001I'd like to call this meeting the Prince William County School Board to order. A motion now in order for the approval of the meeting agenda. Vice or um Miss uh Jen Wall. Chairman, I move Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda. Do you have a second? Mr. Chairman. Yeah. I second. Any discussion? Please vote. All in favor? I. Is are the computers working tonight? Okay. Six yes, two not present at vote. Blake Williams. Motion passed. Motion to enter close session. Uh, Miss Wall. Mr. Chairman, I move that pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 and section 2.2-3712, the Prince William County School Board enter close discussion for the following reasons. One, to discuss with staff the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, discipline, or resignation of specific public
002officers, appointees, or employees of any public body pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1. two to review the grievance appeals of employees T25-00002, T25-00003 and T25-00004 pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 and 8. Three, to discuss with division council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving staff, students, and other civil litigation involving the school division under Virginia code sections 2.2-3711A7 and 8. Four. consultation with legal counsel regarding the legal implications of a development condition being profered to the Prince County School Board. Sorry, Prince County Board of County Supervisors in connection with county resoning application number RE 2- sorry 2024-000035 Alderwood at Kettle Run Pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A88 2-3711A88 and five to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security of school facilities, the safety of persons using
003such facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A19. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, I second. Miss Zaraport seconds. Any discussion? Please vote. All in favor? I. Hands in the air. Opposed. No opposition. Um at this time, the school board will enter close session and return in about 1 hour. Thank [Music] you. Heat. Heat. [Music] The Prince William County School Board will now um return to open session from close session. Close session certification is um required at this time. Uh Jen Wall. Right. I move that I move that pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia, the closed session of the Prince William County School Board meeting of June 4th, 2025 be certified
004by adopting the following resolution. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board. Do I have a second, Mr. Chairman? Miss Zaraport, second. Any discussion? Please vote. Um, nothing's popping up. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes unanimously. Uh moving on to close session action items. Uh motions in order for 9.01. Uh Miss uh Miss Wall 8.01. It says in the script. Okay. 8.01. Miss Wall. Mr. Chairman, I move that Principal
005County Schoolboard to approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in close session. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman. Miss uh Williams. A second. Any um discussion? Please vote. Are we still doing hand? They're they're troubleshooting, but hand vote will work. All in favor of motion vote I raise your hand. Any opposed? We have I need to see hands. So five yes, two abstain, one not present at vote Blake. Motion passed. Who abstained? Will introdenic. Okay, you got to you got to say it out loud. All right, moving on to um 8.0. Zero. What do we know? 8.02. Emotions in order. Miss Wall. Mr. Chairman, I move that Principal County School Board uphold the superintendent's recommendation of dismissal in employee case number T25-00002 and further that the chairman at large is authorized
006to provide a written decision to the employee reflecting the school board's decisions. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Williams, any discussion? Okay, please vote. All in favor? I. Hands up. I need to see them. Okay, good. Any opposition? Okay, no opposition. Motion passes unanimously. All right, moving on. 803. Mr. Chairman, I move that the principal and county school board uphold the superintendent's recommendation of dismissal and employee case number T25-00003 and further that the chairman at large is authorized to provide a written decision to the employee reflecting the school board's decision. Do I have a second, Mr. Chairman? Miss Williams. Second. Any discussion? Please vote. All in favor? Okay. Any opposition? No opposition noted. Motion passes unanimously. Miss Wall. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince County School Board uphold the superintendent's recommendation
007of dismissal in employee case number T25-004 and further that the chairman at large is authorized to provide a written decision to the employee reflecting the school board's decision. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Williams. Second. Any discussion? Please vote. Hand vote. All in favor? Yes. Hands up in the air. Okay. Any opposition? No opposition noted. Motion passes unanimously. At this time, we will move to the pledge of allegiance. I would like to invite in invite our student representative, Kaylee Tom, to lead us in the pledge. And she is from Brenville District High School. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. So before we move on to Thriving Futures
008Focus, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the director of communications, Diana Glada, and her staff for their assistance and coordination and putting together this important segment for each meeting. They have done a remarkable job over the course of the last few years frankly and this year especially Diana and your team for helping us with really you know in a division as large as ours with so many students um and faculty um being recognized at the national, international, state, you know, regional levels. We really appreciate, we want to recognize those students and those faculty and our staff who um achieved these recognitions. We believe this is really critical to let folks know how well our school division is doing and we're thrilled by the work Miss Galada and her team have done all year.
