Coraggio Consulting Prince William County School Board Meeting, Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia Length: 4h 4m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s07u8u6EPGA 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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:00] - All right, at this time, I'd like to call the Prince William County School Board meeting to order. Before we move to the approval agenda, I need a motion to amend the meeting agenda by moving item 18.02 under Board Matters to occur during Thriving Futures Focus. Vice Chair Blake. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [00:00:16] I move that the Prince William County School Board amend the meeting agenda by moving item 18.02 under Board Matters to occur during Thriving Futures Focus. - Do I have a second? - Chair, Mr. Chairman? - Ms. Williams. - Second. - Ms. Williams, second. Any discussion? [00:00:31] Please vote, all in favor, raise your hand. Okay, any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. - Vote is seven yes, one abstinent. Vote Tridentic, motion passed. - Yep, yep, okay good. Motion now in order for the approval of the meeting agenda as amended. Vice Chair Blake. - Thank you. [00:00:46] I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as amended. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Zargarpur. - I second. - Any discussion? Please vote. Everybody hands in the air, sorry. - Vote is seven yes, one abstinent. [00:01:01] Vote Tridentic, motion passed. - Okay, moving on to the motion to enter closed session. A motion to order, Vice Chair Blake. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that pursuant to sections 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, the Prince William County School Board, enter closed session for the following reasons. [00:01:19] One, to discuss with staff the assignment, appointment, promotions, performance, demotions, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of any public body pursuant to section. 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia, and two, to discuss with division council and staff actual or probable litigation in specific legal matters involving staff, students, and other civil litigation involving the school division under sections 2.2-3711A7 and eight of the Code of Virginia, [00:01:57] and three, to consult with division council regarding specific legal matters involving school board regulation 801-2 and the use of school board property at Gainesville High School pursuant to sections 2.2-3711A8 of the Code of Virginia. [00:02:16] And four, to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security in school facilities, the safety of persons using such facilities, and actions taken to respond to such matters, where discussion in open meetings would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant to section 2.2-3711A19 of Dakota, Virginia. [00:02:39] - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman, I second. - Ms. Wall seconds. Any discussion? All in favor, vote with your hands in the air. - Vote is seven yes, one not present at vote. Tradenek, motion passed. - Right, and at this time, the Prince William County School Board [00:02:52] will enter closed session, return in approximately one hour. [00:03:57] Good evening, good evening, and welcome to the very first meeting of the Prince William County School Board for the year 2026. I'd like to welcome you all here. We're gonna reconvene in open session and we have a couple action items we need to take care of. [00:04:14] A motion is in order for 7.01 closed session certification. Mr. Blake. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, the closed session of the Prince William County School Board meeting of January 7th, 2026, be certified by adopting the following resolution. [00:04:35] 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 the open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board. [00:05:04] Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Zargarpur. - I second. - Okay, any discussion? All in favor, raise your hands. Tonight we're doing hand vote. - Vote is eight yes unanimous, motion passed. - Our system is struggling a little bit. Okay, very good. Moving on to closed session action item 8.01, approval appointments and releases. [00:05:23] Vice Chair Blake. - Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in the closed session. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Wall. - I second. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. [00:05:40] - Vote is eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Okay, at this time, we will do the Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight, we have our student representative, Karina Grover of Colgan High School, to lead us in the pledge. - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic, one nation, for God, indivisible, for liberty. [00:06:08] - Okay, thank you. Okay, so a couple things, housekeeping matters. This is our normal, once a year, we do an organizational meeting, so we'll have a number of votes on committee assignments and the new vice chair. Before we go on, this is Vice Chair Blake's last meeting as vice chair, and I wanna personally thank him for a terrific year. [00:06:31] He has been a great team member. He has stood in for me at a number of my meetings and events across the county, and has done so with distinction, and I truly appreciated his partnership and commitment to our schools and his collaboration has been above anything I've seen before and I really appreciate it. [00:06:49] His highly focused commitment to children and their learning has been a great asset to the school board and our schools and his commitment to the Neabsco district has been unrivaled and well-received. Thank you, Mr. Blake. Let's give him a round of applause. Thank you. [00:07:07] Okay, now we're moving on to Thriving Futures Focus, but before we do that, I have a motion for an agenda item 18.02, which we moved in our schedule up to this point. And so at this point, I would like to have that motion. [00:07:24] All right, no, hold on here. Am I supposed to read all this other stuff? Okay, before we do this, so we're gonna have a motion, but Thriving Futures Focus is an opportunity to highlight our exemplary work being accomplished in our schools that fulfill our vision that every student will graduate on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. [00:07:40] We dedicate this time during our meetings to recognize students, staff members, and schools that have earned an honor and award at the state or national level. Before we do our Thriving Futures focus for this evening, we do have something special. We wanna recognize our flag football champions. We'll be doing that and I'd like to have a motion, agenda item 18.02 from Erica Trudenik of the Brentsville District. [00:08:04] - Okay, so we're putting forth a resolution supporting the permanent adoption and expansion of girls' flag football in Prince William County Public Schools. You want me to go ahead and read the motion? - Yeah, why don't you read the recommendation? - Okay. - I move, yeah. [00:08:20] - Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have that. - Yeah, okay. - I don't have it. - I move that Prince William County School Board approve the resolution supporting the permanent adoption and expansion of girls flag football in Prince William County Public Schools. - Would you like to read the whole motion tonight? [00:08:37] - Would you like me to? - I think so. - Okay. - Yeah, I think we should as part of our effort this evening, yes, please. - All right, whereas the Prince William County School Division celebrates a successful completion of its inaugural girls flag football season in the fall of 2025, and whereas participation in the first season was robust with 12 of the division's 13 high schools, Battlefield, Brentsville District, Charles J. Colgan Senior, Forest Park, Freedom, Gainesville, Garfield, Osborne Park, Patriot, Potomac, Unity Reed and Woodbridge, fielding teams and engaging female student athletes from every grade level. [00:09:13] And whereas girls flag football is one of the fastest growing high school sports for girls nationally. With the National Federation of State High School Associations reporting a 60% increase in participation between 2023 and 24, and 24 and 25 school years. [00:09:28] Nearly 60,000 girls taking the field and almost 1,000 additional schools nationwide offering the sport. And whereas the expansion of opportunities exclusively for female athletes is essential for advancing wellness, leadership, and academic engagement, as research consistently shows that girls who participate in school athletics demonstrate higher confidence, stronger community connection, improved academic performance, an increased likelihood of pursuing leadership paths. [00:09:55] And whereas, increasing athletic opportunities for girls directly supports the goals of Title IX, helping close gaps in participation rates and ensuring that young women receive equal access to school-sponsored sports, funding, facilities, and coaching. And whereas, the Prince William County School Board recognizes that athletics play a critical role in empowering girls and young women, especially in historically male-dominated sports, and that girls flag football provides a unique, inclusive avenue for girls develop physical strength teamwork discipline resilience and competitive skills that will serve them throughout life and whereas the washington commanders the region's nfl team have [00:10:31] invested over 1 million in supporting the growth of girls flag football across the dmv including the provision of uniforms equipment and partnership resources that have strengthened the opportunities for female student athletes in prince william county and whereas the school board extends gratitude to superintendent dr latonya mcdade for initiating the county's first season and for her leadership in collaborating with community partners to ensure the program's success and whereas the board also thanks all student athletes coaches volunteers parents and families for contributing to an inaugural season that was historic inspiring and remarkably successful now therefore be it [00:11:08] resolved that prince william county school board one formally supports and recommends that girls flag football be adopted as a permanent girls fall sport across all high schools in prince william county and two directs that the school division fund girls flag football consistent with all other sports at every high school ensure compliance with title 9 and provide female athletes with appropriate facilities resources coaching and competitive opportunities and three will issue a formal request to the virginia high school league advocating for girls flag football to be recognized as an official vhsl sanctioned sport for all high schools across the commonwealth of Virginia and four will send a letter to the Virginia Board of Education urging [00:11:48] them to support VHSL's establishment of girls flag football as an official statewide sport and to emphasize the importance of expanding athletic opportunities for female student athletes and five declares full legislative support for efforts to secure statewide recognition of girls flag football as an official VHSL sport and commits to advocating for policies investments and partnerships that elevate and expand opportunities for female athletes, and six, declares the continued growth of girls' flag football as a vital step towards advancing equal opportunity for girls in sports, empowering young women through sport, and ensuring that female athletes of Prince William County [00:12:26] receive the recognition, access, and support they deserve. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Wall. - I second. - Okay, great, any discussion? Please vote, and then we'll do our lunch in private futures. All in favor? - Vote as eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. [00:12:42] - Standing, let's give that a round of applause. All right, folks, in addition to developing and approving the resolution, the school board is honored this evening in our Thriving Futures Focus to acknowledge the Brentsville District High School Girls Flag Football Team for winning the inaugural Flag Football Championship. [00:13:03] I invite Ms. Tredenik of the Brentsville District to introduce our champions. Ms. Tredenik. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. This year, as mentioned in the resolution, Prince William County Public Schools did something truly special. We launched Girls Flag Football as a new club sport, opening the door for students to try something new, compete, and lead in ways that did not exist before. [00:13:25] In our very first season, 12 of our 13 high schools stepped up and fielded teams, showing just how much interest and enthusiasm there was across the division. That excitement was matched by incredible support. Earlier this year, Prince William County Schools partnered with the Washington Commanders to introduce girls to the sport through clinics held in January and May. [00:13:44] In August, the Commanders announced a major commitment to girls flag football across our region by providing uniforms, equipment, and resources that helped our programs get off the ground in a meaningful way. The season kicked off in unforgettable fashion at the Commander's Indoor Practice Facility in Ashburn, where four Prince William County schools, Battlefield, Brentsville District, Garfield, and Osborne Park took the field for the very first matchups. [00:14:07] From that moment on, it was clear that it was something special. Throughout the season, every team competed with energy, sportsmanship, and pride. The semifinals and championships games were played in Prince William County and the Brunsville District High School Tigers claimed the inaugural championship title. [00:14:25] We are proud to have Brunsville District High School represented here tonight by the principal, coaches, and the team. At this time, I invite Dr. Katherine Meintz to share a few words about the historic season and to introduce our Brunsville District High School award-winning coaches and student athletes. And I think we're actually gonna have Coach Baltimore do that instead. [00:14:43] Coach Baltimore. - First of all, I'd like to thank God for giving me the opportunity and these coaches coached this great bunch of ladies here it was it was just awesome i want to thank you all for all that you do for allowing us to have the girls flag football i want to thank the commanders for all that they did in support for the girls flag football team i want to thank my coaches who've done an excellent job of working with these ladies and also i want to thank all the teams who participated in this year's flag football season all i can say is it was a pleasure we [00:15:21] enjoyed it. These ladies, when we first started, I didn't know how we were going to do. We're the smallest team. We had 17 girls come out, and I was hearing remarks, oh, Woodbridge has 65, this had this and that. So I'm like, oh, how are we going to compete? But we have a great group of young ladies who worked very hard, and they showed why we were the best in Prince William County. And I owe it all to you ladies and I want to thank all of you for all your hard work all that you do because you [00:15:57] really deserve being champions and so thank you coach did you want to introduce your coaches and then I'll have each of the students just announce their names they can come up to the mic if they wish this is uh coach Mike Tingen and coach Larry Burke and I want to start with my seniors yeah I'm Natalie Marvin oh yeah tell us your position too why not and if you're a senior junior if [00:16:36] you're going to do this again next year. I'm a senior. My name is Natalie Marvin and I was the quarterback. All right. I want to say something real quick. All these girls did an excellent job. She was the best player in Prince William County. Natalie Marvin. I'm a senior. My name is Aubrey Irvin and I was a wide receiver. I'm a senior. My name is Riley Coombs and I was a slot receiver. [00:17:12] I'm a senior. I'm Ava Garza and I was a slot receiver. I'm Peyton. I was a senior and I was a wide receiver. I'm Kylie. I was a senior and I was out for the season because I broke my finger. [00:17:34] I'm a junior. My name's Sammy. I was a wide receiver and a cornerback. I'm Millie. I was a junior and I was a sub. I'm Celeste Caliberate and I was second center. I'm a sophomore. I'm Gemma Orlando and I was wide receiver. I'm a sophomore. My name's Ashby Choi and I was [00:18:09] defensive rusher. I'm Daniella Espinoza. I'm a sophomore and I'm a defensive rusher. I'm Reagan Toms. I'm a sophomore, and I was center. [00:18:27] I'm Elyse Johnson, and I was a defensive blocker. I'm Ava Martin. I'm a freshman, and I'm a defensive rusher. I'm Carly West. I'm a freshman, and I was a defensive rusher. [00:18:49] I'm Madison. I'm a freshman, and I was a rusher. Give them another round of applause. Thank you, Coach, and congratulations to the coaches and players. [00:19:07] Do you have something else to say, Coach? Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us here. This is very special, and we want to thank you again for having us. - Wonderful, I wanna thank all those involved in supporting these state, our county champions, including the family members, teachers, and staff in the back to please stand to be recognized. [00:19:28] All of our parents who did everything to help these lovely student athletes. Congratulations again, and I think, I hope, and I hope with our resolution, we can convince the rest of the state to adopt this as a statewide sport, and you'll be here next year as state champions. [00:19:52] Let's do it. Dr. McDade. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. Congratulations to our players, our coaches, our administration, to the Brentsville district girls flag football team. You are trailblazers. You are history makers. You have set the standard for other young girls to come behind you and be able to see what is possible. [00:20:12] So we are PWCS proud and congratulations on this incredible accomplishment. You had an extraordinary season. And of course you're proud. Brentsville district board member made sure everyone followed you. Job well done, congratulations. [00:20:31] - So at this time, I'd like to request our honorees to come forward to receive a token of our appreciation and take a picture with the school board, please. [00:21:04] - We'll step out so all the parents can get one. [00:26:12] - Okay, thank you everyone for allowing us to do that. Really exciting. We will now move on to the organizational meeting. A motion's in order for 11.01, approval of the annual organization meeting agenda. Vice Chair Blake. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. - I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the annual organization meeting agenda as recommended. [00:26:33] - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Any discussion? Okay, please vote by showing your hand. All in favor, organizational meeting, right? - The vote is eight yes, unanimous. Motion passed. - Okay, moving on. Nomination vice chair, a motion is in order. [00:26:48] Mr. Vice Chair Blake. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board elect Mr. Richard Jesse as vice chair for 2026. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I'll second. - Any discussion, please vote by showing your hands. [00:27:07] Thank you. - The vote is eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Thank you, moving on to 11.03, a motion is in order for the clerk appointment. Should we, who wants to do that? You wanna read it? - I do. - You wanna wrap up for tonight, or do you wanna go? [00:27:24] Okay, you're on 11.03, clerk appointment. Motion's in order. - I move the Prince William County School Board appoint Laura Mills as clerk of the Prince William County School Board for 2026, 2026. [00:27:42] The salary for the clerk shall be as currently budgeted. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Any discussion? Please vote. - Vote is eight yes unanimous, motion passed. - Moving on to 11.04, Vice Chair Jesse. [00:27:58] - I move that the Prince William County School Board appoints Anna Udete as the deputy clerk to the Prince William County School Board for 2026. The salary for the Deputy Clerk shall be as currently budgeted. [00:28:14] - Do we have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Okay, any discussion? - Mr. Chairman. - Please vote. Oh, yep, Ms. Williams. - I just wanna say, 'cause I forgot to say for a clerk appointment, I don't know how much I appreciate you ladies and all the work that you do for the board, so thank you for coming back and supporting us in the ways that you do, 'cause most people, I'm not sure, are aware, we don't have staff, so we depend a lot on you to help us do our job, so thank you. [00:28:37] That's a ditto from the rest of the board. All in favor, aye. - Vote is eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Moving on to 11.05, Mr. Vice Chair, Jesse. - I move that Prince Manning County School Board requires a corporate authority bond of $10,000 for the clerk and the deputy clerk to the school board condition upon the faithful performance and discharge of their duties. [00:29:07] with the premium for this bond to be paid for by the school board. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Any discussion? Please vote, signify with your hand please, thank you. - Vote is eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Okay, next up, 11.06, Mr. Jesse. [00:29:25] - I move the Prince William County School Board establish the location of its regular school board meetings at 14715 Bristol Road, Masses, Virginia, which has typically held on the first and third Wednesday of the month, January through June, and September through December. [00:29:45] Meetings shall convene at the 6:00 PM, and immediately following the approval of the agenda, the school board will enter closed session until 7:00 PM, at which time the public meeting will resume. [00:30:00] Adjustment to the meeting calendars are made to accommodate schedule, holiday, spring breaks, and annual Virginia School Board Association conferences as necessary. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. - Any discussion? [00:30:16] Please vote by signifying with your hand in support. - Vote is eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - On to 11.07, Mr. Jesse. - I move that Dr. Karoff-Fenard, Deputy Superintendent, be appointed as a designate of the division superintendent to attend meetings of the school board in the absence or inability of the superintendent to attend through December 31st, 2026. [00:30:42] - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Mr. Blake. - I second. - Any discussion? Please vote. - Vote is eight yes, unanimous. Motion passed. - Okay, next 11.08, Mr. Vice Chair, Jesse. - I move that the Prince William County School Board to approve their appointment for organizational committees as follows. [00:31:03] Continuum number one, continual membership of the Virginia School Board Association for 2026. Two, elect Lisa Zagafor to serve as a delegate to the Virginia School Board Association Annual Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia in November, 2026. [00:31:23] Three, elect Dr. Barbara Lateef to serve as alternate to the Virginia School Board Association Annual Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia in November, 2026. Four, appoint Lori Williams to serve as a representative the national alliance of black school educators for 2026 five appoint tracy burke and jennifer walls to serve to serve as representative to the prince winnie county school joint audit committee for 2026. six appoint barbara latif to serve as alternate to the prince winnie county school joint [00:32:01] audit committee for 2026. seven appoint richard jesse to serve as a representative on the preschool Policies Council for 2026, eight appoint Jennifer Walls and Lori Williams to serve as representative on the school's student's school health advisory board for 2026, nine appoint Erica Strandenick and Lisa Zagafur to serve as representative on the Safe School Advisory Council for 2026, ten appoint Barbara Lateef, Tracy Blake and Jennifer Walls to serve as representative [00:32:40] to the Prince William internal audit committee for 2026. And 11, appoint Richard Jesse to serve as alternate to the Prince William County School internal audit committee for 2026. And 12, appoint Justin Wilkes, Tracy Blake, and Lisa Zagrefour to serve on the school board disciplinary committee for 2026. [00:33:07] 13, appoint Lori Williams, Tracy Blake, and Richard Jesse to serve as alternates on the school board Disciplinary Committee for 2026. [00:33:25] - Do I have a second? - I second. - Okay, any discussion? Please vote signifying the opposition, okay. - Dr. Lateef, there's one correction. [00:33:41] The script incorrectly has that the School Board Disciplinary Committee alternates should be Williams, Wall, and Jessie. - So Williams, Wall, and Jessie, so let's fix that. Please re-vote then, all in favor, aye. [00:34:00] Any opposed, okay, all right. Eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Excellent, adoption of consent agenda. So anyway, that wraps up the annual organization meeting. We're moving on to 12.01, adoption of consent agenda. I invite Mr. Jesse to make this motion as well. [00:34:19] - I move the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman, I second. - Ms. Williams, any discussion? Please vote. All in favor, raise your hands. [00:34:34] - Eight yes, unanimous, motion passed. - Okay, and then moving on, Acknowledgements and recognitions, Mr. Jesse. - I move the Prince William County School Board to approve the acknowledgement and recognitions that are recommended. - Do I have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Williams. - I second. [00:34:49] - Any discussion? - Mr. Chairman. - Yep. - Since this is our first meeting of the year of 2026, I'd just like to remind our viewing public, those of the audience, that we typically do these acknowledgements and recognitions for the month upcoming. These are all January, 'cause by the end of the year, people are confused why we're so ahead of time. [00:35:09] but typically it's for the month I'm coming. We have a lot of them to celebrate this year, and I know that next week, I think it is, is principal appreciation, and we also have crossing guard appreciation day this month, so just wanted to call those out. Thank you. [00:35:24] - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Zarapa. - Yeah, I just want to make sure everyone knows about January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. It's an important topic because we do have human trafficking here in Prince William County. There are lots of resources through our police department, the Department of Homeland Security, that work with locally to help our communities. [00:35:47] So take a look at our resolution here and go ahead and look at information online about how to prevent human trafficking and also what to do if you have someone in your life who's affected by it. Thank you. [00:36:04] - Please vote. Signify with your hand. - The vote is seven yes, one abstained. Tradenek, motion passed. - Okay, moving on now to citizen comment time. Those citizens who have signed up in advance with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they are called to the podium. [00:36:21] The citizen comment period for a regular school board meeting is one hour and citizens may speak on agenda items or other topics germane to the operations and policies of Prince William County Schools. Please use proper decorum and 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. [00:36:40] If you do not do so, the board will recess and I'll ask the room to be cleared to restore public order. Tonight, we have 30 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. Per policy, 1:34, the time allotted for each speaker is two minutes. [00:36:58] We have changed the time, the clock, there's a clock there. I think there's something at the podium as well. And you'll see the green and the yellow and the red as per usual. I'll call the first five folks up if they want to come up to the front, their seats up front to sit. [00:37:18] This will be the order for the first five. Tameka Hendon, Ciselle McDaniel, Blake Harrah, Anna Reyes, Anna Robles. Tameka Hendon. [00:37:39] - Good evening, esteemed board members, colleagues, and community members. I am Tameka Hendon, and my address is on file. Thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening concerning the county's redistricting plan affecting Potomac View Elementary School. [00:37:55] I outline supporting research-based information in emails sent to you this week. I hope you take the time to read them. My intent is to impart information, so let's talk about the facts. Facts not in dispute. Potomac View is closing, and its entire student population will be assigned to the new Woodbridge Area Elementary School. [00:38:15] The staff, both certified and classified, are not assigned to the new school, nor any other school at this time. Let me reiterate, the staff are not moving to the new school despite the fact that the entire student population is. [00:38:33] In the final promoting class, there are 34 students who've attended PVES since pre-K and kindergarten. 