers. [02:22:06] And I think that is critical and there's certainly a theme of that tonight being discussed. And then, you know, I can't, I've sort of not hidden my disdain for cell phones in schools, you know, and I know Ms. Walla, and I will speak for her 'cause she's not here, But on this issue, we are unified in the sense that it can't happen any faster. [02:22:30] And the word ban, restriction, I'm for all of those. As widely, as densely, as deeply as we can, we need to do that to get this, you know, one of the largest complaints from parents is this, you know, it's a cell phone addiction, right? [02:22:48] It's a screen addiction, it's whatever. And it's distracting them. I'll say, you know, one more time, There was a big study that came out just a few weeks ago looking at all nations of the world. Since 2012, test scores have gone down. Korea, Finland, East, Singapore, US, everybody. [02:23:07] And that's right around the time that cell phones became as ubiquitous as they have and that social media became as ubiquitous as it has. And we're seeing cheating happening in the schools with cell phones. We're seeing all sorts of things happening. [02:23:23] We're seeing distractions we're just seeing students not perform. And we are seeing, and there's reports beyond reports, coming out in the paper every day of school divisions finding tremendous success in restricting cell phone use. And so while I'm excited about this pilot, I think it's really important, you know, and I know we're gonna socialize this with the public over the next year, but I wanna be crystal clear where I stand on this, and the public should know that I will push this as fast and as quickly as possible. [02:23:53] And I'm happy to see we're doing a pilot across the middle schools. And I would, you know, for all the principals that think this is a problem in the high schools and for the elementary schools that wanna jump into the pilot, I would highly encourage them to do so. Because I don't think one more minute can go by without that. [02:24:10] That is, I mean, I think the science on that is clear. The studies are clear on that. So I appreciate that. And I appreciate the pilot, Dr. McDade. I appreciate the efforts to socialize this across the division, but I thank you very much. [02:24:25] Reminder to the members, please send edits, concerns, thoughts to Dr. McDade. She will get them to council and/or Denise Huebner. Thank you. Moving on, student representative time, I think. Isabella Arrasano, is that correct? Are we there? [02:24:41] Yep. Who's finishing up her senior year at the Gainesville High School. Isabella. - Ms. Huebner, I just wanted to wait until you were sitting down 'cause I didn't wanna keep you standing up there any longer. And I'm also very hesitant to tell you, I don't wanna sound like I'm telling you how to do your job. [02:24:59] And we've also kind of already touched on this, but Mr. Denik brought up vaping and dress code and whatnot, and those are the contentious student issues that keep coming up within student voice committees. And student leadership kind of hit a wall because we've met with administration, and the disciplinary stages for vaping are kind of vague. [02:25:16] We didn't really know where to go from there. And also, I don't want to go full teenage girl on you, but it's very rare for me to walk out in a shirt that isn't cropped. And so, with dress code, a lot of my friends and I are confused, like what level of stomach, I guess, is going to pull you away from APGov. [02:25:33] And then with the phones, I know you guys are piloting it at the middle school level. I'm hoping you've come up with something a little different than like, what was it called, like up, up and away for the day. Okay. Because like a lot of us are turning 18 and whatnot, and at the ripe age of 18, it feels kind of odd to be like turning our phones in and putting it in phone jail. [02:25:54] And something that worked for a few teachers was having little boxes on desks for people put their phones in because some of them are addicted so just being able to see in front of them i guess help them calm down a little bit but that's all i wanted to say um i'll get into this now good evening great comments isabel thank you thank you good evening to the school board superintendent in princelyam county community it's been a pleasure to serve as a student representative this year and i can't believe that that is the last time i get to say that um mr denik i appreciate you trying to give me the chance to tap out earlier but i thought i'd soak it in one last time. In hindsight you might have had a point but it also didn't feel like the right time to bring up that because it's been a while [02:26:32] since I've been up here I'm hoping that the camera is finally picking up on the tan I got these past few months. When it comes to public speaking I'm a huge fan of being funny, being brief, and being gone. I've spent a lot of time deciding what I'd like to say in my last message so bear with me just these ones because they're just a bit longer. I'm very grateful to have made it to this finish line. I really struggled with my mental health the past few years and every now then, I hit all-time lows. In those moments, I started to think of a few people who I wanted to write letters to so that I could say goodbye. Ultimately, while reflecting on the past few years as a senior, I realized that all these people along the way have been reasons to stick around. [02:27:10] In preparation for graduation these last few weeks, I've written close to 50 