Coraggio Consulting
Prince William County School Board Work Session, Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia
Length: 57m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ2NLO1QB4Y
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 2026-10-30. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:00] financial officer that he would like to share and then I'll share the ground rules for markup and we'll open the meeting for board members for discussion following tonight the board will vote to approve the final budget for fiscal year 2026 the next year's next week's meeting on March 19th at this time I'll turn things over dr. McDade dr. McDade thank you mr. chairman I'll start with just acknowledging all of the work of our budget team and better they're here tonight I want to thank them for their work in developing the proposed budget as well as working collaboratively with schools and departments for several months and taking on

[00:01:36] board member feedback so that we can bring forward to you the revenue update and markup and we've aligned all of our investments to our continued support of our vision 2025 strategic plan so you'll see all of the investments that were proposed as well as those that you'll see in markup are specifically aligned to the strategic plan on february 5th our team submitted the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget in cip to the school board the school board then held a public meeting on the proposed budget on february 10th followed by a public hearing on february 19th and i really want to take some time to thank and acknowledge the board for your time attention and

[00:02:14] engagement throughout this budget process and all of the feedback that was captured you'll see your voice in this particular markup as well you've reviewed and analyzed the budget for to provide some critical suggestions and proactive involvement throughout the proposal really ensured the alignment of the strategic plan so i want to both acknowledge and thank the board for that support and at this time i'm going to have mr youssef our chief financial officer to provide an update on the fiscal 2026 budget we'll also go through some of the additions that you'll see

[00:02:51] that um were not in the original proposed budget and also mr vernon bach will share a couple of quick updates as it relates to facilities and some changes that we've made there so we'll start with mr youssef thank you dr mcdade chairman latif members of the school board and dr mcdade this will be very brief a quick recap of where we are with our state revenues on february 22nd the The General Assembly approved a budget with additional K-12 resources.

[00:03:30] Based on the preliminary estimate of the net additional PWCS resources for all funds amounted to approximately $24 million additionally from where we proposed our budget. These adjustments include the elimination of the support cap at $20 million and additional support for special education at $4 million.

[00:03:54] vdoe estimates or the calc sheets have been posted our budget our proposed budget is based on the governor's budget there is the governor has to sign this budget uh i believe the general assembly will be reconvening in april 2nd 2025 so we should have more information as to what gets passed but right now as the general assembly stands it's 24 million dollars extra for us this year Additional in terms of our county revenues just a few dates

[00:04:33] Next week the BOCS will meet to include their revenue update on March 20th, I believe they will be scheduled to advertise its real property tax rate of 92 cents, which is Revenue neutral from their perspective on March 26 all other taxes will be Advertised they'll do a budget recap on April 8th and then following that they will do an approval. So right now We are waiting for the county to finalize their projection

[00:05:15] Just to quickly recap everybody's seen this slide slides, but for our teachers certified employees six point eight percent increase overall seven point four percent for classified and administrate administrators are at six point eight percent similarly over the last five years we have five percent seven percent five percent between five point two percent and six point one percent and six point eight and seven point four percent

[00:05:47] I'm gonna send I'm going to ask mr. Bach to talk about the next slide and this is Construction items. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Youssef What I haven't before you here is a little bit of a compression of the schedule to uh ensure that we have uh you know turf practice fields at all of our high schools and we do have them at seven of our high schools currently so this will balance us out to ensure that we have turf at all of our practice fields and you can see the schedule there of tackling

[00:06:24] three in 2026 and then three more in 2027 and then rounding it out with two more in 2028. also want to make mention and mr wilk i think brought this this forward as a concern coming from the school our risk management team went out along with our facilities team to assess a sidewalk location there running right down the main entrance into potomac and it is we believe it definitely is necessary we have moved aggressively to complete this we'll be using this year's funds to complete that and we're going to be starting this in April and

[00:07:03] completing it in April and this will include a sidewalk down the drive next to the ravine area there is some existing lighting there but it doesn't cast a lot of light we'll be upgrading those light posts with much brighter lighting to cast in both directions and then we'll also be constructing two crosswalks one coming from the front of the school connecting to that sidewalk which will allow students to walk down and then pick up another crosswalk which will be lighted to gain access into the neighborhood on Eagle Ridge Drive so that's all going to be progressing rather quickly and it does not appear in the CIP because we'll be tackling it with this year's funds so that's my

[00:07:42] update all right so next we're going to start the review of the summary of markup just a quick reminder that there's no additional revenues assumed at this time so what you see is based on our current revenue and the proposal that was brought before the board with the understanding that there may be final action that may come from the state and the county at which time we'll be prepared to address that but certainly we can only approve a budget with actual revenue some of the expenditures that you see here will add an additional seven million dollars to the budget in markup and an additional