33 are eligible for VA SOLs and 32 have passed them. That's a 97% pass rate. [00:38:48] A significant percentage of the staff that taught these scholars are present educators in the building today. The only fact in dispute is the reason for the staff being dispersed throughout the district and is based in exactly which students will attend and the desire to develop a new school culture at WAES. [00:39:09] The proposal presented this evening can be interpreted as the movement of only PVES students for the 26-27 school year with additional students added in 27-28. For your edification between retirements and the participate teacher tenures, military and life events, a minimum of 33% of the staff will not be returning to the district. [00:39:33] The decision made by the board would be the precedent for opening new facilities moving forward, a task I know you do not take lightly. - Thank you, Ms. Henry. - Thank you. - Next up, Cecile McDaniel. [00:39:48] - My name is Cecile McDaniel. I'm a PWCS parent and a PTCO president at Patti Elementary. My address is on file with the clerk. First, I wanna thank Dr. Cartlidge, the planning team, and the superintendent's office for being responsive to my emails and questions throughout this process. [00:40:03] Thank you to Justin Wilk for attending both town halls and listening to your constituents. I'm very grateful to be represented by you. Since November 14th, I've spent countless hours talking with families, asking questions, and trying to find answers. PADI families showed up strong at both town halls and provided meaningful feedback. [00:40:21] Scenario six addresses a lot of those concerns. It maintains walkability for established neighborhoods, respects geographic proximity, preserves parent involvement and investment, and was responsive to the majority of feedback when feasible. While my concerns about the process remain, I do support Scenario 6 as a reasonable path moving forward, but I'm heartbroken for our Forest Park and Grayson Village families who bear the brunt of these changes in our school. [00:40:46] I know Patty Panthers will benefit from and be a vital part of whatever community they're in. They're resilient and amazing, but that doesn't make this easy. Reassigning 2,660 students means losing the teachers who know their learning styles, the staff who greet them by name, and the programs their families have helped to build. [00:41:02] I can't even think about the teachers and staff who will be reassigned. My hope is that you'll learn from this process as rebalancing rolls out division-wide. Families need more than three days to review complex scenarios. Materials need to be mobile-friendly and easily accessible. [00:41:17] I've shared some low-lift changes with the planning team that I think would really make a difference in how families receive this information and engage in the process, like having one consolidated PDF families can download and share. Any outside facilitators should be well-briefed on the pronunciation of our school names at the very least. [00:41:35] Some of these things made it feel like there was very little concern for the hundreds of effective families across all 12 of our schools. I really do feel like some of it was easily avoidable. Thank you for your time. - Thank you, Blake Hara. [00:42:03] - Good evening, board members, chair, Dr. McDade. My name is Blake Hara and my address is on file. On December 3rd, this board broke trust with its teachers. Four members voted to extend the teachers' workday by 30 minutes with no supporting evidence, no implementation plan, and no legal consultation with the teachers or union. [00:42:19] Mrs. Wall, on November 18th, your statement that we are an anomaly is incorrect. The anomaly isn't our teachers. It's you, the chairman, Mr. Blake, and Ms. Williams. You dismantled a good faith negotiated seven-hour workday based on selective information, which proves the negotiation was not in good faith. [00:42:35] It's hypocritical that you joined government overreach, abandoning the conservative ideology you claim to support after you voted against the ratification and then used the management rights at your will. That was your agenda item, and now you'll take responsibility of it. Dr. Lateef and Ms. Wall, you each offer different justifications, but I'm confident you both know the real reason, a truth you'll never share publicly. [00:42:55] What's concerning as elected officials is you both felt compelled to publicly raise unsubstantiated concerns of potential fraud by PWA. The four of you sought to silence the teacher voice, but have only made it louder as some are questioning whether to return. Ms. Williams, 13 years ago, you promised to listen and act to the constituents' best interests. [00:43:14] Extending teachers' hours without consultation contradicts that commitment. Woodbridge deserves a board member who shows up, like the rezoning town halls you failed to attend. Mr. Blake, your center raises serious questions about your leadership and professional conduct. Dr. Lateef, due to your controversial policies, you will be challenged by a 35-year-old Army veteran who knows PWCS deserves leadership, who values his teachers and respects his parents. [00:43:37] He will be committed to restoring teachers' time and fair compensation. He will ensure this board's accountability and ethics, and he will guarantee student achievement and academic excellence. It's time for accountable, transparent leadership that brings focus back to our classrooms and the community you serve. Our teachers and our students deserve better. [00:43:56] - Thank you. - Thank you. - Anna Reyes? - They do. Just for a note, do we have more time for translation? [00:44:13] Okay. Did the timer get adjusted? Yeah, thank you. - I'm here for a pause, okay. - Okay, okay. - Good evening, my name is Anna Reyes. [00:44:31] I'm a mother of Potomac View. And I would like to know and I wonder what so important decision was not communicated as the closure of a school. [00:44:55] Hay muchos padres que ni siquiera saben que el colegio del Potomac's Mill va a ser cerrado este año. There are many parents that still don't know or have news about the school closets. Nuestro colegio va a serrar y ni siquiera tuvimos una reunión como padres de familia para pedir nuestras opiniones al respecto del para transferir a nuestros hijos a una nueva escuela is is is a big problem that we were not informed about the closer of this school and all the [00:45:29] children's or kids will be transferred to another school and we were not notificated necesitamos claridad comunicación y sobre todo necesitamos que nuestros maestros que han We would like to have an update and better communication about the school and all the teachers are being affected and the kids about the closure of the school. [00:46:19] and I'm here to request the same way that you decide to close the school also think about the teachers and set up the teachers into the transfer to the new school and that's all thank you thank Thank you. [00:46:45] Next, Anna Robles and then after Anna Robles, the next five will be Yesenia Mung, Quintana Jesus, Elda Pineda, Elida Diaz, and Greg Reeder. [00:47:03] Anna Robles. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Potomac View have a great and excellent location. Estoy emocionada por la nueva escuela. [00:47:22] I'm very excited about the new school. I support this decision because it's important to keep our kids motivated. [00:47:43] I have three kids. One of them go to Potomac View. and the others graduate from Potomac View also. [00:48:02] They have a great opportunity and they have great teachers. I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to the staff members at Potomac View for the great work with the students and their support of the community. [00:48:23] The parents will be very happy and grateful if you could make the decision to have all the staff from Potomac View to continue working with all the children at the new school. Maestros, estudiantes, teachers, students, parents, we are a great family. [00:48:49] And that's a request to think about all this, not this plea, we want to keep the union. Gracias. Thank you. Thank you. [00:49:05] No clapping, cheering, or jeering, folks. Thank you. Yesenia Mung. Good evening. My name is Yesenia Mungi. [00:49:23] There is a social and academic disruption that can negatively impact a child's development, especially for elementary children. I am representing Potomac View Elementary, all our children, all the teachers, and all the staff. [00:49:40] My daughter is in fourth grade and she is a walker. We live about a minute away from the school. She has learned so much and all because of the excellent teachers and staff that make the difference in a child's life and education. Natalie is already having a hard time understanding why she needs to go to a different school. [00:50:00] she is stressing that when she thinks that her teachers and staff will not be there when she graduates next year please reconsider you are hurting our children all the teachers and all the staff keep Potomac View elementary together please don't close the school the only thing that you should be closing is Potomac Inn the motel that is next to the Woodbridge school next to the school. And that's 7-Eleven. Clean that area. Clean that area, please, so the people can feel [00:50:36] more at ease. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Ketty Quintana Jesus. [00:51:04] Good evening, everyone. I'm a mother of a daughter who go to Potomac View, and also I have two nephews who have a special need and also go to Potomac View. [00:51:38] I'm here with all my respect and I value all your professionals to be here this evening and for your work. [00:52:11] presentes y hacer más viable este cambio tras rescatar nuestras apreciaciones. Yes, and we are feeling a little bit upset about the closing of the school and transferring our kids to these children, to this new building that we, I think we will like, we miss to be informed about the closing and we feel like we were not part of the community for this decision. [00:52:46] This change will be of great impact for each of the children. It is good with the infrastructure because it will surely be innovative, but that is not enough, especially for the children. What they understand most are the cold environments, and these cold environments give them the human part. [00:53:09] They are the directors, the teachers, and all the educational community. Ya se ha conformado una gran familia unida, cada uno conoce a los niños, cómo aprenden, sus ritmos, sus formas, y empezar de nuevo sería no muy bueno para su proceso de aprendizaje. [00:53:33] So as we all are here, we are a great family, and our children and our community with Potomac View, we are being together for so long. I think your decision to create a new school and the building is great for the community, but at the same time, it's difficult to the challenge for the kids and the chains. [00:54:01] We are requesting, I'm here, to tell you that we would like our teachers and the staff from Potomac View still stay close to our children because it will be a big change and I think it's going to affect them emotionally. [00:54:22] That's why considering this situation, that the emotional aspect in learning a child is very important, you have to consider, please, that the teachers, in general, all the educational community, be transferred in their majority, if not all, because for them it's going to be very shocking. [00:54:50] Yes, I think she just want to do the closure to be, uh, take, um, the decision of keep the community together, the staff together. [00:55:27] - Yep, thank you very much. - Yes, thank you. - Elda Pineda. - Good evening, I'm Elda Santos, mother of 12th grade student at Potomac View. My son is very sad because he won't be able to graduate from fifth grade at the school he's attending his whole life and we found that he'd be moving with a new school without his teacher. [00:55:57] It's what's even worse. Our children spend most of their day with their teacher. They are a part of their life. The teachers know them and understand when and where they need the most help. If they are moving without their teacher, the new teacher won't know anything about our children. [00:56:15] Our children will feel alone without the support and without knowing who to turn to when they need help. Changes are difficult. When you have someone special or your family by your side, you overcome them more quickly. Imagine when a family moved to a new house, the shame feels very strange and you miss many things, but as a family, we help each other to get through it so that it doesn't affect us too much. [00:56:42] But if we move and not leave our children alone, do you think it will be easy for them? Something similar will happen if you send our children to a new school without their teacher. It will affect them emotionally, psychology, and academia. [00:56:58] I urge you to consider it and think about the future of these children before acting. And the area where the school is, do you know the area? And the business around the school? Please be sure our kids will be very security and safe at school, thank you. [00:57:14] - Thank you, Alida Diaz, Alida Diaz, okay. Next five are gonna be Greg Reeder, Megan Feeman, Mariluz Torres, Jefferson Bradford, Catherine Mulligan, and Kisa Leip. [00:57:38] Greg Reeder. - Good evening, my name is Greg Reeder. My information's on file. On June 17th, school executives set a tremendous controversy in motion. School operations cleared the way for Dominion Energy's blue line. [00:57:55] They shared inside information with Dominion's lobbyist and told engineers it was okay to run a 230,000 volt transmission line behind Patriot High School. Your staff even outlined the process for Dominion to buy the land. In November, your communications team lied to thousands of families. [00:58:11] They told us the school had not worked with Dominion. They told us no land was at stake. They said there was nothing to worry about even as high voltage power lines were proposed to loom near metal bleachers and hang over paths used by thousands of students from four different schools. [00:58:27] When we reached out to present the truth, the executive clerk closed our online tickets without any reasons. You should all be aware of the conservation easement that actually protects Patriot High School land. You have all been reminded of the Virginia law that gives you as the board the absolute power to deny access to this route as well. [00:58:43] You should also know the Virginia DOE guidelines forbid placing power lines near schools. We've all reached out yet no one's responded, not a single email. Mr. Denick, you live in the community impacted by this line. You were asked in October to support the community in meetings with Dominion. [00:58:58] In November, you were asked to clarify the school's position. I've sent several emails as well. Why the reluctance to not get involved? Dr. McDade, your principals, you, and area supervisors were all asked to correct the record after the communications team misled the public. [00:59:14] Why haven't your staff or yourself had the courtesy to respond? Mr. Bock, Mr. Wilkes, Mrs. Wall, you've all been asked to help support as well, yet silence, no response. There's maybe at least two explanations. You're either continuing to negotiate with Dominion and their lobbyist, or it's a failure of leadership. [00:59:33] So I ask you to do two things to get back on course with trust in the public. Direct the council to issue a resolution of denial to dominion and answer the people of Prince William County who sent their concerns to you, the leaders they chose to trust. - Thank you, Mr. Reeder. [00:59:49] - Next up, Megan Fehmann. - Good evening, my name is Megan Fehmann. I have been a Patti Elementary School parent for seven years. I'm also a Prince William County School employee and I am a taxpayer. [01:00:07] I am present to address the redistricting proposal. Under scenario six, my household is not directly impacted. However, our school community would lose 32% of its students, students who are currently launching Thriving Futures at PADI. I attended both town halls and the parent focus group, and I am disappointed in how this process was managed. [01:00:28] While the report suggests communities were well-informed and engaged, that was not the lived experience of families over the past seven weeks. On Friday, November 14th, after business hours, our highly engaged community was shocked to learn at PADI, a school outside of the Route 1 corridor would face significant changes. [01:00:45] Families had just 72 hours to understand the situation and prepare for the town hall. Initial scenarios appeared to be created without meaningful stakeholder input. For example, three out of four early scenarios converted walkers into bus riders, raising concerns about whether transportation was adequately consulted. [01:01:03] Although later scenarios addressed this, trust had already been damaged. Transparency has been a consistent concern. Data tables lacked clear sourcing, and it was unclear who created the scenarios, who was consulted, and how decisions were made. [01:01:18] At both town halls, the slide explaining roles was passed over quickly. It was unclear whether the individuals running the town hall were Prince William County employees or contractors. There was no identification of other Prince William County employees present and what roles they had in the process, leaving confusion about accountability. [01:01:36] During this process, Patty was recognized by the Virginia Department of Education as a distinguished school, a model of what success within Prince William County Schools looks like. Yet proposed scenarios remove students from that environment and shift long-term capacity burdens to schools currently identified as needing intensive support. This does not feel aligned with students' best interests. This process felt rushed, lacked meaningful community engagement at times, and created confusion that undermined transparency and trust. Thank you very much. [01:02:07] Mariluz Torres. There can be no learning if our children are not safe. Potomac View currently save 550 students, and 100% of those students are being transferred to the new Woodridge Elementary School. [01:02:30] Yet, as parents, we were never consulted or asked for our input regarding this relocation. Today, I speak on behalf of more than 500 Potomac View families who are directly affected by this decision. Our petition, which has gathered over 850 signatures, is clear and reasonable. [01:02:50] Automatically transfer all Potomac View school staff to the new Woodridge School, along with our children. To be absolutely clear, this includes the principal, assistant principal, teachers, assistant teachers, security staff, cafeteria staff, and every employee who are part of Potomac View. [01:03:10] All the scenarios presented to us result in the same outcome. Our children are moving to the new Woodbridge School. What remains unresolved is whether they will be surrounded by the trusted adults who already know them. Potomar View has a dedicated safety and support team that knows our children well. [01:03:30] Our students feel safe because these staff members have worked with them for years and understand their individual needs, strengths, and challenges. Moving our children to a new building in a family location, we already create stress and uncertainty. [01:03:46] Adding unfamiliar staff only compels that stress. As parents, we should not have to wait for new personnel to learn who our children are when trusted profession already exists. With the current Potomac View staff, this transition can be a positive experience rather than a disruptive one. [01:04:02] Without them, our elementary school-age children are being asked to adapt to a new school, new neighborhood located on a busy commercial trail with unfamiliar faces all at once. Maintaining the bottom of your staff is also essential given the safety concerns in the new school zone. [01:04:19] - Thank you, Ms. Torres. - Thank you. - Thank you. Next up, Jefferson Bradford. - Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Jefferson McClellan. [01:04:34] My address is on file with the clerk, and I am an eighth grader at Gainesville Middle. Tonight I want to talk about a serious issue at my school. Nigger, monkey, the only game a white person can beat a black person that is hangman. These aren't jokes, these are misunderstandings. [01:04:50] These are racial slurs said directly to me by other students. I have reported this harassment before. Nothing seems to happen, and it keeps happening. Recently, after being told, "Shut up, nigger," I reacted. I hit another student for that. [01:05:05] The school acted quickly. I was suspended for three days. I'm not standing here saying what I did was right. I'm here asking why. Why, when racism is directed at me, the response is slow or silent. [01:05:21] but when I react to it, the response is immediate and clear. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking you to stop allowing people to hurt me, to provide the same safe learning environment to me that is seemingly so easily afforded to others. [01:05:38] When racism goes unchecked, it says that it's acceptable, and it teaches students like me that we're expected to deal with it because the school won't. I know racism exists, And I know I will probably deal with it again. [01:05:54] And for the rest of my life, I didn't expect to have to deal with it already. I'm 13 years old. I would like to be a kid just a little bit longer. I am not bad. I am not threatening. I am not aggressive. I am not lesser. [01:06:10] I'm just a kid who wants to go to school and feel safe. This shouldn't keep happening to me, nor anyone else. - Thank you, Catherine Mulligan. [01:06:27] - Good evening, my name is Catherine Mulligan. I've been a math teacher at Woodbridge High for 16 years and I'm also the mother of three children currently zoned for Patty Elementary. Last year I was honored as Educator of the Year at my school and this year I co-lead our staff voice committee which works to strengthen school climate and culture. [01:06:43] Personally, I try to make my school a little more like Patty each day. Patty truly lives up to its motto as the place you want to be. Under Mr. Luciati's leadership and with the support of an exceptionally strong PTCO, Patty has built a safe, inclusive, and thriving, distinguished school community. A meaningful part of that culture is the Element Challenge Program. [01:07:01] If you look around tonight, you'll see some Patti apparel, not because this is a school board meeting, but because today is Wednesday. Every Wednesday is Element Wednesday. Students take part in activities designed to build teamwork, belonging, and school pride. This culture is so impactful that my children even proudly wear their Element shirts on Wednesdays during summer and over winter breaks. [01:07:18] We love Patti. On November 14th, I learned that redistricting might force my children to leave Patti, and I was heartbroken. As I reviewed the proposed scenarios, though, I became deeply concerned. In three of the four original options, students who live less than three minutes away on foot were rezoned and placed on buses to other schools. [01:07:37] Walkability was stated as a priority at the town hall meetings, yet these original plans ignored that reality. PADI students do not walk along 234, they walk safely through Montclair. By overlooking that, three of four scenarios would have unnecessarily displaced students, removed them from their school community, and thrown them on a bus during a driver shortage. [01:07:55] These scenarios would have had real consequences for children's wellbeing and mental health and should never have been proposed in the first place. Finally, the redistricting voting form sent to families was inaccurate and it did not include scenario six. It was not corrected until the morning of December 16th after flawed data had already been collected. [01:08:12] As a math teacher, this lack of care and accuracy is especially troubling. My request is simple, the next time there's a rezoning, please provide complete and accurate information, give families more than 72 hours to review it, and listen to the communities who know their schools. [01:08:27] Our students and families deserve nothing less. Thank you for your time. - Kesa Lape, and then the next five after that will be Brittany Robinson, Yesenia Lassiter, Crystal Fenwick, Laura Porterfield, and Ronnie Servone. [01:08:44] Kesa Lape, okay? Brittany Robinson. - My name is Brittany Robinson. My address is on file. I am the parent of multiple disabled children in the school district. At 8:00 a.m. every school day, I transport my daughter Rivka to her legal stay put placement at the Linder Academy in Alexandria. [01:09:06] Transportation to that placement is required to be funded by this district. As of today, January 7th, I have not received any reimbursement for Rivka's transportation expenses for this school year starting September 3rd. Prince William County is fully aware of this obligation and of my morning transportation responsibility. [01:09:26] Despite that knowledge, PWCS unilaterally scheduled my other daughter Savannah's homebound instruction by Zoom at 8:00 a.m. This was done outside of an IEP meeting and over my written objection. Prince William County Schools knew this, created a direct conflict, they were told. [01:09:44] They chose to proceed anyway. As a result, I was forced to choose between being present on Zoom for Savannah's instruction or getting Rivka safely to school. There was no option that allowed me to do both. This was not an accommodation that, this is not an accommodation that is unsafe. [01:10:01] Each day that week, I pulled over to the side of the road to state on the record to the teacher on the other end of Zoom that this situation was dangerous and created by Prince William County Schools. As I did that, my child in the backseat told me she was afraid for my safety. [01:10:17] Let me ask a simple question. What happens if a parent or their child is injured while doing what Prince William County Schools structured these services to require? Because that risk was not accidental. It was foreseeable and it was created by Prince William County Schools. [01:10:33] Prince William County Schools structured services in a way that made compliance impossible and then claimed services were offered. That is manufactured non-compliance. When a district acts unilaterally outside the IEP process, after objections are raised and continues even after being warned of danger, that conduct reflects predetermination, constructive denial of services and appears retaliatory. [01:10:56] My children are not leveraged, they are not collateral damage, they are children with federally protected civil rights. I am placing this on the public record because what happened here reflects a systemic failure, not a misunderstanding. I am asking this board to ensure that no family is put in this position again. [01:11:13] Thank you. - Ms. Lassiter. - My name is Yesenia Lassiter. [01:11:28] My address, is this on? Hello, okay, it's on. My name is Yesenia Lassiter, my address is on file. [01:11:44] I am the parent in Prince William County Public Schools versus Dustin Lassiter, a case that this district recently lost in federal court. I want to start by reading from Prince William County's prior written dated December 16th 2025. Ms. Lasseter asked Prince William County Schools to document that Bella was placed at the Wakefield school for the last two and a half years as ordered by a judge. The team did not agree to include that statement as it was not accurate. [01:12:12] I'll let that sit. Your school system put in writing that a court-ordered placement is not accurate. This is not a mistake. This is institutional contempt for the rule of law. Here are the facts. Hearing Officer Mitchell ordered my child's placement and funding. [01:12:27] PWCS appealed and lost. That placement is my child's stay put placement under federal law. And yet PWCS is refusing to honor it. In November 2025, VDOE issued a letter of findings in Rivka Robinson versus PWCS telling the same district, the same administrators, including you, Dr. McDade, that when a hearing officer orders a private placement, it must be funded as stay put. [01:12:52] On November 21st, the very same day the letter of findings was issued, Prince William County through outside counsel told my attorney it would not make any further reimbursements. Then on December 4th, after my counsel filed a state complaint requesting enforcement, PWCS still did not comply. [01:13:08] Instead, you chose litigation under the guise of clarification to delay and obstruct. This feels a lot like retaliation against a family for advocating for my child's civil rights. Every dollar you spend defending this is a dollar taken from classrooms. Every week of delay is a week you knowingly violate civil rights. [01:13:26] This is willful institutional misconduct. My child is not a legal strategy. She is not a budget line. She is a child with civil rights. I'll leave you with this. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. If this board allows us to continue, you are bystanders. [01:13:45] You are not just bystanders. You are participants. Crystal Fenwick, Laura Porterfield. [01:14:10] Good evening. My information is on file. Thank you for coming and all that you do to keep the children safe and help them get a quality education. You work as a team, in the same way everyone works as a team during pick-up and drop-off at our schools. [01:14:28] This event is carefully choreographed and happens twice a day. I saw on Facebook this morning that people lose their minds at pick-up and drop-off. But in Braemar, our schools, Marsteller, Patriot, and Teaclay have their routines. Marsteller uses crossing guards, the SRO personnel, and it's all hands on deck. [01:14:48] Patriot, with their new drivers and traffic cones, has a winding loop that snakes past Teaclay and drops the kids in front of the building. Teaclay utilizes their safety patrols, and teachers do a silent head count to get the students in and out of the building without incident. [01:15:04] So when the power lines want to put transmission lines on school property, they're adding more variables to our complex mix. Because especially during installation and during maintenance, you've got more trucks, you've got more vehicles, more personnel, more supplies, more comings and goings from a very tight spot. [01:15:25] And this is unnecessary because we have other options. Therefore, the community is asking you to continue to safeguard our children. Say no to the addition of transmission lines on school property. say no to unneeded additional traffic. As Benjamin Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. [01:15:44] Little steps now can prevent bigger problems later. Thank you for your help. Thank you for listening. Have a happy and safe new year. Thank you. - Ronnie Sivana. [01:16:03] - Good evening, my name is Ronnie Sivana. My address is on file. I must say thank you for making the recommendation for girls flag football. That means that I don't need to recommend a girls sport as I talk about boys volleyball. My son Roman and I both came in November to speak out about bringing boys high school volleyball to Prince William County. [01:16:21] Since that meeting countless parents have reached out to me to tell me that they supported boys volleyball and how their son would like to play volleyball. And asked if I've heard any information back from the school board, the answer is unfortunately no. But I can say that the two petitions that were started both by my son and one of his colleagues at Battle Volleyball have amassed almost 1,000 signatures and support from members of the community to bring boys volleyball to Prince William County. [01:16:47] I also wanna reiterate that the boys volleyball is the fastest growing sport for boys across the nation according to USA Volleyball with a 12.5% growth last year and 76% in the past 10 years. Although less expensive than girls travel volleyball in most cases, club volleyball can be quite expensive and may detract would be players from playing and getting needed social and team experiences. [01:17:08] Noted by one of our Prince William County Police Department dads who was here working at that meeting, noted how expensive it was and if it was any more expensive he would have to tell his son no boys volleyball in school would open up the sport to boys at all economic levels providing new collegiate opportunities in addition to great exercise camaraderie and teamwork skills fairfax county introduced boys volleyball in 2024 and 20 25 school year loudon county approved it to begin in the fall of 2026 several weeks ago putting us behind our neighbors i know that the county athletic director submitted for boys volleyball in addition to girls flag football [01:17:45] and his budget recommendations and i can delete the whole paragraph back with flag football thank you for your time peter mcdermich peter can't break your hand can you hear me now peter mcdermich [01:18:11] dermach pages platter jessica king my name is jessica king my address is on file with the clerk i have two boys one goes to ronald reagan and one goes to battlefield high school my battlefield student gets to school on time every day without failure with the bus my middle school student on december 15th when it was seven degrees outside had to walk 1.8 miles to school [01:18:48] so he didn't miss a summative test because the bus didn't show up we had all kinds of excuses from the school bus system that the bus didn't start i had another excuse that the driver never came in and they routed another person there this is the 15th time that the bus is 30 to 60 minutes late and my child is standing outside in 7 to 20 to 30 degree weather for 30 minutes to 60 minutes with no notification that my the bus is going to be late or that the bus isn't coming at all and i'm at work by that time and my son of course didn't tell me nor my husband that he was walking [01:19:25] until he was already walking um i don't appreciate the non-notifications we're not getting about the school buses um and i don't think my child should almost walk two miles to school when there was ice on the ground and we shouldn't have been in school if the buses couldn't start if that was the real reason um but this is happening more often than not for the middle school i'm thankful not for the high school because i don't want my son on 15. it's reckless and dangerous but my son is still walking three or four times he's had to walk to school because the bus has been 30 to 60 minutes late and he doesn't want to get in trouble and he's been counted absent several times because of [01:20:02] the bus and i've been arguing with the school to get that fixed but um i need the bus systems looked that it's the middle school kids that are getting the bad end of the stick for that especially the kids that are getting picked up that are the furthest ones out and the way the bus schedule works doesn't make sense to me um but i don't want my son when it's snowing or ice outside walking two miles to school so thank you thank you next um nicholas shadoin good evening my name [01:20:41] is nicholas shadoin great attempt at pronouncing a very difficult last name so thank you for that um i first just really wanted to extend an appreciation to the board which i don't think has happened very much this evening generally speaking we don't have the problems in prince william county that our sister counties do we've seen problems in fairfax and in loudon county that have gone well beyond the scope of really anything that should be in education but what i did want to say and bring up tonight is a small issue i come from an army background and the army basically drills into you that if you do the small things right you get the big things better [01:21:19] and you do the big things right so my wife came up here and just spoke about a situation dealing with the school buses this is one of those small things that needs to be rectified it's something that needs to be looked into and there's several problems the first one is is that my child has been unable to go to school on time because of the fact that the bus hasn't showed up this is a weird problem to bring to the school board but the reason why it's coming here is because of the customer service angle with the school board with the school transportation system you call the school [01:21:54] transportation system and you sit on hold for hours and if you haven't experienced it call give it a shot and just see what happens because i assure you that if they don't know you're the school board member you'll be treated the same way i'm an auditor i audit the federal government and this is one of the many things that i perform as a function for them this might be something to consider within the school board's discretion to do an internal audit of how the system is working this is something that's relatively simple and an inspector could complete probably within about eight working days or less you could do a real simple study the problem comes when the temperatures [01:22:34] are cold and students are walking long distances i come from maine so if my kid's outside in the cold for a little bit that's fine when it's negative five degrees with windchill it's unfortunate thank you very much for your time and thank you for your service jessica char and then we're going to go the five after that will be barbara zady cory mclaughlin robin norris uh renata renata leach and vishon johnson jessica sure good evening members of the board [01:23:14] as we begin a new school year in princeton county public schools i want to focus on something that sits at the intersection of academic success student well-being and long-term readiness resilience resilience is talked about as a isn't often talked about as a positive trait but the reality is it doesn't feel positive when it's happening it feels messy it feels uncomfortable and for many of our students it feels like frustration this feeling of frustration creates anxiety avoidance and disengagement frustration is not a failure signal frustration is evidence that learning is occurring resilience isn't about getting out of the space as fast as [01:23:52] possible resilience is about how long students can stay supported encouraged and equipped with strategies to cope and persist our school division has adopted the Virginia's social emotional learning standards to help teach our kids the power of resilience and work through frustration I would like to see public PWCS take the next step fully articulated division-wide social emotional curriculum training accessible to all of our educators in the same way that Fairfax schools have implemented the be good people curriculum currently - Any SEL instruction can vary from school to school and from classroom to classroom. [01:24:27] This is an investment in our students that this board has already committed for the year ahead. I ask our teachers feel supported when they take the time to integrate SEL into their curriculum and they'd be given more opportunities to advance their SEL training. A more consistent approach would help ensure that every student in every one of our schools learns how to manage frustration, persist through challenges, and stay engaged when learning feels hard. [01:24:48] Thank you. - Barbara Zaidi. - Good evening. My name is Barbara Zaidi and my information is on file. I'm here to speak out against the projected or proposed blue line from Dominion Energy putting up huge electric lines right past our schools. [01:25:20] When I first found out about this, I sent many letters out. And although I got responses from a lot of other people, I've heard absolutely nothing from the school board, which signifies a shocking lack of transparency as far as I'm concerned. [01:25:36] We know that these have been done before, but that doesn't mean it should be done again. We have no idea what the impact would be on our children's health and well-being just because these studies haven't been done. [01:25:57] There isn't information out there for us. And because we've done it before, it doesn't mean we should do it again. We can learn and we can make better decisions. And that's on you. I'd like to read directly from the Virginia Department of Education guidelines for the school facilities in Virginia public schools as of 2021 under the section called school site considerations and subsection says other considerations recommended to evaluate existing or potential school sites. [01:26:34] And number nine states, location of schools near electric power transmission lines or other environmental hazards should be avoided. What this means is it has already been determined to be an environmental hazard. [01:26:51] Thank you. - Cory McLaughlin. My name is Cory McLaughlin, parent of three Prince William County students. [01:27:08] My address is on file. According to these FOIA documents, Early last summer, Dominion Power began reaching out to PWCS about plans to run 230,000 volt power lines on school property near T. Claywood, Patriot High School, Cedar Point, and Marsteller in what was called the Patriot High School Hornbaker Project. [01:27:35] On June 17, 2025, PWCS informed Dominion Power that, quote, the transmission lines crossing in the proposed path do not pose a problem. Dominion will need to prepare a formal offer for acquisition. School board approval would be required. On November 20, PWCS reaffirmed this assessment to Dominion, noting that after an evaluation, PWCS determined the proposed power line plan would have no quote operational impact on the schools but these power lines do pose a [01:28:12] problem that land according to the deed is protected the property quote may be used only as a prince william county public school or public park and the virginia department of education as we just heard states schools should not be close in close proximity to high voltage power lines no matter what dominion says behind closed doors no matter what they say behind closed doors these high voltage power lines will threaten the safety of our community fortunately there are [01:28:51] other routes dominion has proposed that do not require school land please do not sell out our children and our educators to fuel data centers this community never wanted in the first place thank you robin norris hello happy new year my name is robin norris i am my address is on file i'm here to talk again about dyslexia awareness as i've been bringing up for the past couple of years i wanted to introduce you to another resource for the year this is a story about [01:29:30] one of two football players this football player happened to be on the detroit lions his name was Dion Butler but it's not the Dion Butler that went through our C.D. Hilton high school years ago because he was on the Seattle Seahawks. This Dion Butler talks about his NFL time as not for long because sadly enough he managed to get through elementary school middle high school and college with a fourth grade reading level never understanding that his anger issues had to deal with dyslexia when it caught up to him it was when he was at the nfl level and the playbooks [01:30:08] got too complex there was too many words and that was it so he's one resource in our community for us to to be reaching out to i also wanted to share with you that in a few weeks from march 11th through march 14th the black literacy matters is having their conference down at norfolk state University and Amir Baraka is going to be one of their presenters there you all have met last year and Dion is planning on attending as well and so when we think about the difference between a child who plays football and ends up in [01:30:44] the NFL and can read the playbook and a child who plays football because he's really struggling in class and can't read the playbook we have some work to do and I say we me parents school boards nationwide so that this angry young man doesn't have to wait until he's 27 on the precipice of becoming a father to say it's my reading that's holding me back it's my reading that's making me angry when I can't read anything from the playbooks to the restaurant menus to the greeting cards at my wife's you know wedding space with me so thank you so [01:31:22] much happy New Year's right night a Renita Leach I'm sorry if I said it wrong but we're not a Renata Leach on that I missed that one too my name is dr. [01:31:43] Renata Leach and this is Ava Santiful I'm our address is on file and I'm a proud panther cub parent at Mary Williams Elementary School the redistricting process thus far has been chaotic difficult for many of our families to navigate and just confusing however we were encouraged to see that scenario six was added to the list of proposed options at this time scenario is the only scenario that appears to be truly beneficial to the Mary Williams School families and keeps us all together. [01:32:11] Lastly, I am extremely disappointed to hear that our African-American students are being exposed to racism in the schools and there is nothing being done to address this wrongdoing. My child will be attending middle school soon and I truly hope that you guys get this issue under control. Thank you. [01:32:28] - Bashaun Johnson. - Hello, I'm Bashaun Johnson and my address is on file. I'm a PTO treasurer at Mary Williams Elementary School and I'm the parent of a second grader. I live in Port Potomac, and my last formal address asked three questions, which was where, why, and how. [01:32:47] Where is the commitment to proximity, transportation improvement, and community and neighborhood? And why, in all five scenarios, my Port Potomac community would be moved to Covington-Harper or Potomac Shores, passing three schools. We would lose our proximity to Mary Williams, which is four minutes. [01:33:04] Division of the population would be split in half, drastically affecting the socioeconomic diversity. And finally, we were assigned to Potomac Middle School, forcing my daughter to come back after potentially going to those other schools and looking at her first love every day. In all five scenarios, Mary Williams was split in two and it's not overpopulated at 94% and never even got an option to stay there. [01:33:28] How does this build community, improve in transportation and proximity? By answering our questions and hearing us. In Scenario 6, it reflects in favor of Mary Williams Panther Cup family staying together. Friendships and relationships my daughter and family have soundly built in a loving, high education and family-focused environment. [01:33:48] That gives Mary Williams its pulse will remain. Thank you for hearing the where, whys and hows in Scenario 6. I know it's not over, so I stand here again passionately requesting that the board decide in favor of Scenario 6. At Mary Williams, we are five dens, which is partnership, responsibility, integrity, determination, and energy that equate to one pride. [01:34:10] Mary Williams Panther community is a diverse and inclusive community and we are better together. Thank you for your time. - Thank you. That concludes citizen comment time. Up next is gonna be the Office of Chief Information Officer, 1501 Student Housing Elementary School Attendance Area Recommendations for the Woodbridge area and Potomac Shores Number Two Elementary School. [01:34:33] Dr. McDade. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. - I would like to at this time introduce our Chief Information Officer, Mr. Matt Guilfoyle, and our Supervisor of Planning, Dr. Matthew Cartlidge. They will be presenting an update on the redistricting plans this evening. [01:34:50] - Thank you, Dr. McDade. I will turn this over to Dr. Matt Cartlidge in just a moment. First, I just wanted to take a brief moment to explain why I'm introducing him. Earlier this school year, the planning team was realigned from the Facilities Department to be housed within our research assessment and data services department, which falls under the office of the CIO. [01:35:11] This has enabled improved organizational coherence between our data teams to improve better decision making throughout the organization. I wanna thank Dr. Cartlidge and the entire planning team for their hard work and efforts throughout this process in partnership with the facilities team. [01:35:28] So Dr. Cartlidge. - Good evening Chairman Lateef, Vice Chair Mr. Jesse, to the school board and Dr. McDade. [01:35:48] This evening I'll be presenting to you the report of recommendations related to the current school redistricting project underway as we welcome a couple new schools to the division. We'll first talk about the current landscape and situation in terms of overcrowding in some areas while underutilization exists in others. [01:36:07] We'll talk about the project timeline that has been ongoing since about September. We'll then talk about community engagement and the various conduits through which we collected information, a more robust process than in years past. We'll then move into the recommendation of the administration and superintendent for the board's consideration, and then discuss the next steps. [01:36:32] As I mentioned, we are welcoming two new elementary schools to the eastern part of the county. The first one is Woodbridge Area Elementary. Now, these are not the official names of the schools. These are just the names that are being temporarily used as they go for the construction process. Once the board has determined the attendance areas for these schools, then a separate regulation guides the naming process. [01:36:53] So as I refer to these, if you don't like the names, it's okay, it's not gonna stick. Woodbridge area is our first one. It's scheduled to open for the 26-27 school year. It is located adjacent to Fredlin Middle School and will have a program capacity of approximately 630 students. [01:37:10] The following school year, Potomac Shores number two will open. It is located near Covington Harper Elementary and will have a program capacity of about 1,050 students. When we look at this project, it can effectively be split into two halves. [01:37:29] The northern part of the Route 1 corridor is effectively underutilized and is projected to continue to decrease in student enrollment. As a function of lower birth rates that are occurring, larger cohorts at the upper elementary grade levels, like three, four, and five, are being replaced by smaller grade levels at the base, kindergarten first and second. Additionally the county is experiencing out migration to other parts of Virginia and even further south as we've discussed in past CIP conversations. Additionally [01:38:05] every year we monitor how many students are being yielded by new construction and one of our enhancements that we did to our projection model over the last couple years is looking at those yields for houses that are just 10 years old or newer and what we observed this year was that those newer housing units are actually yielding students at lower rates than what we saw in the past. So that has an impact on projections. Visualized for you would be the projections for these three schools in the northern part of the [01:38:39] Route 1 corridor: Kilby, Potomac View, and Vaughan. Effectively all of them are under 100% of capacity within the next three years. They're self-correcting. [01:38:51] The redistricting process has afforded us an opportunity to reimagine and offer a better facility to the students of Potomac View Elementary by relocating all of its students to the new Woodbridge Area Elementary as a function of the lack of necessity to add 631 seats to a region that doesn't require them at this time. [01:39:22] When we think about the condition of Potomac View, we use a facility condition index that quantitatively measures the state of the building, how much deferred maintenance is present, the replacement cost, and its objective measurement. [01:39:40] Potomac View is one of the schools in the worst conditions in Prince William County Schools and would be slated for a renovation. The challenge with this particular school is that the site is quite constraining. If there were to be a full renovation pursued, a lot of the play area would not be available. [01:40:02] It would be difficult for a construction crew to bring the materials in and have a designated staging area. All of this while trying to educate students in the building. So there's an opportunity here to avoid that and promote the student safety and avoid instructional disruption. [01:40:23] I mention all that before we get to the financials the estimated cost to tear down and rebuild Potomac View is approximately 55 million dollars the renovation could take upwards of four years because of the complexities of this site offers with all that being said our new elementary schools are roughly a little bit more but roughly the cost of that renovation so that's the rationale that came from the recommendations that we have in our scenarios to relocate the students of Potomac View to the new Woodbridge Area Elementary. [01:41:01] As we shift to the southern part of the Route 1 corridor, it's an entirely different landscape. These schools are significantly overcrowded. In the CIP for fiscal years 25 through 29, the Board approved our recommendation to increase the size of Potomac Shores #2 by 300 seats, bringing it to a total of about 1,050 seats that will be opening up in two years. [01:41:27] When we look at the graphics, we can see that the schools are overcrowded and we can also visualize them through a couple of the schools that we have on our slide deck. Covington Harper currently has 11 portable classrooms that are being used as an overcrowding abatement strategy. [01:41:44] It's at 131% of capacity and had the school not been built, it would have been reaching 144% of capacity in two years. Unfortunately with the timing and opening of the school, despite a few delays along the way, that 144% of capacity utilization will be avoided. [01:42:05] PADI also is significantly overcrowded, currently six trailers present and approximately 143 students over program capacity, expected to increase to about 190 students over capacity in the next two years. [01:42:25] So these are the projections for the southern part of the Route 1 corridor if we were to do nothing. you can see that many of these schools are at capacity or significantly above. [01:42:41] To summarize, nine of the schools along the Route 1 corridor are above 100% of program capacity. And our goal, bringing to you this evening recommendations, would be to offer a solution that supports long-term stability and supports our students. [01:43:01] Now we're going to discuss the redistricting project and its timeline. As I mentioned, the process began in late September When the project was kicked off with Executive Cabinet, our staff provided a presentation to them to give them our recommendations, what we were seeing, and trying to identify key stakeholders to include in the work groups. [01:43:29] So that's what I want to focus on first with the repeated collaborations. Not on this timeline are all the times that internal stakeholders were reviewing various scenarios through the lens of Office of Special Education, the lens of transportation, the lens of food services and what this would do to the number of students receiving free or reduced price meals. [01:43:53] And the list goes on in terms of the number of stakeholders. So every time that a public scenario was delivered, there was already an internal vetting process that was undertook. On October 8th, my team had an informational session with the principals of these affected schools. [01:44:14] At this point in time, no scenarios were drafted. it was simply to gain insights from those who are expert in their school communities on things we should be aware of, what can we be mindful of as we develop these scenarios. Moving forward, the 17th of November and December 11th were the two town halls that my team hosted in consultation with National Demographics Corporation, the consultants that were hired to assist with the meeting facilitation. [01:44:44] These meetings were offered in hybrid format, and we will get into some of the attendance metrics and so forth later on in the discussion tonight. A parent focus group was held on December 17th, and then as we fast forward, we are here tonight for an informational item. [01:45:01] We will then next be having a public hearing here in the board chambers on the 21st before the board is scheduled to vote on the 4th of February. At this time, we're gonna shift and talk about the community engagement strategies and the findings from them. [01:45:18] The board adopted a new process for redistricting a couple years ago, and this is its first full implementation for the opening of a new school. Because this project is impacting more than 250 students by the regulation, it involves the most outreach and community engagement. [01:45:40] On the 14th of November, the project website was launched and shared with the public. There were no scenarios on it at that time, but there was information about the process and some key dates to hold for the calendar. We also consulted our internal translation team to provide the materials online in nine different languages. [01:46:04] Throughout the process of having town hall meetings and focus groups, we offered interpretation services that were requested. Additionally, what is new for this process is leveraging the parent-teacher liaisons through the office of DEIC to increase participation in audiences that have historically been difficult to reach for the town halls we have the metrics here staggeringly for an elementary project we had 507 registrants for the first town hall usually we don't see these those magnitude of numbers unless we're working with high school [01:46:43] redistricting projects that are significantly larger most attended virtually and there were 61 speakers signed up to speak at the first town hall the second one was on december 11th we had 365 registrants and we had 107 speakers. I want to extend my appreciation to the media team who stuck with us by our side about an hour and 15 minutes beyond the meeting's closing time to ensure that everyone virtual and in-person were able to speak. On the 15th of December we had a virtual town hall or sorry not a [01:47:18] town hall a virtual focus group comprised of about 36 parents and by the regulation the intent of that focus group is to try to incorporate voices who might not feel comfortable addressing in a large audience setting. Additionally, we can collect those members through principal recommendations, and we did, as well as when individuals registered for the town halls, we asked in our survey, would you possibly be interested in serving on the focus group? [01:47:45] So we had 36 parents and 12 schools represented, and it was about 90 minutes of meaningful engagement. The communication department is another one that we would like to extend our appreciation to. [01:48:01] They provided targeted messaging throughout the process, early save the dates of the town hall days, web stories, text messages, reminders. I mean, it was very helpful and I feel like through them and through the parent-teacher liaisons, there was a quite robust outreach effort. [01:48:24] After engaging with the principals and the internal stakeholders, four scenarios were developed and this is a deviation from the old process where it just began with one single plan, the preliminary plan. This advances the conversation more quickly so that you have four different scenarios out in the public upon which you can gain feedback. [01:48:46] The fifth scenario, just kind of foreshadow, was created in response to the feedback that we collected through the online form and what we heard at the first town hall meeting. Then scenario six came after the second town hall meeting, So effectively, it is the single scenario that has the most public engagement features incorporated into it. [01:49:12] Within the new regulation, there are things that we include in the report that is attached to the board docs item this evening, and one of which is a summarization of what were some of the key pieces of community engagement or feedback we received. So again, this was collected via online form, which has a public forum at the town hall meetings as well, and then via email. [01:49:34] I won't go through all of these, but some of the key concepts are community integrity, walkability, safety, student support, stability. All of these are clearly outlined in the report that we're also sharing with you. [01:49:51] One of the things that our consultants picked up on, and I have as well since doing this for PWCS since 2013, when I first started, everyone wanted to go to the new school and I didn't quite fully grasp that. And in this particular project, the schools are doing a lot of things right in this region because nobody wanted to leave their current school. [01:50:10] There's a lot of love for their current school communities, so that was an interesting thread that I wanted to share with you all. From the focus group in particular, it's a small group setting. As I mentioned, the members were invited via the parent-teacher liaisons, principal nominations, or those who attended the town hall meetings, expressed interest, and we extended invitations to some of those members. [01:50:38] From the focus group, some of the key takeaways would be safety and the location of the Woodbridge Area School. There were some concerns about its safety, fencing, and things of that nature that we outlined in the report. There were also concerns about some of the academic quality of some of the schools in the region through which select neighborhoods would be reassigned from to another school. [01:51:03] For the board in particular, there was questions about grandfathering of rising fifth graders and perhaps extending that to siblings of rising fifth graders. When asked, the focus group overwhelmingly said that Scenario 6 was the most preferred scenario of those drafted. [01:51:24] Now at this time, we'll review those features in Scenario 6 as they relate to the Regulation 264-1. Within the regulation, the overall goal is to better balance enrollment to provide optimal learning environments for the subsequent three years that the boundaries go into effect. [01:51:46] The top priority is facility utilization. Loads of challenges are placed on schools, students, staff, and safety when schools are significantly overutilized. So with that being the top priority, the guardrails for that one is no school within the first three years of the attendance areas being adjusted should exceed 105% of capacity. [01:52:09] 105% cannot be reached. Additionally, a little bit softer guardrail is the recommendation that no school in those three years should dip below 80% of capacity utilization. The next one is the stability of school assignments. [01:52:26] It's important that students have a stable environment and if they have been recently reassigned at the same school level it's important to try to avoid reassigning that same neighborhood to the school from which they were just assigned or to a different one. [01:52:42] In terms of local geography, effectively compact walkable attendance areas are sought when possible. as we go through these as a function of the geography of the county you can't optimize every single one of them for every single neighborhood that's why sometimes schools are not the closest one to which a neighborhood is assigned as a function of you know there's just there's not space if we were to do that the school might be significantly overutilized within local geography we also try to avoid splitting neighborhoods and strive to improve the [01:53:21] progression of neighborhoods from elementary to middle and then on to high school the last one is student demographics on each of the scenarios we report out the demographics of not projected students but students who were enrolled on this past September 30th and we share out what the percentage of the various ethnic and racial groups are the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch based on the current attendance areas and then what the resulting percentages would look like if this scenario had been [01:53:55] retroactively put in place last September 30th so this time we're going to walk through the reassignments that are characteristic to the scenario six on a break eye contact as I read through these the Woodbridge station apartments moved from Vaughn to Kilby Potomac View elementary attendance area moves to Woodbridge area Potomac Club moves from Fitzgerald to Vaughn Residences proximate to Fitzgerald and north of Cardinal Drive move to Fitzgerald. [01:54:28] Potomac Shores No. 2 retains Potomac Shores HOA in addition to Chesapeake Bay Apartments. Forest Park and Grayson Village move from Paddy to Dumfries. Southbridge and Wayside Village move from Swan's Creek to Covington Harbor. Victoria Park Apartments move from River Oaks to Mary Williams. [01:54:45] Williamstown moves from Dumfries to Swan's Creek. Highland Park moves from Triangle to Swan's Creek. Provided on the screen in very small numbers is the specific stats for the Scenario 6. [01:55:03] Visualized, it shows that over the next three years, all of these schools are within the compliance of the facility utilization. No school exceeds 105% and schools move away from being less than 80% utilized. [01:55:25] Additional features specific to Scenario 6 is that a total of 2,660 students are proposed for reassignment. This is about 31% of the students within this region. [01:55:41] As shown on the previous data visualization, all of these schools are compliant for the facility utilization component. In terms of student stability, the last time that elementary adjustments were made in this region was 2019. Therefore, kindergartners at that time, before these go into effect next year, will have progressed out of elementary school. [01:56:03] For local geography, the Scenario 6 maintains current walker boundaries wherever possible. Kilby Elementary progresses to only one middle school, being Fred Lynn, instead of two. Patty progresses to a single high school, being Forest Park, and is no longer split between two middle schools. [01:56:25] Vons reduced from three geographic progressions to two. And lastly, the demographics are all provided in the report for the Scenario 6 recommendation. At this time, the planning staff and I would like to make the recommendation to the school board that they approve and adopt the configurations of the attendance areas in scenario six for the Woodbridge Area Elementary and the Potomac Shores number two elementary school. [01:56:56] And with this having two schools opening up in consecutive years, we want to bring attention that the motion should be very explicit on how this is implemented. So rising fifth graders should be given the opportunity remain at their currently assigned school. The attendance area for the Woodbridge Area Elementary School is to take effect the beginning of the school year 26-27, which means that only Kilby and Vaughn have their attendance areas adjusted in addition to Potomac View all going to the [01:57:35] Woodbridge area. Additionally, all remaining elementary school attendance assignments should take effect the following year when the potomac shores number two school opens up for the 27 28 school year in that year as well those rising fifth graders were recommending be given the opportunity to remain at their currently assigned school to finish out their elementary career as far as next steps this is for the board's information this evening as i mentioned earlier there will be a public hearing scheduled on the 21st here in the board chambers and then the board the board is scheduled to take action on this [01:58:13] at the February 4th meeting. Thank you very much. - Okay. So this is the state in the schedule, the next steps will be a public hearing coming up. [01:58:34] We are not voting on this for one month and we hope to hear from people on all the different scenarios. I hope to hear from the school board members on the different scenarios. I certainly expect that staff should expect to hear from board members and the community regarding this over the next month, I truly appreciate it. [01:58:58] If there's any questions here at this moment, happy to take them. Otherwise, Mr. Wilk? - Yeah, they're not so much questions. These are just general statements and reflections. If that's okay, I wasn't gonna ask questions on the cuff tonight and I'll get back to Dr. Cartlidge and his team for this. [01:59:18] And I do wanna thank you, sir. You spent an exorbitant amount of time at these town halls with your team. The last one we were at went well into the evening to ensure we brought on the feedback from those who are in virtual, those who are still on at that point to get the feedback, so I appreciate that. [01:59:39] For someone who, like me, is very engaged and try to be as proactive as possible, it was really hard with me, with the regulation that we passed and policy, to really just sit back and kind of let the process roll out. And we had to, I understand, limit the board's in sense interactions or my statements, my beliefs, things like that to preserve the integrity of this process. [02:00:05] And I respect that and I get that. And being at these two meetings and hearing feedback from constituents in the community, I do wanna thank the division for what I believe rectifying earlier maps with some of the changes, mostly in particular to the Montclair walking community with Patty, the Potomac Shores community overwhelmingly has insisted for a long time with feedback that the Potomac Shores number two school be primarily for community cohesion theirs. [02:00:42] And we'll talk about possibly some concerns with that, but that's the trade off what we get with that. And then of course, Mary Williams was able to preserve primarily the boundaries that they have. So I'm thankful for that. Some of the community concerns that were shared tonight from some of the speakers are similar ones that I had, you know, some of the communication, trying to get clarity on things. [02:01:07] I did find it difficult, like when scenario five was dropped the day of the second town hall, you know, and I understand we have a timeline and such, but that I think made it hard for people to potentially adjust their speeches or their strategy for coming to these meetings because that was unveiled then. [02:01:25] And then six came and it seemed like it was smack right before the holiday and that survey, and I think I expressed a little bit about this before 'cause the survey wasn't necessarily the process itself, it was the way I felt like it was conveyed. [02:01:41] And I think it was unrealistic for us to just assume everyone was gonna go back and read the policy and regulation to realize that the survey was just one component of feedback because I saw all over social media of people promoting and saying, go vote as many times as possible because the winner of this survey is going to be the map that's proposed. [02:02:04] And that in fact is not actually what's going to occur. And I don't, we haven't, the survey results, I don't know if that's coming later or such, but nonetheless, so adding clarifying language on that because you cannot block multiple times an IP address voted. [02:02:20] You couldn't block if someone sent their grandma in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to go on and vote and such like that. And it did make it very confusing. And so that itself was really hard navigating the maps, even as a board member and most of these streets I've walked during the election season 'cause that's just the process, you know, and I found it confusing sometimes to figure out what roads were what roads and where the school was located in the community. [02:02:48] And I can't imagine, you know, just your average parent who knows their community, but trying to figure out the makeup with these maps. So again, something maybe to look at in the future with this. I'm also thankful that, you know, the Potomac District, I always say, has some of the strongest PTOs, PTOs, PTCOs in the county, in my opinion. [02:03:13] And I'm thankful that a number of them really pushed and engaged their families to come out and support this event. And I think we see the positive benefits from, for example, the Patty or the Mary Williams, two of my schools. [02:03:30] However, I also have to look at the other end because I'm very concerned about some of the schools that barely have PTOs, barely have parent engagement because of lower socioeconomic concerns, first-generation families where English is not the first language spoken. [02:03:47] And I'm concerned about those communities because there are significant changes coming to those schools. So if we look at the maps and some of my, I'm not gonna make my recommendations now 'cause we have a month, but looking at community cohesion and things like that, you know, I just want, this is a hard process. [02:04:08] I know the community, we're not gonna make everyone happy. I know I'm gonna have constituents mad at me and we're talking about community cohesion, but my neighborhood is the only one really getting sliced in the middle, right almost in the middle where the HOA is, for community cohesion. [02:04:24] I get why it's done like that, because we have to put people, students, families in Covington-Harper, but the hardships are being felt by all of us. And these are families, my son will be moving on next year to a middle school, matriculating up, but his friends and their younger siblings and things like that, these are my neighbors and people who I have to see on a day-to-day basis, who now are going to probably find out, depending on what happens, that they're getting moved in two years to another building. [02:04:53] So my point there is in ways people are gonna look at this and say, you know, there are some winners and losers of this. I don't necessarily believe there are losers in the process. You know, there's pros and cons. I'll look at my example with, you know, my community, for example, for example, yes, we would be moving hypothetically out of a beloved community in a school that, you know, has always been since it opened in 2001, the school, but then on the same token, moving into a new building like covington a newer building like covington harper that has you know a lot of different nice things for the community shifting so again looking at it from a more [02:05:31] holistic framework on the changes um but i long story short i know i feel like i just went on a whole kind of tangent um these are just my thoughts and reflections after holding it in for about a a month and just wanted to express and put that out there. [02:05:50] I am very appreciative of the division. This policy, the change of regulation is much more robust in the communication, in the engagement. I do believe, as some constituents said, these are things we need to look at, potentially some oversights or shortcomings in this process for future ones that we really need to, like I said, rectify or improve in future things. [02:06:16] But again, using and looking at map six, I think currently is the best outcome of where we're at with the five options. But again, I do have some thoughts and changes, but we have time to get more solicit feedback and stuff like that. [02:06:32] So I will leave it at that. I appreciate, thank you for letting me speak. I do have the most schools impacted by this in this change, and it's a tough process. Boundaries are not fun, they suck, to put it, you know. [02:06:48] And it has been something. And so, you know, staying back and quiet and letting the process play out is not the easiest thing for me, but we're there, we're done. We presented the map and here we go. So thank you so much. [02:07:03] Thank you guys. - Ms. Williams. - Usually I know I hate when all of you pontificate, but let me have my moment there. So thank you. - We love when you pontificate. - No. - We love it. - I love your pontification, Justin. - Ms. Williams. - I just, first off, Happy New Year. Thank you, Dr. Cartlidge and everyone who worked on this boundary process so far. [02:07:23] As my school board member Wilk said, boundaries are just never fun. I've been, I don't know, good six, seven, at least at this point in my tenure. No, boundaries, boundary changes. [02:07:39] I know all the middle schoolers will be all excited. I didn't even realize. I guess I'm not a cool mom anymore. But a few things that I just want to, first, one of the things that always, questions I always get when it comes to boundary process, especially in one like this. [02:07:55] Sometimes schools that are on the geographic line aren't included, just for the public's education. Could you speak a little bit about that? - Of course, as Mr. Wilk very articulately described what boundary and redistricting processes are, we try to avoid bringing unnecessary numbers of schools into the equation because there just wasn't sufficient data to support bringing in like Lee Sylvania, for example. [02:08:26] With our projections and decreasing enrollment that we're seeing in many schools throughout the county, they're overcrowding self-corrects in the next few years. So to try to keep the process more targeted to the schools that most significantly needed overcrowding relief or needed to leverage the new Woodbridge Area School, that's why some of those schools along the Route 1 corridor were excluded from the process. [02:08:49] - Thank you, I appreciate it. 