009So, let's give them a round of applause. It is certainly not easy because we have so much success in Prince William County schools to keep track of and so we want to thank you for all of that. Um what am I doing? Okay, got it. Um all right, sorry about that. I am a little bit out of whack today. Uh good evening everyone. Thriving futures focus is the opportunity to highlight the exemplary work being accomplished in our schools fulfilling 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 award at the state or national level. We appreciate how
010these honores have positively represented Prince William County public schools and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments. A as this is the last thriving futures focus for the current school year. We have a lot to celebrate. I appreciate the patience of our audience and guests as we recognize several groups and take several pictures. I promise we will try to be as efficient as possible. First, the school board must recognize two impactful employees in our division who've who are entering a welldeserved retirement, and that is Denise Heapner and Todd Ericson. Let's give them a round of applause. Denise Hebner, associate superintendent for student services and postsecary success, has dedicated her career to the belief that every student deserves the support, guidance, and opportunity to thrive, whether in the classroom, in their
011personal well-being, or on their path beyond graduation. Since joining PWCS in 2005, she has served at every level, teacher, principal, and associate superintendent with unwavering commitment and care. Her leadership has shaped critical work in career and technical education, student health and wellness, alternative programs, and postsecary success. On behalf of the school board and the entire Prince William County School community, we thank Miss Hebner for nearly two decades of devoted service, and we wish her all the best in retirement. You have made a lasting impact, and you will be deeply missed. And I I would personally add before we ask you to give some remarks that um Denise Hebner was a a pillar that kept the school division standing during the pandemic and for that the board will be in internally grateful and will always consider
012you a friend and a colleague. Uh Miss Ener, thank you Taran Latif. So, every great educator has a great educator that motivated them and inspired them. My mother is my inspiration who is a special education teacher, very proud to have followed in her footsteps. My father's taught me resiliency um overcoming difficult situations at all times with a positive attitude. My family I'm grateful for. Um my children are my pride and joy. They are two Prince County School graduates. Yes. I thank the teachers who gave them the love and care that they needed. Um, as I've have loved your children, I've loved all Prince County students and I have also loved being on this team. I'd like to thank both of my superintendants um that I have had the honor of working for and in particular
013Dr. McDade for your opportunity to you work with you and to grow underneath your leadership and you, Dr. Fenard. I have an amazing team of people that I work with. So, the division is in amazing hands. I know that it will thrive under um all of your leadership and for you on the board. Thank you for all your support and your guidance over the years. It's not um unrecognized. It's very appreciated and in particular the kind words. So, thank you. And I have to thank my amazing husband who's put up with me. So, um, our clerks will present a gift from the board. Thank you, Anna. Thank you, Miss Heapner. Thank you so much. Um, this evening, we also recognize the retirement of Todd Ericson, associate superintendent for Central Elementary Schools. For more than two
014decades, Todd has brought a calm, steady, I'm going to add sober, and student centered approach to every role he has held from the classroom to the principal's office and ultimately to his leadership of 23 elementary schools across our division. Since joining PWCS in 2001, as principal of Aquan Elementary, Todd has exemplified what it means to lead with both heart and results. Under his leadership, Aacoin became a Virginia Title One success story, earning multiple school of excellence honors and driving significant gains in student achievement. Um, hold on. Sorry. Mr. Ericen, on behalf of the school board, thank you for your outstanding service to Prince William County Schools, we wish you a fulfilling and well into retirement. I'll also add that Mr. Ericen's wife is retiring this year. Miss Ericson, who many of you may know is
015the assistant principal at Benton and was a longtime teacher there as well and and um and we are very grateful for her service and and your service as well. I I I would tell you that both of these folks Well, Todd, please let's make some brief remarks, please. Thank you, Chairman Latif, Vice Chair, Mr. Blake, awesome members of the school board, fabulous superintendent, Dr. McDade. It's been a pleasure to serve this profession for the past 38 years. It's been probably the the best professional piece of my life was when I was entrusted with the leadership of Aquan Elementary School in 2001. Uh Dr. Latif, it it was a it was a a joy and a pleasure to put together a strong culture that did wonderful things. And then to be entrusted in this role here
016as associate superintendent where I've served the schools for 17 years has been such an honor. And I I uh you know, as we as we kind of go into retirement, we we just uh I just want to say how thankful and grateful I I've been for the opportunity. thankful and grateful for you as a school board, for your support, for the school division, for the superintendent, for the kids of this wonderful school division. This is a destination school division, and I'm so proud and honored to have been a a part of of the success of this division for the past 24 years. Thank you very much. as you receive that gift, Todd. Um I I think he he and his wife frankly are a class act in in and textbook um management leadership on on
017deal in leading with compassion and empathy and compassion compassion and care. We we truly appreciate it. If it wasn't for you two both, you know, navigating the challenges of the pandemic, all of the things coming out of it, you know, under your leadership, both of you, we have moved as a school division from the 26th best school division in the Commonwealth to the 14th best. And we still have a ways to go and we've done it on the backs of your hard work. And we can't thank you both enough. Thank you very much. And we hope you enjoy retirement. All right, at this time the school board will now recognize our individual awardees. We will begin in the wonderful Kohl's district with our absolutely spectacular representative, Mrs. Lisa Zarapore. Thank you, Dr. Latif. Congratulations to
018our retirees and thank you for your service to Prince William County Schools. Moving on now, National History Day engages middle and high school students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students begin their projects at the school level, then compete to advance to districts, the states, and finally nationals. The Kohl's district would like to recognize Benton Middle School's Dean Latif for securing first place at the region 5 National History Day competition, advancing to the Virginia Day, Virginia History Day State Contest. Dean's paper entitled Battered Bodies: Medicine's Betrayal of Minority Communities secured the first place spot in the paper portion of the competition. We also recognize Dean for being aware of being awarded a medical college of Virginia Foundation's medical history prize for his same paper presented by Virginia Commonwealth University Health.