[00:08:20] 41 FTE which will all be directly school based or positions to directly support schools so I'll walk through all of those investments these investments as you'll see each one does align specifically with objectives within the strategic plan and our direct result of feedback from both our board members as well as a review from our academic teams and in our operational teams so the first thing you'll see here and we heard a lot of got a lot of discussion and a lot of feedback from several board members around the need to emphasize place more investments in science as well as mathematics so you'll see that

[00:08:58] pretty prevalent here in the budget the first thing you see here is two additional science specialists so to make sure that we have coverage for element elementary as well as middle and high and then funding for academic competition travel and participation you'll see a hundred thousand dollars there so that there's never a situation where a school team that has to compete you know doesn't have the funds to be able to cover the cost of travel and registration you'll also see an additional 162,250 dollars which covers the cost of one FTE which is a position to support expanding extracurricular

[00:09:34] activities division-wide and that was something that we got directly from from our board an additional support for math you'll see two things here in math I want to call your attention if you look at line item for the additional support for elementary school math and then also look at the last line item which is math coaches at 13 schools I want to lump those together they don't they're not side-by-side but I want to talk about those at the same time so the first one you see is additional support to math specialists to support elementary school math so we have one already so the idea here is to make sure that each

[00:10:12] region West Central and East has a math specialist to support those schools within the region and then you'll also see five instructional coaches that are supporting schools across the division with high needs when you come to the bottom the last row here where you see support and maintain accreditation for math in elementary school several board members discussed in the proposal of the first budget the need to have like we have specialists for reading in every single school there's a desire I think across the board not just from the board but we also believe that every school should have a math specialist that was

[00:10:48] the reading specialists were funded at the state level for the math specialist we wouldn't be able to fund those all in one fell swoop additionally we have to consider staffing ability for those positions because we know that math is a hard to staff position so what we're doing is a phased approach to try to support those schools where the data suggests there's the highest need so what you see here is there's 13 math coaches that will be school based positions just like the reading specialist position to support 13 schools where we looked at their accreditation and and determined that these were the

[00:11:27] schools that will be the most that would have the biggest impact in having a math coach understand our math specialist understanding that we can't fund one at every single school what what ideally you see the additional coaches that are specifically with a math concentration area that's where Dr. Sullivan's team in teaching and learning will be pushing in support to get coverage across the other schools but the the concentration of a specific site-based specialist for math will be in those 13 schools and we used accreditation data to make that

[00:12:01] determination then you'll see funding the cost of summer virtual courses such as health PE2 and economic and personal finance funding is there to cover the cost for students to take those courses we're also going to be covering the tuition fee for summer high school accelerated courses so you'll see seven hundred and twenty two thousand dollars there we're we're adding three additional Security Operations Center staff for after-hour events so several board members posited the need that you know while we have the the Security operations center we have so many after-hour events that extend beyond the

[00:12:41] time that the center is open so we'll be including these three positions specifically for nights where there's heavy after after-hour events across the school division so that the center is manned then you'll see administrative intern for high school for high instances of level 2 programs and this is an annual investment we invested last year where schools that had a large number of level 2 programs did did get an additional admin intern to carry some of the the case management supports there and so you'll see this year what

[00:13:15] we did was go back and evaluate because year over year the office of special education looks at programming needs and may increase programs in specific schools so it doesn't look the same every year so we have to reevaluate annually to make sure that resource that we provided is still being provided equitably across the board and so this year based on the addition of level two programs in other schools we're adding eight admin interns then you'll see the next line is vape sensors so it's beginning the start of the next school

[00:13:52] year we're allocating four hundred thousand dollars for vape sensors in all high schools we right now are doing a pilot for middle and high but not all high schools actually have the vape centers sensors so that $400 will go to that then you'll see social worker dedicated to McKinney Vento our McKinney Vento students those are students who have instability in housing and so there's a dedicated social social worker position specifically for those students we they have social work support right now but the number of of students that we have that are identified as McKinney-Vento has

[00:14:30] significantly grown since the pandemic and there is a need to have some dedicated support there then you'll see two hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred dollars to pay to cover the cost of funding referee pay for teams that advance past the district level competition so that those costs are covered that's a significant cost to schools that we're picking up and then the department budgetary funds for science this really is this hundred thousand dollars it's really around research and projects in support of students that's going to be housed in the science