letters so far. There's a lot of people I need to thank, and many of these people were my friends, teachers, and staff that I've worked with from all over Prince William County. I can clearly remember the teachers and staff who stuck out and made an impact on me, even if it was a few years ago or if I didn't know them for very long. [02:27:30] Um, sorry, I'm gonna pack it in for a sec. I still remember the kindness that they showed me and how it made me feel. Some of the letters are as brief as our interactions. They're only a few sentences, but it was still significant enough to where I remember. Even though I only got to hang out with you guys once a month, I've given letters to quite a few people in this room. [02:27:48] Teachers and school staff have an undeniable impact on students that goes beyond learning, and I hope that student leaders will continue to recognize that and strengthen communication between adults and the student body. Many students struggle with their mental health and silence because it usually isn't a visible problem that others can identify. That is why a lot of the people on this list impacted me so deeply. Even when they had no idea what I was going through, they were understanding, did their best to care and look out for me, and they were just flat-out kind. As a student rep, I'm proud to have been part of initiatives that fostered a stronger sense of community across all the high schools in the county. They're one of a kind. The forums the Senate hosted encouraged so [02:28:26] many students to speak up and share about their own silent battles, and I've seen the way that this feedback has been incorporated into ideas such as the Student Bill of Rights. It is exciting that we can have such open conversations about mental health resources and what students expect to have in an ideal healthy learning environment, and I encourage the board to continue to listen to students that express these concerns. And I guess this is kind of on brand with the code of behavior discussion, but it is important that leadership figures continue to promote kindness. [02:28:53] As simple and as elementary as it sounds, it is a skill that I found myself practicing over time. Middle school comes to mind as a particularly brutal era and even now I remember moments I wish I could go back and redo to treat someone a little bit better. We are all growing up alongside each other and across that timeline I hope that kindness is reinforced more at every stage. If middle school me could hear me saying this now she would probably gag, I get it, but I really believe it and it is the message that's been on my mind for a while now. I'm very grateful for the time I got to spend growing alongside so many people in PWCS and beyond. While it is sad to say goodbye I'm privileged to have met so many people that I will miss. Thank you for all of the time that you have spent listening to me [02:29:31] this year. That concludes my remarks. Thank you, Ms. Aversano. We really appreciate it in your commitment and contribution. Cooperation, collaboration over the course of this year has been valuable, and I think the students across the division have benefited from your input, [02:30:06] and we thoroughly appreciate everything you've done for us, and we wish you the best in everything you do moving forward and this board will always consider you a friend moving on to superintendent's time dr mcd thank you dr otif um i also just want to say what a privilege it has been to sit next to you for every board member and for each of our other student reps that were present during the months but um getting to know you and fernanda has been a complete joy and i want to just commend you [02:30:43] for your level of leadership that you've demonstrated as a student not on the Student Senate on the board and voice committees you have definitely you use your voice to improve outcomes for students and climate for students in Prince William County and I am forever grateful for you. May kicks off the school principals day where we show our appreciation for the hard work and dedication our incredible principals play in ensuring that every student has a a fair opportunity to succeed, achieve, and flourish. [02:31:15] Thank you to our wonderful school principals who help launch thriving futures each and every day. Your leadership is essential and we value your passion for public education. Next week, May 6th through May 10th, PWCS will honor Teacher Appreciation Week. [02:31:30] I encourage students, families, and our community to express their gratitude for our wonderful teachers in creative and thoughtful ways. Let your teacher know that you appreciate their care and commitment to the learning and achievement for all. Last night, our outstanding educators event, we had the opportunity to recognize finalists for support employee, which was a new category, and I was so excited to be able to honor a member of our support staff. [02:31:55] We also recognize the novice teacher of the year, teacher of the year, and principal of the year for both elementary and secondary. It was certainly a wonderful celebration for our dedicated educators, and congratulations to the following winners. [02:32:11] For Support Employee of the Year, Andrea Elardia from C.D. Hilton High School was our winner. For Novice Teacher of the Year, grades pre-K through 5, Rachel Pellegrin from Ashland Elementary School. Novice Teacher of the Year for grades 6 through 12, Sophia Hobbs, Freedom High School. [02:32:28] Teacher of the Year for grades pre-K through 5, Angela Savage