Prince William County School Board Meeting - February 18, 2026

0011.02 approval agenda action. A motion is now ordered in order for the approval of the meeting agenda is amended. Vice chair or >> Mr. Zagur, >> Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended. Mr. Chairman >> and Miss Williams, >> I second. >> Thank you. >> You're okay. >> Second move. Okay. Uh a motion to >> discussion. No discussion. Please vote. Raise your hands. >> The vote is six. Yes. Two not present at vote. Tradenic Latif. Motion passed. >> Okay. Number two, right? >> Motion to enter close session. Action. Move. Moving on to the motion to enter close session. That motion is in order, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Mrs. For. >> Okay, here we go. I move that pursuant to to section >> Oh, yeah. I

002move that pursuant to sections 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia, the Prince William County School Board enter the close session close session for the following reasons. one to discuss with staff the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of any public body pursuant to section uh 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia. Two, to discuss with division, council, and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving staff, students, or other civil litigation involving school division under section 2.2-3711A 7 and 8 of the code of Virginia. And three to discuss the award of p of the award of a public contract to employees exclusive representative which involves the expenditure of public public funds. There's so much noise going on. And the terms or scope

003of such contract where the discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body pursuant to section uh 2.2-3711A 29 of the code of Virginia. Four, to consult with division council regarding specific legal matters pertaining to a publicly held real property in the Aquaan magisterial district and b building inspection code pursuant to sections 2.2-3711A 3 and 8 of the code of Virginia and five to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security of school facilities, the safety person of persons using such facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant to section 2.2. 2-3711A19 of the code of Virginia. >> Is there a second? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Miss Williams,

004>> I second. >> Discussion. >> No discussion. Vote, please. >> Vote is seven yes, one not present at vote Latif. Motion passed. >> The Prince County School Board will now enter close session and return to open session in one hour. Heat. Heat. Good evening. The Prince William County School Board is now returning. Can you hear me? Is it on? It doesn't sound like it's on. Is it on? Prince William County. It's not on. The Prince William County It's not on. Prince William County School Board to call this meeting. Um, we're coming back out of close session. A motion is now in order to approve the meeting agenda as amended. Vice Chair Jesse. >> I move that pursuant to SE section 2.2 3712 of the code of Virginia, the close session of Prince William County School

005Board meeting of February 18th, 2026 be certified by adopting the following resolutions. Now therefore be it resolved that the Prince Williamian County School Board hereby certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. One only business public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies. and two only such public business matter as were identified in the motion convening the closed meetings were heard and discussed or considered by the school board. Do >> I have a second? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Miss Williams, >> a second. >> Any discussion? Please vote. Don't do your hand or >> vote is 8 yes unanimous. Motion passed. >> Okay. Um next up is um approval of appointments and releases. Mr. Jesse, >> I move that the Prince County

006School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in close session. >> Mr. Second, >> Mr. Chairman, >> Miss Williams. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Please vote. >> I voted. >> Vote is eight. Yes, unanimous. Motion passed. Okay. Uh at this point um in this tonight's meeting, we have a public hearing first before the uh board meeting begins. The public hearing is regarding fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. Um and so I read this script here and then we'll have some citizen comment. I declare that a public hearing is now open on the subject of superintendent uh of the superintendent's fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. Any citizen who signed up to speak on the subject may do so at this time. Please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium or you'll

007be 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 of meeting. When I call your name, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Um, for the public hearing this evening, we have one speaker, Blake Edward Hera. I'm going to mix Oh, my name is Blake Cara. My address is on file. I'm going to mix up a little bit. I don't have a prepared prepared speech this time. Uh, so 6.8% increase from last year. Uh, now the board needs to take a good look at their finances. Uh, you essentially just weigh you canled the 14th high school. That's $22 million that you paid with bonds. Uh you're going to have to pay

008interest on those bonds. So you also have the $16 million plot of land. You're going to pay 20 to $40,000 a year to maintain it if you don't manage to repurpose it. Um and then those bonds have to be paid back. So the the bonds probably $500,000 to $1.3 million for you. Now, there was an interest of the Aquan supervisor to repurpose the uh the land uh for to turn it into a data center. Potentially could get lucky with that. Now, with cancelling the 14th high school, that that brings back going back to policy 264, which I mentioned uh last meeting is it needs to be amended. Right now, the only two options the board has is either build a new school for overcrowding or an uh or an initiative by the board. Mr. Wilk

009tried that last year. It failed. So, it's not really the great great best option. If you're not tracking uh with the most probably one of the most controversial uh laws that are out there is the one big beautiful bill. Right now, there is the flat the funding is going to be essentially flatlined. There's going to be no increase little okay little of the increase in title one, title two, title three, IDA, CTE and uh head start which are they'll essentially be flat funded like I said um which according to Dr. Man's budget there's an excessive federal budget which I don't think is being tracked. One of the biggest things is that we've come up in the last few months since December 3rd uh is this board's relationship with the teachers is se severely fractured. Now

010it's great Dr. Mday you want to propose $1,000 increase for those who have a master's degree. That's only $200 increase from last year because the board's relationship is fractured. I would encourage potentially looking at something else potentially a bigger increase in it. maybe something for bachelor students at a higher step bachelor's degrees at a higher step, but that's up to you. The other thing is the human resources department is increasing by $7 million and you're adding uh what is it? Uh 12 additional full-time positions, which is ex excessive because this building has an absurd amount of oversight over the schools. And it's been addressed to the school board previously. I'm not going to get into that. The other biggest thing before I run out of time is with Mr. Dan, Mr. M Mr. Danick since

011you before I run out of time on page 132 of the PDF, there is no coach to be assigned uh no coach assigned for the flag football girls flag football. >> Thank you, Mr. Hara. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. And he is our only speaker this evening. Uh and so at that point, there's no no there being no other citizens who signed up to speak on this subject, I declare the public hearing closed. We will now move on to the pledge of allegiance. Um that will be led by our student representative Bula Sarsa from the CD Hilton High School to lead us in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. >> Okay. Thank you. At this time, uh, we will be doing

012our thriving futures focus. And as everyone knows, this is our opportunity to highlight the 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. We dedicate this time during our meetings to recognizing students, staff members, and schools that have earned an honor or an award at the state or national level. Tonight, the school board is honored to acknowledge the PWCS students who won the awards at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Ortorial Program. Now in its 41st 41st year, the competition is sponsored by the Prince William County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. This year's theme is awakening the dream, breaking barriers in the fight

013for justice and unity. under the guidance of their coaches. Many who of them many of them many of whom are teachers. Students students students prepared speeches early in the school year, refined their delivery and work to reflect Dr. King's legendary oratorical style. Students represented their school in a regional competition and presented their speeches to a panel of judges in advance of the program. Community and family members attended the program and a panel of judges selected the winning orators. I invite Miss Lorie Williams of the Woodbridge District to introduce our first honore. Miss Williams. >> Thank you, Dr. Latif. Uh this evening we are proud to recognize Danielle Odum, a second seventh grader, excuse me, from Ripon Middle School earning for earning the best before judges award. Danielle is joined tonight by her language arts teacher,

014Miss Lee Rawlings. Danielle, I invite you to share a few words about your significant award. First, I'd like to thank you, the school board, for giving me the opportunity to come before you tonight. It is an honor and for that I am truly grateful. I would like to give a thanks to my parents for all the encouragement and the sacrifice that they made for this moment. I would I would like to thank you, Miss Rawlings, for all the support because without you, I would have never discovered my hidden talent for speaking. I'd like to give a very special thank you to my principal, Miss Donahghue, the whole of Prince William County, and the alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for creating the MLK ortorial competition. Thank you all again and have a blessed week.

015>> Thank Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Danielle. And congratulations to all of you, especially those who spent all those hard hours with you, Danielle, after school getting your prepared for the speech. And again, thank you to Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated uh alumni chapter for hosting this activity to inspire and remind us what Black History is all about. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Williams. And now on to Miss Lisa Zaraport of the Kohl's District who will introduce our next honores. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tonight, the Kohl's district will recognize two outstanding students. First, I congratulate Kabim Ahmed, a seventh grade student from Saunders Middle School for winning the judges choice award. Kaveim is supported tonight by Saunders Middle School principal Jeremy Bird. Kave, would you like to share a few words about

016this honor? >> Hello. I just want to say thank you to my amazing principal, my coaches, and my wonderful parents for making it to make for making me a better person. Also, I want to say thank you to Martin Luther King Jr. because of his words, it opened many doors to my life. Also, I just want to say this whole entire award is not about medals and certificates. It's about his memory. It's about preserving his memory for generations to come. This is all I want to say. Thank you. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Uh it is also my privilege to congratulate our very own Bula Sarsa, a senior from CD Hilton High School and school board student representative for winning not one but two awards at the MLK oratory competition. The uh best before audience award

017and the best before judges award. Bula is supported this evening by Hilton High School principal Cassandra Crawford. Um, Bula, you are forward. Could you please share a few words about your uh your awards and your experience? >> Absolutely. I just like to open by saying thank you very much to everyone who's believed in me, everyone who's given me a chance. I am a senior now in high school, which is kind of crazy to believe, but you know, throughout my 12 year educational journey, I could not like see myself doing something like what I did last month. So, you know, anyone who's ever told me, "Bula, you can do it." Anyone who's really anyone who's given me that push, you know, including my principal, Miss Crawford, including my coach, Mr. Murphy, including all of you on

018the school board, I thank you. I'm just really thankful. Oh, and thank you to my parents. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Bula. Um, next up we have Mr. Tracy Blake of the Navskco District. Thank you, Dr. Latif. This evening, we are proud to recognize Awa Zendin Zindin, a senior from Garfield High School for earning the judges the judges choice award. Garfield High School principal Matthew Mat is here this evening in support of our judges choice award winner. Ara Ara, would you please share a few words about this honor? >> I'd like to first say thank you to my parents, of course, and my older brother. They've been my personal shifers, uh, my drivers, and they've been my biggest supporters throughout this entire process. I'd also like to thank my sponsor, Mr. Maruso. He was the

019one that kind of dragged me into it. I was busy. I didn't think I'd have time for the MLK rhetorical, and he was like, I know you can do it. Our way, just try it. And it was completely worth it. Uh, I would like to special thank you to they will get it. Uh, a friend of mine, Omar, his mom. She's amazing. She was incredibly supportive. Uh, and I honestly thank you to the panel. Thank you to Prince William because it was incredibly heartwarming to sit in the crowd to watch those speeches be performed and to understand that the youth is really trying even if in heart-wrenching times even after all of these individuals and their sacrifices and the revolutionary change that they have caused. It's so beautiful to see it continue and I'm so

020happy and I'm I'm grateful to express that gratitude to be a part of it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. I would like to ask all those involved in supporting our honores this evening, including family members, uh, teachers and friends who attend this evening to stand in recognition of their support for these young scholars. Wonderful. Wonderful. Before taking a few pictures, Superintendent Dr. McDave would like to share a few words. Dr. McDade. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Latif uh to each of our honores here tonight. I had um the honor to sit and listen to each of your speeches. You were exceptional. Just truly phenomenal. Your voice, your courage, and your conviction. Not only honored Dr. King's legacy, it inspired all of us. So, congratulations on a job well done. And we

021are PWCS proud. >> Thank you, Dr. McDade. Yes, another round of applause. At this time, I'd like to request our honores to come forward with a photo with the school board and receive a small token of our appreciation. >> That one especially We just need a little more of Congratulations. >> Okay. All right, thank you everyone for that. Um, that was lovely. At this time, we are now going to move on to the adoption of the consent agenda. That will be 12.01. Vice Chair Jesse. >> I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended. >> Do I have a second, >> Mr. Chairman? >> Miss Williams. >> A second. >> Any discussion? Please vote. vote is seven yes, one not present at vote wall. Motion passed. >>

022Okay, great. Moving on next to the acknowledgements and recognitions. This is on for action. Vice Chair Jesse. >> I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the acknowledgement and recognitions as recommended. >> Do I have a second? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Miss Williams, >> second. >> Any discussion? >> Please vote. vote is seven. Yes, one abstained. Tradenic motion passed. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Uh moving on to citizen comment time. Um for those citizens who signed up in advance with the clerk, they may address the school board this evening when they are called to the podium. The citizen comment period for regular schoolboard meetings is 1 hour and citizens may speak on agenda items or other topics germanine to the operations and policies of Prince William County Schools. Please use proper decorum and manners

023while at the podium or you will 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 of the meeting. 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 do have 20 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, and then you may speak. I'll call the first five up so you kind of know the order we're going, and you can grab a seat up front if you so choose. If not, you can just come up when it's your turn. Claire Gillespie, Jessica Rodriguez Snellings, Parker Halman, Meg

024Pomememoroy, and Anders Parker. Claire Gillespie. Good evening. Thank you, Dr. Latif, members of the board, and Dr. McDade. My name is Claire Gillespie, and I'm a theater teacher at Kan High School. On January 13th, the theater teachers in the district received communication from Dr. Bolino, the supervisor for the arts, informing us of the new memorandum for theatrical construction of temporary stages, stating that platforms over 16 1/2 in more than 10 by 12 ft or 120 square ft and have 10 or more people on it were would require permitting from Prince William County permitting office and a 4 to6 month advance process. In addition, the stages would need to be constructed by a licensed contractor. Immediately following the memo, the new strategic plan was proposed which includes a detailed section on growing high-quality theater programs with