[00:15:07] office then you'll see six csos so where the additional community safety officers just to give some context here there's been several both community based as well as from our board as well all the schools that have asked about you know our middle schools and our high schools have SROs our elementary schools we made a significant investment in security assistance in our elementary schools but they do not have armed security what they do have is our community security officers who are armed and they patrol all of our elementary schools but right now we have

[00:15:43] how many do you is this we sorry we have 12 currently okay so we have a total of 12 right now we're adding six and then what they will do is be divided amongst the three regions so that there's heavier coverage for each region so they won't necessarily have the individual SRO in an elementary school but they'll they will have additional armed officers and this way with the addition we'll be able to have an equal number in each of the three regions of security So that's and just a point of note the SROs are staffed by Prince William County PD

[00:16:20] We don't staff SROs right and we know there's a critical shortage In police officers, so there's not a path forward to staff and SRO in every single elementary school And right now the data doesn't necessarily suggest that that is what needs to happen the community Security officers have been very beneficial and have been supportive and we do think that this addition will You know bolster the community and give a little bit more added support and protection And it would be a later layered approach because they do have the security assistance And then you'll recall even is I think it was just the last the last board meeting when we did the gifted

[00:16:58] Program presentation there was a discussion by several board members with dr. Sullivan Around gifted programming supplemental funds and the way that we currently Provide supplemental support is through a flat kind of flat rate supplement to each of the programs But what we're doing now is we're going to keep that but a role in a per pupil dollar amount So that the funding that the gifted program gets will be per the per the number of students that are actually in the gifted program And that's going to be to the tune of about a hundred thousand dollars

[00:17:34] and then I've already kind of gone over the math coach support so these are the additional investments as you'll see they are all directly in support of students and schools and school-based positions and the total here for positions as well as discretionary funds is a total of a little over seven million dollars so that is all of our additional investments in the markup and that concludes our presentation for this evening mr. chairman great thank you it's important to note the board members have previously had the opportunity to share with the superintendent any additions or revisions to the proposed

[00:18:10] FY 26 budget and those have already been taken into consideration and for that we truly appreciate it Dr. McDade we will begin by going around the table to each board member for opening comments following open comments will follow this process which we do every year each board member in turn will have the opportunity to present any proposed changes they may have that may not have previously been shared with the superintendent if there is a change each change must be moved and seconded followed by a discussion and a vote no board member may speak twice about a budget change unless unless and until all board members have spoken once about it after all board after all board comment is complete the matter will be called for a vote by the chair a change may be

[00:18:48] offered and voted on once should there be any changes they'll be compiled in a final vote on the budget with all changes incorporated will be taken likewise should there be no changes to the proposed budget a final vote will be taken to accept the budget as presented board members are not so bound but otherwise pledged to each other not to offer amendments to the budget in open session as being duplicative of the work session efforts allowing for a straight up or down vote on the budget that is reflected on the final vote of the work session board members may make any comments or discuss changes offered in the work session in open session okay we'll move now to opening comments and

[00:19:24] we'll start right now with mr. Wilk thank you mr. chairman thank you administration I appreciate the updates and the feedback like a lot of my colleagues number those represent some of the things I was looking for you know I looked at some of the things especially like mr. Genick with some of the safety and security dr. Lateef had a lot of great academic suggestions that he was focused on and paying for other areas of academic support there are a lot of good things and some that we collaborated on and that it was great to see multiple board members push for various things that are now incorporated

[00:20:02] into this budget I do want to say that you know when the sidewalks were first proposed and I do have to give credit to McKee a little a member of the PTO at Potomac Senior High School for really bringing this to the forefront it's not that this was the first time this was ever presented but in the past when this was investigated there was I'm trying to think of the right word in decision or it was a gray area about who owned that property the county said we owned it we said the county owned it and this with a previous administration so we really

[00:20:41] weren't able to fully tackle it because there were disputes about who actually owned it and who was responsible for the land nonetheless I'm happy now that we and have acknowledged that we own it and we are completing this project rapidly you know I think originally we were thinking a multi-year kind of faceted approach but now April I think use it yes sir it'll start this April and be completed by the end of April perfect thank you and and so very thankful for a lot of these things you know the arms of patrol officers I think that's

[00:21:17] something I'd like to add more a little bit more every year dr. McDade and I were at a police appreciation night that Forest Park puts on annually you know we're very thankful I'm very thankful for having a resource officer in every secondary school I know a couple years ago it was a goal of a large number of members of this board to ensure that we could at least get one-to-one especially at the middle school and originally we didn't have that because of the number of applicants and it's great to see over time that we're almost I think fully at