from John D. Jenkins Elementary School. Teacher of the Year for Secondary, Grades 6 through 12, Blake Lopresti from Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle School. And then we have the category for Principal of the Year for both Elementary and Secondary. [02:32:47] Our Principal of the Year for Pre-K to 5 was Jennifer Perilla from Tyler Elementary School, and Principal of the Year for Grades 6 through 12, Jim Dutrow, Lake Ridge Middle School. Also honored at the ceremony were the educators who received or renewed their national board certification as well as our outstanding mentors and lead mentors were recognized last night. [02:33:12] So I just wanna give a personal congratulations to all of our winners, our finalists and nominees for being outstanding role models to CPS students and staff. Your hard work and commitment are recognized and appreciated by us all. [02:33:27] As PWCS honors a positive climate and culture built upon inclusivity and belonging, I would like to recognize Asian American Pacific Islander as well as Jewish American Heritage Months. We are proud of the diversity of our community and the opportunity to learn, expand, and celebrate our rich culture and history respectfully, and that is a core value here in PWCS. As we begin to enter the last few weeks of school and strive to finish strong, it is important to focus on our own wellness. [02:33:59] may observances focusing on wellness include better hearing and speech national physical fitness and sports and national mental health awareness and i know several of our schools participate in mental health walks and so please be on the lookout for those different events to support these efforts testing schedules big school events final performances and post secondary plans can result in the build-up of stress anxiety and feelings of burnout even though these are all exciting times. I do encourage all PWCS students, families, and staff to take advantage [02:34:35] of the many resources provided for the social emotional wellness of our community. Do not wait. Contact your school counselor immediately if you need support because you are not alone in any battle that you may be struggling with. Remember to take care of yourself and in honor of school Lunch Hero Day Friday May 3rd thank the many cafeteria and custodial workers who ensure our students have a healthy meal in a clean environment. Our team serve an average of 54,000 lunches and 24,000 breakfasts each day. Those meals come with a smile and so I encourage you to share your appreciation for the hard [02:35:14] work of our cafeteria staff and their hospitality. At this time I I would like to welcome Dr. Tim Neal, Director of Research, Accountability, and Strategic Planning. Each year, quarterly, we provide the board and the public with an update through a quarter review. [02:35:35] And so today we will be providing the quarter three overview report. Most notable in this presentation is the continued decrease in chronic absenteeism, which is contributed to the dedication of our students and the commitment of our families, school staff, the communications department, well as student health and wellness while we certainly have more work to be done in this area we are pleased with the team effort across the division and with our families as we continue to show progress in the right direction as it as it relates to absenteeism so dr neil if you would at this time i'll begin your presentation thank you good evening good evening dr latif school board [02:36:15] members and Dr. McDade. I'm going to provide a quick overview of our third quarter data. So you're pretty familiar with the way this presentation is structured. I'm going to cover very briefly our enrollment. I'll touch on our attendance and then I'll hit on our course marks and our failing course analysis. A key difference between this report and the ones I've done previously is we don't have assessment data at this time to share with you as it It is currently ongoing. [02:36:42] So this table shows our enrollment of active students as of the end of the third quarter. We added a column so that you could see the percentage of breakdown by these groups. It's fairly similar to what we saw at the beginning of the year. We do see a fluctuation in our enrollment numbers over the course of the year, largely due to the area that we live in. [02:37:04] This table shows our average daily attendance from the start of the year to the end of the third quarter. We have added a green column to show the difference in average daily attendance to the prior year at the same time. So if you look down the blue columns, you can see the far right is the average daily attendance through quarter three. [02:37:24] And we're sitting at right around 94% average daily attendance. For most grade levels, this is a point or two higher than where it was at this same point in time last year. The line plot on the right actually shows you the day-to-day average daily attendance. [02:37:41] You can see it's pretty level except those dips which tend to occur right around holidays. So you can see at the end of the third quarter we had two dips, one that occurred right before spring break and one that occurred was right before a teacher workday that also had a holiday on the other side of it. [02:38:01] So it was one where we had a pretty large drop in our average daily attendance. When we look at our chronic absenteeism, just as a reminder, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of your membership days. [02:38:16] So for the entire school year