025appropriate facilities, related resources, and theater courses. It additionally states that we, your theater educators, will be able to combine the students artistic passion with CTE competencies, for example, construction of professional theater. It concludes with a bolded section outlining the ambitious goal of increasing student participation in arts related student showcases, competitions, and public performances by 3% annually. These two pieces of literature run in direct contradiction to each other. And we theater teachers from across the county come to you this evening to highlight how with the limitations this memo presents, we will not be able to adequately achieve the goals outlined by the strategic plan. We, the licensed theater teachers of this county, stand united in voice, and tonight you will hear from many of us and our students, both past and present. As we go through

026our presentation, we will not only reference examples and materials in the binder that is placed before you. We will also focus on the juxtaposition between the new restrictions and the strategic plan with the conclusion and hope that you will appeal on our behalf to the county board of supervisors to change this curriculum design and student experience altering mandate. We know that safety is the priority and heart of this new memorandum. Safety is also at the priority and heart of every moment in our classrooms. We believe, however, that this memorandum has been made without considering national workplace theatrical standards, the guidance of the surrounding districts with which we are called to compete, and the expertise of your hired, licensed, and educated professionals. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next up, Jessica Rodriguez Snellings. >> Good evening,

027Dr. Latif, members of the board, and Dr. McDade. My name is Jessica Rodriguez Snellings, and I am the theater teacher at Gainesville High School. I'm here along with my fellow theater educators to ask that you advocate on our behalf to the county board of supervisors regarding the new memorandum regulating temporary stages and platforms for theater. In place of county permitting, we are asking the board to advocate for an internal review process for theater platforms and for the creation of a dedicated theater position within the fine arts office to oversee theater across the county. Platforms are not a decorative extra. They are essential to theater performance. Without levels, performances occur on a single flat plane, making it difficult for audiences to follow the story or identify key moments. Scenic designers rely on platforms, stairs, ramps, and

028other elevated surfaces to create clarity and dynamic staging. Even this room demonstrates how levels help guide focus and shape how a space is used. Under the new memorandum, there is a severe financial restriction on our ability to use these foundational tools. The required county permit costs $1,500. If changes are needed, there is a 20 $275 fee for resubmitt and an additional fee equal to 2% of the project's value. After that, schools must pay for an outside engineer or construction company to build the structure, an expense that can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Pre-fabricated platforms are also expensive, costing several thousand dollars. Given the current infrastructure for theater programs in Prince William County, these new costs make platforms unattainable for many schools. Limiting the educational and artistic opportunities that our students deserve. Please consider

029advocating on our behalf for a more cost-effective means of enforcing safety standard standards and temporary stages and platforms. Thank you for your time and for supporting theater in our schools. Thank you. Next, Parker Hullman. >> Good evening. I thought I was going a little later, so imagine I really brought this all home. Um, members of the board, Dr. Latif and Dr. McDade, you will hear from theater teachers from across Prince William County who are passionate about serving our students with excellence, safety, and integrity. We ask for your help in opening communication with the county board of supervisors on our behalf because Prince William County is now being held to standards that are far more restrictive than those of surrounding counties and even surrounding states that follow established theater safety manuals, OSHA guidelines, and national education

030theater standards. None require this level of permitting for standard theatrical performances in K12 productions. And because they don't, their students gain the full experience of building, designing, and performing on industry standard sets. Experiences that our students will now lose. If this regulation remains as written, our county will fall out of alignment with regional norms and workplace expectations. Technical theater is a CTE aligned discipline. Our students learn carpentry, rigging, drafting, and safety. All skills that transfer directly into construction, engineering, and architecture, as well as the entertainment industry. These are real careers with real pipelines. But you cannot ask us to prepare students for professional theatrical work while capping our stages at literally 16 in off the ground. We cannot teach industry standard construction when the policy prevents industry standard practice. We believe strongly in safety. We

031also believe in the expertise of the trained certified educators that you have hired. Educators who have safely supervised tens of thousands of build hours across decades of their careers. We are not asking to eliminate oversight or ignore risk, but we are asking for reasonable, educationally sound expectations consistent with other counties. To meet the strategic plans goals of expanding highquality theater programs, increasing student performances, and developing workplace ready skills, we must have policies that allow us to do our jobs. Tonight, we advocate to speak on our behalf with the county board of supervisors to put into writing a new mandate so that our students can continue to learn, build, and create at the level that they deserve. Thank you, >> Meg Pomeroy. Meg Pomemeroy. Okay. Anders Parker. Hello. Good evening. I am the student president of

032drama club at Woodbridge Senior High School and have been a scenic designer on the past six mainstage productions at Woodbridge. Before this recent memorandum, my peers and I have had the one-of-a-kind opportunity to construct wonderful sets and perform on industry standard stages in high school. This is why it breaks my heart to see that the students in this county are now being robbed of this opportunity that I was fortunate enough to have. As the memorandum stands, it has a nearly identical effect on high school theater companies as the one that a strict ban on sets above the height of 16 1/2 in would have. This is for two primary reasons. Firstly, that the permitting costs required are simply not feasible in the budget of most high school theater departments. Secondly, that the permitting process takes

033months when many theater departments have only a small number of weeks to build a set. There is an element of risk in many school sanctioned activities and we trust educators with the safety of students who partake in these activities. We trust coaches when students play on a sports team. We trust chemistry teachers when students handle potentially dangerous chemicals in a lab. Why are we unwilling to trust our theater educators, all of whom are trained in accordance with OSHA safety and national theater safety, and who all have have years of learned theatrical experience under their belts, I would not have given up the experience that I've had in set construction and performing on this stage on the stage at Woodbridge Senior High School for anything. And I think it is a large part of what has

034prepared me for my future and I think it would be a tragedy to take that away from students. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next five. Shannon Marie Crown, Stephen Shettler, Jared Pew, Erina Bolino, Reena Stap, Shannon Marie Crown. Hi, good evening. I'm Shannon Crown. I am a theater mom. My son's teacher, Parker Halman, has told you the nuts and the bolts of a new memorandum that requires permitting for school theater sets. As a homeowner, I know how timeconsuming, expensive, and unexpeditious this process can be. It is unreasonable to saddle our teachers with this. Theater and arts matter. They aren't just gravy. They can be the main course for many students. The entertainment world is a multi-billion dollar industry with many career paths. Designers, managers, and technicians in the industry are the backbone

035of every event in our society. Not only do they work in live theater and the screen, but also for political rallies, sporting events, concerts, radio programs, Olympic games, and music parks, etc. Students still reap benefits from being involved in theater even if they choose another career path. They develop confidence, public speaking skills, and the ability to think on their feet, which are critical for academic and future professional success. They learn teamwork, time management, and the value of contributing to a larger goal, whether on stage or behind the scenes. Theater students consistently score high on the SAT because parit participation improves reading comprehension, cognitive development, and discipline. I say, let's give these students all of the advantages and not stifle them with permits and restrictions. Theater teachers are professionals who know how to design, create, and

036build safe sets. Our county shouldn't want let one bad teacher ruin the theater learning dynamic for all of our children. Thank you. >> Um Stephen Shhatler. >> Good evening Dr. Latif, members of the board, Dr. McDade. My name is Steven Chetler. I am the theater arts teacher at Patriot High School. I'm also the father of a graduating theater student at Kan High School. Technical theater classes are not just arts electives, but are effective incubators for student growth and workforce and independent life preparedness. According to the Educational Theater Association's 2024 state of theater education report, theater classes, including technical theater, are present in 69% of US high schools, demonstrating widespread appreciation of their value in providing students opportunities to co cultivate both creative and technical skills. Technical theater uniquely blends technology, engineering, art, and math. Students

037learn lighting design, audio engineering, carpentry, costumeuming, scenic art, stage management, skills directly tied not only to applied arts but also to STEM and career pathways. The arts education partnership theater counts research highlights that technical theater explicitly teaches applied math, physics, problem solving, and safe tool operation while fostering teamwork and communication competencies that serve students well. whatever their future goals may be. When we invest in technical theater classes, we invest in a future workforce that is innovative, adaptable, and prepared to excel. These experiences contribute to the advancement of PWCS's profile of a graduate, which aims to prepare students to be critical thinkers, innovators, resilient individuals, and global collaborators. When students engage with theater through PWCS technical and design classes, they develop tool safety and construction skills that are standard in university and professional theaters. You may

038see these standards at TABD D in the binders that have been provided to you. PWCS students that graduate without practice in those standard techniques will be at a disadvantage when compared with their peers from other districts and unready for full participation in professional and university theater programs. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um Jared Pew. Good evening Dr. Latif members of the board and and Dr. McDade. My name is Jared Pew. I am a theater teacher at Osman Park High School here in Prince William County Schools. And thank you for the opportunity for giving me to speak tonight. I'm here to address the recent memorandum issued to theater teachers that places significant restrictions on set construction within our programs. While I fully support Prince William County's commitment to student safety, these restrictions unintentionally put our students

039at significant competitive disadvantage. one that contradicts with the goals outlined in the Prince William County strategic plan. The Prince William County strategic plan emphasizes excellence, innovation, and ensuring our students can compete and thrive beyond our classrooms. Until now, our theater programs have been able to do exactly that. We have consistently produced work that stands alongside what has been created in Lowden County, Fairfax County, and beyond. And speaking of Fairfax County and Lowden County, whose districts provide guidance to teachers and mandates on how to build their platforms, railings, and other safety measures that are are standardized and go along with the national standards. You can see those regulations in example A and B in your binder provided for you. Each area mentioning platforms is also highlighted and tab for your ease. But the new restrictions in

040this memorandum change that. While our neighboring districts continue building multi-level, fully realized scenic designs, these new limitations would prevent us from doing just the same. And the results, the Prince William County students who have previously been competitive will now struggle to match in productions uh match the standards that other productions are doing and directly influence in scoring, recognition at and awards at major competitions. Our students compete in several highly regarded events where scenic design is not an afterthought. It is scored in an essential component. These being things like the Cappies and the Virginia Theater Festival and VHSL 1A competitions. As a Cappy's mentor myself, I have the honor of seeing shows throughout the region and I can confidently say that every production that I've seen earned significant recognition has featured a multi-story or structurally complex

041set. This is not a luxury. It is the standard by which our students work is being judged. If we limit our ability to build safe, well- constructed, educationally meaningful sets, we effectively limit our students ability to learn the realworld industry standard skills that these competitions reward. We also limit their opportunity to represent Prince William County schools with excellence. Theater teachers are not asking for a boundless creative freedom. We're asking for clear, collaboratively developed, safety centered guidelines with input of teachers, fine arts leadership, and technical theater professionals. Prince William County has incredibly talented young artists, and let's ensure that our policies governing our programs empower them rather than hold them back. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Erina. Erina Bolino. >> Good evening, Dr. Latif, members of the board, Dr. McDade. My name is Arina

042Bolino. I am the director of theater arts for Battlefield High School. Thank you for hearing us out today. I come before you this evening not just in solidarity with the rest of the theatrical educators, but also with student testimony. For as you know, Prince William County Schools, we graduate students every year to a high level and to higher level institutions nationally in accordance with the strategic plan. Each leave our halls with invaluable experience and knowledge for their career and college paths. Those who graduate and choose theater as a path are no less prepared. When asked to write a testimony, we asked many students and they replied and I would like to share some of these testimonies with you all this evening. One student on their experience in technical theater wrote, "I learned how to not

043only handle tools, but how to work both quickly and safely, skills that have proven invaluable in my short tenure at Virginia Commonwealth University. Thus far, not only did I learn the basics, I was able to actively work on the sets for shows I was and was not in. And I can tell you as a graduate of the performing arts program at Virginia Commonwealth University, in order to audition, in order to actually apply, you must have a great deal of experience within that art. This advanced level of education helped stabilize my future by advancing my resume and preparing me for the realworld opportunities. Still another student also majoring in performance wrote this program meaning the technical theater program within their county is highly important to all who pass through it. The knowledge gained is not only

044useful, it is required if pursuing the arts in college or through a simul skilled program of study. Our graduates can be found in the hallways of Giuliard. This is our Prince William County School graduates I'm speaking of. They can be found in the halls of Giuliard, NYU, backstage on Broadway, and my personal favorite when I run into graduates that my personal graduates who are now educators in our Prince William County schools. These students are successful because of the dedicated and professional level of curriculum that they receive within our schools. It is our belief and those of our graduates that stunting their growth will have damaging consequences to our current and future students alike. They will not be prepared for the rigor that comes from a higher institution. Thank you, >> Reena Stap. Hello, I'm Reena

045Stap. Um, my name and uh, sorry, my address is on file with the clerk. It's been a minute since I've been here. Sorry, I'm rusty. Um, good evening, Dr. McDeague, Dr. Latif, and members of the school board. Um, I'm here to talk about something a little different. I'm not from the theater department. Sorry. I do love the theater, so yay, go theater. Um, I'm here to talk about civic engagement. Um, according to Virginia law, the code of Virginia 22.1-254 about attendance, high school and middle school students shall be permitted one school dayong absence per school year for anyone who is to engage in a civic event that includes lobbying legislators engaging in protests and other civic events without penalty. School boards may permit additional excused absences or require that students provide advanced notice. So, let's

046look at what PWCS says for regulation 724-1, section 3 of definitions D of excused absences. Let's go to subsection 9 about civic events. Civic events. Middle and high school students shall be excused for one school day for the purpose of engaging in a civic event. Students should provide advanced notice of the intended absence when possible. I have some friends whose children are in middle school and high school and are planning on participating in the walk out on February 20th which is coming up this week. There was Instagram posts about it. There have been chats about it. In said pro in said uh posts they talk about how teachers and schools have already been informed. So that is giving the advanced notice. I have a friend whose school sent them an email saying that students would