[00:21:54] that point with the middle school is that correct sir I believe we have two middle schools that share an SSRO currently but yes okay thank you that's great and so overall like I said you know the last two nights have been to two different PTO meetings and I briefly brought up the budgets and I was at Patti last night it was a very active PTO and they were you know just profusely grateful for the security support in each of the elementary school buildings then it's not just patty every elementary school you know it resonates with the whole community I know originally when we were doing security

[00:22:31] there were people who rebuffed or didn't want to actually wear um the security clothing and have the uniformity in the presence but that has been very popular now that you know families know exactly especially at middle school or high school sporting events and such who the security is and there is a large presence at these events because of course security safety of our students is a part of the huge component of the strategic plan bringing the evolved detectors out to our football and basketball sporting events and other

[00:23:05] events has been received really well when I was at Forest Park on Monday night for their PAC meeting we talked about a lot of this the vape detectors were brought up and you know the committee a group seemed very you know happy about it we also acknowledge that it's not going to completely eradicate vaping in our schools but it is a step in the right direction and then of course the turf field coming the forest park - so overall thank you I'm very grateful for what was added to the budget I'm thankful for my colleagues for adding their components to the budget I think this is a very robust budget and

[00:23:42] continues going along with our strategic framework and our overall goal so thank you thank you mr. Wilk mr. Denik thank you I just like to say thank you to everybody that dealt with my long list of asks I think I last budget season had no idea what I was doing because it was my first budget season I still don't know exactly what I'm doing but I knew that I could ask for more items and at least have a conversation and I really appreciate Dr. McDade for being willing to discuss each item and and even explain why or why not about certain

[00:24:20] things one of the big ones that I just think is such a great investment are the vape sensors in the high schools I'm a big fan of those something else that's smaller but means something is the referee pay for when teams make it past a certain point they don't have that in their budget the additional CSOs I'm a big advocate for safety so I love that the gifted programs getting that little extra stipend based on how many people they have in their class the social worker for McKinney Vento is a big deal the funds for science I know you touched on it a little bit dr. McDade but it was something that we talked about

[00:24:59] especially I know even dr. Lateef has talked about science projects not being a a huge focus can you touch on that a little bit yeah this this specifically um is for supplies in research classes okay okay so things like um beakers and test tubes for students to be able to have experimentation okay so that's that's particularly what that is it's possibly to also encourage them to do to do science fairs yes yes so so it's that right because it's a hundred thousand so it's not just all test tubes but um but it's a combination of both um you know when we

[00:25:36] talk about research projects they also have to have the lab equipment to be able to conduct research and experimentation so it's a combination of participation in science fair and then supporting students to be able to go through the research process and so schools do need funding to be able to do that the other thing is the math support I think a lot of us had asked for that and that's a great a great one I had in the van for the high school programs I think it's such a big deal for some of our kiddos that have to try to figure out a way to get to the the local program so I really appreciate that and I

[00:26:13] know that that will be appreciated from a lot of people I just had one more question the additional assistant principals at the elementary school level I know that was something that I asked for and I know it's dependent on funding I I do know that there's the reasoning behind it is to help with special ed to help with discipline I know we have the new discipline admin coming can you just touch on that a little bit if there's a possibility in the future absolutely so a couple of things it is at elementary school is our largest group in terms of schools and so it is cost prohibitive and then the fact that we we added the admin interns and the deans is supportive however we do we

[00:26:52] are costing out right now for those schools that for example we have some schools that have 11 level 2 programs and for those schools we do believe the admin in turn isn't sufficient and so for those schools I do have the team right now working on providing me an evaluation of how many schools have ten or more level two programs or schools that have significant programming where there are there's challenges with the admin team in handling that and those would be the schools that we would prioritize to have an additional assistant principal rather than just the admin in every level and that that's

[00:27:30] regardless of level it's not just elementary middle or it's just dependent upon the actual programming usually that kind of support is necessary at elementary because they have so much less staffing um admin staffing than a high school would have right so that's where you typically would see more and and we're seeing more of the programs being placed there as well but um but as far as future we do we are anticipating that we'll receive some additional funding that will be able to support the work that we're doing in special education is that particularly with admin support so you should the board should expect that with additional funds I would want to bring forward that we

[00:28:10] would add some additional assistant principals to those schools that really need the additional support based on their special education programming so that is something that I do want to you know put out now that that is one of the things that we would want to use additional funding for and we'll have a a full evaluation for you to show which schools and why thank you thank you miss jargon thank you dr. Lateef when I first started on the board the budget process was very I don't know it's just kind of wild west like I used that term

