Coraggio Consulting Prince William County School Board Public Meeting, Budget, Monday, February 9, 2026 Date: Monday, February 9, 2026 Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia Length: 9m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct_2w5REbjQ 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:03] At this time, the Prince William County School Board will be called to order for our public meeting on the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget, proposed budget. Tonight, we are holding a meeting on the superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. [00:00:21] I would like to remind the school board members to provide questions on the proposed budget directly to the chief financial officer, Shaquille Youssef, who in turn will work with the superintendent staff to develop responses. In addition to tonight's public meeting, there will be a public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget on February 18th, 2026, held prior to the school board meetings scheduled for that evening. [00:00:45] Citizens may sign up to speak during the public hearing between now and noon on Wednesday, February 18th. Additionally, a budget work session and final markup on the proposed fiscal year 27 budget will take place on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 at 6:00 PM here at the Kelly Leadership Building. [00:01:05] We will now move on to citizen comment time for this public meeting. Those citizens who signed up in advance with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they are called to the podium. Please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium or you will be asked to step aside. We ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and then refrain from any clapping, cheering or jeering to avoid disruption of the meeting. [00:01:27] If you do not do so, the board will recess and I'll ask that the room be cleared to restore public order. Tonight we have three citizens signed up to speak. When I call your name, please come to the podium state your name and address for the record. Each speaker will have a total of three minutes to speak and must confine their comments to matters related to the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. [00:01:49] At this time, the first two speakers that I have here are Elizabeth Seipkard and Augustus Seipkard. So we'll take Ms. Elizabeth Seipkard first. - Good evening, Chairman Lateef. [00:02:05] How much time do I have? - Three minutes. - Okay, thank you, sorry. Okay, you have just proposed a 2.4 billion budget. In this budget you celebrate the 160 million wage agreement and nearly 29 million for learning and achievement for all. [00:02:21] Yet my son Augustus, a student in your district, is currently failing his classes because this board has chosen operational convenience over his civil right to language. For three years you have denied him in-person queued language transliterator during every school day, yet manage to find funding for intermittent, after-hours access. [00:02:42] You claim the staffing shortage, yet you find the funds to hire 50 new teacher assistants, 15 behavior specialists, and install vape sensors in every high school. Under ADA Title II, communication must be equally effective. [00:02:57] An iPad with a dead battery and a room where the teacher cannot be heard is not effective. It is discrimination. The cost of a qualified CLT is a drop in your $2.4 billion budget. The cost of compensatory damages and a federal civil rights lawsuit will be much higher. [00:03:17] You claim a staffing shortage, yet the legal burden is on Prince William County Public Schools to actively recruit and build capacity for this essential service. Your current budget demonstrates a systemic failure to invest in a deaf student's right to communication, prioritizing other staff while my son fails. [00:03:39] I am not here to ask for a meeting. I am here to demand that the achievement for all mentioned in your budget finally includes my son. You do not build it because it is easy, but because it is right and appropriate under the law. And it requires awareness. [00:03:54] My son's rights are violated daily because staff do not know the difference between sign language and cued speech. I am here to demand a change in policy, And I am formally submitting a draft regulation to the clerk's office that ensures when a parent selects queued speech, that access is built into the system permanently because the public entity has the burden of providing and growing more qualified queued language transliterators. [00:04:23] It is right and appropriate under the law. You must enforce a regulation that ensures when a parent selects queued speech as their child's communication mode, The district is mandated to hire a certified, cued speech expert immediately, not offer failing virtual band-aids. [00:04:41] Make this a budget priority now to protect the civil rights of all deaf students in this county. My 10-day demand for recruitment logs expires this week. The state and federal government are now watching to see if you choose to follow the law or continue to hide behind a budget you claim is laser-focused on students. [00:05:00] The state VDOE just confirmed to me that my civil rights case has to go directly to the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for a federal investigation. You are just dealing with VDOE anymore. You're dealing with the federal civil rights inquiry into the district's deliberate indifference. [00:05:19] - Thank you. I can't seem to unmute. My button for unmuting the podium doesn't work. [00:05:40] I had this problem the other night, but now it's not. Hello? It did, but now my diocese, it just doesn't happen the other night too. [00:06:05] - Now it's muted. Can we figure out how to speed that up next? Okay. [00:06:21] Augustus Saipkard. - My name is Augustus Saipkard. For three years I have-- - Hold this, why don't you start over? Start the clock again and have him speak into the mic, please. [00:06:38] - Good evening. - Great. - Good evening. My name is Augustus Saipkard. For three years I have been told that virtual access is enough. It is not. Every day I have to lug around heavy technology just to hear my teachers in PE and in hallways, while other teachers and students are moving and learning. [00:07:05] I am struggling with dead batteries, dropped Wi-Fi and screens I cannot see. Continuously staring at a screen is not only ineffective communications, it caused me physical, visual fatigue and headaches. [00:07:25] When I do not have an in-person cued language transliterator, I do not just miss words, I miss my education. I want to be clear, some people think a teenager does not want an adult following them, but what I actually want is my civil rights. [00:07:49] A CLT is not a shadow, they are my access. Having a CLT does not make me stand out. Failing because I cannot understand my teacher makes me stand out. I know what to learn for the rest of my life. [00:08:08] I need clear communication, whether I am using my hearing aids or seeking healing through my faith. I deserve the same access to the world that every other student in this room takes for granted. We are formally submitting a draft regulation tonight that many days change. [00:08:30] It makes three things very clear. One, you cannot override a parent's choice of acute speech modality. Two, you must hire qualified in-person experts immediately, not use failing virtual band-aids. [00:08:51] The burden is on the school district to actively recruit and build capacity. The staffing shortage excuse is no longer valid. please make this a budget priority now my education cannot wait another three years [00:09:12] thank you thank you genesis velez genesis velez okay um doesn't seem like she's here so at this time that concludes citizen comment time there being nothing further to come before this board i now declare the public meeting adjourned ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com