019Benton Middle School is represented tonight by assistant principal Mary Newman. Dean, would you care to share a few words? Yeah. So, firstly, I'm honored to be here this evening. Um, thank you so much for recognizing the National History Day competition. First of all, um, I believe it's a really great opportunity for all students to compete as well as I think it's something that we should also try to expand to our middle school and high school levels as we didn't really get as much participation this year or years before. But um so my paper was titled battered bodies medicine's betrayal of minority communities. Um so my paper was about how African-Americans in the 20th century were severely mistreated and betrayed by the medical industry. And I specifically highlighted the stories of Henry at Alax Fanny Liu
020Hamer and the Tuskegee syphilis study. So my paper ended with how only by holding institutions accountable and responsible for their research and treatment is the only way we'll be able to advance into their future with a transparent and trust trust trustable um medical industry. The stories of Lax HR and the Tuskegee study are a stark reminder of how science can veer away from responsible conduct and violate human rights in the worst way possible. Thank you again for recognizing my me and my school for this award and have a wonderful evening. All right, congratulations Miss Wall representing the uh incredible Gainesville district. Would you recognize your honores? I would be honored. Thank you, Dr. Latif. Since 1975 and through a partnership between the Virginia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division and the Virginia Youth and Government Association,
021the Model Judiciary Program provides high school students with the opportunity to learn about Virginia's judicial system through a series of trials and appeals while giving arguments in actual courtrooms in front of real judges and justices. The Gainesville district would like to congratulate Battlefield High School's Anand Sath and Sakshi Gauda. It looks like only one of you are here tonight for being the overall state competition winners at the 47th annual model judiciary program Supreme Court round. Battlefield is represented tonight by Principal Dolores Lucas and criminal justice teacher Thomas Finel. Did I say that right? Yes. Mr. Finel, would you share a few words on your students accomplishment and congratulations? Good afternoon. Uh, I just want to say that these young ladies uh, worked extremely hard. They put in a lot of hours uh, preparing for this
022competition. Um, and they did just a marvelous job. You had to be there to see it. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations battle. Oh, would our student like to say anything? Yeah. Good. Okay. Please do. First of all, I want to thank everyone on the board for having me here tonight. I know you guys all have a lot of issues to go through, so I really appreciate you taking the time to recognize me and Mock Trial and Model Judiciary. I think at like most of us, I started off as a very shy student when I came to high school, but through joining a program like Mock Trial, not only have I found my closest friends, but I've learned how to really speak up, find my voice, and advocate for things that are important. And that's
023an experience I believe all high school students should have. So, first I want to start off by thanking everyone involved in this journey. First, I want to thank my wonderful principal, Mrs. Lucas. Miss Lucas is beloved by everyone at Battlefield. I can assure you that confidently because she always supports us through what all our endeavors and is always the first one to congratulate us on any achievement. Next, I would like to thank our inschool sponsor, Mr. Finel for all of his help hosting us every single Monday after school in his room coordinating all the competitions and all the other work he does. Then I want to thank our out of school sponsors who could not be here tonight. Mr. James, Miss Solano, and Mr. Lasso. They are actually real life attorneys and they take the
024time out of their day to help high school students. They helped us a lot through this journey, especially on spring break, which I know is a time most people would take to relax. So appreciate them helping. And last but not least, the most important thank you I want to give is to someone who cannot be here tonight, my partner Anandia Sampath. Not over the past 2 years, I've gotten the absolute pleasure of being her mock trial partner. I've learned so much from her. And not only has she taught me how to become a better person and a better attorney, she's also become like an older sister to me. This was my last competition ever in high school with her. So, I'm excited to have closed out this year with the bang and to share it
025with one of my closest friends who's become like family to me. So, thank you all for having me today. We We have the lawyers the lawyers standing up first. Congratulations. All right, Miss Williams, representing the fantastic Woodbridge District, we have Miss Lori Williams. I invite you to present your honores. Thank you, Chairman Latif. The Virginia Department of Education has partnered with the VA250, an organization to get dedicated to commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to engage students across the Commonwealth throughout the study of civics, history, and democracy to promote the principles of engaged and informed citizenship. Included in this effort was the expressions of freedom competition, an opportunity for students to work, share their ideas and perspectives through artwork, videos, audio recordings, or essays in response to the question, "What does freedom
026mean to you?" The Whippers District is proud to congratulate Ripon Middle School's Axa Hanok. Did I get it right? Awesome. for being selected to represent region 4 in the 2025 Expressions of Freedom Contest. Axel's work was chosen to be placed in a time capsule in the restored pedestal of the statue of George Washington located in the historic Trfalgar Square in London, England. Ripon Middle is represented tonight by mathematics teacher Carmela Bertrand. Axon, would you share a few words on your accomplishment, please? Yes. Good evening, PWCS board members and PWCS families. I'm honored to be recognized today for my artwork. I'd like to thank my teacher, Miss Bertrren, for telling me about VA250 and encouraging me to compete. My submission on freedom is a combination of three ideas expressed in the title, the poem, and the
027painting. The title is the manifestation of freedom. It reflects on how freedom is not something that you truly know. You can understand a textbook definition of it, but you do not truly understand what it is until you experience it. you feel what it is. And my poem shows the cost of freedom, the things that you need to gain it, the things that you struggle with. And the painting shows a celebration between France and America at the unveiling of a Statue of Liberty. Statue of Liberty is a very powerful symbol of peace, friendship. And I just want to say for my inspiration for this painting, for my inspiration, I felt as if I didn't have a singular inspiration to show me what to do. Though the Statue of Liberty was a great part of my drawing,