047not be able to leave the building or they would be subject to consequence. And that goes against what our regulations say. If they should stay on school property, that should not be a problem because they are participating in a civil protest that has already been arranged and is completely uh legal in the code of Virginia and in RPWCS. As it is Black History Month, um it is the perfect time for students to engage in their civil rights in nonviolent peaceful protests or civil disobedience. Um especially with the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson recently, I think it's a great time for everyone to think about doing good things, doing some civil disobedience, and stepping out for your rights against racism. Thank you very much for your time. Um the next five Sarah Kuster, Kaden Andrew, Elizabeth

048Cypard, Augustus Cypard, Owen Miner Meyer. Owen Meyer. So Sarah Kuster up next. >> Good evening. My name is Sarah Kuster and I'm a senior at Kan High School. Only one PWCS high school was nominated for the Cappy Awards this past 2024 to 2025 season. That winning school was Kan High School. But if we want to rise as a united front into this competition that is theater, then we need flexibility to build and grow, not create barricades that prevent students from developing the construction tech skills they will need post high school. In the upcoming Prince William County School Strategic Plan, Elevate 2030, PWCS schools received a call to action to create 3% more opportunities for competitions and school performances over the next four years. of all the competitions that the one that has the most notoriety

049is the Cappies. The Cappies is a writing and awards program that trains high school theater and journalism students to be expert writers, critical thinkers, and leaders across the DMV. The Cappies program feeds a lot of students with passion for theater and drives them to create art at a larger scale. Within the DMV area, theater is an extremely competitive world. Of the 12 schools nominated under the following categories: best musical overall, best set overall, and best play overall, each school set exceeded the limitations outlined in the PWCS memorandum, which you can find in example C in the binder. It's our job as students to construct a set that offers theatricality and staging options. So, we stand apart from the rest of the counties. But with these guidelines, we aren't even given the opportunity to develop shows

050at the same scale. The set is the hook in the story. It's the first thing an audience member notices as they take their seats before the show begins. Of course, a story can be told without a hook, but in its absence, the story loses the fire that initially drew you in. Theater is about using space and creating within the space you are given. As a theater teacher I once had said, "Theater is liquid. If we're given a small cup, we can only film the volume within the container we are given." School simplifying sets even places tighter guidelines on performers. Theaterat's about space and this is an important rule that young actors need to learn and will carry with them throughout the entire of their theater career. Restrictions um restrictions limit creativity and real world opportunities

051for students to put themselves out there. That is why we need to ensure every opportunity is protected without limitations, especially when it involves such an important aspect of theater. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kaden Andrew. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak today. My name is Kaden Andrew and I will be speaking on the recently issued technical theater safety memorandum. Commit to inclusive practices and equity with an expectation of excellence from every student and employee every day. This statement was approved as part of Dr. McDade's P2CS elevate 2030 strategic plan. So, you can imagine my surprise. man's Prince William County risk management passed the new technical theater and theater memorandum requirements that go directly against the goals our school board is trying to achieve. My whole life has been shaped by

052theater in this county. I took my very first acting and technical theater classes here and will be pursuing this in college with the skills I have obtained through my education. The new technical theater memorandum requires schools to undergo a permit process to build any functioning set but takes months to acquire and can cost over $2,000. Additionally, any item that will need to be purchased for the set must be made pre-fabricated by an established manufacturer, costing schools thousands of dollars and limiting students opportunities to develop creative and technical skills through designing and constructing sets, which are espe um which are essential aspects to theater education. Without these experiences, students miss out on valuable lessons in collaboration, problem solving, and artistic expression that come from bringing a show from creative concept to life. Not only does this

053hurt our school's wallet, but the education of students like myself involved in technical theater classes who were promised hands-on learning through set design and construction. I've gotten to learn valuable life skills, mathematics, problem solving, and team building, working on set instruction, many lessons I would not have learned in a traditional classroom setting. By limiting our creativity, we also limit the education and college readiness of our students. The lessons learned from the collaboration of theater are essential to becoming problem solvers and change makers within our community. So now I ask, does limiting the accessibility of the arts to young learners truly align with your values of inclusive practices? Thank you and have a good night. >> Elizabeth Cypard, >> good evening. Last week, I spoke to you about your $2.4 billion budget. Since then, your FOIA

054office has officially admitted in writing that records of recruitment efforts for an in-person cued language transliterator since 2021 could not be found or do not exist. For years, you have told the public there is a staffing shortage. Your own records now prove that you have not even been looking. This is not a shortage. This is deliberate indifference. This week, I attempted to schedule the mandatory resolution session for our due process hearing. I requested a simple, reasonable accommodation, two in-person CLTs, so that my son, the primary stakeholder, could actually participate. As of the close of business today, the district has failed to confirm this basic civil right, refusing by refusing to provide a way for my son to communicate in his own legal meeting. You are blocking the resolution process. I received a motion to dismiss

055my case this morning. The district's council claims that because my son is a 504 student, he is not entitled to accommodations under the ADA. This is a deliberate misinterpretation of the law. You cannot ignore civil rights because it is convenient for the budget. We are not fighting a historical issue from two years ago. We are fighting a current and ongoing denial. Every day, Augustus sits without an effective CLT. You are accumulating more debt and causing more harm. I have I've heard the rumors that parents in this county never get due process or that there are no hearing officers. Let me be clear. Virginia law requires the district to contact the Supreme Court of Virginia for a hearing officer within five business days of a written waiver. If you will not provide an in-person cued language

056transliterator team for a meeting, we are skipping the meeting and going straight to a hearing officer. This kit and my shirt have represented for years the professional in-person standard my son is legally owed. The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is now reviewing this case because operational convenience is not a legal defense for denying a child's civil right to language. This is our ninth federal report on the issue and the pattern of indifference must end. Stop the excuses and start the recruitment. My son's education cannot wait for you to finally start looking for the people who are supposed to help him here. >> Thank you, >> Augustus Cypard. Can you hear me? Good evening. My name is Augustus card. Last week I told you that key language trans literator is my access, not

057a shadow. Since then, I found out the district has no records of even trying to find me a team for the last three years. While you sit here debating a 2.4 billion budget, I am sitting in class with dead batteries and a screen I cannot see because you did not look for a CLT. I am the one who must work twice as hard just to get half the information. Last Friday, I sat in a class where I could not follow a word of an instruction because of the noise and the dis distance of the iPad. I am not a budget aligned item. I am a student you are leaving behind. I am asking you again, make my civil rights a priority in this budget. My education cannot wait for you to start looking for the

058people who are supposed to help me here. The Department of Justice now has my name and my story. Do not leave me behind again. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Owen Meyer. Good evening, Chairman Latif, members of the school board, and Superintendent Dr. McDade. I'm Owen Meyer of the Aquan District. I'm a proud graduate of Woodbridge Senior High School and just as proud to be graduating from Northern Virginia Community College this spring. I'm here today to get your attention and support for a big student-led community project called Communities for Youth. Last September, I noticed a problem. Students don't have anywhere to socialize with others after school. The most common activities, hang out at Taco Bell, sit in the parking lot. We can do better than that. So, I got to work. I delivered a public

059comment to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors about the need for teens to have safe places to socialize and build community. These places are essential for connections in an increasingly online world. My comment sparked something I haven't been able to let go of yet. Several other college and high school students have joined with me to make communities for youth a reality. With the help and support of Aacoin District Supervisor Kenny Bod, we landed on one big idea, a free outdoor event at the Chin Center this spring. Here's what we're planning. Live bands featuring talent from local high schools, local food trucks from our community, clubs and organizations with booths from high schools, activities and games, and all more just for free. Our goal is simple. brings students together to build real community. At our

060event, we want to advertise recreation centers as some as places for community. We want to direct teens to programs that the county already has to offer them. We want to show students that the local government can make events like this happen for them. Additionally, we have the support of the parks and recck department already on our side. We're in collaboration with student leadership at Woodbridge Senior High School as well as Kan High School. We're gaining momentum quickly. We still want to expand. So, I'm here to ask for your support in two ways. First, help us spread the word to students and families. Second, consider how the school division can partner and collaborate with us to make these free student-led community events regular at recreation centers all across the county. Please check out our Instagram page,

061communities_4 youth, and join our mission to make Prince William County a place where students are encouraged to build community and have safe fun. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up the last five will be uh Maim Quaram, Naima Maloney, Hugh Donnelly, Metheru Dio, and Ha Ansari. Um Maim Quarim. Good evening, Prince William County School Board members. My name is Mame Quarm and I am a senior at Ptoic Senior High School and a member of Y Street. I have I began my Y Street journey two years ago and then I joined the leadership team at the beginning of this school year. It truly is an honor to be a part of such an impactful organization that empowers the youth across the whole of Virginia to advocate for change in public health issues. Through Y Street, our

062members and others in our community are able to learn more about public health issues such as tobacco prevention through our share the air campaign as well as nutrition and obesity prevention through our hydration campaign, Rev Your Bev. Last year year, one of our Y Street leaders had the opportunity to sit down with members from our school nutrition department to discuss how we could work together to further promote health and student success by increasing the access availability availability and promotion of drinking water with the Revier Bev campaign. When I think about Revier Bev, I think about making intentional choices that truly impact our health. As a lacrosse player, I've learned how important it is to feel my body in a way that supports my performance, my focus, and my overall well-being. What we drink plays a

063big role in that. The more I've learned about the importance of hydration, the more I've learned how closely they're connected to energy levels, concentration in class, and long-term health. Revier Bev has personally made me more aware of habits I form every day. It also allowed me to see how powerful students leadership can be. Across Virginia, students are having conversations in their schools and communities about leader about healthier options and encouraging one another to think more about what we consume. I care deeply about serving my community and I believe that when young people are educated and supported, we create such an impact that motivates future generations to also make the world a better place. It makes me proud to be standing here in front of you today. I want to thank school nutrition for hearing our

064voice and agreeing to make changes to the wellness policy regulation to expand the definition of water access. And I want to thank the school board this evening for their time and attention to student wellness. Partnering with Prince William County will be joining 37 other school divisions as a rev partner and impacting over 390,000 students across the Commonwealth. Because of your support, we can reach more students, promote healthier envir environments in our communities, and continue building a culture where students feel empowered to take charge of their health and their future. Thank you. >> Thank you. Naima Maloney. >> Good evening, Prince William County School Board. My name is Na Maloney and I'm a junior at PTOIC Senior High School. I have been involved in Y Street for two years and I've happily spent both of these

065years on the Y Street leadership team. I would like to provide some insight to help you all better understand our movement. So what is Y Street? Y Street is Virginia's largest youthled movement focused on youth advocacy for public health issues. Our main focus is to raise awareness about tobacco and obesity prevention. We do this through two major campaigns, Share the Air and Rev Your Bev, which Mame just discussed. By attending community events, educating our peers, and speaking up for voluntary policies, youth involved in YSG are able to take charge of creating change in their communities. I personally believe that a healthier environment makes a big difference when it comes to promoting student success and I feel proud to be able to play a role in reaching my peers. It is one thing to hear it

066from a doll, but when it's a conversation among fellow peers in the community, it makes a big difference. That is why Y she members work to positively influence and inform our peers so that they can make healthier choices. Among our members, the leadership team stands out as a group of dedicated innovative leaders committed to making positive change. As the members of the Y Street leadership team, we participate in highlevel community engagement opportunities where we communicate directly with key decision makers such as yourselves. I want to once again echo my May's gratitude and say thank you for prioritizing student wellness. I also want to thank Miss Andrea Early for meeting with our group and agreeing to partner with us. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Hugh Donnelly. Good evening, members of the board. My

067name is Hugh Donnelly and my uh address is on file. First, I want to express uh our gratitude to Mr. Blake for uh his thoughtful response to our group's emails. His professionalism in addressing our concerns truly meant a lot to our group. However, I have s significant concerns regarding the planned student walkout at high schools across our county. As someone with a history degree, I absolutely respect and even admire students desires to express their first amendment civic engagement rights. I think it is vital, but doing it so during instructional time is not appropriate time or place. When students leave class, even if they remain on school property, the educational process is disrupted. Teachers must halt their lessons and staffs are redirected to monitor students. This sets a troubling precedent that in missing class for political

068expression is acceptable which undermines the primary purpose of schools. It's not without precedent. The Supreme Court ruling in Tinker versus De Moines in 1969 emphasized that student speech is protected, but it loses that protection when it materially disrupts school operations. In subsequent cases, uh uh in subsequent cases, Sheney versus Northeast Independent Schools in 72 and Dodd and Rambus in 2007 have consistently uphold this ruling. I am also concerned about the idea of school staff supervising these demonstrations. This isn't neutrality, it's facilitation. When educators and administrators are tasked with managing political events with a specific political message, using public resources to legitimize this event during school hours, I think is inappropriate on policy. Our policies are clear in Prince William County regulations 724-1 and the code of behavior allows absences only for specific reasons such as

069defined civic engagement days. There is no provision for walkouts during class and treating this protest differently creates a viewpointbased expression contraditioning our commitment to neutrality. The school is not forced to promote these walkouts. attendance enforcement and clear administrative directives uh are already in place. Choosing not to use them is a conscious decision. Finally, allowing students to step out of class for political reasons sends a a misleading message that such actions are permissible and without consequences. This is not supported by our policy or law. I respectfully urge the board to address these concerns and issue a clear communication correction and misinformation circulating among students. Let's affirm the support for civic expression and maintaining neutral focus and a disruptive freak. >> Next up, Methiro Dophiru. >> Metaru Well, start. Say it again. >> Huh? >> Say your

070name again. >> Metaru. Metro, sorry. You're >> good. All right. Good evening. My name is Metro DOP and I am currently a senior at Woodward Senior High School. Today, I am asking the school for the school board's help with the recent theater set restrictions issued by risk management. At my high school, student involvement and plays plays a crucial role when it comes to technical design aspects of our productions. With the help of our director, the set design and construction committee are tasked with creating the artistic vision behind the show and students devote hours of their time to make sure that the vision comes to life on stage. So with the requested permits for theater departments and limited and limits issued on platform composition, it denies our students creative liberty and shrinks high school theater as