'cause I think to just your average parent, it'd be, well, this school is right along, how come? I think the next thing I'd like to address is, and here we talk about Potomac View and the proposed relocation. [02:09:05] I think, I know from my perspective, to address some of the commentary and rhetoric in the newspaper and out in the media, one of the hardest things or the challenges that I've encountered in speaking to individuals in my area is it's being approached as a done deal and this is just going to be. [02:09:26] And I think that the most important thing to recognize is there isn't anything that's done until this board votes. And so yes, it's smart to think if the school does close or if the school doesn't close, I just wanna be clear to our public that nothing is official until the board votes and I think that that's very helpful. [02:09:45] Also to speak a little bit about Potomac View and the location, I also sat on a land audit committee several seems like lifetimes ago trying to get the determination of who owned the land around the school how we could and this was easily Miss Jessie was on the board so I want to say maybe like 2015 2016 we started looking at these things perhaps even earlier with the new elementary school coming in and Potomac View needing so much work I think it's been identified or most people think of [02:10:22] it similar to when we rebuilt Kilby I'm not sure if you're the right person to ask this question to, but if we could speak a little bit to the difference between the scenarios from a division standpoint, I'll give my quick synopsis and then someone can chime in. The major difference is when we rebuilt Kilby Elementary, it was the same school, we didn't change attendance area, we didn't change school staff, it was literally, we have space for our students to continue to be educated while we are building a new building, which is very different than the proposed scenario now. [02:10:55] and I say proposed because again, we have not voted, it's not official, this would be a scenario where we are opening a brand new school standalone building that already has a principal that's been hired. We originally had one from when the school was going to open the first time. [02:11:10] That person since, I'm not sure where she went so I don't wanna say, but got promoted, thank you. Now we have a new principal and this is why I say if you're not maybe the appropriate person to answer this question, historically when we open a new building and the building receives a principal, the principal's hired, it is then that person is usually a lot of the autonomy to pick their own staff and to furnish the building and all of those things. [02:11:38] I know that process has been interrupted somewhat because we had a false start and all the things, mostly related to construction and things of that nature. But that is still the case. This is still considered a brand new, that is the primary objective what we're doing is we're doing boundaries for two new elementary schools. [02:11:55] So I don't know if there's any staff that would like to like, I got it right. I just to confirm, Dr. McDade's nodding. So I think that's the primary difference. I don't want the public to be misled or think that we are doing a replacement school because the elementary, the Woodbridge Elementary School, area elementary school had been discussed and planned long before this was even on paper as a possibility. [02:12:18] So I just think it's important that that's clear. I also wanted to speak to the Potomac View community and say that I have not been able to physically be there for the town halls for my personal bad luck of germs. [02:12:34] However, it does not mean that I have not been listening. I do know several families that attend Potomac View. And I understand that for Prince William County, this is something that I don't think we've ever done, which is to just simply not have a school operating in its original capacity. [02:12:50] So I understand that that's hard for a community. But what I have heard the most and what I am excited about is the new Area Elementary School. I do want to assure the public as well that no one is going to be out of position. [02:13:06] Teachers will still be teaching within our county if that's what they so desire. And I think should we, depending on how the vote goes, I think that's the missing part of the message too that's really important. Boundaries are hard and change is hard. We don't know the official outcome 'cause we haven't gotten to that stage, but I do wanna reassure the community that no one is losing a position, there's nothing to say that teachers could not go there, but it is not the same, it is up to that new building's principal to make those hiring decisions, and I just wanna be very clear in messaging that we are not doing a replacement school, it is not a rebuild of a school, because those are two very different things. [02:13:46] I think the new principal of my elementary school deserves the right to open a building as she would any other. And could you, since we stole her from your district, Mr. Blake, could you remind me, I don't, Ms. Lavecki, I could picture her face, but I could not picture her name. [02:14:03] There was a nice write up in the paper. Well, Principal Lavecki will be the new principal. And then in addition to that, one of the things that I often ask for when it comes to boundaries is, what I'm gonna ask for, I know it's tight scheduling, if we could have another community meeting scheduled. [02:14:21] I think what I'm hearing is most people feel that they were uninformed and I do not believe that is lack of us promoting what is going on 'cause it's been in the news and such. The reason why I asked for that is often, we do have smaller hiccups. We have a lot of different members in our community. [02:14:36] Also the timing, I think because it was over the holidays, it would be worth, from my perspective, to have another town hall or meeting, especially for my community. I can't say operationally how to do that. [02:14:51] If it's virtual, whatever would be easiest. But I think now that we're all back in school, everyone's back focused and has attention, I would like to try, or at least have the division try to capture some more input from the Northern Route 1 community, just because of the timing. It's my son, middle school, right? [02:15:07] I know that there are still some families that left the country. You know, they left before break, we still have a couple members on my robotics team, one in particular, hasn't gone back yet. It's back on Friday. So just being aware of those type of family dynamics and people traveling, we all jokingly say no school November. [02:15:26] I think that gives the impression to our community that we have not a lot of enough time because we aren't in school, it seems very choppy. That would be my request. In addition to that, I don't have any other questions at the moment, but I do know that I will be sending some and possibly asking for some changes. [02:15:45] The last thing I wanna say is, I really want the public to understand that it's not done until we vote. So there is always time to offer commentary and we will be listening, so thank you. [02:16:01] - Okay, thank you. Ms. Wall. - Thank you. Thank you for your presentation, for the information for everybody who worked really hard behind the scenes on this, which sounds like there was a lot of effort that went into it going back all the way to September. [02:16:18] I have a couple of questions and a few comments. So my first comment or question, I should say, no, actually it's gonna be a comment, is this is our first, I wanna reiterate the point that this is our first large-scale redistricting effort since our new policy and procedures went into place. [02:16:41] And I see this as a big improvement over what we had in place before and how we used to do boundaries. And greater input from the community, more opportunities, more thoughtful research and study on the front end, which hopefully will yield a less contentious and more satisfactory result in the end. [02:17:04] So I really do appreciate that. And while it, since it is our first process, I do expect that there will be feedback that we gain, knowledge that we learn, you know, things that we learn to further improve the process. And I want to thank the public who came tonight and gave us ideas for how we can improve. [02:17:20] So thank you. My question concerns Vaughn's numbers over this 20, 30, 31 time period. And given the confidence in scenario six, I was looking at the chart on page 25 of the slide presentation, and I was wondering if I could hear just a little bit more about our thoughts about Vaughn's projected numbers in the 20, 29, 30, 20, 30, 31 scenario since as I'm looking at it, it looks like, I mean, it does fall within our criteria of the three-year criteria, but if we look a little further [02:17:54] out to the five-year criteria we have this outlier school with I don't know how many 60 70 extra students which would be a couple of trailers at least maybe three and so could I hear a little bit more about where why we ended up with this scenario for Vaughn as opposed to and maybe this is too specific of a question for here right now maybe this is something we can talk about a little bit later but is there something that we could are there any adjustments we could make to make that five-year and we don't have to you know put trailers up in four years [02:18:28] instead of yeah I can speak to that there's a situation in that extreme northern part of route one that we're monitoring in terms of some develop new residential development apartments that are going up in the Belmont Elementary attendance area additionally when you look a little bit further out and zoom out we have a replacement school opening up at Occoquan Elementary it's yielding a couple hundred additional seats there could be opportunities to do micro attendance area adjustments if these projections do come to fruition for vaughn again this is you know [02:19:07] five plus years out into the future our projections have been consistently improving and hitting very high standards at the same time this is our first year of projections that have entirely post pandemic historical data built into them so there's still opportunity for things to be changing in the region we could be decreasing more quickly than we even anticipate okay thank you and so what i'm hearing is that we have we have confidence in our one two three years out projection correct less confidence in our four five six so forth and that we are anticipating [02:19:44] if we need to we have a couple of different options and strategies correct to make smaller adjustments should this end up really being the case exactly okay thank you very much i appreciate that information um my second question um is um i i think i'm understanding this correctly but maybe i'm not um i was wondering about the kindergartners who know that they will be moving in that second shift the 2027 2028 group so will there be a scenario where you have a kindergartner who starts [02:20:22] at a school and then as a first grader they get moved and I was wondering could we do a thing where there would be that grandfather kindergartners into the school that they will be going to there wouldn't be that situation because in the first year the only attendance area being adjusted is Woodbridge areas creation which means that the students from Kilby and from Vaughan would all start that first year then the following year all of those students who would be registering for the following school year for 27 28 when they register they would be registering for their school in the future okay so we wouldn't have any kindergartners who started one year in [02:21:01] kindergarten at one school and then in first grade got moved well then and that's sorry let me rephrase that that is possible but it wouldn't be as a function of having these attendance areas go into effect in two consecutive years okay all right i don't know if everybody's i i'm hoping that means that we aren't going to have children starting at one school i guess you're saying it's possible they could start at one school and then be yes at any in grades k through four they could like if they enrolled right now yeah they could potentially be in a school for the remainder of this year [02:21:36] next year and then be reassigned okay but there wouldn't what i was i think i jumped to what i thought your question was there wouldn't be any students who wouldn't start in the woodbridge area school next year who would then start the following year right okay but if they started at one school as a kindergartner they they would continue on with that same school as a first grader no if they if they are a kindergartner through a fourth grader um next school year for the 26 27 school year and they live in a residence being reassigned the following year unless they're a rising fifth [02:22:15] grader they would be reassigned under the current recommendations yeah okay yeah i mean i understand it's only the fifth graders i'm wondering if do we want to consider also the kindergartners but but it sounds like that's not a thing we do. - That's the board's decision. [02:22:30] The implementation is the board's decision. - Okay, just thinking about the littlest ones. - Yeah, for sure. - I mean, if you start your first year at a school and then your first year, when you'd go to first grade, you're at a brand new school, it's like starting all over again, which for our littlest kids is probably the hardest. [02:22:47] - The challenge would be Potomac Shores, number two is not opened yet. - Right. - So if you were to be assigned there the following year and you're that kindergartner. - Yeah, that's right. - You're gonna specialize in construction for that first year. - Okay, I see. [02:23:02] All right, well, thank you very much. Again, I appreciate the work on this, the feedback to adapt into scenario six. This is not my area of the county, somewhat familiar with it, but I do know and can speak from experience of my own children in the Western end when we were redistricting every year for a period of time or every other year and families were getting moved two or three times during a course of an elementary school. [02:23:29] So at least in this scenario, silver lining, we haven't had to do that since 2019. And that I think makes this much less complicated for families because they haven't been moved and then moved again. Anyway, I appreciate the work. Thank you very much. - Thank you, Ms. Wall. [02:23:45] - I just have a... - Mr. Jessie. - Thank you. First of all, I want to say that I do think that there is another meeting needed before we vote. [02:24:01] because in my opinion there were some areas area where the people weren't concerned because they weren't being moved but with the six uh displayed they are being moved so they didn't have an opportunity to say we don't want to be moved or so forth and why until now and they didn't have much time to think so i think that that is needed i also want to perhaps disagree a little [02:24:36] bit with my colleagues when you move a whole school and all the students into another building whether it's at the end of the other parking lot and so forth it's a move of the whole school and it does not make sense to me not to move the teachers with the students and I think that's very important that we do that I do hope with this scenario that we now have that the principal of the new school will hire as many of the people as possible I just don't think it [02:25:13] makes sense to do that I think it's very well one of the person that wrote an email to me they said it is entirely in the authority and the preview of the board to decide how the new schools should open operate and staff while the board certainly has oversight responsibility the day-to-day operation and staffing in schools fall under the superintendent previews not the board that said this does not mean that the board cannot or should not voice concerns when it's disagree with this decision being made and I do disagree with the [02:25:50] way that we're doing this I don't see you know why if you're going to move the whole school you move the whole school including the staff it doesn't make sense to me I think if you have a principal picking which staff they want it's sort of like picking I want this one because they're the best teachers and this one's not that good of a teacher so we're not going to pick them that's the perception that you're going to have and like it or not that is the perception so [02:26:24] I do say the other thing Matt and you and I worked a lot on boundaries but I will say on any map that you send out please put a dot or something to indicate where the school is because looking at those that thing it doesn't make you know I know a lot of the schools but I can't tell on the map where it is and it would be helpful also to indicate where the communities are like you were saying there because that makes a lot of sense I don't like to see when [02:27:01] we jump in over a community but I can't tell on your maps with a big maps at least perhaps if I go into the computers I can find that but I would need some teaching on how to do that but I do against would like to say that I think we do need another community meeting and let the people who did not have a chance to say I don't want our kids to be moved to have that opportunity thank you mr. Denning Matt there were three community meetings and they all happened [02:27:40] before Christmas break correct there were two town hall meetings in one focus group all before all before winter break the two town halls were hybrid November 17th December 11th December 15th correct and there will still be one more opportunity for the public to speak at the public hearing that we have that's correct so effectively that could be perceived as a community meeting correct okay thank you Matt and I'd also bring the board's attention to if the board moves forward with an adopted scenario that's different than scenario six and if it [02:28:15] wishes to change the assignment of any neighborhood with ten or more students that was not proposed for reassignment in the first six scenarios that in of itself would trigger another community meeting let's let's make that crystal clear so for example we have the public hearing on January 21 and by the way I'm not opposed to adding another community meeting that's something the community so I'm fine with that, and if your office staff can do that. [02:28:42] But we have a public hearing on January 21. We come back and vote in the first week of February. If during that vote, we decide to make some alterations, there's an amendment to the lines that would change a neighborhood. That then triggers, say it again in the new process. [02:29:00] - Right, in the new process, if there was an assignment, the board decided to do a new assignment for a neighborhood that was-- - That night. that night that was of a neighborhood with 10 or more students that was not scheduled for any reassignment in the first six scenarios, then an additional town hall meeting would be triggered. [02:29:22] - But if we move neighborhoods that were moved within those six, they were already sort of being, instead of moving them to school X, we're moving them to school Y that night, we can then vote that night. - The intent is to not blindside a community who thought they were unaffected throughout all the processes and then the 11th hour, they're changed. [02:29:41] - Did you have anything to add, counsel? - Well, I was just gonna, if you'd like, I can read the exact requirement in the school board policy 264, which says that should the school board request a proposal that is a significant modification from a previous proposal, then the board shall direct the superintendent to hold at least one town hall meeting with at least seven days public notice prior to final board adoption of the proposal. [02:30:03] Any school board requested modification that impacts 10 or more current students in a neighborhood that has not previously been included in the superintendent's recommendation, nor in an earlier alternative proposal, should be considered a significant modification. - Okay, great. Well, I think the superintendent administration's heard from the school board on this, and you certainly have the, you know, obviously the next few days to communicate to the staff your concerns on all scenarios, and make any requests of the administration and or, oh, Mr. Jesse, yeah, sorry. [02:30:38] - I have a little question or concern - With the reading, and perhaps we have, what I'm understanding, you're saying that if any area was in any of the six proposals, then if we wanna move them, that does not trigger a meeting. [02:30:59] Is that what I'm hearing? - If neighborhood A has 10 students in it, and neighborhood A throughout the first six scenarios was never proposed for assignment to a different school, and then the board says in our scenario here we're about to adopt neighborhood a goes to a different school before you could do that you would need to hold a community meeting conversely if that neighborhood a had been proposed for reassignment to any school to any other school in the first six scenarios you wouldn't have to do the trip the community meeting you could if you wanted to but it wouldn't be required by policy [02:31:37] okay i think that's something we need to look at uh perhaps a revision because i could see a school let's say going to kilby our neighborhood going to kilby and now they're going to vaughn and because that does not automatically trigger the thing because if they were in any of the five six scenario that does not trigger and it's something i don't think we really intended thank you so to give the public the opportunity to provide feedback on what the board is ultimately [02:32:11] thinking if the board wanted to develop something significantly different or different at all it would be most efficient and transparent to do that before having another community meeting because we could run into a feedback loop here of we're doing another community meeting on scenario six and then the board goes a different direction and now have to do a community meeting on that one and so forth and so on so that's just something that i offer up is it's different from the past process and regulation. [02:32:43] Just wanna share that with you. - Okay, thank you guys very much, appreciate it. Thanks, Dr. Cartlidge. - Thank you. - At this time, we are up for our student representative time, Karina Grover from the Charles J. Colgan High School. Ms. Grover, you're up. [02:33:00] - Well, that was a lot of fun. Thank you, Dr. McDade, members of the school board and the community for giving me the opportunity to speak again. Whether you took the time to reset, catch up on rest, or continued working hard. [02:33:16] I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break. I know I enjoyed it. On Monday, our student senate was thankful to have a meeting with Dr. Sullivan and her team where we discussed important updates regarding grading and the use of AI in PWCS. [02:33:31] There has been understandable concerns surrounding the updated grading system and I want to reassure students that there is no need to panic. Dr. Sullivan and her team took the time to clearly explain the changes and overall, this is not a drastic shift. The main differences students will notice in Student View is that they can see their grade reported as quality points. [02:33:53] For those seeking more information, I urge you to visit the Earning High School Credits and Grade Point Average section of the PWCS High School Course Catalog. This has all the information needed regarding questions and concerns. We also discussed the upcoming implementation of an AI program for students, which has sparked a lot of conversation. [02:34:14] I'll admit, I was initially unsure about how AI would be introduced in our schools. However, after learning about the safeguards PWCS is putting in place and the emphasis on education and responsibility, I am now very excited about this step forward. [02:34:30] PWCS will be offering a mandatory course on AI use for both students and teachers, ensuring it is used ethically and responsibly. More information will be shared soon, and I wanna thank Dr. Sullivan and her team for taking the time to listen to student perspectives and address our questions. [02:34:49] Now, as we approach Principles Appreciation Week, I wanna recognize the critical role principals play in our schools. Principals are often the bridge between students and leadership, ensuring student voices are heard, supported, and amplified. On behalf of students across PWCS, thank you to our principals for your dedication, leadership, and commitment to creating environments where students can truly thrive. [02:35:14] Okay, yeah, that was a long, long meeting. I want to give a special shout out to my principal, Dr. Healy. He has visited our SVC meetings countless times, and now we have an extra girls bathroom in the morning because we have brought up concerns about overcrowding in bathrooms. [02:35:38] So that was really exciting. I wanted to brag about Colgan a little bit. Now, the Student Senate has also led middle school student voice committee workshops to help prepare the next generation of student leaders. I've had the opportunity to attend two out of three workshops and through these experiences, I can confidently say that we have a strong and engaged group of middle school students. [02:35:59] It was inspiring to see how seriously they take leadership and how thoughtfully they participate in student voice committees at their school. To our middle school students, your voices matter now and the work you are doing is already shaping the future of student leadership in PWCS thank you for improving your schools and helping your peers feel heard keep up the amazing work lastly as we approach the end of the quarter I want to encourage students to reach out to their teachers if you have questions or need clarification teachers are one of our greatest resources and taking the initiative to ask for help whether that's during class office hours or through email can make a meaningful [02:36:36] difference as deadlines approach using tools like planners grade books and checklist can help you stay organized and manage your time effectively. Advocating for yourself and asking for support are important steps towards success. It may feel scary at first but I promise it will benefit you. I will keep this brief as Dr. McDade will soon be sharing information on the 2030 strategic plan Elevate. I am especially excited about this plan because both I and fellow student senators had the opportunity to participate in feedback sessions and share student perspectives while I'll be graduating in just 142 [02:37:13] days I am excited to see I'm excited to see how this plan shapes the future of PWCS for the students who follow thank you for your time outstanding Karina we truly appreciate it and thanks for having a pulse on what the students think about even at the middle school level truly appreciate it I can tell you even in my home there's some anxiety on the grading changes and so I appreciate here addressing them and taking in the student concerns. [02:37:43] Dr. McDade, superintendent's time, you're up. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman, good evening. I would like to introduce first the newest member of our executive cabinet who has not been formally introduced to the board. We did announce our newest executive cabinet member, Dr. Daryl Sampson, but this is his first board meeting to be recognized. [02:38:04] He's our associate superintendent for student services and post-secondary success. Most recently, Dr. Sampson served as Executive Director of Student Services at Arlington Public Schools. In this role, he led systemic reforms that significantly reduced chronic absenteeism, expanded non-traditional pathways, and enhanced mental health and substance abuse services in collaboration with county officials. [02:38:28] We are so fortunate to welcome such an experienced, passionate leader to our team as we continue this journey together. Dr. Sampson's dedication will help guide us through exciting developments and new initiatives that lie ahead. Welcome, Dr. Sampson, if you could please stand so everyone can get a chance to see you. [02:38:49] Thank you and welcome to Prince William County Schools. Also, next week is Principal Appreciation Week, which provides us an opportunity to highlight the important role principals and assistant principals play in making schools safe, caring, and innovative spaces for both students and staff to thrive. [02:39:05] Next week, we will be taking the time to thank our principals for their steady guidance, inspiration, and support that they bring to our school communities each and every day. As we celebrate the achievements of our principals and welcome new leadership, it's important to remember that each step forward builds the foundation of our future goals and aspirations. [02:39:24] You'll recall that just a month ago in November, I shared the outcome of Vision 2025, which was our last four-year strategic plan, and the progress that we made, the outcomes we achieved, and the momentum that we built together as a school division. [02:39:40] And I am excited that tonight I will be using the remainder of my superintendent's time to present to the school board and to the public Elevate 2030, which is our new four-year strategic plan. So at this time, I'm going to proceed to the podium and present to you Elevate 2030. [02:40:12] All right, so I will begin Elevate 2030 and jump right into our commitments, our strategies and our goals. As I stated earlier, I went through the outcomes of Vision 2025, which were many. We had so many accomplishments that we're proud of. [02:40:29] And jumping into Elevate 2030, it will chart the future of Prince William County for the next four years. So I will start Elevate 2030 with our vision, which will remain the same. In Prince William County, our vision undergirds all of the work that we do each and every day, and that is to ensure that every student will graduate on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. [02:40:57] We have six core values. You'll see that this is the same from our prior strategic plan. These are values that our parents, our students, our employees, our entire community really holds dearly. So we are continuing with these core values, which include equity, inclusivity, innovation, integrity, resilience, and well-being. [02:41:17] They grounded us through Vision 2025 and they will continue to guide us as we launch Elevate 2030. We are also continuing to keep our profile of a graduate. A lot of work went into the profile of a graduate and our students weighed in on this, our families weighed in on this, the board weighed in on this. [02:41:36] A lot of research went into the profile of the graduate and as we step into the future of automation and the age of AI, the PWCS profile of a graduate is more important now than ever before. We must prepare students to be critical thinkers, digital citizens, innovators and visionaries, resilient individuals, and global collaborators. [02:41:57] And Elevate 2030 strengthens our commitment to nurturing these traits in every student as they matriculate through the Prince William County School System. Based on stakeholder feedback, we've also maintained our four key commitments, learning and achievement for all, positive climate and culture, family and community engagement, and organizational coherence. [02:42:20] Vision 2025 really showed us what we can accomplish together, and Elevate 2030 defines what we will accomplish next. So what is next? Before I begin going over the goals and the strategic priorities in Elevate 2030, I do want to ground us in some data in what is happening in the world around us, because ultimately in our vision for Prince William County, we always state that creating a thriving future means that as students graduate from Prince William County, they should be able to acquire a rewarding career, experience economic mobility, and live a purpose-driven and fulfilling life. [02:42:59] And so that means that they have to be adaptable and learn quickly. As we look at what is happening around us, the proliferation of artificial intelligence is not just impacting operations, but it is also impacting education. [02:43:14] AI is transforming our world as profoundly as the printing press did, the automobile, and even the internet combined. Across institutions and industries, companies are forced to reorganize their workforce needs, adapt new tools, and create new roles that didn't exist a few months ago. [02:43:34] And so what you will see that from Elevate 2030, it is a bold and innovative vision for Prince William County over the next four years, and you will see artificial intelligence interwoven throughout. And I wanna give you a little bit of data to help understand why it is important for us to do that. [02:43:51] So we take a look at some recent national studies to see how AI is changing the market. In the summer of 2025, the tech industry was predicting that AI would eliminate half of all entry-level white collar jobs. A fall 2025 MIT study found that AI can already replaced 11.7% of the US workforce, which primarily represents 20 million American workers in entry level and white collar jobs. [02:44:22] By 2030, the World Economic Forum has projected that AI will affect 22% of global jobs and will lead to 170 million brand new roles yet to be created. So this is not so much about what AI will do in terms of replacement of the workforce, but more about the 170 million brand new roles yet to be created and the skill sets that will be needed to fill the roles of the future. [02:44:51] And it is our job to prepare our students for that future workforce. And so as artificial intelligence continues to transform the market, it is simultaneously introducing new challenges within the workforce. Challenges that we don't want to see our students face as they seek to go into the workforce. [02:45:11] On December 11th, JPMorgan Chase reported that 40% of adults lack basic digital skills. The company argues that the workforce shortage is a national security threat, not just an economic issue. The report argues that funding for vital industries like AI and energy won't move the needle without the talent pipeline. [02:45:33] And that talent pipeline is right here in Prince William County Schools. By 2030, the McKinsey Global Institute has predicted that AI will replace 57% of worker hours, which will be automated by AI agents and robots. [02:45:48] And by 2030, Microsoft expects that the skills that employers will need will have changed by 68%. So our fear is not that our students will not be able to acquire rewarding careers because somehow AI will replace them. [02:46:07] The fear is that we don't want students to not be competitive because the individuals who have adapted and learned how to work alongside AI will be the students, the people that our students will be competing with for future employment. Just four years ago, we told undergraduates to pursue coding and computer-related hard skills. [02:46:29] Many of today's graduates have degrees in computer engineering, computer science, or information systems. All fields that saw explosive growth over the past decade. And according to the Federal Reserve, they are now all degrees with the highest unemployment rates in the United States. [02:46:49] But there are high demand jobs across this country that earn high wages, that are in demand, and also right here in Prince William County. So what you're going to see from Elevate 2030 is that we will prepare students for those high demand, high wage industries. [02:47:07] specifically those in the county because we want our students also to come back and work right here in Prince William County. So here's some information that we have about the top growth clusters in Prince William County. The clusters with both above average growth and above average total demand include information technology, business management and administration, health science, and architecture and construction. [02:47:33] We commissioned Hanover Research to do a labor market analysis for us of our county. And based on that analysis, Hanover Research recommended increasing CTE courses in high growth, high demand fields that are in Prince William County and within the Commonwealth of Virginia. [02:47:50] So you will see some of these key strategies reflected in our key commitments as I walk through those priorities tonight. So how is PWCS preparing our students to create thriving futures? In comes, Elevate 2030. [02:48:06] According to Anderson and Winthrop and the Disengaged Teen is a text that I shared with the entire school division during our leadership summit earlier at the launch of the school year. A student explorer is someone motivated by their own curiosity instead of outside expectations. [02:48:23] These students pursue the questions that interest them and stay committed until they reach their goals. With our strategic plan, Elevate 2030, PWCS aims to nurture a whole generation of student explorers. Students who have the ability to learn quickly and adapt to an ever-changing world. [02:48:42] And we have four key commitments that will prepare our students for just that, to create a thriving future. So let's get started with commitment one, learning and achievement for all, which really is the heart of our work. Learning and achievement for all is all about equitable access to excellence in education for every student, every single day. [02:49:05] And in Elevate 2030, we've set some ambitious targets. So first, we'll take a look at the goals. In each of the commitments, I'll first share with you the wildly important goals that represent that commitment. So these are our big overarching goals that we want to achieve within each commitment, understanding that there are smaller goals that are built in throughout the plan. [02:49:26] And then I will then share with you not all of the strategies that are outlined or codified in the plan, but the high leverage strategies that are directly aligned to the goals that are presented tonight. So in commitment one, we have several goals. The first being our 95% on-time graduation rate. [02:49:43] Now, some of you may be thinking that was the goal from Vision 2025. You are correct. And we did hit an all-time high of a 94.8% graduation rate. However, the indicators for graduation rate have changed under new federal guidelines. [02:50:00] And so if you take our 94.8% grad rate and align it to the new federal graduation indicators, it would equate to a 91% graduation rate. And so we're keeping that 95% and we're going to work to make sure that we still remain at 95% even under the changes in the new graduation indicators according to the federal guidelines. [02:50:25] Next, you're going to notice that we have a goal around reading at grade level by the end of second grade. We want 80% of students reading at grade level by the end of second grade. Just a reminder, in Vision 2025, we set a goal for reading at the end of third grade, but what we do know is that third grade still remains a strong predictor of dropouts, so we need students reading on grade level prior to entry into third grade, and we set the standard for 80% of our second graders reading at grade level. [02:50:55] We also, we kept the 85% SOL pass rate. That's a holdover from Vision 2025. We did not meet the 85%, although we experienced noteworthy growth across all content areas, we didn't hit the 85%. You'll recall in November, I stated that you would see this as a reappearing goal for Elevate 2030. [02:51:14] And then we also have set a new goal in Elevate 2030 to have a 10% rise in advanced pass rates for literacy, math, and science, making sure that students who are coming to us proficient are leaving us with growth, and that growth would be indicated through past advance. [02:51:31] So we're aiming to both remediate and accelerate so that our students achieve proficiency as well as advance beyond that. To ensure future readiness, additional goals in learning and achievement for all really focus on post-secondary success. [02:51:46] So you'll see here that for a new goal that you haven't seen, that we're expecting a 6% increase in enrollment in two and four year college. Now I wanna make sure that this doesn't take away from the incredible work that we've done in CTE, we're going to continue that, we should be doing both. [02:52:04] We wanna make sure that students have multiple pathways towards a rewarding career, CTE is a viable pathway, but we also are an educational institution and it is important that every student sees themselves as a college going student, regardless of whether they choose that pathway or not. [02:52:21] If they do choose to go to college, we want to make sure that they see themselves as a college-going student who is prepared to get to and through college, which is what makes this goal incredibly important. We're also setting a goal for 60% of our students reaching college readiness benchmarks as measured by SAT. [02:52:39] This really tells us whether or not a student that matriculates through our system can actually earn a passing grade in a college credit-bearing course once they leave Prince William County. We're also looking to increase the percentage of students earning the seal of bioliteracy and I'll talk about 10%, I'll talk a little bit more about that and this is a really lofty goal here but I do believe that we can achieve it. [02:53:02] We are expanding dual enrollment throughout the county and we want by 2030, 150 students over the four years will have left Prince William County with an associate's degree, the equivalent of an associate's degree in their back pocket. [02:53:17] We also want 100% of our high schools offering at least one career cluster in a high-wage, high-demand field. So you saw the high-wage, high-demand fields that are right here in Prince William County, and no matter which high school you attend, you should be able to pursue one of those careers because you have a career cluster in your high school and you shouldn't have to travel to be able to get that. [02:53:42] So to achieve these goals, I do want to spend some time in some of the high-impact strategies. What you see here is a list, a comprehensive list of all of the strategies that show up in the strategic plan. I will not go through all of those strategies tonight, but they are available in the document that is online. [02:54:02] And so you can take a look at those. What I will do tonight is call out a few key strategic priorities that are directly aligned to the goals that I just mentioned. Starting number one with global learning, global competencies and multilingual skills. [02:54:18] Global learning is key to preparing students for their future, and we're aiming for all students to gain global competencies and multilingual abilities for success in an interconnected world. Employers are increasingly valuing bilingualism, which correlates to higher wages. [02:54:34] So to meet these needs, we will be expanding IB and Cambridge programs. We want to make sure that there's a full K-12 continuum for those programs, and we're targeting a 20% increase in the diploma. So if a student is in an IB program, we want to increase the number of students that actually graduate with the IB diploma. [02:54:54] And so that 20% increase is targeted by 2030. We're also going to grow our dual language immersion. We currently have four dual immersion programs. We'll be introducing new language programs in Elevate 2030, and we'll be providing clear bi-literacy pathways all the way through high school, training students on interpretation and translation, and culminating in 10% of graduates receiving the seal of bi-literacy. [02:55:19] The next key strategic priority is around career clusters and IT pathways. Career exploration will start early and will progress with students throughout their continuum of education in Prince William County. So by 2030, here's what you should expect. [02:55:35] In the elementary school level, students will be taught career awareness. By the time they get to middle school, there will be a focus on career exploration. And in high schools will offer preparation through work-based learning and student-run businesses. [02:55:52] All high schools will provide career clusters in high wages and high demand fields, including digital literacy, AI literacy, and industry credentials. And each high school, this is a big goal in the plan, is to have every single high school with an IT pathway which is in heavy demand so that there's equity across the system for students to access IT pathways to prepare students for a digital AI driven future. [02:56:18] Currently we have an IT pathway at Forest Park and at Battlefield and we want all of our high schools to offer that pathway. The next key strategic priority is careers, entrepreneurship and student businesses. What we've learned is that the Gen Z student population, they are driven by entrepreneurship. [02:56:38] They want to be their own bosses and so we want to make sure that we support them in their development towards entrepreneurship and we'll do this in the following ways. We're providing school based enterprises such as school stores and student run businesses, high school career preparation activities and experiences and middle school courses that will be dedicated to research driven entrepreneurship. [02:57:01] The next key strategic priority is around augmented reality and virtual reality emerging technologies. technologies like augmented and virtual reality are changing learning experiences as AR and VR create personalized adaptive environments for all students. PWCS will use immersive technology to make global content accessible and interactive so that students when we talk about global collaboration these are the types of technologies that will allow for global collaboration to happen. [02:57:34] by 2030 every school will have access to ar and vr technology and we're really excited about that the next key strategic priority in learning and achievement for all is innovation zones and teacher learning our educators drive elevate 2030 it cannot happen without them and pwcs will provide teachers with rigorous research-driven instructional experiences emphasizing inquiry-based and experiential learning for adults. [02:58:03] By 2030, here's what you should expect. We aim to award micro-credentials and computational thinking to both teachers and students. So by 2030, we want 100 students that have been awarded micro-credentials and computational thinking, and 200 teachers also earning the micro-credential. [02:58:22] Teachers are piloting chat GPT, and high school students will have access to co-pilot this coming semester as adaptive AI tools support personalized learning and real-time feedback. Both physical and virtual spaces for teacher collaboration and innovation will be made available. [02:58:41] We're planning by 2030 to have 10 classrooms of innovation and one teacher-led model, an innovative instructional lab, which will be a space for teachers to share and test instructional ideas and take risks in teaching and learning for a new generation of students. [02:58:59] And finally, rounding out learning and achievement for all, the final high-impact, high-leverage strategy is universal preschool. PWCS is committed to a clear pre-K to kindergarten pathway that develops early numeracy and understanding with literacy instruction grounded in the science of reading. [02:59:18] There is strong research favoring the long-term effects of preschool. As a matter of fact, Georgetown University published its groundbreaking 20-year study concluding that students who attend pre-K are less likely to fail courses or be chronically absent in K-12 education, and they're more likely to enroll in advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses in high school as well as graduate on time. [02:59:43] There's been a wealth of research that points to stronger life outcomes for students who participate in preschool opportunities, and we wanna expand those opportunities right here in Prince William County, So by 2030, PWCS will provide families with access to universal pre-K. [03:00:00] As you can see, commitment one is our promise to deliver powerful learning to every student so that every student can succeed. That concludes Learning and Achievement for All, moving on to commitment to positive climate and culture. Strong learning only happens in strong environments, and positive climate and culture is our commitment to inclusivity, belonging, and making sure that every student, every family and employee feels welcome in our schools and feels supported in our school district. [03:00:30] A student's ability to learn is shaped by the culture and climate around them. And commitment too is about creating the conditions for students' success. So here are the goals for positive climate and culture. We're gonna start first with looking at our English learners. [03:00:45] So you'll recall that in Vision 2025, we set a goal to reduce the English learner dropout rate by 10%, and we did hit that goal, but we also know that even with meeting that goal, our English learner dropout rate continues to be a challenge, and it is above the division average, and so we are going to continue to chip away at that, so you'll see this goal is now in Elevate 2030. [03:01:08] We also, as I mentioned earlier, all of the upskilling that needs to happen in the workforce, we're investing in our workforce right here in Prince William County, and we're targeting 60% of our classified staff participating in upskilling and training to make sure they're prepared for the shifts in roles that are occurring within the workforce. [03:01:30] We're also committed to having a point of contact for mental health first aid in every school and increasing diversity by 5%. We also had diversity in our last strategic plan, but as you know, our students represent over 159 countries in Prince William County schools, and so we want to make sure the diversity of our staff mirrors that of our students. [03:01:51] so we're keeping that goal. One of the most exciting goals in Positive Climate and Culture is our home initiative, and I'll expound on that a little bit later, which is to have at least 150 dedicated residential units for teachers by 2030. [03:02:08] Additional goals in Positive Climate and Culture really focus on our facilities and sustainability, so you'll see that we've set a goal to have 100% of our schools with outdoor learning environments and 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. [03:02:23] We also have set a goal to have 100% of our buildings automated with automated systems across all of our facilities. So let's take a look at some of the strategies for commitment two. We will be investing in people, systems, and learning environments, improving our human capital framework, and ensuring facility modernization. [03:02:45] So here is the comprehensive list of strategies that you will see codified in Elevate 2030, and now let's take a look at some of the high impact strategies that will drive the goals for positive climate and culture, beginning with our human capital framework. [03:03:01] As educators, we empower our students, and as an employer, we must empower our staff. And so the human capital framework forms the basis for how PWCS will attract, support, develop, and retain top talent. It's built around six connected areas that you see listed here on the screen, and PWCS will align its employee practices with these six components along with our profile of a leader and standards of excellence. [03:03:27] So looking ahead to 2030, what you should expect, this approach aims to create a clear, fair, and cohesive employee experience and ensure that the school system remains focused on accountability, clarity, and educational excellence. The next high impact strategy is our principal residency. [03:03:45] Really excited about the principal residency because you know that in 2025, we launched a successful teacher residency in response to the critical teacher shortage and leadership development really is central to PWCS human capital strategy. There was a Wallace Foundation study that came out that talked about the fact that the most impact to a student comes from the teacher and a later study that followed up to say that the teacher also has to be supported by a high quality leader. [03:04:14] And so it is apropos for us to expand the residency to the principal so that we have a strong pipeline of leadership because instructional leaders are responsible for creating the conditions for our educators to do their best work. So by 2030, not only will we have our principal residency program in full swing, we also plan to have 80% of the graduates of the residency holding leadership roles right here in Prince William County Schools, creating a strong succession plan for leadership. [03:04:48] The next key strategic priority in positive climate and culture is the home residency. Because joining PWCS often involves relocation, we are launching the HOME Initiative, and HOME stands for Housing Options Made Easier. [03:05:03] And this is to improve housing accessibility and make PWCS an employer of choice. We will continue to build partnerships with universities and licensure providers, while the home pilot reduces relocation barriers for prospective staff in Northern Virginia. [03:05:19] So by 2030, we're aiming to secure at least 150 dedicated residential units through public-private partnerships, providing affordable housing for our staff. It's important to note that Realtor.com has named PWCS among the most popular school districts for families looking to relocate, and the home initiative allows us to maintain our standing as the most popular school system to relocate, providing affordable housing options. [03:05:48] Next, key strategic priority for positive climate and culture is around artificial intelligence and smart buildings. We know our climate and culture is shaped by the environments where students learn and staff work, and so we will be using AI smart sensors and predictive analytics to boost building safety, cut down time, and improve air quality in all of our facilities. [03:06:10] These technologies enable early issue detection, longer equipment life, and lower energy costs, which can be directed back into our classrooms. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, PWCS will convert all lighting to LED. We'll be upgrading building envelopes and prioritizing geothermal and smart HVAC systems where feasible, and the expectation is that by 2030, we will reduce 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. [03:06:38] The next key strategic priority is outdoor learning environments. This is a fun one. Elevate 2030 seeks to ensure that every PWCS student will have access to meaningful outdoor learning at their local schools. So we will be building quality outdoor spaces to include environmental literacy in lessons, train educators for outdoor teaching, and partner with local groups to connect students to their community through outdoor classrooms, because the learning really does expand beyond the four classroom walls. [03:07:09] So by 2030, all schools will have outdoor infrastructure supporting wellness, engagement, and exploration. And that concludes commitment two, positive climate and culture. And we will move on to commitment three, family and community engagement. And we've got some exciting initiatives here in family and community engagement. [03:07:28] Our mission in PWCS is to serve as trusted partners with our students, families, and community. Families are our students' first and most important teachers and our commitment to family and community engagement is to deepen trust and collaboration across PWCS. [03:07:43] So here are the goals for family and community engagement. First, we plan to expand resources for students and families by opening three school-based clinics by 2030. We also want to expand food pantries. We know that food insecurity is right here in Prince William County And so we are already piloting 10 food pantries, but we're planning to add eight food pantries annually. [03:08:10] We also are erecting a new mentorship network, which will link students to the business and community leaders as mentors with a goal of having 150 or more trained youth mentors. And of that 150 mentors, we want 50 of them to be diverse mentors to support our first gen students. [03:08:31] so at least 100 first-generation and underrepresented students who are pursuing a college after graduation. So let's look at some of the high-leverage strategies. First, here's the comprehensive list of all of the strategies that you will see in the documented strategic plan, and I will walk through just some of the high-leverage strategies that we will be using coordinating agencies and non-profits to provide wellness support, as well as connecting students to mentors from companies, civics groups, military, and community leaders. [03:09:03] So let's look at our first key strategic priority, which is school-based clinics. We will be partnering with healthcare providers, aiming to offer quality, accessible care in schools where families need it the most. These clinics will support preventative health, mental well-being, chronic disease management, and family assistance. [03:09:23] They're for lowering barriers, boosting attendance, and helping students concentrate when their basic needs are being met, fostering strong early connections with families. So by 2030, we plan to implement three school-based health clinics, and at those clinics have a goal of 85% of students and families receiving essential wraparound services within four weeks of being referred to the clinic. [03:09:48] The next key strategic priority is the school-based pantries that I mentioned. Learning is impacted when basic needs go unmet. We're currently piloting, as I stated, at 10 school-based food pantries. The most recent pantry was open at Hilton High School and there'll be a total of 10 this year. [03:10:06] But moving forward, we will be offering pantries that provide fresh food options, hygiene supplies, and emergency resources for families in need, helping to improve attendance, engagement, and student well-being by addressing food insecurity. And so the goal for 2030 is to implement an additional eight functional food pantries annually to ensure we have a minimum of 40 food pantries across the school system by 2030. [03:10:33] The next key strategic priority in family and community engagement is our student mentors. We heard from families across the school system. I personally sat with parent round tables. We had 17 total engagements where I had an opportunity to meet with community leaders and with parents. [03:10:51] And I will tell you the one theme that was reverberated throughout the county is that mentorship is important. And so I'm excited that we are launching the Mentorship Network Program in PWCS. We will be pairing our students with mentors from our business and local community. [03:11:08] They will be mentors that will support students with goal setting, skill building, and college and career transitions. The program also will aim to help first generation and underrepresented youth achieve economic mobility through career exposure, academic support, and leadership opportunities. [03:11:25] So by 2030, what will you see? You should expect that we will recruit 150 mentors to support 250 students annually, with 50 of those trained mentors being diverse mentors, specifically trained to mentor a minimum of 100 students who are first generation underrepresented students, and that's annually. [03:11:47] We'll also be ambitiously pursuing internship opportunities that will launch a summer internship opportunity for at least 50 students for future experience. And I wanna point out here that we are going to continue, you know that we set a goal in Vision 2025 to have 500 internships earned over the course of the four years. [03:12:07] We nearly doubled that. And we're continuing on that trajectory. What makes this different, it is specifically targeted to make sure that there's a minimum of 50 internships that are directly aligned to the students' interests and the pathway that they're choosing, right? [03:12:23] So if they're going into business administration, they have an internship that aligns to that actual career interest. So that's what makes this different, not to take away from the fact that we are continuing to grow and expand internships, but this is a more targeted approach. [03:12:40] Next, we have the strategic priority around career exploration. And this is a goal that we've set to make sure that, in a nutshell, we have an opportunity, unique opportunity now for parents and students to learn together and be prepared for the workforce. So we're extending an opportunity for students and parents to learn side by side and so this program will focus on micro credentialing GED preparation and career and technical education but for both parents and students to be workforce ready. By 2030 80% of the targeted [03:13:20] students and families will receive opportunities to work together to become workforce ready. And closing out family and community engagement is going to be a focus on our SPARC funding agenda. So the final key strategic priority is around SPARC. [03:13:36] I talked a lot about expanding career pathways, really excited about being able to have an opportunity for families and students to learn together, to work towards a trade or a career side by side, which will bolster the entire family, not just the student, but in order to do this, we will need additional funding. [03:13:55] And so we've set an ambitious SPARC agenda to advance career pathways and expand the partnerships that support them through SPARC, which is our education foundation. So for the next four years, SPARC will focus on four main areas, STEM and AI education, wellness and wraparound services, innovation and digital citizenship, and career pathways. [03:14:17] And you'll see the amounts that we would like to raise for each of those areas. By 2030, SPARC aims to raise 30 million for student learning, and I want to note that while that might sound like that's a lofty goal, we set a goal for Vision 2025 to raise $10 million, and we doubled that and raised 22 million. [03:14:39] So we believe that 30 is achievable, especially with the agenda that we've put forward that directly will support and impact our students. That concludes Positive Climate and Culture. Moving on to our fourth and final commitment in Elevate 2030 is organizational coherence. [03:14:58] In Vision 2025, we identified a critical need to align our system for greater coherence. We worked diligently to move away from a system of independent schools to a unified school system that allows a division of 90,000 students and 20,000 employees to be guided towards the same North Star and same vision. [03:15:19] This required us creating norm practices and standards of excellence to yield greater alignment, efficiency, and responsiveness in both education and operations. And organizational coherence is important because we are a business. [03:15:34] This is a $2 billion business. Our business just happens to be education, but we still have to have operational efficiency. And so Elevate 2030 will build on the content and continue the momentum of organizational coherence through the integration of AI and automation. [03:15:52] So let's take a look at the goals for organizational coherence. Elevate 2030 will build an integrated culture, upgrade digital platforms, centralize data and train staff in data literacy, boosting efficiency and aligning programs and strategic goals. [03:16:07] So by 2030, here's some of our goals. Number one, shifting 50% of new annual investments from previous operational expenses for greater impact. This is all about return on investment. The second one is ensuring that 100% of our departments and instructional staff are using AI dashboards for real-time decision-making. [03:16:28] 100% of our systems, our ERP, which is gonna be around facilities, finance, and HR, will be modernized, and I'll explain a little bit more about ERP, and integrated with approved AI capabilities. [03:16:43] And finally, 100% of our educators, specialists, and leaders will complete advanced AI training for their roles. So let's take a look at the comprehensive list of priorities that you see under organizational coherence, which is all around modernization strategies, unified data architecture and strategic decision-making, integrating and automating HR, finance and facilities to boost efficiency by 20 to 30%, and user-friendly tools and ongoing training to build data and AI skills across all employee groups. [03:17:18] So let's look at the high leverage strategies that align directly to the goals that were identified for organizational coherence. Starting with data dashboards and data literacy. We all know and I know that so many of the schools have already communicated excitement about having better data dashboards and access to real-time data that they can, and with the capabilities of AI for analysis, By 2030, we're aiming for all PWCS departments and school-based staff will utilize data-driven decision-making through AI-enabled analytics dashboards to improve student achievement, [03:17:56] increase employee retention, and complete a full integration of data systems across all departments. So we're getting rid of all of the Excel spreadsheets. The next key strategic priority is ERP, and what ERP stands for is Enterprise Resource Planning. [03:18:13] We'll be upgrading our system. This will allow us to sunset our outdated and inefficient legacy systems for a more modernized interoperable management system which will digitize all of our records so we're no longer doing manual requests for transcripts and things of that nature. [03:18:31] Even the application process through HR, all of these things will be modernized to streamline processes, improve data accuracy, and optimize resources. Automation and AI integration will reduce manual tasks significantly, analyze data for better operations, taking the guesswork out for employees, and enhance transparency. [03:18:54] Our staff will be trained in AI to support ethical implementation, which is driving smarter decisions and better services. By 2030, 100% of core enterprise resource planning systems will be modernized and integrated with approved AI capabilities and we're also aiming through this to reduce burdensome administrative manual workflows by 75%. [03:19:19] The next key strategic priority is return on investment. Here's where I do want to publicly thank our Board of County Supervisors. We have a revenue sharing agreement that ensures that our schools are funded adequately and this return on investments really is about making sure that we are taking our commitment, the commitment that is being made to this school system and the investments that are being made seriously, committing to not only fiscal integrity, but also responsibility for ensuring a return on investment. [03:19:51] And we believe we've done that with the outcomes of Vision 2025, but there's still more opportunities for greater efficiency. And so in Elevate 2030, we're making the fiscal integrity transparent through a strategic return on investment goal, meaning that by 2030, 50% of new investments will be funded through reallocating prior operational spending. [03:20:13] For those of you who are aware of continuous improvement, it really aligns to our start, stop, continue process, where annually, every year, we look at the work that is happening in the school system to determine what work streams need to stop, what work streams need to start, and which should continue. [03:20:29] and those that need to stop, those dollars can be reallocated for new investments and new strategic priorities. Finally, in organizational coherence is AI staff training. Elevate 2030 will ensure that every educator, specialist and leader receives advanced AI training that is tailored to their professional role. [03:20:51] This investment in staff development goes beyond basic digital literacy, equipping our teams with the expertise needed to integrate artificial intelligence into daily practice. improving instruction, streamlining operations, and enabling smarter decision-making. So what should you expect? [03:21:07] By 2030, 100% of our staff will be prepared to use AI tools confidently and responsibly, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement that directly benefits our students and the broader school community. [03:21:22] Here, I want to share with you just a little bit of insight from our students. Elevate 2030 really does equip our students for a dynamic world, recognizing their complexity and capability that goes well beyond test scores. It creates a classroom that reflects students' identities, expands their horizons, and encourages bold steps into the future. [03:21:44] But this isn't something that we as adults feel is necessary. What you're seeing here is also coming from the voice of our students. You heard from Karina that our students weighed in on the development of the strategic plan. We had robust engagements, but I think the loudest voice came from our students and they have a lot of thoughts about the future and what should be happening in terms of developing a modern, personalized classroom. [03:22:11] So let's take a look to see what they had to say. - Classrooms in the future, like they're gonna have like teachers as like artificial intelligence robots. [03:22:28] - We'll be able to talk to others from different countries. - Meow. People probably in Asia can learn stuff in America. I think AI will be more advanced and teachers will learn how to teach their students who have disabilities. [03:22:43] Maybe like one student could be a robot to help all the other students. As always, the kids are spot on. Just the fact that they're thinking the future is robots is, to me, the most important thing right now. [03:23:00] These kids are going to be working side by side with robots. and the fact that that's what they focused on was so amazing to me if we're given a technology to utilize it and it's going to help us with that child and make that child be more successful in the classroom i'm we all are on board if you look at our strategic plan one of the things that we're really focusing on is trying to make our students great digital citizens learning how to use ai for its benefits and making sure you use it responsibly ethically and in a way to solve some more complex problems I think is what we're hoping we'll be able to teach our students does this make the teacher obsolete and I say no this makes the teacher more human [03:23:40] to focus on more human centric things don't forget your punctuation but you also really shift in how you think about the way that you're orchestrating content in your classroom to be more of an uncovering for kids and then applying and must about do I need to fill their heads with something and then just test them see if they learned what I told them. I'm really excited about expanding opportunities for our students to complete and learn and grow as students in flexible spaces, flexible time bands, having options that have been expanded due to growing technology. The reality about this as an emerging technology is [03:24:19] that there are lots of possibilities but there are also risks and as a school system we have to focus on both as we roll this out. Families are trusting us to be the experts in the space on how their children learn best and how we can help them achieve their goals. So a huge responsibility that we have to make sure we are cautious when appropriate, innovative when possible, to bring those ideas together. These kids grow up on technology. They have it in their hands when they're toddlers. I'm all for the technology that is going to come in the [03:24:55] future. It's going to help them in the classroom. It's going to make everything more accessible, it's gonna elevate the learning, motivate them, and I'm 100% for it. - Oh, I get it now. [03:25:13] - So you heard from our students, they are embracing the changes that are happening in our world and excited about that. And our classrooms have to mirror that change. Now is the moment for us to lead with vision, spark innovation, and boldly shape the future that awaits our students, embracing advancements, not just in technology but across education. [03:25:36] Elevate 2030 focuses on our path forward, imagining the future that we can create together. I really want to take a moment to thank the entire school board for all of your input and feedback. I hope that you see your voice in Elevate 2030. [03:25:56] Thank you for your support over the last four years for Vision 2025. I also want to publicly thank all of our families that participated in all of the engagement sessions. I really enjoyed talking with each of you that came out, hearing your voice, hearing your hopes and dreams for your children. [03:26:15] One of the things that I said to our families in every single one of the 17 engagement opportunities is that I think the job that prepared me most for being the superintendent is the job of a mother and understanding what it feels like to want so much for your child. [03:26:33] And so that resonated with me, hearing directly from our parents what they want to see for the future for their children. And they really just want their students to do exactly what our vision says, create a thriving future for themselves and their community. And I do believe that Elevate 2030 is the step forward towards that. [03:26:51] So I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation for coming out, for our families coming out in the evening, after work. They could, I'm sure, had so many other things to do, but they see education as an important bridge towards their students' future success, as do we, and so just my deep heartfelt gratitude to them. [03:27:11] I also wanna thank all of our students who participated in our Elevate 2030 engagement sessions, our community leaders, our faith-based leaders, and again, thank you so much to the board for everything that you have done to contribute, not just to the past four-year strategic plan, but this future plan that you see here that really is a bold and innovative plan. [03:27:33] I do want to share with the public that may be watching, you can access the full document. It is on our pwcs.edu website so you can read through all. Of course, I presented the goals and the high leverage strategies, but it is a document worth taking a look at. [03:27:52] We also have a template for feedback. so that there's still opportunity for our families to weigh in and our community to weigh in on the strategic plan prior to the final vote on the strategic plan. And I'll just close with the fact that we believe strongly that Elevate 2030 will lead to every student graduating on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. [03:28:22] That is Elevate 2030. and I will take any questions that the board might have. - Well, let me first start by saying, thank you, Dr. McDade. You know, we are now in your fifth year here as a superintendent, fourth year, you completed a strategic plan that you had to put together coming out of a pandemic, addressing long-term problems that the school division has faced. [03:28:52] And, you know, when you started, when we interviewed you, you know, you had pointed out to this board in some of your early interviews about low hanging fruit and easy things we can fix. You certainly jumped in and did that. Then you picked up on all the harder things over the last four years and it's led to this incredible success of Vision 2025. [03:29:14] And for folks who haven't seen it, you should watch the last board meeting where we presented the results and the success of 2025, achieving nearly every one of the goals set out and being very transparent about the ones we did not achieve in relooking at how we're gonna achieve those in the next four years. [03:29:34] This plan that you have laid out has, like the first plan for everyone to know, and as you just pointed out, documented included input from the entire community, every corner of our county, which I think is critical in putting together a successful plan when you buy in from everyone, and that's why that first plan really worked well. [03:29:56] You have started this effort by engaging the community. We, as a board, will take input from the community on this plan over the next few weeks. We will provide further input. And I think, you know, I'm just excited about this bold, as you pointed out, ambitious, as you pointed out, and innovative plan. [03:30:16] And I think it's important, you know, I'll have the rest of the board weigh in, but it is really important for the public to know that Dr. McDade said to the board four years ago once you put the plan together, that every dollar that we budget will be spent towards the goals of our strategic plan. [03:30:35] Large organizations who have good strategic plans succeed. That is why people have strategic plans. And when you take every dollar and spend it towards those goals, and we did this as a board, even when we might have been hoping we spent money on other things, which we didn't, we stuck to the plan and it worked. [03:30:54] And so the reason why the public should take a look at this plan is that if there are things you want or you like or you'd see, if it's in the plan, it will be funded over the next four years. And that's really important. You know, they say the devil's in the details. Please take a look at this plan. [03:31:11] There's no devil in these details, there's only delight. And really a gift bag of goodies for our community who cares about what our students learn. And I'll leave, you know, I'll end with the fact that Dr. McDain ended by saying, you know, Her preparation for putting this together is being a mom first. [03:31:34] You know, I 100% agree with that statement. I've gotten to know you over the last four years. I truly believe that. And I know no one whose eyes are as wide open to what the students need as Dr. McDade and as you have been over the last four years. [03:31:52] And it is student needs that drive the work that's in the details that you will all see in this amazing plan. And it is why I am excited to just be a part of this and continue to support this effort by this board and by you, Dr. McDade, and your staff. [03:32:13] Thank you very much. - Thank you, Dr. Lateef. I do, and you just mentioned my staff, and I do want to call out, which I did not do earlier, the strategic plan for every single commitment that you saw tonight, we had co-leads. Someone had to lead the working groups, the work sessions, collecting all of the information, the data, and then codifying that into goal proposals. [03:32:38] It was a year long process. It was very complex, probably some tears. And so I do want to acknowledge, I have an incredible executive cabinet. I do not stand here alone. There's no way that I could do this work alone. [03:32:55] And I want you to take note that they're all here tonight because they are all vested in this work. And so for the executive cabinet who served as co-leads on the strategic plan, if you could just stand up really quickly, I wanna recognize all of your efforts and the work that you've done over the last year. [03:33:14] I also want to acknowledge and appreciate my chief of staff, Elisa Botello. One of her number one jobs is to oversee the strategic plan. So she's kinda like the sergeant at arms. She's gotta wrangle everybody together to make sure they adhere to that timeline, have all of the charter proposals done. [03:33:36] It really was an intense process. She and the director of our continuous improvement team coordinated all of the family and community engagement events and attended all of them with me. So I have a really committed team. [03:33:54] They're all parents as well. Some of them have students in the school system also. You know, we are really deeply committed to serving Prince William County schools and students with excellence. And so I just wanted to take the time to acknowledge them because they're usually behind the scenes. [03:34:11] And I want to just acknowledge and celebrate them along with my deputy superintendent who leads the school system with me because I would not be able to do it without you, Carol. So thank you to all of you that are here tonight who have supported this effort. [03:34:28] - Fantastic, Dr. Moore, thank you. I think I see Ms. Trudenik, then Ms. Williams. - I just wanna say thank you. That presentation was amazing, the way that you go through that. And to echo what Dr. Lateef said, you truly listen to each and every one of us and the things that we bring forth. [03:34:46] Even last year, seeing some of that reflected in this and the perspective that we have as parents and what we see as needs in our community and in our own students, really reflected the the one thing that I saw that I really really loved was the 150 