[00:28:45] before I mean mr. Wilk you remember how we would have the discussion about the armored car yes good days yeah so I just want to thank you dr. McDade for bringing in the idea that we need to be evaluating what our programs look like what they need if what we are doing is working and and being able to be nimble and pivot in things so in and even in our sip like looking at all of our properties and deciding how are we going to evaluate what school or property

[00:29:21] needs whatever they need and making it easier for our principals and our school communities to be able to make those requests so I all of that just makes this process so much better like my colleagues said I'm appreciative to all these these things that we've already have in the budget and the the ideas that the board has come up with or things that people were concerned about I'm grateful for being able to have this our funders need to know our local taxpayers this is really important it's it's it's it's not easy to add things to

[00:29:58] school divisions money is usually pretty tight and and we find in times that we'll have things that get taken away so I'm really grateful that we are able to be adding things that are important and will make a difference for our students so thank you mr. Jess I want to thank everyone for all that they have done with this budget it is impressive to me and I see that we are doing a lot of good things you know for some reason I think that we are way ahead of a lot of

[00:30:32] systems divisions and so forth with the organization with the attention to detail that we are doing I think this is great I do have one question for mr. or for burn which is I notice you you're saying that we put an artificial turf on the practice field does that include the softball and and hardball fields it does not that includes where we had natural grass as the practice field we're going

[00:31:08] to be taking that up and replacing that with artificial turf one of the reasons that we mr. Blake had suggested you know delaying Garfield was to get a little bit more of a comprehensive look so we are looking at that we're going to take more of a comprehensive look at some of our other schools as well that's something that we're taking a look at thank you but overall I'm very impressed with the budget and I think we are doing a lot of good things thank you miss William thank you mr. chairman I'd like to echo the comments made by my board

[00:31:42] members prior this this markup session is a lot less stressful than years gone by I appreciate the attention to the organization and not just listening to board member comments but from the public from your own staff and really getting down on the ground level to make that difference for people who work at all levels of our division it's very much appreciated I just had a few questions and it and I don't necessarily need all the answers right now but if you could just when you talk about fully funding for calls for active academic competition and travel and protect participation what are those

[00:32:20] and I don't need like a full list but like I don't we don't have like a list of ones but for example we do have situations that arise where a team may be going to compete and they don't have the funding so I'll give an example international science fair it could be it could be any activity I'll give an example one of our schools I think it was FFA that was competing and they were they tried to like raise the money to go they were going to national and they were trying to raise the money and they couldn't raise the money and then we ended up I ended up you know giving them the additional funding to be able to

[00:32:59] support it but they actually asked about it right like asked for the additional support and there's sometimes situations where the school might not have it and they don't they don't say anything if they're not able to fundraise so we just want to have in our athletics and and student activities department we want to have money available so that if a school is going to compete for anything thing academic or athletics if they have to travel if they have to pay registration fees and the school doesn't have it in their budget we don't want it to be a situation where students can't participate so I couldn't tell you that

[00:33:35] oh it's gonna be for robotics so it's gonna be for FCLA I can't tell you specifically but I will tell you that we have a lot of award-winning teams and a lot of schools that compete across the board both athletics and academics and there are times where the schools can absorb the cost and there's times when we have some schools that don't have the budget for it and we want to make we want them to know that they have a department that they can go to to say we're going to national or we're going to state and we need buses or we need registration fees and we have money designated for that thank you I really appreciate that that's a major deal for most of our students and for most of our

[00:34:14] schools because travel gets more and more expensive every year and I don't think we've ever had something like that from the division level because one of the things I I well I don't talk about as much but like schools having discretionary spending that could look very different school to school most of my schools are tighter when schools discretionary spending is usually mandatory spending so we're at another school it's not so that I really appreciate that the next thing I wanted to know about was we're gonna do vape sensors at all the high schools for the start of next year could we get a cost estimate or what it would look like to expand that to middle schools as well I know we have some pilot programs but lucky me I'm a middle school parent so

[00:34:53] I'm hearing about this all the time from the middle school level so I know it's at the activity is just as active students are getting into it at a younger and younger ages and I think a lot of them have figured out for the evolved system so I'll just leave it at that the next thing you talked a little bit about budgetary funds for science I was wondering if we don't have all of our schools don't have science labs and I know that's a process and we're getting there and it's going to take a while uh is there uh when we talk about maybe we may be receiving additional funds possibly putting together a plan or what it would look like for