028I felt as if these everyday things that I see at school, I learn about in social studies, these questions I ask my family members, my teachers, I feel like it just really draws me to ask questions. And I feel like it creates this artwork, this creation that I can do to inspire other people, to talk about what they feel, how they feel, what they think about something, to get their opinions. I feel like it's just a very good cycle and I'm just very honored. Thank you for recognizing me. Well, I I want to thank you and congratulate you again, AXA. Art is healing and you'll definitely represent us well in the future. Thank you, Miss Williams. Up next, the vice chair Tracy Blake of the spectacular NABSCO district. Thank you, Chairman Latif. The NAPSCO district
029also has a region for 2025 Expressions of Freedom Contest winner. The NAPSCO district is proud to congratulate Garfield High School's Connor Sigman for being selected as the overall winner for high schools in the 2025 Expressions of Freedom contest. Sigman's work was also chosen to be placed in a time capsule in the restored pedestal of the statue of George Washington located in the historic True Follower Square in London. Garfield is represented tonight by principal Matt Mat. Mr. Sigman, would you share a few words on this tremendous accomplishment? Of course. Good evening, Chair Latif, Vice Chair Blake, esteemed members of the school board, Madame Superintendent of Schools, Dr. McDade, and other distinguished guests in attendance today. Firstly, I want to sincerely thank you for this incredible recognition. It is truly an honor to stand here before you
030today and to be acknowledged by the Prince William County School Board for achieving top honors out of all Virginia high schools in the joint Virginia 250 in Virginia Department of Education's Expressions of Freedom contest with my submission entitled The Foundation of Freedom. This contest invited students in grades 3 through 12 across the Commonwealth to reflect on what freedom means to them in today's world. As we approach America's 250th birthday, I was extremely honored to have my entry selected as the top one from all Virginia high schools and even more humbled to know that my essay will be placed in a time capsule in the base of the newly refurbished Trafalar statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square, London for the next 250 years set to be opened on July 4th, 2276, America's 500th birthday. At
031our high school, we proudly represent the Red Wolves with all of us representing the Wolf Pack. Our principal, Mr. Mat, who's here today, often reminds us of a quote that has become part of our school's heartbeat. For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. These words have always served as a reminder that individual success is deeply rooted in the support of a greater community. The recent recognition reflects not just my voice, but the strength of the pack behind me, my teachers, mentors, classmates, and the entire school community that continuously encourages us to lead, to speak, and to grow. And finally, I am forever grateful to be part of a school district that encourages us to think deeply, write boldly, and engage meaningfully with the world
032around us. Thank you all so much for this honor of speaking with you today and for your continued support of the students ac across all Prince William County public schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. At this at this time I invite the honores from our first group of honores to come forward for a photo with the school board and receive a token of our appreciation. We'll begin with a photo of our retirees. Thank you and Denise. All right, second group. Come on. Google. I was like, they're Gainesville High School. That's okay. You're the same mag. Okay. I'm Steve. Okay. Marceller. Okay. So, I need you all to kind of take two steps forward. Okay. You're Marcella? Yes, I am. Daniel But it's going to be nicer looking. That was intense. This is only my
033second time and I haven't been that thing in a long time, but I'm sure it'll happen. She started I just can't do it. I'm so hyperolic. Get too much going on. But I'm glad that she's she's really she feels very natural and yeah made some progress I need a nap. I mean, it's better than No, we won't be able You guys step up if you all if from uh your black shoes this way. Step forward like one step. Yeah, let's let's try to make like a straight line. Okay, fantastic. Thank you everyone. Um Our next set of recognitions will focus on the arts. As Prince William County Schools is proud to recognize nine schools who earn the Blue Ribbon Award for Excellence in Music, I ask our district representatives to please introduce their district, recognize
034the award-winning school, and read um and um and the and acknowledge the accompanying staff. We will we will begin with Miss Erica Tradenic of the fabulous Brentville district. Miss Erica, thank you, Dr. Latif. The Virginia Music Educators Association Blue Ribbon Award is the highest honor for school music programs in Virginia, recognizing excellence in band, orchestra, and coral performances. To receive the award, all disciplines, band, orchestra, and chorus must receive a superior rating at the state music assessments. The Brensville district would like to recognize four schools who earned the blue ribbon award for excellence in music. Patriot High School, Katie Hyel Orchestra, Elizabeth Selby Choir, Katherine Williams Band, and Monica Siler, sorry, assistant principal. Gainesville High School Vincent Brick Band, Jennifer Malichek, Orchestra, Christina Shepard, Choir, and Neil Beach Principal. Gainesville Middle School, Stephen Ballas Band,
035Alexander Bert Key, Alexandra Bertkey Choir, Outton Peters Choir, Michael Personson's Orchestra, and Ed Schultz principal. Marstellar Middle School, Daniel Danielle Bowers Orchestra, Shannon Fairbank Band, Philip Kirststead Choir, Julie Failen Choir, and Alex Gray, administrative intern. Congratulations to our four blue ribbon award schools from the Brentsville district. Mrs. Zarapore, I believe you have the next honor. Thank you, Miss Trojanick. Uh the Kohl's district would like to recognize three schools who earned the blue ribbon award for excellence in music. First is Charles J. Kan Senior High School with Ben Bernstein in orchestra, Timothy Grant, band, Carrie Staley, choir, and Karen Riddle, assistant principal. Next at Osborne Park, we have Dominic Isizo for choir, Steven Kelsey for orchestra, Ashley Rataba for band, and Artisk Gill the assistant principal. And last, we have Parkside Middle School. We have car
036uh Katherine Huska for orchestra, Abby Iso and band, Daniel Lden band, Felix Pendi and choir, and Shannette Miller as our assistant principal. So I expect no less. These are absolutely fantastic teachers. Congratulations to our three blue ribbon award schools from the Kohl's district. I now turn the spotlight over to you, Mrs. Wall. Thank you, Mrs. Zarapury. The Gainesville District would like to recognize Bullr Run Middle School for earning the Blue Ribbon Award for Excellence in Music. So from Bullr Run Middle School, we have Alicia Bro with choir. We have Elizabeth Dver's orchestra, Connor Hoped, band, Christopher Short, band, and Matthew Fifthian, principal. Congratulations to Boran Middle for your Congratulations to Boran Middle for your outstanding achievement. Thank you for coming tonight. Next, I invite Mr. Wilk to share his recognition. Thank you, Miss Wall. The