071a whole. Since my time at Woodbridge, I have performed in all of our productions, ranging from Shakespearean classics to golden age musicals. And performing on a quality set that me and my peers created not only heightens my performance, but prepares me for my future within the arts. I humbly ask the school board to be our platform for the arts and advocate on our behalf through the implementation of self-permit self-permitting and the creation of an official policy that works with theater teachers to set standards that are applicable from middle school all the way to Broadway. We as a county can support the growth and furtherance of the arts within our schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Hannah and Sari. >> All right, before I get going with my prepared remarks, and I did actually prepare

072remarks. I wrote them down this time, too, and I typed them up. I know you're shocked, right? Um, I just want to say Ramadan Mubarak to everybody who's celebrating. The first fast is always easiest because you're at full strength. Talk to me again in a week and I'll be like, "What day is it? Who is here?" Um, so thank you for allowing me to speak at the schoolboard meeting again. Always a pleasure. Super Nintendo McDade. I I capitalize Super Nintendo in my speech, just so you know. My address was on file. I actually have to say it because I wrote it down. So, I was doom scrolling on Twitter as one does, and I came across this video, which made me pause for a second, and I was like, wait. And then this student was

073advocating. I didn't even know that there was a seal on the front of this thing. I don't know if you guys can see it. You can't see it. We can't see it here and here. But, um, the student then said Gainesville Middle School. I thought, oh my god, we've gone viral, y'all, but for not a very good reason. You should have seen the comments. I will spare you the details. But anyway, I wanted to continue my uh discussion about the Black History Month and I wanted to incorporate that and the school board's response, no offense, please don't pillery me. Um so uh while I was trying to be a well-rounded person, insert your favorite fat jokes here. I've assigned myself quite a bit of reading. So I was researching Zionism and would start in the

074US government and uh I was pointed to this book which is Woodro Wilson's biography. Uh spoiler alert, there was no overt references in Zionism, 750 pages. I did not find what I was looking for, but what I did find was a whole heap of racism. I know that's shocking, right? Um, and this is the one concession I'm going to give for Mr. Wilson. He was born before the Civil War, so he knows he mean he grew up pre pre uh well, racism was normal, slavery was normal, all that good stuff. Anyway, so I wanted to give two excerpts. I'm hoping I with time permitting. I'm not sure I've already wasted too much time. Uh, so before Woodro Wilson was president of the United States, he was president of Princeton Law School and a student reached

075out to him at one point and said, and I don't know how he did that because, you know, they didn't have email then, and he said, you know, I didn't get to the school. can you re review my I guess I don't know they didn't have GPA or else I missed it by 150 years right um and he was like uh you don't belong here which might seem like an innocuous thing to say but it's actually a racist dog whistle if you hear that usually people are saying that because you don't belong because you're not white and that's what Wilson was saying the records indicate that and also the book says it too so let's fast forward about 2530 years Wilson's now the president of these United States and a group of desegregationists come to

076him from the post office and they're like hey we want to desegregate not the country, not even their workplace, the lunchroom. And he did what you guys did. He didn't do anything. He didn't say anything. He was like, I'm just going to punt it. And so the question I have to you, and it's a rhetorical question, is what message do you think that sends to that student that came here that spoke on that advocated for himself? And what do you think that says to all the other kids who might be experiencing a similar affliction, but now they know that the school board's not going to do anything? And then what do you think that says to the community, people like us out there? What are we thinking that you're just like, I'm going to punt

077on racism. It's not a big deal. And uh to everyone watching and this is I'm going to try to wrap this up. Everyone watching here and at home for whatever reason remember these names and faces on the dasis you because you're going to be going to school next year, right? Um these people are all up for reelection. So remember that next year, right? Thank you. >> You guys want to give this? >> And so that concludes citizen comment time for this evening. We will be moving on to student representative time and we have Miss Bulisa, our uh MLK ortorial winner as well and student representative from the great CD Hilton High School tonight to speak. Miss Sarsa, >> thank you. Good evening to members of the Prince William County community, members of the school board,

078and superintendent McDade. Once again, I am very honored and grateful for the opportunity to give voice to the student perspective on the day is tonight. I'd like to begin my remarks by thanking every single faculty member that sponsors their school's student voice committee. Because of you, students have a safe place to discuss the things that matter to them and work together to implement meaningful solutions to ongoing problems within their schools. Moving on, if Dr. Sullivan doesn't mind, I'd like to jump ahead of her and discuss our career and technical education or CTE programs. These programs provide PWCS students with the opportunity to grow crucial skills that are that are essential for success in high demand and highly competitive fields. One example of a CTE class is dual enrollment teachers for tomorrow. This class not only

079teaches students the mechanics of teaching, but gives them the chance to put those learned skills into practice as a teachers aid. I happen to take this class and I really enjoy it. I say all of that to say February February is CTE month and I look forward to hearing Dr. Sullivan's presentation today. Fellow student representative Karina Grover, student senate pro temporani Davis and I gained valuable insight into the world of social and emotional learning or seal while participating in the 2026 castle conference. It is a two-day affair and we can't wait to deliver our presentation on the power of student voices tomorrow afternoon. Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the over 90,000 students that I represent directly. You and I both know that this county would be nothing without its diverse population of gifted, curious, and

080talented students. You and I also know that there are people who think otherwise, that our d that our diversity is a weakness or that it is wrong. Remember, the first amendment of the United States Constitution protects your right to petition your leaders as you gather with like-minded individuals and speak your mind. In the same vein, article 3 of the Prince William County Student Bill of Rights protects your ability to be a civically engaged student, including any protest or walk out that you'd like to participate in. Additionally, the regulation recommends that you work with your administrators to ensure the safety of yourself and your fellow students. As you and your classmates exercise your rights either this Friday or beyond, I want all of you to stay safe, protect your fellow students, and never lose sight of

081your values. That will be all for tonight. Thank you and have a great rest of your evening. >> Thank you, Bula Sarsa. Thank you very much. Excellent remarks. Up next, Superintendent's Time, Dr. Latana McDade. >> Thank you, Dr. Latif. As a brief reminder, a final school board work session on the proposed FY27 budget will be conducted on March 11th with school board scheduled to approve the budget on March 18th before presenting it to the board of county supervisors in April. Additional information on the FY2027 superintendent's proposed budget and capital improvement plan can be found on our website. This week, we recognize school board clerk appreciation week. Our schoolboard clerks ensure the accuracy, transparency, and continuity of important work of the board. We are grateful for their professionalism, and commitment to serving the board and Prince

082William County community at large. Thank you so much, Laura. You're here. Anna was here. Thank you so much for to your entire office for all that you do for the board and for the entire Prince William County community. I also wish to recognize National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day, which is observed annually on February 15th. Our school resource officers or SRO's serve as mentors, educators, and trusted adults who build relationships with our students, our and our staff and help foster safe, supportive school environments. I want to thank our SRO's and our law enforcement partners for the care, dedication, and partnership they bring to our schools every day. We have an incred incredible partnership with PWCS uh PWCPD and our SRO's our valued members of our school communities. I would also like to recognize rare disease

083day observed globally on February 28th. This day was created to raise awareness about the millions of individuals living with at least one or more than 6,000 known rare medical diseases or disorders. While each rare disease affects a small number of people, collectively they impact millions of families, including members of our own PWCS community. This day reminds us of the importance of understanding, inclusion, and support, and the role that schools play in ensuring every student, regardless of circumstance, has access to opportunity, care, and a sense of belonging. I also want to thank our staff, nurses, teachers, and support teams who work every day to meet the unique needs of our students with compassion and expertise. This week is random acts of kindness week, a reminder that small actions can have a lasting impact. Across Prince William

084County Schools, we see kindness in action every day. When a bus driver greets each child with a smile or a student helps a friend. These small moments build to shape the culture in our schools and reflect who we are in Prince William County schools. Kindness strengthens connection, builds trust, and reminds us of our shared responsibility to care for one another. I would also like to recognize Exceptional Children's Week, February 14th through the 21st, a time to celebrate the strengths, talents, and achievements of students receiving one or more special education services. Our exceptional children demonstrate resilience, determination, and growth every day, and they enrich our schools and classrooms in meaningful ways. Speaking of our amazing students with special needs, PWCS invites families to the inaugural STEP conference and resource fair. This is a full day dedicated

085to supporting students who receive special education services and empowering families with tools, knowledge, and connections. This event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 400 pm on Saturday, February 28th at Forest Park High School. The conference is free and includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Registration is required and is available on our website. February is career and technical education or CTE month, which is so appropo that we're presenting on CTE this evening. CTE programs are critical in preparing our students for employment in fast growing fields such as computer programming, engineering, health science, and skilled trades. To present an update on PWCS CT operations, I would like to introduce our associate superintendent of teaching and learning, Dr. Stephanie Sullivan, along with Dr. Sarah Martin, our director for CTE, and Christine Good, our supervisor for career and

086technical education. Thank you, Dr. Latif, Vice Chair Jesse, members of the board, and Dr. McDade. Thank you for this opportunity to share an overview of the career and technical education programs, especially as we celebrate CTE month. And Bula, I'm just bringing you with me every time I have to do a presentation. So, thank you for your comments as well. Um, as mentioned, joining me today are Dr. Sarah Martin, director of career and technical education, and Mrs. Christine Good, our supervisor. They lead with nationally recognized experience. Dr. Martin has been in CTE for more than 35 years in Virginia, Maryland, and Texas. She is regularly called on to speak at national events and statewide conferences and plays a significant role in shaping CTE throughout the Commonwealth. Miss Christine Good not only leads curriculum development and professional

087learning for our programs, she serves as president of the Virginia Association of Career and Technical Educational Administrators. She has won numerous state awards for her vision and leadership. They are supported by an incredible group of experts who manage to lead the work in over 150 courses. They each maintain expertise across a wide range of program areas and certification needs and several of them have been in front of you receiving awards from both national and state agencies. I am thankful for the board and our superintendent for understanding the vital role that CTE plays in elevating outcomes for our students. Throughout our new strategic plan, you will see the interdependence of career oriented education with foundational skill development and not just for current careers, but for the agility, flexibility, and critical thinking necessary for careers yet to

088be developed. The Virginia Department of Education launched the new school performance and support framework this year for high schools. This includes the 3E readiness framework. The focus is on all students graduating with the skills necessary for uh college enrollment, military enlistment or career employment. Our CTE team targets both enlistment and employment and I have to say also attract enrollment as well. Our students are earning credentials to give them success in whatever pathway they choose. That true measure of that success is not the diploma in a student's hand at graduation, but rather each student's ability to pursue a successful and rewarding career. once they leave Prince William County schools. After all, the question is not if they will join the workforce, but when. CTE ensures students are equipped with the knowledge and language to identify two

089and four-year career pathways at their base school or in a specialty program as they transition to high school. As students select a career pathway, they will also complete a state approved sequential elective leading to stackable industry credentials. The next edge of growth is for all career pathways to culminate with a high quality work-based learning experience like paid internships or school-based enterprise experience. Turning the microphone over now to Christine Good, who's going to share the next session of this presentation. Thank you, Dr. Sullivan. Tonight, we're going to share with you an overview of CTE, including what is CTE, the current state of PWCS CTE, and the next generation. Career and technical education in Prince William County Public Schools serves students in grades 6 through 12, beginning with exploratory experiences in middle school and culminating in sequenced

090career pathways in high school. Today, PWCS CTE includes eight program areas, 16 career clusters, 37 career pathways, and more than 130 secondary courses. This work begins with early career awareness and career exploration in CTE through summer discovery enrichment programs designed for rising middle school students in grades 5 through 7. This provides our explorers with early inspiration and insight into future career possibilities. For example, the CTE department offered several enrichment programs last summer, including the Bits and Bites Boot Camp for Code Creators, where students learn to program micro:bits, Future Fabricators, an introduction to 3D printing, mechatronic melodies, building Arduino pianos that light up as music notes are played, and Flavors of the World, an introduction to cooking in the kitchen. Our community should be on the lookout for summer discovery registration to open on March 9th.

091Our middle school programming includes three program areas: business and information technology, family and consumer sciences, and technology and engineering education. A key foundation of this work is the career investigations course, which all students will complete in seventh grade. This course helps students to identify and demonstrate workplace readiness skills, explore career clusters and pathways, analyze their interests and strengths, and to begin developing the academic and career plan aligned with their goals. By the end of middle school, students are not expected to choose a career, but rather to develop a shared language, increased agency, and a clear foundation for high school course selection and future pathways. Our high school CTE programming includes a total of eight program areas, 16 career clusters, 37 career pathways, and more than 130 high school courses. There are diverse and robust programming

092opportunities available to all students in PWCS. Of the eight program areas that CTE supports, every high school has courses in at least four areas: business and information technology, family and consumer sciences, marketing, and technology and engineering education. In fact, all 16 national career clusters are represented in PWCS instructional programming. And within those career clusters are career pathways. Pathways are sequences of CTE courses that are designed to prepare students for the world of work by introducing them to workplace competencies and providing hands-on learning experiences. You may recognize several of our specialty programs on this slide like agriculture, building trades, cabinet making, electricity, plumbing, and TV production. But did you know that we also offer programs in business management and business law at every high school? CTE courses and programs also include Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow, JOTC,

093and accounting. Additionally, we offer multiple pathways in health science. Pathways in hospitality and tourism include culinary arts as well as sports, entertainment, and event marketing. You will also notice several information technology courses and pathways in addition to human services and law and public safety course offerings. And lastly, CTE offers pathways in manufacturing, marketing, and engineering. Automotive and aviation maintenance pathways are also available as specialty programs. Enrolled, enlisted, or employed, CTE is for every student, and CTE offers multiple pathways toward post-secondary success. Our CTE programs are built on the four foundational pillars of highquality CTE programming, which mirror the strategic plan's emphasis on rigor, relevance, and real world application. Competency based instruction means that our students demonstrate what they know and what they can do as a result of their learning. Industry recognized credentials are available

094in high school and CTE students have access to these credentials offered at no cost to their students to the student or their families. Work-based learning is when students apply learning in authentic settings, strengthening community partnerships and aligning directly with our family and community engagement commitment. And student organizations like DECA, FBLA, HOSA, and Skills USA, for example, develop leadership, communication, and collaboration skills embedded in our mission to prepare global collaborators and innovators. CTSOs host competitions, community service, and professional networking events which help students build confidence and real world skills. Next weekend marks the start of our state competitive events season, and we are proud to have four PWCS high schools represented at the Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference in Virginia Beach. Best of luck to all of our marketing students who have advanced to state competition.