[00:35:31] a board to look at of maybe having mobile science labs or something of that nature the reason why i bring that up is because i know there's been a few times in the past where students are scheduled to go on a stem field trip whether they can't go so for i'll just use my own son he's 66 grader he hasn't actually been in a science lab yet and through no fault of the division through no fault of his own right it's just something construction here or there's a missed field trip or what so I was just I know that those things exist I don't know how practical they would be but I I can see that we are upping our investment in science and I would just I know he's not the only one and any opportunity I think for students to do more hands-on learning would be a great and that's not

[00:36:10] to undervalue the lab the Think Big Center at River Oaks those are wonderful but they're also for students who are absolutely dedicated to a career in science the level of rigor that they're looking for or the extra participation I think we're missing out on and so not asking for it now because I don't know if it's still a thing but if we could look into that if there are additional funds that would be fantastic and when we talk about special ed adding interns do we have one of the things that I had heard this year and I'm not sure if it's gotten better is just a little bit of extra staff for the buffering

[00:36:49] like the difference between TAs and our special ed teachers and having their schedules and I don't know if interns help with that is that something that would also provide some cushion for our teachers during the day like say there's someone out you can't find a sub that kind of thing do we have any breathing room in those areas for our special ed because I know they're they're in the classroom all day we generally have a hard time finding special ed teachers and so I don't know if there's anything position wise or if that's part of what that person would be doing or how we could sort of build some cushion around our special ed teachers I don't know that that's like

[00:37:26] legally like I don't know the teacher has to provide the instruction to the student and so the coverage is based on the instructional actual minutes in the day but but you'll see we made a significant investment to add additional TA so that's above and beyond what would be required in the classroom and so doctor so dr. Ryer has done a lot to take a hard look at the programming to make sure that not only the required number of TAs are there but we we've added additional support so I know teachers have been appreciative of that

[00:38:03] but outside of adding the additional TAs and then adding the support for the case management I mean the teacher is the teacher of record to provide instruction so there's no way to you know remove time from the day for them they would they would have to deliver instruction for the full instructional a day and of course they do get the same you know a duty-free lunch and things like that in their preparation periods that that every other teacher gets but they do have the additional we did try to provide some additional human capital in those classrooms to support the teachers by way of the teaching the

[00:38:40] teaching assistants and we've added quite a bit this year is 50 but dr. wire do you can you recall the total 300 so to the tune of 350 okay thank you we just really haven't talked about that for a while and I think it's just now the best time to bring that up so thank you dr. Reier for I'm moving because I can't see you thank you doctor thank you dr. Reier for looking at that program and building that in I didn't quite phrase it right but you hit the nail on the head and I really appreciate that I know our teachers do too and again just general thank you for keeping us informed and really being on point about

[00:39:16] what we're hearing so thank you thank you miss Williams miss wall thank you dr. Lateef I want to start out by saying that I think this is a great budget I think that the pay scale initiative is the biggest thing in this budget and it is very what I'm hearing it's very welcome and the staff really appreciates it it is a significant investment if you look like the average sailing salary increase over the last five years is absolutely stunning so I want to highlight that and and say that I appreciate that and I think hopefully

[00:39:52] we'll see some returns on that investment in happier students happier staff and then great results in academics and on and off the field also so with those general remarks being said I also appreciate and acknowledge that our top priorities are reflected in this budget which I appreciate I also appreciate the process of the strategic plan driving the investments I also see that is happening in this budget which I also want to draw attention to and appreciate and acknowledge and that is also true for the CIP I appreciate the

[00:40:30] fidelity to taking a look at our facilities and our fields and evaluating where our needs are and prioritizing our investments based on the data that we're collecting and the knowledge that we have of our facilities so thank you very much to the team that worked hard on that and including the evaluation of the turf practice fields which for our student athletes is going to be huge to see that compression of the schedule and to be able to get all those other high schools up and running with a turf practice field I think it would make a big difference I really focus on academics because that's where my heart

[00:41:07] lies but I do know that the athletics make a big difference for our students they love the athletics it's often a way that they achieve their personal dreams on and off the field so I really want to thank everybody for working hard on that a couple of things that I appreciate in particular and want to highlight is the additional I mean I know this is 7 million additional funds that's a that's a big number and I really appreciate it the covering of summer virtual courses such as HPE one and two and econ and personal finance that's been a big thing for kids when that sticker shock when you want to you

[00:41:47] want to take you know an advanced course and marching band and then you want to take a summer course and then the price is $400 it's really hard for some families even if they can afford it they often complain about it you know because it's a lot of money so I do really appreciate that I think that's gonna make a big difference also covering the tuition fee for summer high school accelerated courses kids who want to get a jump on so they can take some of our other electives in our that we offer and we offer so many really great electives so I appreciate that I also wanted to highlight that I particularly like the investment for supplementing elementary school gifted