037PTOIC District would like to recognize the PTOIC Shores Middle School for earning the Blue Ribbon Award for Excellence in Music. PTOIC Shores Middle School, Emily Davies, Andrew Kerper, Miles Matalavage, Amy Rman, and Kenneka Dorsy, the principal of the building. Congratulations, Poma. I also have the honor of one additional recognition sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation and now in its 26th year, the Best Communities for Music Education program recognizes school districts that demonstrate a deep commitment to music education. Prince William County Public Schools has once again been recognized as a 2025 best communities for music education. Yay. I wish to invite the Virginia Music Educators Association Outstanding Administrator Award recipient, Dr. Anna Marie Bolino, supervisor of arts in PWCS to share a few words on this designation and our music programs accomplishments. Good
038evening, Dr. Latif, members of the board, Dr. McDade. As always, I'm delighted to be here tonight to celebrate the achievements in the arts. In particular, all of these fabulous educators behind me and those in our schools every day. We're really proud that we have nine schools that were recognized as Blue Ribbon Schools. It's really no small feat. I can assure you. Um it really requires that a school um the teachers, the administrators, the community are really invested in the arts, in particular in music. And um we're really proud of the not just the teachers, right, but the students, the parents, the administrators, um all of those who really support our school communities. I wanted to particularly shout out that this year we have five middle schools who've received this honor and last year we only
039had two. And yeah, middle schools. Um, and this is pretty notable because research demonstrates that when we have strong elementary and um, middle school programs that students have a great foundation to be uh, even further their achievement in high school. And also, there's research out there that demonstrates that they actually are more likely p to persist in their music studies into high school. And so, we're really proud um, of our music programs at the middle school and also at the high school. And then I think it's also fitting that we're here to um once again recognize us as a best community for music education. Six consecutive years in a row. And again, that doesn't happen without these wonderful educators, our sport, our school board members, our senior leadership, our school leadership, our community who really
040invests in arts and music education in PWCS. I'm proud to be here and thank you again for recognizing our programs. Thank you, Dr. Bolino, for your significant contributions and thank you to our nine blue ribbon schools along with the staff and students who make it happen every day. At this time, I invite our designated schools to come forward for a photo and we'll begin with a photo of our four Brentsville district schools. I always make awesome. A lot of schools there's one or two. I think that's the only You go ahead and start to see Yes, thank you. But it still sounds really good. Thank you. Oh yes. Thank you. So, [Music] how many teams have that kids? Eight. Seven. Tell me how you want them to split. Oh, half and half with join it
041with POE. Okay. Okay, I got it. I got it. That's mostly Nintendo. Yeah, they pull their hair out. Yeah. You got to stay. She can't be seen. I'll stay behind you. We're good. We're good. Okay. Okay. Thank you once again and congratulations. We now turn our spotlight towards career and technical education with a recognition in Project Lead the Way and in robotics. We will start with Miss Swall of the Gainesville District. Miss Wall, thank you. Dr. Latif, Project Lead the Way is a nationally recognized program designed to expose students to university engineering courses at the high school level. The program is the largest pre-engineering program in the United States. The project lead the way or as PLTW distinguished recognition program celebrates a students sorry a school's commitment to helping students own their education by increasing
042student access engagement and achievement in their PLTW programs. The Gainesville District would like to recognize Battlefield High School for their selection as a 2024 25 Project Lead the Way Distinguished High School. Representing Battlefield's PLWT program is principal Dolores Lucas and technology education teacher Michael Spudik. We are so proud of your recognition. [Applause] Oh, what am I? No. Where? Whoa. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you, Miss Wall. Miss Aarapore. Thank you, Dr. Latif. The Kohl's district would like to recognize Kan High School for their selection of as a 202425 Project Lead the Way Distinguished High School. Kan's Project Lead the Way is represented tonight by assistant principal Katherine Karen Riddle and technology education teacher Cheryl Niles. Congratulations on your achievements. Thank you, Miss Argapore, Mr. Blake. Thank you, Chairman Latif. The Neopal district would like to recognize Garfield
043High School for their selection as the 20242 Project Lead the Way Distinguished High School. Garfield is represented tonight by principal Matt Mat and Project Lead the Way IED and Technology Educator, Teacher Ardina Lewis. We are honored to acknowledge your outstanding achievement. All right, let's give them a round of applause. Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Tradanic, the Brensville district would like to recognize Gainesville High School for their selection as a 20242 Project Lead the Way Distinguished High School. Representing Gainesville's Project Lead the Way is principal Neil Beachch and biology teacher Dr. Lisa EMTT. I extend my heartfelt congratulations on your accomplishment. I have the honor of introducing Dr. Dr. Sarah Martin, director of career and technical education to share a few words on what this accomplishment means to our students, staffs, and community. Thank you. Good
044evening, Dr. Latif, members of the board, and Dr. McDade. It is my pleasure to share with you the Prince William County Public Schools Project Lead the Way Schools of Distinction. As mentioned, the PLTW schools of distinction recognize and celebrate districts and schools committed to helping students own their education by increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in all of their PLTW programs. This rec recognition empowers millions of students across the United States to unlock their developing to unlock their potential in developing the in- demand real world knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in life beyond the classroom. To qualify for the high school level of schools of distinction, a school must meet the following criteria. The school offered and has students enrolled in at least three Project Lead the Way high school courses from any pathway
045during the 2324 school year. Those pathways are biomedical science, computer science, and engineering. At least 25% of the students in the school participated in the high school courses from any pathway or and at least 33% of those students who have participated during the school year also took at least one other project lead the way course during the 2324 school year or earlier, two or more courses in total. The school strategies and procedures in place ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate in Project Lead the Way programs. And some of those examples are strategies to support their participation. Could be using that data on the PLTW enrollment to identify gaps and implementing strategies to address those gaps. inviting STEM professionals from various backgrounds to speak on Project Lead the Way classes and/or providing students