it'll be 18 days would make you chronically absent. And this is both excused and unexcused absences. So the reason for the absence doesn't make a difference in terms of whether or not you were considered chronically absent if you hit that threshold. [02:38:34] Again we've added the green column on the far right that shows the difference with the prior year at the same point in time. You can see at the end of the third quarter, as a division, we are sitting at 17% chronic absenteeism rate, which is about where we were at the end of quarter two. [02:38:52] So we've maintained that. However it does, when we look at the prior year, it is substantially better. We're 4% difference at that point. The other thing that should be pointed out is we have done, or I should say my colleagues have done some work to try to determine why students would be missing school and it is important to note that although we're collecting that information, turning that into actionable steps is not as likely to have an impact on the current year's rate because the trends are already in place. [02:39:28] When we look at the chronic absenteeism rates by student groups, so this is by level, by student group and by race and ethnicity, we get the same pattern. We are lower at the end of third quarter of this year than we were compared to last year across all of those groups. [02:39:48] Moving on to grades. As a reminder, grades can be amended if students demonstrate mastery of the content material, and teachers do have the professional discretion to override the mathematical average if the student has demonstrated mastery of those standards. [02:40:05] So at the elementary level, letter grades are given in grades three through five. You can see the grade distribution in this table here for reading, writing, and mathematics. Quarter three is listed at the top of each row and is in bold faced. [02:40:21] When you compare the grade distributions to quarter two, you see there is some variability, but there's very little fluctuation, generally a point or two in one direction or another across all content areas at the elementary level. [02:40:40] This table shows the grade distribution for our middle schools. The setup is the same as at our elementary level. It is important to note that when we start getting up in the secondary level, there tends to be a little bit more variability, especially at the upper end of the grade distribution. [02:40:56] Which means we tend to see if there's going to be movement in these grades by more than a percent or two, it tends to be in the A and B range where there's some movement between those two categories. However, that said, the same pattern exists at the middle school level that we saw at the elementary level. [02:41:14] distribution at the end of quarter three is similar to what we would saw at the end of quarter two. And that does persist across all content areas. [02:41:30] When we look at high school, recall that high school also includes a semester average. So we want to compare quarter three here to quarter two. So we drop down an additional row. It is structured the same way with quarter three at the top in bold. And again, we see that same pattern where the grade distribution at the high school level resembles at the end of quarter three resembles the grade distribution at quarter two and again this is pretty consistent across all content areas and I'll flip through these [02:42:00] three slides. As with prior quarters we also did a failing course analysis so we looked at the percent of students who are failing zero, failing one or failing two or more of their courses. [02:42:23] This table shows our middle school and our high school students so middle school is on the top high school is at the bottom quarter three again is the top row and it is bold-faced and when we look at those percentages quarter three again is very similar to where we looked at quarter two same holds true for high school we compare quarter three again to quarter two when we break this down by student group so you can see this table shows our middle school learners you can see our English learners our students with disabilities and then a breakout by race [02:43:02] and ethnicity, again, you can see the percent of students failing zero, failing one, or failing two or more courses at the end of quarter three is very similar to what we saw at the end of quarter two. The student groups that tended to have higher rates are English learners, our students with disabilities, and our Hispanic students, that same pattern also continues. [02:43:26] And this holds true at the high school level as well. So the percentages at quarter three, the end of quarter three are very similar to the percentages that we saw at the end of quarter two to elaborate on some of our strategies i'm going to turn the mic over to my colleague all right so in in continuing the theme of support support support making sure that our school teams have the supports that they need to implement our positive behavior strategies and around attendance making sure that we make kids want to come to school like working [02:44:04] on that engagement instruction is still going on we know that we're in the home stretch but there's a lot of learning so really wanting to make sure that our kids feel connected to the activities that are going on in the classroom our school leaders got recognized for great drastic improvements we have some schools have who have reduced their chronic absenteeism in half so we did recognize our school leaders recently with plaques and awards they