[00:42:25] programs to bring a little bit more I guess I don't know if the word is parody but you know flat rate supplement plus the roll-in per pupil people cost I think that'll make it easier on our schools to do what they need to do with the gifted and talented programs and and and really reach out to more kids in an effective way and these additional supports for math education math elementary school specialists and science education sorry elementary specialists I think that is also going to make a difference and while those are essentially they're centrally based positions they are directly reaching

[00:43:01] into the schools and I think that's really important to notice that while we have central staff they are giving direct support schools and that should make a difference for our teachers that gives teachers support and hopefully will make their jobs easier as they help kids so overall any further thoughts from me if we should have additional funds I don't know if this is the proper time to make that but I do know that we have in the music department sometimes instrument repair can be expensive for schools especially in band when you have needs for that and I don't know how we fund that but that might be something that could really help our schools out also additional money for sheet music

[00:43:40] music rights to like a band show things like that that schools do often bear the cost of to get appropriate music and instrument repair and replacement so that might be something that if we did have additional funds we could we could take a look at supporting from a central office position and other than that I really appreciate it and I want to say thank you to everybody who worked hard on this budget I know you've probably been breathing eating living this for months so I'm sure you're happy to see us be coming to the end of it

[00:44:13] thanks thank you miss wall mr. Blake thank you mr. chairman good evening everyone I'm very pleased with the progress we've made this year on this budget and I believe that it is a strong forward-thinking budget that not only aligns with our needs of the community but also reflects the goals of our strategic plan and I just want to take a moment to thank the superintendent and all of our staff for their commitment to listening to the school board and taking

[00:44:51] a couple of consideration of what we all said and reflecting it in this markup and I really appreciate it and thank you everything they all said so thanks okay great so going back to the main part of the proposed budget I am you know really excited the fact that this budget does reflect our values or reflects our strategic plan you know just for me the highlights really are you know we we've added more special ed teacher assistants we've added behavior specialists

[00:45:29] graduation coaches school psychologists and kindergarten teaching assistants all of these positions will help all students regardless of what level they are at a behavior specialist a school psychologist can help all students not just gifted students or students with English learner these are all students so the commitment in this budget everyone should really recognize is that the dollars being invested here are for all children not just particular groups of kids or certain demographics they are really thoughtful investments that will

[00:46:05] impact all students across all grade levels and I think that's truly appreciative I'm very grateful for the additional investment specifically very happy to see that we are going to be able to fund and cover some of the high school summer courses the tuition for summer classes is and you know is in can be expensive for many and I appreciate that I think that's a great investment that's about a million dollars going to help pay for students and again that's all students right that's any student who wants to do those programs and I think that's really important and I think families should really take advantage of that program I really appreciate the other aspects of the

[00:46:45] additional investments that we're doing many of these are based on science and math areas that I think we have a lot of work to do and a lot of a lot to make up since the pandemic especially and so I truly appreciate that effort in the commitment the continued commitment that this board has in the superintendent to safety and security for having more folks in the security office what do we call that this saw saw security operations security operations center right center and so very good okay those are the just of my comments we'll move

[00:47:23] now to the second part of workup is if anyone has any proposed changes does anyone have a proposed change mr. Wilk thank you sir second sorry I wrote this right before usually when my mind is most fluid and I wanted to have it written so I projected the right tone on this and put some more context and this has to deal with the CIP a recommended change I'm gonna put forward I didn't really lobby anyone for this I guess we'll just go how it is to see if I could

[00:48:00] get support for this but for the past few years I have been asked by community members and elected officials what are we going to do with Dumfries before I joined the board in 2016 Dumfries Elementary underwent renovations in the early 2000s I do not know the story of what occurred but I have heard rumors that the district had the option to renovate the existing building with primarily interior upgrades and some exterior changes or to pursue a complete overhaul with the possible multi-story expansion my understanding is that the previous representative opted to preserve the building's historical nature

[00:48:39] and focus more on interior renovations while changes were made inside trenchant disparities remain. There is no loading dock, forcing boxes to be stored in the main office. The gym is nearly one-third the size of those in my other schools. The cafeteria is the smallest I've seen in any elementary school. Two years ago, the Dumfries Town Council held their swearing-in ceremony at the school. The feedback was staggering. Elected officials from across the county couldn't believe how small the cafeteria was. When I showed them the gymnasium, they were shocked.