046with additional academic supports to ensure they succeed in Project Lead the Way classes. It is my honor to recognize our 2425 Project Lead the Way high school distinction program recogniz recognition Battlefield High School which is the fifth year they've received this distinction. Kan High School the third year, Gainesville the first year. And please note that this is the first full-year program for Gainesville High School, not only in engineering, but biomedical science. And Garfield High School, which is the second year to receive this distinction. Thank you, Dr. Martin. And congratulations again to all of our distinguished schools. Next we turn to our robotics teams and we will begin in the Kohl's district with Miss Lisa Zarport. Thank you Dr. Latif. Robotics continues to grow in popularity across PWCS capturing the interest of students at all grade
047levels through afterchool clubs, competitions, and integrated STEM programs. Students explore realworld applications of coding, engineering, and problem solving. PWCS remains committed to preparing students for its future by fostering innovation, teamwork, and a passion for discovery. Tonight, I have the honor of recognizing two schools. Kan High School's team 20164T, who won the robot skills champion at the Virginia State Championship, and team 20164X, who won the 2025 Virginia V5 RC State Championship Create Award. I would like to recognize robot robotics coach Lauren Meyer for her guidance and the team members here who are with us tonight. Lauren, could you step forward and share with us who is here with you tonight? Uh yes. Uh here with me tonight I have our T team. Uh you can maybe just take one step forward and our X team. Our
048T team uh they were robotic skills champions at state. Uh they were also top 16% skills in the world. Uh they were competing also at the world championship in Dallas. Um our ex team won the create award for their innovative design. Um we just want to thank you so much for all of your support. We truly appreciate you uh for supporting these future engineers and innovators. Uh we couldn't do it without you. Thank you so much. And I don't think your team I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna brag on this team for just a second because your coach was telling me about how mindful you are about everything that you guys do, how well you work together, how you really take care of the spaces that you're in and and just you're model people. I
049and I just thought that was really cool when she told me all that. So um any so go home with that. Additionally, the Kohl's district would like to recognize Benton Middle School's team called Better Think of a Name for winning the create award. That better be that better not be a joke on here. Uh, Better Think of a Name for winning the create award at the VEX World Championship. I would like to thank their coaches Ryan Deloney and Vincasurala. Avisorala, I hope I said that correctly. Uh, for their contributions to this accomplishment. Um would either of you step forward and like to uh recognize your students? Yes. Hello and thank you. Thank you for having us this evening. On behalf of Coach Vinckett, just want to thank a few groups. Obviously, first and foremost, recognize
050the students who worked hard throughout the season all the way to the world championships uh with William, Sebastian, Eli, Reagan, Kata, and Charlie. Uh did great work coming together as a team. This is a brand new team that never worked before and made it all the way to the highest level of competition you can. Very impressive. want to thank the school, Miss Paches at Benton Middle School principal as well as the administration for giving us half of their um lecture hall for the entire year to be able to leverage the program. Uh thank the county. Denise and Aaron have been fantastic mentors to all the coaches across the program going all the way uh we both go back to elementary to before the pandemic times and helping the program grow. And then of course to
051the school board uh thanking you for your continued funding and support. This is really where students get those real world skills they'll need both the non-technical in terms of teamwork, how to talk to other adults, how to go through interviews and then the technical between designing, building, coding and overcoming challenges. Uh this has really laid a foundation and watching them grow throughout the year and excited for their growth as they go on into high school and beyond. Um this has really been a huge benefit. So thank you for your continued support. Excellent, Mr. Tanic. Excellent, Mrs. Argor. Mr. Tanick, next. Thank you, Dr. Latif. The Brentsville District would like to celebrate Patriot High School's team, Chesapeake crew, winning the Sea Perch, Prince William County Schools Division Championship, which earned them a spot to compete at
052Internationals this past weekend. there. The Chesapeake crew took first place, took the first place ingenuity award, the first place community outreach award, the first place mission course, and the first overall international class champion. Way to go, Chesapeake crew. Congratulations. Congratulations to their coach, Kenneth Kescll, who is here with us tonight. Kenneth, would you like to step forward to recognize your team? Yes. Thank you very much. Good evening and thank you very much for this opportunity. I'd like to introduce the Chesapeake crew, our our captain, senior Hayden Moss, who just graduated. Uh we have uh Jason Morris, Kayla Parker, and Evan Cutner. And over the past two years, these young men have been so incredible. like they they won the ingenuity award because they created such an amazing kind of diamond shaped really small robot that
053just blew out the competition. Um they won the community outreach award and you know the besides the fact that they are world champions. One of the things that impresses me even more is their willingness to give and share with others. They won the community outreach because they worked from elementary schools, middle schools helping them. They created a YouTube channel for the world to see. They created a firstofits-kind 3D animated video to show students, coaches, judges, and the robot nation how the mission course is supposed to be developed uh for and and compete in the competition. Um, and they gave a presentation while we were at the international competition and afterwards you've got these teams from China, from New Zealand, as far away as Texas, uh, coming and talking to them and just wanting to absorb
054and their willingness to share that is what really impresses me and what is what really impressed me to be part of this thing. Their creativity is amazing. They taught me how to create a robot and I think we have and you're going to talk drones next. I think I have the world's only underwater F-22 ROV. So, it's incredible what these four men have done. So, thank you very much for congratulations. Mr. Jesse, please share more about our winners in the Aaquan District. Thank you, Chairman Latif. The Aquan D district would like to recognize Lake Ridge Middle School Charlie and Delta teams for collectively bringing home four national trophies. And that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Four. And we're not done. and two first place banners at the 2025 aerial drone championship for middle schools northeast
055region. Okay. And notably, Delta team won second place for the skills trophy, second place for the teamwork trophies, and won the overall tournament championship trophies and banners. Also, Charlie team won first place in the community trophies and banner. And Lakeidge Middle School robotics coach, coach Heather Oden Oden, I'm sorry, is they're here tonight along with assistant principal Michelle uh Hendri. And Heather, would you like to say a few words? And congratulations. Thank you. All six of our Lacage Wolf teams made it to the national competition at Fairmont, West Virginia. And we would just all like to say thank you very much to assist our teams and allowing them to continue in their thriving futures. Uh to my administration, Miss Hindrix, Mr. Detro, Tally Spirino, Principal, everybody. I I can't ask for a better school, a