were very excited about those so our attendance teams do continue to update the toolkits for that home stretch reminder keep coming to school because we're here we want you to learn one of the things that we're excited about using in motivating kids and looking at the pathways and the importance of their education is our vision [02:44:42] reports so our middle school and high school students have received the messages on how to access their student vision profile and we're helping students use those to consider their post-secondary options they're again building that connection to the importance of being in school and pathways for their future our parent liaisons also continue to connect reach out with families and see how we can support as we enter our final weeks of the school our school counseling teams recognize that it is a stressful time as dr mcdade said they are there to support and provide any resources to our students that are needed whether that be removing barriers for learning [02:45:17] through academic support or also just someone to help manage the stress of coming to the end of the year our social workers and school mental health professionals continue to connect with families and provide community resources we know a lot of students as the end of school comes near starts feeling maybe missing school. That's right. Kids want to be in school. They miss us. [02:45:38] So we help connect families with additional resources that kids can continue the learning through the summer. Our high school students who are at risk of not graduating continue to be monitored and we are working on credit recovery options. If those students aren't able to make the credit recovery to make it across the finish line, we're making plans for credit accrual and for summer learning so that hopefully we can get those students across the stage for a summer graduation at identified schools and for in general for schools we still offer our support through our support core members and our success coaches so as i mentioned we are offering academic support schools are really leveraging and still you know using all of those tutoring [02:46:16] supports that are available before during and after school but right now one of the focuses that we're looking at is our summer opportunities there's a lot of really great information on our website about summer learning whether it be extension or additional remediation opportunities so there will be opportunities for students k8 to receive instruction in math and reading aligned to the all-in tutoring plan and for students at the high school to retake courses at credit recovery and credit accrual that i've talked about our l populations our special subgroups our teachers are continuing to review their academic progress meet to make plans on how they can provide additional support from now until the end of the year and looking forward. [02:46:56] Additionally teachers continue to receive support through collaboration with the student learning team and there are sessions now in middle school high school and elementary as well. Those just highlight a few of the focus supports that we are providing as we close out this school year. [02:47:11] Thank you so much. Thank you Ms. Huebner. Any questions? Well I'm excited about all the green on the attendance slides so green is good um and i think we're making progress albeit you know it is a steady and uh consistent progress dr mcdade i think excellent work all right well we look forward to hearing how quarter four finishes up um excellent miss dr mcd thank you dr latif just a quick um a few things i wanted to add to superintendent's time at the conclusion of [02:47:51] dr neal's presentation and thank you dr neal for that presentation um at the next school board meeting may 15th our transportation team will present an independent study conducted to review and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of our bus routes this was something that i mentioned earlier this year and i just wanted to come back to the public that we'll be coming forward with the results of that study and our goal really is to improve arrival and dismissal times and remain consistent in our services to students families and staff we heard a lot of feedback from our families over the last two years and we made a commitment to improve transportation which is why [02:48:29] we did bring in a consultant a expert in the field of transportation to do a top to bottom review and from that we we want to take those findings and recommendations and actually put them in action in a phase process over the next couple of years, starting with the upcoming school year. [02:48:48] So we'll be bringing that forward, and we're looking forward to hearing the recommendations of the study and inviting community feedback so that we can continue to improve our services to get students in school on time through high-quality transportation. So just flagging that as something that's upcoming to be shared with the board and with the public. [02:49:08] And that concludes our superintendent's report. Thank you, Dr. Lateef. - Excellent, Dr. McTae. Thank you. At this time, we'll go to board matters. We will start with Mr. Wilk tonight. Oh, I'm sorry, committee updates. Yep, yep, yep, right there. All right, you guys are awake. [02:49:25] First one will be Ms. Williams, update on the governor's school. - Thank you, Chairman Lateef. The governor's school didn't meet. This was our last meeting of the school year. Next year, the chair and vice chair will again rotate as well as the division