095Let's take a look at a few data points to summarize the current state of CTE. And you may remember some of this information from recent presentations by Dr. McDade. Participation in career and technical education courses remain strong and continues to grow. Over the past three school years, PWCS enrolled more than 50,000 annually across middle and high school courses and more than 20,000 unduplicated students participating at the high school level each year. A key indicator of success is the number of CTE completers. Completers are students who finish a sequence program of study and also graduate. PWCS has seen steady growth with more than 4,300 CTE completers reported last year. This supports the strategic plan's emphasis on on-time graduation and preparing students for life beyond high school. CTE provides structure, relevance, and engagement, factors known to improve

096graduation outcomes. High school students enrolled in CTE courses have opportunities to earn industry recognized credentials at no cost to them or their families. Our credentials may support graduation requirements, entry-level employment, and/or college credit for credit for prior learning opportunities. Credential attainment has increased steadily with improving pass rates across multiple credential areas. And as of June 2025, the Career and Technical Education Department reported 369 registered business partners, reflecting strong community engagement and alignment with workforce needs. These partnerships bring the strategic plans family and community engagement commitment to life by connecting students directly with employers and industry professionals. Work-based learning is one of the fastest growing areas of CTE and PWCS. Last school year, more than 2,700 students completed work-based learning experiences, which includes paid and unpaid internships, externships, school-based enterprises, service learning, and supervised agricultural experiences.

097The CTE team continues to work towards scaling access to highquality work-based learning opportunities. We are challenging our business partners to consider how they might mentor and support some of the 20,000 CTE high school students who are eager to learn on the job right here in Prince William County. As we look ahead to Elevate 2030, the work for CTE is clear. We aim to ensure every student has access to highquality career focused educational experiences lined with high demand careers in the region. The essential question which drives our work is centered around creating meaningful post-secary education opportunities. Before adding any new CTE programs, we conduct a labor market analysis to confirm local demand and industry growth. With handover research, we identify career clusters in Prince William County and in the Commonwealth that offer livable wages, excuse me,

098livable wage careers and show the strongest projected growth and demand. As you can see in the high growth clusters, they include information technology, business management, administration, and health science. High demand career clusters are also your business management and administration, marketing, architecture and construction. Marketing is listed. However, it is high demand but shows low average and growth. To better illustrate this point, the clusters lie in both the high demand and high growth areas you can see from this graph that are information technology, health science, architecture and construction, and business management and administration. These are clearly identified as our top four clusters in which we should place our focus and energy for our new CTE programming. Referring back to our essential question on how we can create meaningful outcomes, we look at our post-secary education partners to

099effectively serve our students and meet local workforce needs. Strong collaboration with our college and university partners is essential to ensure a seamless transition beyond high school. Career study certificates offer students meaningful career opportunities through focused training programs that deliver the essential coursework required for specific fields such as IT or early childhood education. They're credit based, meaning that their certificates range from 9 to 23 credit hours, and they're career aligned. These programs equip students for targeted career fields and support job placement and attainment of industry recognized credentials. PWCS currently offers four career study certificates. Students enrolled in these programs are not only earning high school credit for our CT courses, but also earn college credit. For example, let's look at our mechatronics program. It's one of our newest programs slated to begin in the upcoming 2627

100school year. Students will take two high school credits that will result in 17 enrollment credits at Northern Virginia Community College. Want y'all to take a look at that slide. So our next steps in moving forward our work and focus are on four strategic priorities. The first is to enrich our middle school readiness. We will modernize middle school CTE experiences by integrating emerging emerging technologies such as coding, digital fabrication and entrepreneurship and by expanding hands-on learning opportunities. Our new exploratory modules will introduce students to high demand pathways including information technology, health sciences, and engineering. Our second priority will be to expand our high demand pathways to meet workforce needs. IT and engineering pathways will be offered at every high school. Partnerships with business and industry will be strengthened to increase work-based learning opportunities in those areas.

101Our third priority is to enhance growth, high growth programs. We will reinforce programs demonstrating strong enrollment and alignment with labor market growth such as our PLTW engineering and biomedical sciences. This includes expanding access to modernized equipment, software, instructional resources, and industry recognized credentials. Course sequences will be updated to reflect our regional workforce needs. And the fourth is to leverage our post-secary education partnerships. Collaboration with Northern Virginia Community College and other post-secondary partners will expand dual enrollment and career study certificate offerings and create seamless transitions from high school to college and career. These priorities reflect both our vision for the future and the collaborative spirit that drives our progress. I'd like to extend my my sincere appreciation to the CTE advisory council for their expertise and support. Our work is strengthened by the deep partnerships we

102share with our business and community leaders, relationships that open doors to real world experiences, industry expertise, and meaningful career pathways for our students. Together, we are creating a future in which every learner is prepared not only to graduate, but to thrive in a rapidly evolving workforce. And a heartfelt thanks to you, the board, Dr. McDade and all cabinet members for your continued commitment to investing in our students, our schools, and the future of Prince William County. >> Thank you. And we're happy to answer any questions, >> Mr. Wilk. >> Thank you. Uh, no questions. I just want to thank you all for the presentation tonight. I don't have to be redundant. I'm a big advocate of the CTE programs in this county. I love the welding program at PTOAC. uh definitely think it'd be great

103to replicate it out west, but I understand instructions in that area and the certification to teach that is hard to find. Uh we have a phenomenal teacher at PTOAC High School. Um and as things come to fruition, I do want to add the plug that um you know, by having prevailing wages and ensuring that our students who do go to the workforce are able to come back and work on project labor agreements and such so we hire our own local force. Um I think that's kind of the culmination of the great work. uh and affording those students the opportunity to have these highwage jobs working for our school division on construction projects and renovations. So, thank you so much. I appreciate you speaking tonight and doing this presentation. >> Thank you, sir. >> Mr. William,

104>> uh thank you, Chairman Latif. First, I want to say thank you so much for this presentation. Um like Mr. Woke, I am a huge advocate of CTE. I am a CTE mom. My son is uh independently gainfully employed thanks to uh Battoic High School. Thank you Chef Evans forever and every uh buddy in administration in that building. But it graduated in 2019. Not a problem. Um I love the fact that in this presentation we were able to give credit to a lot of our partners because when we talk about CT we don't often mention them. I'm going to put a plug in for our signing day. Do we have a date? >> What's our date? May 12th. >> May 12th. For those who don't know, several years ago, we started a signing day for

105our CTE students. Uh, similar to our athletic students when they go off and and do scholarship or get recognized for their scholarship. Um, I love this. I'm going to ask a couple questions cuz I this is my thing and uh I'm a middle school mom now. And you mentioned about how we're going to evolve CTE and look at CTE in the future for middle school. I'm going to be a little critical because it's not her fault. It just seems like middle school career investigations and pretty much everything we do in middle school hasn't changed much over the years. So, I'm very excited and I'm not looking for definite answers now. My main question as a middle school mom and um as a former middle schooler because it feels like it's about the same. It could

106you could you explain a little bit to the public? This is one of the questions that I had and and it really helped me understand a little bit. So a career investigations in those type of classes are based upon some standardized tests our students look at or are standard standardized tests our students get that kind of point them in a direction of a career based could you is that test from like 1924 it just and not to not to be too comical but it's that is a starting point that a lot of our teachers use and it's based in our curriculum but there are so many jobs that aren't or careers that are not captured in that and my concern is for those students who do not fall in that it and that's why I'm

107being critical because I and again I say it's has nothing to do with anyone standing in front of me or running CTE but I'm excited about the possibility of having our students explore more what we have set up are very traditional careers in a sense some of them are new and innovative but some of these by the time we get up and running will be obsolete and to some of our students in some degree and I'm not saying that critically because it's not going to be obsolete everywhere it it's just one of those things that I do believe I I'm concerned about when we talk about coding. >> I'm robotics mom. You know, our kids are coding in very early elementary the way our county is is spreading robotics countywide. I'm I'm wondering if we

108um what other type of innovative ideas because I know we haven't formulated a plan. We may be thinking about or are we considering that? Because my greatest fear now talking to my middle schooler, I hear things like, "Oh, well, this isn't on here." And I know we can't do every career imaginable, right? But uh I pick on my family who I do a lot paleontologist, right? It's health and human services. >> However, now because it's not an existing career, the the sway is going towards one of the blocked careers. So as a parent, my thing is how do we support those students in between because they don't really understand either, right? And >> what does that look like? it. Middle school is also one of those times where we want we hear a lot from

109our public, oh our students can't cook or they can't sew or they can't those kinds of things. So I was just wondering if you could give us like a little like shining star in the future, not holding you to it, but are those the kinds of things that we're talking about when we're talking about revamping? >> Yeah, absolutely. You're actually mirroring the conversations I've had with my staff multiple times about reooking at those pathways and programs. And so to answer your first question, um the uh inventory that the students take is being modernized and we are looking at new partners in that space um because we also want to identify um the potential in students not directly necessarily tied to certain things as we are looking at our middle school programs. I think you saw

110in the strategic plan entrepreneurship is is one of the areas that we're looking to expand upon some additional projectbased learning enterprises. Um the board may remember that you just approved um our opportunity to expand Project Lead the Way in some of our middle schools. So those are some of the ideas of the types of programs we're looking at to make sure that our students are getting those really meaningful exploratory opportunities that help them narrow a little in high school. Um so yes to everything you mentioned as we look at opportunities first and foremost evaluate our data, our interest um and move forward on those new programs. Thank you. And I'm going to um in the interest of time just ask if you could please um on slide 24 you talk about work-based learning experiences. And

111um I don't know that members of the public or even our students really are thoroughly uh educated on the difference between an externship, a school-based enterprise. Like I know that we have a lot of opportunities for our students, but I'm not sure everyone is the is knowledgeable when you talk about the difference between maybe an internship or an apprenticeship, those kinds of things, because they do matter um and it's part of our strategic plan. If you could give us like a little definition of what that looks like. >> Certainly, some of our programs um have the ability to operate as an actual enterprise. So, for example, our culinary students may do some catering jobs or authentic employment opportunities within the program itself. Um, certainly our students in the turf program at Brenville are a shining

112example of that that the field itself provides opportunities. Not to say those students can't also participate in additional external internships. So some of our school-based enterprises are involving the technologies and the development and manufacturing sometimes of items within the program. Um so there are multiple ways for students to authentically engage in the profession and we are looking to make sure that all students have that opportunity. Bula talked about that a little bit with her experience. It really is about a true work-based learning experience which sometimes can happen within your own campus. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that because I talk to a lot of our I mean robotics, a lot of our middle schoolers and some of our parents and the magnitude of programs that we have available sometimes I think is just it's

113so much and this is an opportunity I think to really um expand on that and have the public aware of all of the things that we do. I especially like that we have business partners as well. Um because I I've seen some of our business partners then hire our students and develop long-term relationships not only with our students but some sight specific schools or even our whole school division. And I just wanted to make sure that we took the time really to speak to that because it's important. It it helps us keep community and keep our youth coming back and staying um within our our school division. And I hope that eventually we'll be able to capture some of those graduate stories and have them come back and share with us about their experience as

114um students from the early start of CT all the way through. Um I think that's one of the most powerful things that we have available tools that we have available to us to encourage our our young people to continue to participate. So thank you very much there. I really appreciate everything that you do. Um oh one more question. I know that we were tied with Henriiko with at one time with an internships or apprent apprenticeships. There's some sort of friendly uh rivalry there. I was just hoping that we were coming out on top or very very close. Yes, ma'am. So, you're referring to our youth registered apprenticeships. Um those have changed. Our workbased learning components and experiences have changed tremendously in the last year. And so, while those are still happening, we are we are

115leaning more into our internships and our school-based enterprise. Thank you, >> Mr. Denick. >> Well, you know what? I'm coming in hot at just like uh Miss Williams, I am a CTE mom. >> Um when I when I joined this board, it was something that I was extremely passionate about um talking about it and it was probably one of the first conversations I had with you all. Um and also going to the different events that capture this. Um, but I would be remiss in not speaking about one of the greatest programs we have in existence right now. Not to mention we're building a Toro turf grass academy program. Um, I'm a, you know, I know that we fall under that agriculture umbrella. >> Um, we do not have kids that graduate in horiculture. And I

116think that I've said it out loud. I've said it a million times. We do a disservice to these kiddos when we don't talk about this program and what they could walk away with from Brensville High School. It is a turf grass program >> to a tea. It's extreme. That's what they walk away with. We get a sash >> in turf grass. We don't get a sash in other things. So um and we shouldn't because the end goal of that program is to walk away with a turf grass management >> um focus. And I have only done a um some research in the last few months. I would challenge us um as a school system to do a better job researching because I think we'd blow Henriiko out of the water if you looked at what