056more supportive staff. my teams. Um, my Charlie team, we have Zoe Coder, Ava Notebooker with their communication award trophy for the national one. We have Leelia Pilot, Amoris Co-Coder, Delta, we have John Notebooker, Caleb Co-Pilot, Daniel Pilot, and Alex Coder. So, thank you again for everything that you do, and we appreciate your support. Thank you. Well, well done. And and remind me, coach, were you guys here last year, too? Right. Yes. Yes. Let's do it again next year. Fantastic. No pressure. Mr. Blake. Thank you, Dr. Latif. The NAVSCO district would like to recognize Dale City Elementary School for their amazing accomplishment as the Virginia State Champions for the VEX IQ platform. This is the first time our school has even made it to the state state competition. So, we are beyond proud. The team named
057the Dunk King Donuts won under the coaching of Kevin Weaver and Michelle Merolo. Kevin or or Kevin or Rachel, sorry. Sorry, Rachel. I would like to invite you to recognize your students. Thank you. And uh just thank you so much for having us tonight. With us we have Christina and we have John Carlo. And we are just so excited to be here with you guys tonight and be able to celebrate this amazing achievement that our students were able to do this year. This is the first year that either of them have done VEX Robotics. And so to make it not only to the Virginia State Championship, then to win that and go on to Worlds was just a huge achievement for them and for our school. And so we would also like to thank the
058support of our administration, Mr. Slater and Miss Baldwin, and your support as well. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be able to do this with our kiddos. Congratulations to you all on a brilliant season. I have the privilege to introduce Aaron Lowry, coordinator of robotics in the department of student activities and athletics who will share a few words on this on these school's accomplishments. Good evening, school board members, Dr. McDade and members of the audience. Uh my name is Aaron Lowry and I have the honor and privilege of being the coordinator of robotics for PWCS. Thank you very much. Uh tonight I stand in awe of the incredible achievements of our robotics teams. A diverse collection of brilliant minds who have worked tirelessly, innovated fearlessly, and persevered against challenges to reach the levels
059of success they've reached this season. This is no small feat. It's a testament to their dedication, creativity, and teamwork. Qualities that define true champions. Robotics is more than just circuits, sensors, and algorithms. It's about problem solving, collaboration, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Each of our teams has demonstrated the heart and intellect required to compete at this level, proving that they belong among the best. Their late nights spent debugging code, refining designs, and perfecting strategies have led them to this proud moment. Winning isn't just about trophies. It's about the knowledge gained, the friendships built, and the inspiration sparked along the way. These students have shown us that with passion and perseverance, anything is possible. So tonight, we celebrate their success, their journey, and the limitless potential they hold for the future. Where they return
060with medals or lessons, they have already made us very proud. They are the true definition of building futures, one robot at a time. In closing, I'd like to thank the school board and Dr. McDade for taking the time to recognize the successes of these teams and for your continued support of our competitive robotics program. Congratulations to all of our teams. You are the champions of innovation. Thank you. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Congratulations everyone. I want to ask the families who are here tonight in the audience to please stand to be recognized. um a point of privilege. I I have been a robotics parent for four different children and at different levels of robotics and and and whether it's project lead the way or robotics, you are all learning how to collaborate, cooperate, and compromise the
061greatest skills that will help you succeed no matter where and what you choose to do in the future. And for that, I think the school division does an incredible service to our students to provide these opportunities. And while we recognize our winners here, every child who competes in robotics and Project Lead the Way are winning across our county. And we can't thank our administrators, superintendent, all of our principles and staff, and most especially our parents. Those of you who support our babies, our children, and and are there every day for that hard work, they cannot do it without you. and it is with you that you have made this school division really one of the top school divisions in the nation for competitive robotics. Um I'll share with you a quick story. It's on YouTube.
062I don't know if you know this is a member of the Prince William County community was named um Secretary of the Air Force. Dr. Troy Mink. He spoke and he was approved by the Senate last week and he spoke at the Air Force Academyy's commencement last week and in his speech he recogniz he was a robotics coach both at Benton Kan and then and with some private teams and he said you know I have he took a point of privilege in the speech to say there's a thirdyear cadet who served on his robotics team competitive robotics team and and he had coached the two older brothers in competitive robotics as well all in Prince William county and he said, "The youngest though, by far, the one at the Air Force Academy is the best and
063the brightest." And it's because the other two chose the Naval Academy. And and I I I think that speaks to the heart of what I think our school division is really trying to prepare you all for. You know, whether you end up at an academy or a community college or in the military or at a job when you leave here, we want you to have the knowledge, skills, habits, and minds to launch a thriving future for you and your community. And we care deeply about that. And so, I can't thank the parents here more. I mean, you being engaged and and being a part of this has made this school division a just a great place to to send our kids. Thank you. And let's give the parents another round of applause. Before we take
064pictures, I'm going to ask and Dr. McDade to say some words, but I have to share because this just came out today and and and that the division learned today that districtadministration.com, an organization that that looks at uh education leaders across the nation, named Dr. McDade one of the top 100 innovative and influential education leaders representing K12 education. I want to congratulate her. It is it is truly very deserving. Um I went through the whole list of all a hundred of them. They didn't rank them in order, but frankly, she was by far number one. Um congratulations. Um Dr. McDade, please share a few words for our about our honores this evening. Thank you so much, Dr. Latif, and thank you for acknowledging um the accolades from earlier today. What an incredible evening. As we