that's responsible for the governor's school. [02:49:46] were student presentations by four different groups of students which were again amazing and outstanding and partially over my level of education which is always exciting for our high school students to be presenting we were informed excuse me of the calendar which will we voted on so the calendar has been set for governor school which follows mason and primarily prince william county schools calendar their research symposium will be this friday at a am at the george mason university sci-tech freedom center which is in manassas if [02:50:26] you have not it's also open to the public so if you have not had a chance to see the students projects um i highly recommend it it's something that i enjoy going to every year graduation will be held on the host divisions territory which is Manassas Park City Schools. So that will be on May 18th at 9:59 a.m. Always an exciting graduation and that is the update for Governor's School. [02:50:51] Thank you. Ms. Jargarpur. Thank you. I got a chance to go to the JET meeting, the Joint Environmental Task Force between Prince William County Government and Prince William County Public Schools. And I will specifically talk about the schools part. There was a presentation done on the power purchasing agreement at PPA. PWCS is the host. The developer installs and maintains the solar systems for an agreed period of time. If it is a low solar day, the school is still connected, or whichever building we are connecting with, having solar [02:51:28] panels on um it is still connected to the grid so there will still be power um we have five one two three four six six schools that we have right now either getting ready to have their panels installed or in that in that process so bevel middle school is in the final steps battlefield high school is in progress gainesville high school is in progress kilby elementary school is awaiting to be submitted to permitting. Kyle Wilson is in permitting and Forest Park High School is in design. And the [02:52:02] determination for which schools were going to be part of this PPA had to do with the roof age, the viability of the roof, the size and orientation of the roof, and the utility company process. So that is what we covered in that meeting. That's it. Excellent. Thank you very - Thank you very much. [02:52:24] Moving on to board matters, Mr. Wolk. - Mr. Chairman, I had a lot of face time tonight, so I will yield my time. - Ms. Trudenik. - I will not do that. I wanna thank everybody for the nice discussion about code of behavior. [02:52:45] I will send my questions over. I appreciate the dialogue and getting to talk. I also wanna thank the people that came and spoke. thank you for your bravery and for um your honesty as well um my teens are gonna hate me for this I've already been threatened but um I echo Dr. Lateef and I say do it let's do it make it happen let's ban the cell phones um don't worry kids you'll figure out what it's like to live in the 90s and it will be great um yes 80s 80 80s in my good thing good thing they don't watch these so [02:53:24] they'll never know I said it. I also want to say I had the most exciting visit to the Brentsville Transportation Center again times two got to go back and then I was able to wear a big yellow I mean orange vest climb up on the school buses and give treats out to all of our bus drivers in the Brentsville District. I'm sorry if I missed you I caught as many of you as I could. My favorite question was who are you and why do you have these treats and um my answer was just i just wanted to say thanks so um that was fun and getting to meet the bus drivers and seeing all that they do and [02:54:04] what they go through to to make sure that you guys get to and from school safely i love it um thank you to the bus drivers and the transportation staff for all you do um i also was able to attend patriot baseball to remember and honor their former teammate josh morrison um that community that baseball community is um a strong one and they love each other hard and they they carry on traditions um so thank you for letting me be a part of that and those boys can play ball too so that was fun to watch uh what was super exciting as well was visiting chris young for their [02:54:38] multicultural night um it was packed the gym was packed and the teachers that organized that did an excellent job the parents at chris young elementary school dang there were so many of them that could cook they brought out so much food nobody was hungry that night it was amazing to see I got to take pictures with the kiddos in all of their gear and hear about their food and their culture and what they love and it was just really exciting so thank you for that time again I you know I wanted to just echo that I do hear my constituents when they're suggesting stricter [02:55:16] enforcement clearer consequences better communication stricter policies on drug violations and things like that. I hear you and I will continue to to keep the conversation open. Thank you, Mr. Jesse. Thank you. First of all, I wanted to say that I tried to go to some events that are not typical, exciting or well, they're all exciting, but they're not typical. So like I want to go to some of the sporting events that we normally don't go to. And so that's what I'm [02:55:55] trying to do with my schools this year some of the highlights for this month for me was that i went to a play at woodbridge high school it was this really good play and as i told the person i'm not a music person but i really like