117these turf grass kids are actually doing because I've never I've never submitted anything on the things that my child has done and he's had four different jobs in the turf grass industry >> thus far as a high school student into college. um some of what these students are doing and excuse me while I as Justin Wilk says pontificate on this for a moment but just just in my last few weeks of research and this is just me personally the students that I know personally so there's got to be more >> um this is there's over 40 graduates in the last couple of years that are currently working in a turf grass industry job or attending college for turf grass management not just any college, but bar stool sports, which is not a great, you know,

118great source. DMV though, number one Virginia Tech, you know, >> it is >> that they're there with kids and there's kids begging to get into tech and they're there doing turf grass and it is a full-time thing that they're working on. They're getting their hands dirty. It's great to see what they're doing. But just just for an example, because I have parents that come up to me and say, "You're our Brunsville District School Board member. Can you tell us more about this Agg program? Like, what are we doing? Are we working with cows? No, we're working with Toro >> groundskeeping, you know, equipment. They're getting they're getting to paint the turf. They're getting to paint the field for um the football games, for soccer games, for our state championship soccer girls team. So, this is

119things that we got to do. And I actually for the first time in this four years, I got to paint the field this year and it was quite an experience. And within 5 minutes, I messed it up. So, these kids are very talented. Um, just just so you know, some of these kids um have gone on to become golf course superintendent, which pays very well. Huge. They've worked for minor league baseball teams. They own their own landscaping company, Stone Company. They attend Virginia Tech, Penn State, grad school for turf grass management. Um, they're majoring in marketing, >> which you would never realize, but they're majoring in it to work specifically in the turf grass industry. Um, and again, I would be really crazy to not mention Dr. Drew Miller, who truly cultivates a love for

120this industry in these kids who shows them what hard work looks like, but also how to make money in this field and that it's super successful, but field. Yes. but also to have experiences that you never would get anywhere else. Like they painted the field for the ACC championship. He's brought them back every year to do that. Um they've worked for the MLS, for the MLB, for the NFL. >> And um recently, I just want to shout her out. Julie Kesler, who's a graduate of this program, won the SFMA field of the year, which Brensville High School won that two years ago. She is a Brentville grad and won that. it. I mean, that industry constantly praises Dr. Drew Miller and what he's doing because it's innovative. Nowhere else does that. It's a high school

121program that can compete against college programs. And you know that I've been a huge advocate for these kids to earn dual enrollment credits so that when they go to college, they're prepared because what he's teaching them is what they're learning at a college level. and um he just has put so much time and effort and energy into this program and into each of those children um and what they're doing and their further careers. I really feel like we've got to pay attention to that because those internships, those jobs, those things I really don't feel like are captured in this just inside that program. Not to mention um you know I don't know if the cosmetology program but also those girls are working. they're, you know, doing blowouts in the runfield. I know because I see

122them. They're dying hair. Those kind of things are just um great to to point out. So, once again, I just think any kiddos that are looking for a different alternative style of learning um where they can work with their hands and get their hands dirty. Look into these CTE courses. And don't just read what's there. Do some research. Watch our videos because our communications program does a great job on these videos highlighting our welding programs. highlighting our cosmetology, highlighting our turf program. Um, please check it out. There's so much more there. And, um, you know, I really think that this is great for those kiddos that want a different career path that's not, you know, the typical one. And they can be successful in it and find joy in it. And I just love that

123about it. And I'm so thankful for that program and for everything it's done for my son as well. So, >> well, we are so thankful for you and our short presentation. when we had to love all of our children equally. Um, but we certainly appreciate your emphasis on a very welldeserved recognition of an incredible program. So, thank you for that, >> Miss Lisa Zaraport. >> Thank you, Dr. Latif. Thank you for this presentation. Um, I want to just hone in on the Virginia teachers for tomorrow. Um, how many students do we have involved in this? Do we know? Oh, I see a hand in the back. 27. >> 270ish. Thank you. Hand in the back. Is that the same answer you got? Yeah. >> Yes. Okay, cool. Um can't see who that is, but I'm

124like, "Oh, I s I loved it. It was that it was this." Um, >> so I I love that we do this because uh it it's I wish this had existed when I was in school. Um it it's a fantastic way to to get people involved in a career like education. Do we have any information on um I mean it looks like you can you can get a lot of credits before you go off to college. Um do we have any information back on like are these kids able to also get scholarships and you know because college is expensive and you know the the the least amount of loans and things like that >> full year, right? >> Yeah. Do we have any information on how well that's going? >> Christine, >> I'm hoping >>

125give more specifics. >> So, we're excited about our partnership with Northern Virginia Community College. This is the first year that our Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow stu um one students are dual enrolled with Northern Virginia Community College and they will have in the 2-year coursework they will earn 14 college credits at Northern Virginia Community College that are transferable and are um the equivalencies for a provisional teaching license. So students will not need to duplicate that coursework afterwards. So if they continue on and complete that 20 credit certificate at NOVA, then that makes them um eligible to finish the associates degree in full. It is a transfer Virginia program that they can have uh take that and transfer into any um teacher lensure program here in Virginia or they would be eligible to apply for our PWCS

126RTR teacher residency program. >> That's amazing. um anything to help save, you know, you know, money in higher education. Um how many people do we have now working in the county who've been through this? Do we know yet? >> Yeah, I'm sorry I don't. I I do want to shout out though that a significant partnership of this is with our chief human resource office. Oh, gotcha. And I know they are carefully tracking and monitoring the students succeeding in it, the onboarding of those and I think you just had a meeting the other day um related to it. Um so we can certainly follow up with some exact >> I would love to know. I I just would love to know and um what kind of scholarships are these kinds of like are there scholarships available

127from our public universities in Virginia that people specifically going into teaching can apply for? >> Oh certainly. A lot of our colleges are great partners in creating the pipeline for teacher and there's certainly a lot of opportunities in those spaces um for students to earn scholarships to continue their education. >> That's awesome. All right. Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> Um I'll go to Miss Wall. >> Thank you for the presentation. Uh very informative. Um great program. Love the CTA pro. I'm also a fan. Um, I won't go into too much more elaboration on that topic, but um, I do feel like it is important to offer many different opportunities to students beyond math, science, literature, history. um because there they have so many interests and if we're meeting the needs of our students,

128we you know offering all these different pathways and opportunities while in high school, while it's on our dime, not their family's dime is a really, really, really great service. Um so, thank you. Uh I wanted to point out I wanted to say thank you also to the people who are on slide 32, the CTE department, all the individuals who serve on that CTE advisory council. That's a volunteer organization. They put in time and effort and expertise with no compensation whatsoever as far as I know. Maybe a sandwich here and there. I don't know. But I really appreciate the individuals who are willing to serve our community in this capacity. And um want to thank the Gainesville representative, Mr. William Meer, who's a teacher at Gainesville High School. Um I had a two questions. Um, one

129is on slide nine. Um, the middle school. Let me see if I can pull it up. Um, the middle school. Middle school. Yes, middle school. Um, is this representative of what we offer now business? I know it says that the complete the nineweek career investigations. Is this representative of what we currently do or is this something that we will do? This is this is current um with the exception in a couple of spaces um some schools had some staffing challenges. Okay. So this is the current framework and standard for every middle school. >> Okay. And then does this compete with gifted education or if they want if a student wants to take advanced science I know that's in the new strategic plan like advanced science and things like that or like a research science or

130something like that. Yeah. Does this compete with gifted education in some? >> It actually depends on the students whole pro whole whole profile. So, you know, if a student is potentially also taking band and maybe Spanish, there will reach a point that decisions do have to get made for students. All students do complete the career investigations course. Um, as a student's profile is combined because we do also like flexibility. There may be some students where that's the case. >> I see. Okay. So, we do still allow flexibility within the middle school schedule. However, we try to get everybody through like this. >> Yeah. >> Well, correct. And especially as we move forward in the new strategic plan, um flexibility, options, and choice are really important to us while maintaining um opportunities at every school for

131students. >> Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. And then my last question is regarding discovery enrichment, which I think might be the slide before slide eight. Um are I my question is um I'm excited about this that we it's pretty amazing. It's it's awesome. And my question is are is our are are we make are we meeting demand um as we I mean are we like do we have big waiting lists for kids to get into these programs or are we right sizing this so that we are offering enough so that individuals who want to get into it can get into it >> or can we expand it like if we have a higher demand I guess we have to anyway if you want to speak to that. >> Yes. So we have expanded

132um we are we are right sizing um there is a high demand for some of these programs or I mean really all of these programs. So this year we will offer 10 unique offerings. Um we're getting ready to publish that information here in the coming weeks. >> Okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. And then my last plug I guess comment would be I know we have wonderful I I guess I think it's slide um next steps slide 31. Great slide. I love what we're doing with CTE and our strategic plan. I can't tell you how many times being I'm at one end of the county like the top, you know, hinterlands >> up there by Fauler County and Lowden County. >> So, I can't tell you how many times I've talked with kids or parents who are like,

133"Oh, my kid just wants to do welding, but >> it's an hour away one way, so forget it." Um, and and that's sad if you have a student who has an interest in in a specialty program and it's just distance and time that makes it I mean welding is maybe not a great example because that's pretty high like materials in intensive but I do appreciate that we're trying to expand it to different schools and different programs because I don't want >> distance to be the main o and only reason why a student doesn't explore something that they're interested in. >> Correct. That is an excellent example of our goal around enhancing existing opportunities and programs um to where we know this is a high demand. We know this is great career opportunities in everything from

134traditional welding to HVAC to all of the fields that require it. That's exactly the kind of thing that we would look to expand. Um, one of the things that I know you've had some visibility into, we are doing a comprehensive audit of all those specialty programs and we are literally gridding and mapping the opportunities for kids and comparing those throughout the Commonwealth. So, yeah, I expect that to be a strategy as we unfold the next steps on where we need to do some duplication as well. Again, we're really uh proud of the support and the collaboration we have with our operations teams when sometimes that requires facilities upgrades and changes. Um but that's all part of what we're looking at in next steps. >> Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Thank you for

135the presentation, >> Mr. Blake. I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation and um just like all my other colleagues, I am a very big fan of CTE and like I try to always tell parents in the in the in the community, you know, this is Prince William County Schools like the it's like a puzzle, right? You could figure you just got to move move your kid around until you figure out, you know, what they like cuz we have it here in this county somewhere. There's a program. Mhm. >> But I I just want to also um shout out to Dr. Sullivan. I was at NOVA uh the Woodbridge campus with Dr. Hill last week and he took me around and showed me all the HVAC, the data operation center, all of you

136know this megatronics, all that was amazing. And he he told me you're on fire for the kids out here. So >> I just want to shout you out and appreciate and you too good and Dr. Martin and also um you know when I was over there at Nova they showed me like the stackable credit credentials you guys were talking about um and I just thank you because it expands the access and you know accelerates the opportunity for our kids over there >> and I I you didn't really mention the data center operations thing I and when I was over there I was leaving and the freedom >> kids were coming out getting on the bus about to leave too. So the uh and if you don't know, I'm talking about the uh early opportunity kids

137that are going over there for their college credits. So I saw a lot of it in action like right there. So I just wanted to u just tell you guys thank you for the good job you're doing and just keep up the good work. Appreciate you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Mr. Jesse. >> Well, thank you guys. You I'm a fan of all that you do and I think it's a great opportunity for our kids. This is a simplistic question that I think some parents that are wondering about how do we integrate these programs into their regular uh core academic program reading, writing, and math. >> Yeah, there's actually some crosswalk opportunities in some of the courses. So, in some cases, a course could actually qualify for a credit in, let's say, math, um, for

138example. And so we have opportunities actually to crosswalk how the credits work. Um many many many of our teachers are naturally integrating all of this literacy standards, math standards, science standards in their courses. I know our team does a lot of work in the curriculum development to make sure those skills are being developed and in some cases they can actually count for their courses. >> Thank you. >> Yes sir. this uh observation as we expand more and more of these opportunities we're also expanding our facility needs. >> Uh so we keep talking about uh the danger of of our schools being undercrowded. Uh I think we have to also realize that you guys take up spaces and uh we need these spaces for for the kids. Thank you. >> Thank you sir. Miss William, >>

139thank you. Sorry, just real quick. I want to piggyback on the end of this experience. if you could talk about a little bit of how we have business partners and then um I'm going to say this last statement and that is we do have SC um sorry Lisa brought up a a scholarship uh mentioned scholarships and I just want to make a special note that we do have some entities like I know women's group and a few others who are significantly investing in CTE scholarships for students and I mentioned that because uh I know that sometimes CTE are more traditional um CT students like cabinets or firefighting or welding or automotive don't always think that there are scholarships available for them, but this is something that is new and is starting and I want to

140make sure that those students are aware. Um cuz we I know that group had uh two scholarships over the past couple years for culinary students. So trying to find a culinary student who isn't thinking about maybe going to a traditional four-year college or institution. I just want to put that plug out there because some of those scholarships do exist and hopefully there'll be businesses or people listening who will want to support RCT graduates because if you graduate automotive you still have to buy tools or if you're so those are some of the missing connects and and I just wanted to put the plug out there because it we have done a tremendous job in wrapping around with our education foundation too. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um excellent presentation truly appreciate it. If

141we go to slide 26, if someone could pull that up. Um, I I think this slide more than anything else in in, you know, we've we've talked a lot about our success in our last strategic plan, what the meaning of the next strategic plan is going to be. I think, you know, in the four years Dr. McDade's been here. This has been, I think, the guiding sort of question and and the guiding, you know, as a parent and as someone who lives in the county, as someone who sends our kids to the schools, this is the question I have, right? How do we create? And by the way, the whole thing should be bolded and then I would bolden underline this sentence. So the meaningful how do we create and if the press is watching