[00:49:15] Dumfries Elementary is landlocked and surrounded by homes and a historic slave cemetery. I believe the only viable option is to rebuild part of the structure and add a second floor. I want to acknowledge that, based on my research, the same amount of money, based on the division's research I should say, was spent on Dumfries as other elementary school renovations at the time.

[00:49:39] I also understand the division conducted a sagacious facilities assessment. Despite these trenchant concerns, the building is filled with dedicated staff and happy families. I rarely hear complaints, and every time I visit, I am greeted by a friendly and collaborative team.

[00:49:57] The building is well-lit, the floors are spotless, and the walls showcase vibrant murals and student work. This is not the first time I have pushed for change and likely will not be my last. As the Potomac District Representative, I must uphold my community's trust and advocate for equal resources across all schools.

[00:50:17] Tonight my ask, I'm seeking the board to support moving Dumfries Elementary from the 29 renovation renewal year to FY27, ensuring that the issues hitherto overlooked are finally addressed. Do you have a second?

[00:50:34] I'll second it. Dr. McDade, do you want to make any comments on that? Well, first I'll say, you know, I do understand some of the concerns that Mr. Wilkins brought forward.

[00:50:52] just remind the board that in our strategic plan we committed to evaluating all of our facilities to ensure that in our CIP there is a strong rationale for every facility that needs a renovation or need support that shows that we're prioritizing the buildings that are in the most need so that's not to say that Dumfries does not need additional support to their facilities however we did share with the board the full facilities assessment that showed the schools that were in the poorest condition in terms of their facilities

[00:51:31] and those are the buildings that you see prioritized in the CIP and while Dumfries certainly can benefit from additional renovation they did have a renovation do you recall what year that was I don't have that date okay well we we did share with with the the Dumfries Town Council or the mayor of Dumfries the actual date of the last renovation that was that you know the board was some of the board members here were a part of and we also shared with you the facilities assessment for Dumfries in comparison to other

[00:52:09] schools in the school system and right now they are not the school that has the most dire need in terms of facilities renovation and I'm really really excited about the fact that the board supported going down the path of hiring the external evaluators so that there's fairness in our CIP and I personally believe that we should stay the course and ensuring that those schools that are showing in the orange or in the red are prioritized because in some instances even from a safety

[00:52:45] perspective you know we do need to address those facilities first yeah um thank you for that I appreciate that I understand your your your thoughts behind that and the logic to your rationale if well first I don't know if anyone was on this board when it first occurred because if we subtract 25 years from 2029 it definitely I I was not on the board and miss Williams you've been longer than me I don't think so it was prior to this board's terms but I just

[00:53:23] wanted to add that so yeah just wanted to put that there okay we'll take a vote all in favor of mr. Wilkes motion for moving the Dumfries renovations up a signal with a hand raise any opposed all opposed hands up okay opposition wins moving on next to who's next anybody have anything else to add to mark up um okay Dr. Lateef um could I just add you know I was listening to you want to add something to

[00:54:03] budget no no I do but I don't have any money so uh we don't we're we're done until we get some additional funding but um I just wanted to respond to two things one um Ms. Wall in terms of the just because I know that if we do get additional money I want to make sure that I'm addressing some of the things that I did here tonight and um Ms. Wall you asked about additional money for the instruments and repair and i just do want to remind everyone that that's i do want to reassure you that we have money in the budget for that already um just a refresher last year

[00:54:36] we did we added 169 514 increase so now we're at a total of 425 000 for to support um music instruments and repair and then the other thing i wanted to call out was um miss williams with the special education um you know i know you were probably referring to almost teacher burnout and with special education in addition to what i i didn't think about um was in addition to the tas remember we um in the original proposal we did add the 15 behavioral specialists which is a support

[00:55:12] too um for and and and dr ryer i just want to give some credit to dr ryer when she came in she did a kind of an overhaul and looked at all of the positions and worked um collaboratively with the CFO and so now we have additional teachers to support inclusion and so that's a big benefit as well and those are two things that I didn't think of so I just want to thank you dr. Ryer for bringing that to my attention if we're in the business asking for more when more comes you can just refer to my list

[00:55:48] and take a look at the fact that I still am pushing for more guidance counselors or career college and career counselors at the high schools okay great thank you all for that are we in the work session fun mark votes accept okay so as

[00:56:09] as presented I need a motion mr. Blake how about I move I move that the Prince William County School Board accept the fiscal year 2026 budget as presented in this evening's work session and final markup that second second any all those

[00:56:38] in favor ends up all those opposed no opposition motion passes okay I moved that the Prince William County School Board is so we're good we have no changes right I get that right council okay all right that being no further action before this board with this meeting is adjourned

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