the play even though it was a musical i went over to john jenkins for their carnival day and it was this it blew my mind how many people were there if they had not reserved the space for me i would not have been able to park that's how [02:56:32] crowded it was over there so that was really fantastic uh i also went to a event called future kings uh my wife and i have been going to this event for about 15 years now since they first started it is a event where they have boys who are they they do some marvelous thing and it's just a a very, very meaningful event that I went to. [02:57:02] I love the event last night we had for the educators, and I love the fact that we did something for the support staff, which I thought was good. I also liked hearing that what we have done for some of the teachers for some event where you started recognizing them for attendance or something, I can't remember what you were saying, But you know, my wife always talked about celebration, celebration, celebration. [02:57:33] So that's something I think I would encourage us to keep doing. So again, thank you and I'll yield my time. - Miss Williams. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to start with one of my favorite events of the year. [02:57:52] I think there's a picture that can go up. It is Fred Lynn's Comic-Con. There it is. this year they did a raffle as they always do but they awarded this amazing student Luna Burrell the proceeds from the raffles so that she may use those proceeds to participate in another comic-con like event and this is an award that they will be doing moving forward and I was just so tickled because like her name her outfit her everything just really fit the event perfectly she is pictured there with her parents I want to give a great big giant shout out to Scott Merlarkby who is the teacher has been hosting this for now going on [02:58:30] its third year I am a complete Comic-Con nerd and my son as well the thing that I like the most about this event and it is student-led the students do a cosplay contest there are student vendors I am wearing year number two I have my little dinosaur earrings on avocado earrings they make little pixel things I spend way too much money there but it's really nice to see the students learning about entrepreneurship, being interested in the arts, and science. I also want to give a great big shout out to Artway Alliance. This is their second year that they participated in Comic-Con. They are a non-profit organization that believes in STEAM in schools and takes [02:59:10] a non-traditional route. They are often at Comic-Con events and they do small pop-ups, just very exciting time. I always say I'm going to spend an hour and then I'm there for like three and some change. So I'll be there again next year. Mark your calendars and it's usually in April and it's always there's an Eventbrite thing that goes out. [02:59:28] I also want to note that I did attend the Outstandard Educators Award last night. I want to give an additional congratulations to Sophia Hobbs, the novice teacher who was recognized from Freedom High School. But in addition to that, I would like to say a very big giant thank you to our division who, for this first time, included an award category for support staff. [02:59:49] Our support staff really are the backbone and are not recognized as much as they should be, which leads me into my sorry, Miss Deputy Clerk of the I mean, Miss Clerk of the school board and our deputy who's not here. We missed administrative professionals day. Usually it falls on a school board meeting night. [03:00:05] So I just want to again say thank you to to you. Well, three of you who support us, but as well as to all of the administrators within our school division and happy teacher upcoming teacher appreciation week. I want to send a great big giant that shout out to all of our nonprofits and community organizations and volunteers and everyone who comes in and makes a difference for our teachers during teacher appreciation week. [03:00:30] I look forward to all of the upcoming promotion ceremonies and first Lego League fun day. It'll be my last year participating as a parent, so I'm a little sad, but it's going to be fun. Graduation is coming up. And for those who are not receiving the school board monthly roundup newsletter, please make sure that your email address is on file with the school. [03:00:52] I've been hearing from a few parents that they aren't getting it or they're not getting notifications. So it just doesn't hurt to check every now and again. And congratulations to Featherstone SCA on a successful fun day that raised money for the schools. So thank you, Mr. Blake. [03:01:07] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, everyone. As we gather this May during Mental Health Awareness Month, it's a perfect opportunity to reflect on how PWCS initiatives and activities support and engage in the mental well-being of our students and staff. [03:01:24] I wish to share a few highlights that exemplify our commitment to student wellness. At Forest Park High School, Morgan's Message volleyball match, taking a shot at mental health, I witnessed the powerful role sports play in promoting mental wellness. [03:01:42] This event, in collaboration with Morgan's Message, has been instrumental in destigmatizing mental health issues among athletes and our broader student community. It's a platform that encourages our students to openly discuss and manage their emotional challenges in a positive way. [03:02:00] The recent field day at Enterprise Elementary