142by the way and I appreciate the articles on the walkouts, I appreciate the articles on the budgets. I truly appreciate, you know, things that may be controversial that the press wants to cover. I'll never argue about what they'd like to cover, but if I were in the press, >> I would cover this statement. This should be a headline and then the article should follow with what we have done in this county to answer this question or what we're trying to do. How do we create meaningful postsecary outcomes for all students whether they choose to enroll, enlist or seek gainful employment after high school graduation. That is the sentence of the evening. That should be the headlines. That is the work our strategic plan has worked to answer and what we're trying to do. This is

143the question that parents who immigrate to this country, parents who are working, you know, 12, 14, 16 hour shifts who come home, they hope that we can help them answer. >> This is the question that our folks answer uh that that are the people want answered. And I think whether it's CTE or whether we heard from our theater teachers this evening that you know they are learning these skills in their theater programs that will lead to meaningful post-secondary outcomes whether they're doing it in robotics as Miss Williams said um learning the things that will lead whether they're doing it them in the extracurricular activities that non-curricular um all of those things we are trying to build within the strategic plan to move this school division forward to answer this question and you know if I'm

144writing for Inside Nova tonight, this is the headline. Um and then I would probably call Dr. McDade for some quotes and some question answers on this like what have you done Dr. McDade? Um and and I think it goes from universal prek all the way up to what we're doing. Um you know and and I rarely talk about what our you know um citizen comment commentators come in to speak about. But I I don't think in 8 years I've done it many times. But but I I will say to the point that you know, you heard eloquently from the theater teachers about what it's just more than theater and what they're learning. You know, I I want those folks to know and everyone in the community know that the school board is well aware of

145the issues that we're facing, the concerns and and and and in singular issues or issues that are affecting our school division. And the school board continues to be, you know, thoughtful about how we can best solve these problems moving forward. Whether it's in our theater, whether it's in our CTE programs and the school board is focused on this work. Dr. McDade is focused on this work. I want everyone to understand that there is not anyone who comes here to speak to us or to address this board that we that we ignore. Everybody on this board takes really very seriously um what we hear from folks. There's no back and forth with citizen comments. There's no, you know, a lot of that. And so everyone thinks, well, did they hear us? Did they listen to us?

146I can tell you that I have worked with each board member here and everyone on this dis for a solid, I don't know, 2 to 8 years, and I can tell you that they all listen. But going back to this sentence, I would put this on the front page of the um website tomorrow, Dr. McDade, and say, "Hey, if you missed our presentation, this is it." So anyways, I want to thank you whoever wrote the sentence. I don't know if we pulled this. Is this in our strategic plan? Who wrote the sentence? Do we have an author? Someone >> it was collaborative. >> Okay, it's collaborative. >> We we guide work on essential questions in our space and always work to answer essential questions. >> Well, I mean, you know, if if you know, if

147learning is really about asking the right questions first, this is where we start. So, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Um, with that that ends Dr. McDade, do you have anything else to add to Superintendent's time? >> No, Mr. Chairman, that concludes superintendent's time. >> All right, we're going to board matters. I think we started last time with Wilk. Today, we'll start with Blake. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, everyone. Um, I'd also I'd like to start off by um thanking Laura and all our clerks for um school board appreciation week or school clerk school board clerk appreciation week. Um now uh over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to be in many of our schools and I just want to start by saying this.

148Our students are showing up in in powerful ways. So, at Napsco Elementary, I had the honor of joining uh Congressman Eugene Bman and Dr. McDade to recognize uh Miss Lydia Latimore. Um she was the 2025 Virginia Counselor of the Year and is a 20 26 ACA National Finalist and that's out of I think she's down to six people in the whole country. So, that's going to represent Prince William County. Well, um, Cong Congressman Vinman presented her with a congressional record he entered on the on the House floor honoring her unwavering commitment to students, her innovative engagement strategies, and her laser focus on social emotional learning. And that moment mattered because when school counselors are recognized at a state level and then acknowledged by US Congress, it sends a clear message. Supporting the whole child is

149not extra, it's essential. Miss Latimore represents what happens when uh academic support and social emotional development work hand in hand and our students are better because of it and I thank her for that. And so then I also like I said earlier I had the opportunity to tour the Nova Woodbury campus. Thank you Dr. Hill for the personal tour from the provos. I felt important and uh I'll be honest seeing that the scale of their workforce programs firsthand was impressive. Like I said, the HVAC labs, the data center operations, they had healthc care pathways, the stackable credentials aligned directly with industry demand. Um when uh and when I was there, one of the one of the kids was getting doing a mock interview with Microsoft like for one of the data center operations. Yeah, it

150was it was wild. So, and um so when K through K through 12 and higher education align with workforce needs, powerful things happen. And our students aren't just graduating, they're stepping into opportunity like you heard earlier. And then there's the the talent. So I went to the all district or the all district honor and select choir concert with uh Miss Wall and Miss Zagapore. And then we followed by the all district band event. But it was so many people at the chorus concert. I don't think Miss Agapore could get out of the parking lot. So she didn't even come. She she couldn't even get out of the parking lot at Gainesville. So then me and Miss Wall went to the other one to the other event which showcas extraordinary discipline, artistry, and these students aren't

151just performing. They're demonstrating focus, collaboration, and commitment. And then at at Hilton High School, I got to attend the VHSL Cardinal District 1 ACT competition. So this was this was good. Um the theater students competing at a at a level at that level reflects the depth of our fine arts program and the courage it takes to perform live and under pressure. U after that I and then uh I also had a a chance to visit the Prince William Roaring Club URGK sprints at Kogan which was just pure grit and they had like uh vomit buckets by each URG. It was wild. So the kids were like really it was it was it was a I never been to one of those. So that was a very good good event. Um I got to see Miss

152uh Miss Williams and her robotics team at PTOIC Middle. There was about 61 teams there competing. Uh that was a good time. Uh hit that spell and be at Minville where we had a repeat champion. So there you know which shows that excellence is repeated. It's not luck. is it's preparation. And speaking of spelling bees, I want to remind everyone that the Prince William County spelling be will be held on March 10th at 7 o'clock at Garfield. Um >> what district championship >> Oh yeah. And last and then since we're talking about Garfield, you know, the school of champions, I just do want to congratulate them on the Cardinal District uh boys basketball championship uh last Friday. They beat PTOIC um to to end the season 24-1. I want to say congratulations to coach Bell

153who was the district coach of the year and his son JJ Bell who's the district player of the year. So excellence clearly runs in that household. But um I will stop that because I'm way over my time. But I I would like to just leave with this one last thing. There's one last quote from Jesse Jackson and that's it. Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up. >> Thank you. >> Good one. Good one, Miss William. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe there is a picture to go up >> from our lovely. Hopefully they can get it up since it's pick on Mr. Wilin PTOIC District tonight. I know. I just I promised um uh robotics begins and ends the year uh for a lot of our students, especially middle school arena

154at PTOIC Middle School. So, I promised Miss Car actually gave me a t-shirt that I said I was going to wear and bust out like Superman, but I forgot and PTOIC brought uh Pa u excuse me, Pratoic. I just want to congratulate all of Yeah. all of the teams that went. I have a special shout out to Mr. uh Dean Ahmed who was in charge and ran the entire event who is a Prince William County homegrown robotics student um someone I know I have seen from afar grow up. I am so excited um to give him his props as well as Miss Graff and all of PTOIC Middle School who was there especially our lone the lone janitor who was working his time parts off trying to keep up with all those middle schoolers. Um,

155I I bring this up just because I get never miss the top the opportunity to tease Mr. Wilk um and to brag about my robotics teams, but also um Dina Mad is a perfect example of what is capable um of our Prince William County students when they graduate and how they give back. And um I also am excited because uh students like Dean often leave our in our in our schooling and they go off and they start businesses whether it's nonprofit. We had students here tonight talking about some of the things that they would like to do and it just brings me back to the strategic plan and I I am very thankful for the division for hearing my cry especially for all of our student entrepreneurs because the the businesses that they start whether

156it's middle school or high school are legitimate businesses and what you don't know in your paper life running a business can hurt you. So I'm glad that we are filling in the gaps for those students. Um, special shout out to my Fredland teams. Um, one of my teams hit number six on the ranking board for the first time all season. Um, it was a joyous occasion and I just want to say a special thank you to all those who help with robotics throughout the year because it is a year-long uh activity for most of us and and it's it that was my Valentine's Day on Saturday. Um, I also want to give a special shout out to the Y Street students from Atomic High School that were here earlier. I did get a chance to

157meet them at VSBA. I am so proud again of our students taking the step out there to do new things and to advocate um not only for themselves but for the student body and others at large. Um, I also want to make sure I mention that there will be the first inaugural step which is supporting transitions in education and personal growth conference uh and educational resource fair on uh February 28th at Forest Park High School from 9:30 to 4 p.m. It's free, but please register if you need more information. It's on the website or you can contact the parent resource center. Um, this is a huge deal for a lot of our special needs students and families. Um, this is geared directly towards them. I personally am very excited and then I will just end

158with this. Um, we often hear a lot uh from our citizens when they come from Citizen Comment Time or via email that for example tonight since we're citizen comment time, the young man who came and spoke to us from Gainesville. Um, I think that these are educational opportunities. First, congratulations because you have to feel safe enough to come and say something. So, that says a lot for our division and for this uh leadership. And so I want to congratulate um the young man for taking the courage to do so, but also to take a moment to say how much this institution um Prince County Schools has grown that a student felt safe enough to come and talk to us. But I also want to use this opportunity to let the public know that if you

159don't hear it here during a board meeting, there are so many things that we don't get to cover. This four minutes is the only time board members get to talk about whatever. And if it's not on an agenda, you may not hear it, but it doesn't mean we're not doing it. So I would encourage you to go past the board meetings. look at our policies, talk to people, find out about this administration and where we are um today and where we're going forward. And with that, thanks >> Jennifer Wall. >> Thank you. First of all, I want to say thank you to our school board clerk, deputy clerk, and assistants in the board office. You guys are awesome, and you do so much behind the scenes that nobody sees. Um and you support us in

160so many ways. So, thank you. And we have a gift for each one of you in the back. Please take it before you leave. And I guess for the rest that are not here. But anyway, we really do appreciate you. Thank you to theater teachers and students who are still here. Yay. You made it to the end of the meeting. Um we are very sympathetic to the plight that you find yourselves in. We don't like it either. Um and I do hope we can find a way to get through it together. Um, it's not a problem of our making, but we are very sympathetic and we appreciate hearing from you tonight. I know it's late and it's a school night. School starts at O dark 30. So, it's terrible. One of my gripes how early

161high school starts. Um, I want to highlight events in the Gainesville district and across PWCS that I've attended since we last met. After our very boring January and Snow Creek storm, I went out to a million events. Um, a basketball game with Battlefield in Gainesville, uh, Scholastic Bowl on February 7th at Osborne Park where I met the Kolan team and the Battlefield team. And those guys, those kids are so smart. Um, I went to Urg Sprints, the Prince William rowing club, sponsored that, and saw the family event where the parents and their kids competed together. Um, I would have died doing that. Um, District 9 honor choir event, the Vabota all district band event where we highlighted our amazing student musicians. Wow, guys. These guys play at a professional level. I swear they are better

162than most regional orchestras and bands. Um, on the 9th I went to Mountain View and I heard Kevin Sherry, the author of I'm the biggest thing in the ocean. I don't know if you have that know that that book. He's a children's author and he gave the most energetic and amazing presentation. I was super motivated to become an author. Um, and the kids loved him. Um, Gravely Elementary School had a spelling bee and a second grader won it. I mean, I'm not I'm telling you, this is so amazing. Um, her sister came in second and was a fourth grader and then and another girl who was also a fourth grader came in third. It was amazing. The second grader won it, guys. It's amazing. Kudos to parents and teachers. Um, I went to a concert

163at Bull Run. It was a chamber orchestra pyramid concert. So, Mountain View and Tyler were there too. And they played a song called the rubber chicken dub dub. And it's written by Sam Rolson, one of our teachers here in Prince William County and who incidentally was my son's first string base teacher. Um, I stopped by Bull Run to the eighth grade most improved celebration and this was such a special moment because teachers had taken a minute time to write a paragraph to each student individually. They were nominated by a teacher. The teacher stated in writing why they nominated that student and I just love that. Um, woo my time is fast. I stopped by innovation elementary for their multicultural night. Um, that was their first multicultural night. Thank you for inviting me. I went to

164Sinclair for their steam night. And I want to give a shout out to Unity Reed Robotics, their VEX team for showing up and giving kids a chance to drive a real robot. Um, I went to all county orchestra. Um, that was amazing. Those kids were so fantastic. And Prowl at the Potoic where one of our own grads, Dean Ahmad, led that whole event and it was probably one of the best run robotics events I've been to in a long time. Went to Tyler Elementary School's PTO meeting. Parents, we thank you for being so supportive of our teachers. and a Bullr Run outreach parent liaison meeting at the Bullr Run Library where the liaison went to the community and invited people to come and answer questions about how to mark attendance online, how to sign up

165for sports because we have like a new thing with that, you know, for um getting on to like physicals and registering for concussion training and everything else. Oh boy. Wow. Um okay, I guess I'm mostly done. Um I appreciate everybody who came out tonight. I had a lot more to say, but it'll have to wait for another time. Thank you and have a great evening. >> Lisa's arguable. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, Miss Wall just said something that I think bears repeating. She said, uh, given the the theater issues that I am grateful that everyone brought to our attention, um, kind of upset that I didn't hear about it before the meeting given that I've got a niece who's in uh, CFPA and I texted her and she goes, "Oh, I forgot my bad." Um,

166anyway, I really love that um, Miss Wall said this was not a problem of our making and together we're going to have to work on solving this. It is very concerning that suddenly now the work that's been done for decades is now in a in a different level of scrutiny and the arguments especially the ones that the students uh came forth talking about with how many skills they learned from um building sets and things like that. Um it it I don't think people like the theatergoers appreciate it until they hear it directly. So thank you for your advocacy this evening. Um, I got to attend uh two pyramid concerts and being in Kohl's district uh I my district touches almost every other district. So when I saw that Hilton was having one, I showed up

167for it and it was all u Mr. Blake's uh schools. But I have to say because I I'm like, "Oh, I don't know anybody here." Um th the kids were so good. These were elementary students playing and then the middle schools played or middle school played. Um, I got to go to the pyramid concert at at Kan, which only had two of my elementary schools and one uh and my um my middle and then the the high school played. And again, it was just so amazing to hear all these fourth and fifth graders playing so well together and uh they they were engaged and they were well prepared for the concert and uh it was that it just was a it was a great great place to be. I went to the district choir concert.