students earning an associate's degree I just that is so amazing I think that's gonna be a great thing that the IT pathways the AR VR those are just awesome awesome things the the dedicated residential units for teachers that's awesome awesome and I'm sure there's so many partnerships that that can come out [03:35:26] of that as well and the mentorships with local business owners I know we get asked I get asked all the time you know what can we do to help the school system what can we do they want to help these students especially in the the trades you know I think that's gonna be such a valuable partnership with these business owners and trades to help these students succeed so I'm excited about that I'm excited about the CTE internships and the AI tools that you're gonna provide to our students and our staff and I just I think there's gonna be so much goodness [03:36:01] by 2032 and I just appreciate everything that you've done and everything that your staff has done to do this and thank you miss William thank you chairman Lateef I'll start by saying thank you to dr. McDade and all of your staff I know some since you got here people have departed we have new people I think Everyone has played a role in supporting your work in this division and of course you are the shining star that leads the ship and I appreciate all of it. [03:36:33] For me, I don't know how to not be excited, honestly. I sit here as someone who's been here for over a decade and look at your first strategic plan to me was the beginning of everything I ever dreamed and had been yelling about from the seat for 12 years. [03:36:56] and to see the next level of it, the amount of joy that I have right now, even thinking about the student entrepreneurships. Most people know me, I know my son has his own business. When I go to school events, recognizing that students sit there, and I'll just say like for myself, the first time I encountered student businesses, I'm thinking, oh, this is nice. [03:37:16] Like my version of youth, you have like a little part-time job. But to see the division taking them seriously, because a lot of these students have businesses that are also supporting themselves and their families. It's not a part-time thing. It's not a paper route thing. And they're coming out of high school already employed and sometimes employing others. [03:37:37] And to be able to support them in that effort and to guide them and hopefully keep them in our county, not only doing that, but then they have later the opportunity to mentor other students. It's full circle. Having the opportunity for parents, guardians, other family members to continue their education with their students because I think that's really what's going on in a lot of homes now anyway, at least I know in mine, 'cause I'm always like, what does this do, can you fix this? [03:38:03] 'Cause I feel like I've gotten old, I don't know how this works. There's a lot of like, how does this work? Providing a setting and a framework for that, I think is impactful. Utilizing, I guess, one of the things I like best is this new strategic plan is I feel like we will be able to utilize a lot of existing streams and pathways that we have currently in our division in a more efficient and meaningful way. [03:38:28] I say that, for example, I remember a few years ago when Independence was being built and we were opening and we had facilities, I talked about could we have internships within our division where students were able to shadow current facility people or whatever the job is. And I've seen the growth in that. [03:38:44] I feel like this plan is a continuation of that. There's just so much I could go on and on forever. But I am very excited by it. I'm very excited by our renewed development of technology and utilizing current technology we have. [03:39:01] We have a lot of students, families all over the world. I think it was, is it Unity Reed? With the Yellow Jackets, the robotics girls team who actually are ahead of us and started a whole other team using, what? Osborne Park, thank you. At Osborne Park that started a whole other robotics team in another country, right from our schools, writing subject matter, business SWAT analysis and things like that, I just see this as the right forward path, the path forward that is right for our students and our staff. [03:39:34] And the last thing I will say 'cause I'm talking too long is I also very much appreciate the training and the investment that we're making in our staff. What I hear frequently is that staff get training and it's not always as refined as they would like it to be for their particular role within the division. [03:39:50] And I see that there is a noted emphasis in that on Elevate and also norming our system, including staff at all levels in what our business operations are and how they work, I think is also instrumental to us operating as one. [03:40:07] And that's the goal. So I really appreciate it. I'm gonna stop talking now 'cause I could talk forever. I'm very excited and I know there's more to come. And also like Chairman Teef said, we still are looking for public input, so thank you. - And Lisa, were you next? [03:40:22] - Sure, thank you. Dr. McDade, this was amazing. I love all the work that you have in your team have put into this. And I wanna just echo briefly what Dr. Lateef said. I remember when I ran for school board the first time, and I looked at our strategic plan that we had at that time. [03:40:42] And just as a mom who had kids in the system, I couldn't look at it and know where, kind of feel out where we were. And I remember when you first came in, Dr. McDade, I was just so grateful that you were like, no, no, no, our budget priorities are the strategic plan. [03:40:58] It's not a document you put on the shelf, it's a living document. So I appreciate all the work you've done and the first plan being so successful, putting this next one into action is not necessarily easier 'cause we have great goals in here, but we have the structure in place. [03:41:16] So thank you for all of that. I will have some comments that I'll send later, but thank you. - Mr. Blake and then Ms. Wall. I just want to just say thank you. I appreciate the thought, you know, the thought, the collaboration, the community input, and just the vision, like, to see, you know, vision. [03:41:37] I guess it's Elevate now, but you had a vision to elevate. So, yeah, I'm excited as well. Mostly everybody said everything, so I really, you know, I'm really happy about that universal pre-K, though. So I think that's going to be a very big game changer. [03:41:56] And, you know, if we had the goal to have 80% of the kids littered by second grade, I think it's going to be first grade with pre-K there. So, yeah, I'm just really excited. Good job, guys. And I can't wait to see where we go with this. [03:42:12] Thank you, Mr. Blake. Ms. Wall. Thank you very much for this presentation. I wasn't able to be at the soft launch, so this was really great. And I love a number of things about the plan. [03:42:29] First of all that we have one and that it is comprehensive and While it's broad. It's also specific. It does both things and I think that's really important I also appreciate that ideas and thoughts of mine that I've reflected over the years that I've said or talked to you about or others or problems that I've seen Are reflected in this plan and you know some of the things that are more specific that aren't that we didn't talk about tonight I I see them in there so I I agree you know I think we all can see ourselves and our districts and the needs of the families that we represent that have [03:43:08] talked to us over the years reflected in this plan and so I appreciate that because it is a plan for the entire district we have a very big diverse district with schools that are very different from each other but yet we are united in our goals and I saw that through the last four-year process and I know I will see that through this next four-year process this will unite us this will help us be unified as we work forward I appreciate all the work that happened behind the scenes I know this was hours and hours and hours deadlines pressure you know on top of everything else that you all were doing and it [03:43:45] really is truly a great document I've already read through quite a lot of it and I look forward to reading through more of it and it's submitting my comments and suggestions I wanted to highlight looking at it not in the details but just from a broader perspective the thoughtful analysis of the future of how acknowledging how different the future is going to be and how that can bring excitement but I can also bring fear but the best way to address that fear is to get prepared and to plan ahead to tackle it head-on with [03:44:23] the emerging technologies that we know are happening now and will happen even more in the future and and our kids live in this environment and it I think it will only accelerate and so I think that that is one of the strengths of this plan is that it is flexible enough to adapt but it is it is leaning into the need for innovation in the way that we do things the way that we approach a classroom the way that we approach a child's needs and I think we will see great thing so it really is going to live up I believe it will live up to its title of elevate I do I did read the disengaged teen excellent book highly [03:45:02] recommend it I'm sure everybody here has read it and I was struck by how how important it is to find not just the student that's getting the good grades but actually connecting with their learning in a transformative way and really engaging and learning before learning sake and if we can get more children into that category we are going to reach our goals and blow them out of the water so I commend the district team on that budgeting I go I second what [03:45:40] Dr. Lateef said I learned that if it's in the plan we're gonna do it it was not the plan we're probably not gonna spend our time and effort on it or money effort time right so I appreciate the fidelity to that process that puts everybody on the same playing field it it allows for easier transfer easier communications and in discussions and it puts us it just it's just such a smoother process for actually reaching our goals instead of spinning our wheels arguing and going off in different directions so the connection between the [03:46:20] budgeting priorities and the strategic plan that is those connections are really important and I've seen that in action so I'm excited to see this go into effect and it does reflect what I'm hearing from the community for the most part there's still a group of people who just want us to go back to pen and paper and no technology at all but I do think we need to acknowledge that the world is changing and we need to prepare our students to adapt and live in this world where technology is everywhere we cannot put it back in the box and so yes I love old-fashioned books and paper and reading and everything else and I think [03:46:58] we should still do those things and curse and cursive and cursive is good to otherwise we won't be able to read what people wrote in the past but but we should simultaneously lean in to the technologies that are available to us including all of the data analytics the AI and all the other things that are to help us be more efficient in the things that we do so i will wrap it up by saying great job i look forward to reading this in detail and presenting um or i will i will participate in the process of giving you feedback and thanks everybody mr jesse vice chair jesse well thank [03:47:37] you for a job well done again and it's very impressive what you do and what your team does and appreciate it. As you know, my focus, major focus is on academics and SOLs and how well we're doing and I really want us to work hard to get to that 85 percent. As I said before here publicly, I don't care what the state is doing, they're failing as far as I'm concerned and we want to be, [03:48:12] We want them to come to us to learn how in the heck that we do it, and that's what I want to see. I also want to thank you for putting in the advanced placement, because my wife called it the J-curve. [03:48:30] We want the kids to, as many as possible, get up higher so that we look, when you look at the graph, you see it's going up for how many kids are going to the advanced placement, because that's a measure. and that's something we can measure, so, but I think we're doing a wonderful job in the community. [03:48:53] I also would say, I hope you're not wearing out the principals with all the other extra stuff, because there's a lot that they do, and again, I want their major focus to be on academics, but we do so many things with it, and, you know, the pantry is something that is desperately needed, But at the same time, I wanna make sure that we have people there that can run it and that it's not something that the principal has to worry about. [03:49:27] So thank you so much for what you do, I appreciate it. - Mr. Wilk. - Thank you, I'm not gonna be loquacious. I'm just gonna say thank you. A lot of things that you said resonated with me. It's almost like you took all of our like recordings of our board meetings and dumped it into ChatGPT and asked us to analyze everything that we want. [03:49:49] - I wish it was that easy. - Yeah, I know, right? No, that would take a lot. But from things going all the way from, of course, universal pre-K has been reiterated up there. It's been a proud area of mine to represent Washington Reed for all these years and see the expansion of that program is great. [03:50:10] I hear all the time from new teachers, young teachers even once, 10 plus years experience, who are still just trying to get their start down here and because the high cost of housing, they're barely getting by, whether it's renting or, I mean, God forbid, trying to find a house around here. [03:50:27] So I love, you know, the home residency program and what you're trying to do with that process. The food pantries, loved it, went to Hilton, saw one of those on a different day with the Career Pathway Partnerships. I think it's really created that workforce readiness partnership with parents learning skills together. [03:50:44] - Yes, I'm excited about that. - I like that, that is really nice. And then of course, you know, I think we all in our careers, I often wonder, you know, if my job's gonna be obsolete with AI. But again, it's all about harnessing that. And what that guy said about their further enhances being humanistic. And so for the teachers and stuff like that, it's, you're never going to be able to replace that component of having a physical teacher in the room or in a lot of other roles. So that was really powerful. So again, thank you so much. Great presentation. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Dr. McDade, I'll wrap up with just saying, you know, how enthusiastic I am. And and you've heard what the board says, [03:51:23] but universal pre-k, fantastic. You know, the home residency, and there's a lot of sexy things in this plan that I think are gonna be written about maybe in the press, but I don't wanna distract, and that's why I encourage everyone, I don't wanna distract. [03:51:42] I mean, these things are great, the home residency, the food pantry, we're gonna do universal pre-k, all holistic efforts to improve student achievement. But in the end, the details on learning and achievement for all and our goals for pass rates, for college readiness, career readiness, that is the brunt of this plan. [03:52:03] And I don't want anyone to sort of miss out on that. If they're covering this, that's what you need to be looking at too. You know, there's the sexy stuff, but then there's the real work. So we truly appreciate that. Thank you very much, Dr. McTain. - Thank you, Dr. Losheath. And thank you to the entire board, and again, to our entire PWCS community because this is our strategic plan and it represents the voices of every stakeholder group in this county, so thank you. [03:52:30] - Thank you. Again, one round of applause and very good. All right, I think we're gonna quickly go to, we have 1801 Revision of Policy, 401, safety and security, buildings, grounds. [03:52:47] I think this is the plan to put defibrillators. Who am I asking here? Counsel, Dr. McKay, Vern. - Hey, Dr. Lateef. - Yeah, Vern, we're just putting defibrillators everywhere? - Yeah, this, yep, yes, sir. [03:53:04] Well, not everywhere, so let me just qualify. So this is a revision to the policy because the state, through state legislation, is mandated that defibrillators be placed strategically at athletic fields and be within three minute response to a student having some sort of cardiac event. [03:53:26] So this is a suggested revision to the policy. It is the board's first reading. - Excellent, if anyone has any questions, concerns, please get them to Vern or to Dr. McDade's office or to council's office. We will bring this back and vote on it next meeting. [03:53:42] - Thank you. - Thank you, thank you, Vern. 1802, we already voted on. That leaves us with board matters. And last time we started with Justin Wilk, this time we'll start with Lisa Zargarpur as she's chit-chatting over there. Let's go, Ms. Zargarpur, you're up. [03:53:57] - Thank you for those of you who are still here to the bitter end, I appreciate it. I do appreciate all the comment, woo! I think that's PWEA up there, so thanks for coming out. Just love you too. It's late, so I'll just say this. [03:54:12] Thank you all for the engaging in the process of boundaries and all the things, and have a great night. - Ms. William. - Why, thank you, Chairman Lateef. I will start by saying Happy New Year. Specialty program applications for most of them close in February. [03:54:30] Please be sure to participate in whatever events are going on in your community this month. There's MLK will be, I think, January 19th. Their dates are out there. Please participate in all the wonderful things that occur in January. And with that, I will not even use all my time. [03:54:47] Next. - Mr. Blake. - All right, I would just say this. Good evening and happy new year. This is our first school board meeting of the year, our organizational meeting. I just want to thank, begin by thanking all my colleagues, our superintendent, her team, our educators and staff, family, students we serve. [03:55:06] And I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue this work. And then I'll just cut this short. And I will say, I do want to take a moment to recognize the Garfield High School boys basketball team. Right now, we came into 2026 undefeated, so we're currently 14-0, and we just, yeah, last night we just beat Woodbridge at Woodbridge, so I don't know, you know Garfield, that's a big deal. [03:55:34] So, beat 'em very badly too, Mr. Jesse. Congratulations, congratulations to Coach Bell, to all the student athletes for their hard work and discipline, and I'm just really proud of you guys, so we all are proud of you, so just keep up the good work, and have a good night. [03:55:53] - Thank you, Mr. Blake. walk. Well, I'd like to begin by saying I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, family time. My three college kids were home for the holidays and spending time together was really, really, really great. And we may have witnessed way too much stranger things. [03:56:14] Yes, yes, yes. And welcome to 2026. This new year holds the promise of a new start. I do have some wishes for the school division. I wish to see the successful launch of Elevate 2030. I wish to see students thriving and achieving, excited to come to school every day. I wish to see teachers engaged in high-level instruction to focus their students and bring out the best in each child and I wish to see continued commitment to how we allocate resources to best meet the needs of our families and I wish to see the board work collaboratively with each other and the division to make that magic happen in 2026 and beyond. In Lewis Carroll's [03:56:52] classic Alice's adventures in Wonderland which I have read very in a very detailed manner in an advanced college class so I find myself to be quite fond of this book Alice finds herself talking to a Cheshire cat and the dialogue goes something like this that depends Alice says where Alice sorry Alice says where am I going basically I'm paraphrasing and then she says the cat says to her that depends a good deal on where you want to get to said the cat I don't much care where said Alice then it doesn't matter which way you go [03:57:29] said the cat so long as I get somewhere Alice added as an explanation oh you're sure to do that said the cat if you only walk long enough I share that because when I was reflecting on the strategic plan that's what came to my mind the benefit of having a powerful strategic plan that articulates a vision for the school division and every department every school every student is that it outlines an answer to that crucial first question that Alice asks and so which is the question which I put here in my notes would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here I feel like that's what we just heard tonight which [03:58:08] way I to go from here and yes it does depend a good deal on where we want to get to so let's do it together we have the privilege of shaping a bright future for the next generation that's what we're talking about and that begins with what we decide for the next four years. [03:58:28] So thank you to all who are here for kids. Your partnership, trust, and dedication to excellence in education inspired me. And I know that good things are afoot in 2026. - Thank you, Ms. Wall. Ms. Erica Trudenik. [03:58:48] - I'm good to go. - I'm reminded when Alice stormed out of the tea party with the Mad Hatter that she wanted to go home. I yield the remainder of my time. Mr. Jesse. [03:59:07] - You know, first of all, I wanted to thank Mr. Blake for setting an example for how to be the vice chair and all the things that you did. Unfortunately, we're still in a situation, my wife and I, where I'm not available to go to a lot of things at the moment, and I hope that we get there soon. [03:59:30] But again, thank you for the privilege of being the vice chair, and I will try to do as best I can. Thank you, and I hope everybody has a good 2026, the better one than we had before 'cause it's always good to look for the better and I think we can do amazing things and thank you very much. [03:59:53] - Wow, well I'm not gonna be short. So, sorry about all that folks. Welcome to 2026 everyone, I'm excited to be here. I wanna thank Mr. Vice Chair Blake who served, as I pointed out at the beginning of the meeting, very well and I've enjoyed working with him and I'm a better chairman because of the work he's put in this year for me and for this board. [04:00:14] And I look forward, Mr. Jesse, to working with you over this next year as well. And I think this board will be well served by you as well. You know, part of my job as chairman of the school board is to worry about what's next and what's happening and what's coming down the pike. [04:00:31] And I am very worried. There are headwinds that the school division faces and there are tailwinds that the school divisions will benefit from. And the headwinds that I worry about as chair are and that you're gonna learn about over the next few meetings of this school budgeting cycle and those headwinds are very concerning. [04:00:51] The headwinds considered, I'm very concerned about the enrollment drop projections that we continue to hear about that will impact facilities, that will impact us as the largest employer in the region, in the county. And we are looking at, yes, closing of Potomac View Elementary School and moving folks into the new school and that will be a first for Prince William County. [04:01:14] And those worries and those actions that we take have impacts everywhere. And I worry about all of those impacts, good and bad. Economic outlook with potential recession up ahead, it is unclear what state funding will look like and certainly federal funding continues to be, you know, not there for schools and really never has been, but continues to be a decreasing portion of our share and what we need to do. [04:01:42] I am worried about the continued political rhetoric attacking public education and undermining its efforts. I worry about the federal hostility to the efforts we have done in DEI and Prince William County makes no apologies, and you heard from our superintendent this evening, on our efforts to take the strength of our community and the diversity of our community and make that a benefit for everyone. [04:02:08] And our continued work to doing that is gonna be a tailwind actually for the school division, but the continued federal hostility. For example, last week we heard about the White House suing Virginia because our universities have, you know, years ago, and when I was on the Board of Visitors at UVA, we voted to make sure in-state tuition was available for all our DREAMers and our DACA students. [04:02:31] And we don't keep track of how many students we have who are DREAMers or DACA students, but we have considered maybe the most DREAMers and DACA students in the state, here in Prince William County, and that will impact our students directly. That will impact their ability to launch a thriving future. [04:02:48] Tailwinds, so to end on a good note, some of the good things. You just heard a strategic plan that is bold, ambitious, and innovative. That is going to be the strength and the power that we need to generate successful outcomes for this community over the next four years. [04:03:04] We've already become a county that, as you heard from Dr. McDade, one of the most Googled for places to live because of school districts. We're one of the best school divisions to work for across the nation. We're one of the, and we continue to make those efforts as you see in our strategic plan for organizational coherence, a place that has a positive climate and culture, those efforts will continue. [04:03:28] We continue to expand our tax base in the county, commercial tax base that provides and has been a source of strong revenue for the work that we need to do in the schools. While the enrollment drop is a problem, it also provides some positive opportunities, a reduction in overcrowding, our ability to provide universal pre-K and some of the space we've never been able to because we have not had it before and we might be able to right size the workforce accordingly. [04:03:55] In our diversity, our greatest strength is our diversity, being the 10th most diverse county in the country. I am excited to see how that diversity, unapologetically we commit to on a daily basis to make sure we find success for everyone here in our county. [04:04:13] I wanna thank you all and welcome to 2026. It's gonna be a great year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com