School was another fantastic example of how communal activities contribute to our well-being. Participating in the three-legged race with Mrs. Nickerson wasn't just fun, but a vivid illustration of teamwork and community spirit, essential components of mental health. [03:02:25] Fitzgerald's multicultural night highlighted the significance of diversity and inclusion in fostering an environment where every student feels valued and understood, a crucial aspect of mental health. The Beam Steppers' performance was particularly moving, showcasing how discipline and teamwork can build resilience and self-esteem. [03:02:48] The Spring Musical, hosted by Neopsco Elementary School at Garfield, featuring the Jungle Book, demonstrated the meaningful benefits of the arts. The students dedicated to their craft not only provides a creative outlet, but also builds discipline and confidence, enhancing their social, emotional, and mental development. [03:03:09] During many of those events, Shannon Anderson's book, I Love Strawberries, and a subsequent nutrition-focused workshop with PWCS Nutrition illustrated how stories and good eating habits can profoundly influence not just physical health, but children's mental and emotional health. [03:03:32] At Beville Middle School's Multicultural Night, the staff and students' fashion show was a testament to how community collaboration can build a supportive network, reinforcing the mental health of our students. And lastly, the Prince William County, the PWCS All County High School Fine Arts Festival showcased the incredible artistic talents across our district, reinforced that artistic expression is not just a form of communication, but also a vital coping mechanism for many students. [03:04:06] These events are just a few examples of how PWCS supports academic achievement and cares deeply about our community's mental health. Our commitment remains strong as we continue to integrate mental health awareness into every facet of our students' education. [03:04:23] Thank you, and have a good night. - Ms. Vice Chair, Lisa Zargarpur. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. First of all, I am thrilled that not only did we recognize a support staff member, but that she is the, she's from C.D. Hilton High School, and she is our parent liaison. [03:04:49] Andrea's amazing. If you don't know her, she has a great story to tell about why she does this work. She does a great job with connecting with the students and their families. She is always trying to meet the needs of every child that she meets. [03:05:06] So an outstanding educator award is completely appropriate for her. I also want to kind of piggyback on the fact that since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, years ago I found out that there's an organization called to write love on her arms that offers a scholarship and the scholarship helps to pay for mental health services so it will be opening up again on june 1st i'll go ahead and post this on my social media so that people can can link to it but i think it's fantastic that there's [03:05:40] not only just advice and places to go and numbers to call but but that there's also places that are actively trying to help people find the funds because that's also important. I got a chance to do not one but two 5ks. Don't tell my husband I didn't really walk either one of them. Colgan Autism Inclusion and Awareness had a color run and so I stopped by there and then right after that was the Kyle Wilson walk in remembrance of Kyle Wilson who the school is named after. I also got to attend the spark dinner where we got to meet many of our partners who [03:06:15] help support our communities our school communities uh teacher appreciation week is coming up uh and and what's the saying that if you need an appreciation week then you aren't paid enough listen our teachers have been through it you've heard that you know with the discussion up here about behavior um it's we're all in this together so anything you can do to um to just give them a a little little extra love that week would be great and then i leave you with um saturday i will be at the lego thing and it is may the 4th so i leave you with this may the 4th be with you [03:06:52] well it's may the first really may the 4th is coming up i see very good oh wow look at that you want to take my three minutes and give us a little bit more i think we're all wanting after to that, yes, everyone is getting punchy. [03:07:17] Okay, well, first off, I wanna thank our student members who have served with distinction. It has been a privilege serving with each of you, Isabella Aversano, Fernando Morante, and Jacqueline Garcia. The school division is only as strong as the students we serve, and I believe we are a very strong division, and because of you all, thank you again. [03:07:39] April, I wanna thank the school board members and Denise Huebner and Dr. McDade for the robust discussion on the code of behavior. I think it's very important and a lot of great topics were covered in a lot of important issues and hopefully we can move forward there. [03:07:56] It's spring, there's sports, there's robotics finals, science fair finals, proms, school final exams and graduations coming up. It's a very exciting time of the year. So I just encourage everyone to read their emails, make sure they meet their deadlines. [03:08:12] And I wish all of our students a strong finish to this final few weeks of school, and we wish you the best. Thank you, have a great night, everyone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com