168My niece was in that. So, I stayed to the bitter end and that is why I could not get over to the other one because I could not just rush out of there. Um, but it was it was a I'm sad I missed the band concert, but uh the district choir concert was amazing. I went to all county strings concert and the uh select group. I sat there thinking this was the audition group and then the other group came on and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, we have so much talent in this county and I hope we continue to cultivate these uh talents in our kids and give them these opportunities because they were so wellprepared." Um before I I forget um to say this, uh thank you to our clerks. They are like the

169little cat herders of the um of the school division. they have to remind at least me several times to do certain things every once in a while. Um I also went to the the Prince William rowing um event that was held at Kogan. I was there with uh at the same time um Mr. Wilk was there. Got to learn a little bit more about uh how the program has been expanding and uh that was really amazing to watch how hard these kids work. What I remembered, I until I got into the room, I hadn't remembered this, but rowing is a team sport, but when they do these competitions, it's sort of an it's an individual thing. And it's really cool to see teams from all over the county cheering on people from just the people

170from any team anywhere because everyone recognizes the hard work that goes into that sport. Um, thank you uh for for hanging here to the bitter end. I I hope for no more snow days. I hope I'm going to be done with it and move on. Uh enjoy the rest of your third quarter and uh have a good night. >> Erica Tredettic. >> Um first of all, I want to thank I do see that you're still here, so that's good on you. I wanted to thank you. Um I'm sorry I forget your first name. My apologies. But when you got up there, um Miss Argapore and I were discussing that we thought we were going to get a Shark Tank style. I mean, you are like ready to go on TV and present to them. You

171did an excellent job. I love that you're collaborating with the supervisors with parks and wreck. Um, I love that you're using the resources here in the county that you're aware of. Um, I don't I don't know if you participated in the internship that the county provides the county government, but you would be an excellent candidate for that. So, you may want to look into it. It pays well. So, um, shout out to you. And also, shout out to the girls that spoke about Rev Your Bev. Um, that's awesome. And it looks like the week for Rev Your Bev is coming up in March. So hopefully the school system will shout them out and do some sort of promo with them talking about Rev Your Bev. Um, and so thank you guys for talking and raising

172awareness. I love hearing from our students here. Thank you for coming here um, and staying late. Hopefully you make it to school on time still. So, um I want to begin by saying that I respect freedom of speech and I truly respect the men and women who serve selflessly to protect our right to exercise those freedoms. I've listened carefully to the speeches tonight and I've also spoken with drama teachers in our district about some of these concerns. As a drama mom, I understand the incredible skills my son personally has built um with great programs that started as early as kindergarten. Shout out Mr. Dove um for your great drama programs. And so I I understand and I heard you and we're having discussions um and hopefully we can get something out to uh further explain

173that to you all as well. Um, I do feel the need to address something. Just because someone says something here in this room, um, tonight doesn't make it true. Um, while I may not always see eye to eye with every one of my fellow board members, I do not believe that any of them sit here idally or fail fail to care about the people they represent. The public is not always aware of the work that happens behind the scenes, the conversations, the planning, and the private discussions that take place specifically to protect students and do what's best for kids. Um, those discussions happen with Dr. McDade with with others as well. Um, and some of those conversations must remain private, not out of secrecy, but out of responsibility and care for our students. So, I

174hope you understand that. I hope you can take that in. Um, I hope everyone has a great week. I know that uh our winter sports are closing out. We've got some Cedar Run district champions. I don't like to mention one because I always feel like I leave somebody out. Um so there are a few in our district that have occurred. I know spring sports are starting and our spring kiddos are excited that the snow is melting off of their fields so they can get back to it. Um shout out to those seniors, to those 18year-olds that are super grown, super super grown. Respect your parents. Love your parents. They brought you here and you're still going to need them. Love, mom. >> All right. Excellent. Uh Justin Wilk. >> Well, I had no trepidation of

175saying this originally, but since Woodro Wilson came for three minutes tonight, I do want to address this matter. Um what was said um a couple weeks ago, even months, uh by the young man from Gainesville was abhorrent. Um and as my colleague said, uh a lot of this stuff that we talk about goes on behind the scenes, especially when it becomes a behavioral issue. I do want to say in the last couple weeks, who's Oh, I thought I heard something. In the last couple weeks, I've had a good discussion with Carl Brower of the NAACP in Prince William County. Today I talked to Miss Devo who's a regular speaker in here about the code of behavior as Miss Tragenic brought up two weeks ago about the work I've been doing with the code of behavior.

176Both of them brought up great perspectives on the matter, stuff that I necessarily did not think about and I'm pleased to hear, as was mentioned before, that our division has already worked with this family proactively and has more meetings coming up and will be working with this group to look at the code of behavior and communication protocols and things like that. So, sorry that fired me up. But thank you for the Woodro Wilson quotes. Um, finally to, um, my theater teachers. Um, as you know, I have a unique perspective in on this. um being married to a theater teacher who has dedicated the last 21 years of her life to the Forest Park theater program. I like it was said best the justosition of the new strategic plan and the goal of what we're doing

177with expanding theater programs and this new permit requirement at the county level. I understand the frustration. I know the work that goes into this. I know there's programs that only subsist on the sales of their tickets to use that funding for the next show as a way of doing it. It's a lot easier also saying that, hey, we can reuse sets, but not every theater has the room and storage to keep sets for future usage. I understand it, the division, we're working to figure out ways of resolving this. I really appreciate those who came and spoke tonight. I I will tell you this. If you are able to bring this type of crowd to a Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting 7:00, I know I'm jo I'm not joking. If you show up there in force

178and speak to that group who actually is the county government, I will happily join you in solidarity. So, just let me know when you're all coming there to speak because I'm willing to talk to my counterpart as much as possible. But I think a show of force is going to be more compelling um to that group to maybe take some more action and figure out a way so we don't have to have these uh red tape and bureaucratic craziness uh that goes with uh the sets and stuff like that moving forward. So I don't usually say a lot anymore during this but I was fired up. So thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you Mr. Wilk. Vice Chair Jesse. Well, thank you. Along that line, I I just want to say this. You know, there's

179a saying uh you're preaching to the choir because I think, you know, uh that the majority of this board supports you, but there's only a limited things that we can do. What I will say is that if we are the choir, you need to find a minister. You need to find and talk to the people who can do something about this. It might be the board of supervisor. It might not be. But that's who you need to address because we have to abide by certain rules. And in this case, as you know, I think our hands are tied. And as some of you said, we should advocate for you. And if uh Mr. Wils is going, I'll I'll go along with and make sure he doesn't get out of in trouble if I can. As

180most of you know, I'm somewhat restricted uh at the moment what I can attend and what I cannot attend for other reasons. I also want to say uh thank you again for letting the MLK people come in today. Uh my wife started that program and ran it for 17 18 years. uh and at this last ceremony, this is her last one where she is actively participating in the program. So, she loves these kids and uh this program and it's something dear to her heart. I also want to say that uh uh the clerks uh we need you and we we appreciate you very much and this happy that we have you and uh it's a welldeserved privilege that uh we honor you. I also want to talk to somebody I talk to frequently and I'm

181going to miss because I understand this is her last board meeting for a while. Miss Patello. Uh, >> you know, I I you know, so I'm gonna miss you. I know you're not going to be gone all the time right now, but this is your last board meeting. So, thank you very much. Uh, I'm going to put my glasses on because I have a note, but I can't read it. Uh the the other thing I I want to say is one opportunity I did take this this time. I went over to Aacoin Elementary new building and took a look at that. Uh I hope that it's open in uh for the spring break, but if not, it'll be open next fall. Uh it's going to be an amazing building and something good. This county does

182a lot of good work. Uh we take care of the buildings and so forth. So it's very I'm very proud of our county and our school board uh with everything they do. So with that uh I'll end my uh few minutes. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you everyone. Um, first off, thank you to our board clerk, uh, Laura Mills, and our other clerks, uh, for everything you guys do for us. We truly appreciate it. Um, I didn't know it was your last meeting, Miss Patella, but I'm still going to email you and call you. I don't see how this being the last meeting matters in that regard. I I don't understand that. Um, next. Um, you're very good. Abs. Absolutely. Your pro and your promptness is truly appreciated. Yes. Um our student Bula Sarsa

183this evening uh reminded us in her remarks today that um we are an incredibly diverse school district and it is truly our strength as Dr. McDade will always say and no nobody on this board nobody in this community likes to see what happened at the incident at Gainesville Middle and it's unfortunate. Um but she also reminded us Ba said that you know um there are folks in this community that don't like the diversity that our um school represents and that has and that we celebrate and that we have um and and and and so incidents like this have happened will happen will continue to happen and the best we can do as a school division is the work that I think we've been strongly committed to doing and that's standing up for diversity equity inclusion

184uh we have a diversity, equity, inclusion, and compliance office that works on title 6, 7, and 9. We are highly focused on that work. We have brought uh new energy to that work over the last four years with Dr. McDade. We're committed to professional development, bias training. We we address code of behavior, conduct violations. We we do everything we possibly can and and and we engage with the community on that work we do. Can we stop these things from happening? I've always said what you see in the community, you'll see in the schools. You know, whether it's uh bad behavior in the community, you'll see it reflected in our schools because we are the same people. Um and so we do our best to make sure the next generation is better than we are. So

185I appreciate her statements. On the matter of the walkouts, um a lot of press about it the last few days. Let me be crystal clear on this for everyone that those our school division does allow um and honors free speech from students. We heard a a speaker today who brought up a great case Tinker versus De Moines which um is a very pivotal case actually for student rights and for free speech. The Supreme Court ruled in that that um they established that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. The core takeaway is that public school officials cannot censor student speech unless it causes material and substantial disruption. We can argue the only thing we can argue in this statement that the Supreme Court um ruled

186is what is material and substantial disruption and that can be decided by a court. But in our school, we have a long tradition in Prince William County Schools of honoring and letting our students protest as long as they do it peacefully with respect and abide by our code of behavior. and that means they work with the administration to plan for these things and there is going to be an event this Friday. But when students don't abide by those um norms and practices that the school division has held uh with deep regard over a long tradition, then we will enforce um action when students don't abide by the code of behavior. And and and that is important for everyone to know. We did not enforce action against any student for their right to protest or their

187protesting. We did it when they broke a rule and left school property or did something along those lines. And that everyone needs to be clear out. Whether it was the decision on Roie Wade when students walked out, whether it was October 7th and the ongoing genocide war, what the students stood up against in Israel, whether it's this ICE out, whatever it is, the school has a responsibility, and we all have a responsibility, each of you in this room, to make sure our children know how to use their free speech responsibly. And that is the work we do also as a school division. the question of substantial disruption and material disruption. Uh we do everything we possibly can to minimize any disruption to the students who stay and try to do their learning. And so we

188work very hard on that. You know, a judge may decide differently, but that that's for some court to decide if someone doesn't like the way we do it. But we are committed to that work. And I think it's very important for us to say that and to say it out loud. um because this has become an issue over the last few days and we're going to see more of these. But I I I you know I I caution anyone to use the case law when really the the the argument there is whether it's um substantial and material disruption and our school division works very hard to make sure there's none of that. Um on the theater um I agree with the folks on this board. I said it earlier in my comments on CTE. Uh

189we're aware of the issue. the school division is subject to all codes regulations set by state and county and um you know there are a lot of layers to why this has happened um and it's concerning to all of us here. It's concerning that this law isn't being enforced evenly across the Commonwealth and putting us at a disadvantage. That is a problem. Um I think with Mr. Wil and Mr. Jesse now wanting to go over to the board of county supervisors. That's a great idea. I also think it's probably a great idea to tell the rest of the state that it's unfair that we are being singled out um for this. And you know um if Fairfax gets angry at us because we say, you know, hey, I'm not sure why you're not getting enforced

190like we are. Well, I'm sorry that that news got out. Um but you know we we will do what we can as a board to talk to our colleagues on the board of county supervisors to our colleagues at the state and and you know it may be a state code that neither the the supervisors can deal with as well and that that might be where it is. So I want to be very clear that this board is very sympathetic to this understands this issue and is cons you know working really hard on this. Um last uh for the young man that came to speak tonight on youth engagement it's great. We really truly appreciate the work you're going to do and keep it up and um and and email um our Spark Foundation or Dr.

191McDade's office to see if the schools can participate in any way to help support your effort. Um or call Erica Tridentic. She's ready to go. Um and then and then and then last um you know um I'm going to read the the the line of the day. How do we create meaningful post-secary outcomes for all students whether they choose to enroll, enlist, or seek gainful employment after high school graduation? I truly believe that this is the work this board has focused on, has done well with, and will continue to do so. And if you're writing a story about tonight's meeting, that's the story. Good night.