065close out our final thriving futures focus for the school year, I just want to take a moment to speak directly to each of you, our students, staff, families, and school leaders. Because of the significant size of the group this evening, I know that some of our honores have already left, but I wanted to make sure I call out the amazing talents of our students and staff members. So, congratulations to all of our honores. Your hard work, talent, and dedication have earned state, national, and international recognition, making you your entire PWCS community proud. Whether through powerful student research in history and law, creative expressions of freedom, blue ribbon music excellence, or innovative robotics and STEM achievements, you are living proof of what is possible when we believe in our potential and support one another. to our
066educators, our principles and coaches. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you because our students wouldn't be able to take advantage of these opportunities and reach their full potential if there were not educators and leaders like you that are sponsoring these activities. Um, doing all of the travel and all of the things that are necessary to coach and support and encourage our students and motivate motivate them to pursue their talents. So the work that you do not only matters, it is making a significant impact on the lives of our children. So a heartfelt thank you to you um for all of these accomplishments as well. You inspire and you uplift and I need you to know how important that is to our school system. I also want to um honor Denise Heapner
067and Todd Ericson. Thank you both for your years of service. Denise, your unwavering belief in students and your pioneering work in student services have left an a lasting legacy in Prince William County schools. You will be missed, but you are welld deserving of your retirement and the right to own your time, reclaim your time. Todd, your humor, analytical mind, and and belief in the possibility of every student has shaped the future of our elementary leaders and learners. We will miss you both deeply, but your impact will continue to echo across Prince William County schools and communities. And to everyone in the room tonight, as well as those watching um from home, thank you all for being a part of this journey, these are these recommen recognitions that you've seen throughout this school year through launching
068thriving futures really is not just a vision. And it's happening in our school system, in every classroom, in every hallway, and in every PWCS community. So, let us carry this momentum forward into the next school year as we continue to elevate, empower, and inspire every student and every employee every day. Congratulations. Thank you, Dr. McDade. At this time, I invite our honores to come forward for a photo with the school board and receive a token of appreciation. will begin a photo with our 2425 project lead the way distinguished high schools. We'll do a Charlie Delta. Why don't you guys all competition? There's a time. Hey, stick your head up. [Music] I can imagine. I just thought it was a really cool picture. comment about new engagement. Yes. Engagement. Hey guys, you're going to have to
069stand up. [Music] You want all I'm going to say it's not all, right? Yes, they're all but not okay. Yeah, you guys. Yeah, you can go up there. You could just take a go up there. [Applause] [Music] real. All right, Charlie and Delta. No. Let's not go for the camera section. can get closer. All right, we've got some parents after you, Tim. So, I [Music] guess with [Music] Take another one. Okay, thank you all for being here tonight. This concludes our thriving futures focus. Thank you for your patience on that. It is just always at the end of the year one of the great um great opportunities. Again, thank you to um Diana Glada, director of communications and her staff over the course of the year for helping us um with this. It's just truly
070one of the great great things about our schoolboard meetings. Um we are now moving on to um 11.01 adoption of consent agenda. Um you want to do it? Yeah. Miss Williams. Thank you. Uh I move that the Prince County School Board approved the public meeting consent agenda as recommended. Do I have a second, Mr. Chairman? Uh yeah, Mr. Second. Yeah. Um any discussion? Please vote. vote is 8 yes unanimous. Motion passed. Moving on to the approval of acknowledgements and recognitions. A motion is order. Miss Blake. Mr. Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board approves the adoption of acknowledgements and recognition as recommended. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Williams. Second. Any discussion? Please vote. Vote is seven. Yes, one abstain. Tradenic. Motion passed. Uh, moving on to citizen comment
071time. Those citizens who signed up in advance where the clerk may address the school board this evening when they're called to the podium. The citizen comment period for regular schoolboard meetings is one hour and citizens may speak on the agenda items or other topics germaine to the operations and policies of Prince William County Schools. Uh please use proper decorum manners while at the podium or you will be asked to step aside. We ask that the audience please be respectful to each speaker and refrain from any clapping, cheering or cheering to avoid disruptions 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 have eight citizens signed up to speak. When I call your name, please come into the
072podium and state your name and address for the record. Um, just so you know the order, it'll be Anand Desai, Meline, Brena, Morris Hill, Riley Oasey, and Patricia Bright for the first four. Anand Desai. Thank you teachers. Congratulations students and um appreciate you too school board for all your hard work this year. Uh I and no doubt many other working parents would like to be more active in our kids education and upbringing. So please support remote work work options to keep many of us off the road and the rest of us out of traffic jams. Uh well today I'm here to make suggestions about the proposed revisions to the grading policy which which 661 which requires feedback permits doovers and um provides various ways to demonstrate mastery including for instance um unit assessments discussions and
073projects. I think these overlap with what I've seen in the news at trouble grading and um also to ask you is extending principle of meeting students where they are and helping them grow to help help kids to let kids test ahead and skip ahead or grade accelerate. Um so I appreciate feedback and flexibility. It makes assignments and testing a collaborative opportunity rather than an unseammly exercise in sandbagging to beat the curve. This goes along with an announcement you all made in uh 2020 in conction COVID of um eliminating the validictorian title to uh prevent people from choosing classes to to game the system. Instead, they should, you know, learn what they benefit from. Um I would discourage penalties if there's reasonable cause for late assignment. Uh that it's fair to people's life circumstances. It's also
074um prevents the same hyper competition motive from making everybody u try to stick to the original schedule anyway. Um also be sure to effectively test the whole body of knowledge. Don't uh give somebody like one test on certain questions and then give them the same test they can study for. Um this is and um more broadly it's asked that you emphasize focusing on learning skills and knowledge and being able to test those against an objective standard that applies to everybody and can be communicated to the outside world. Um this is you know the hyper competition for thing things like grades is ends up wasted a lot of my youth wasted a lot of my u years paying for it and doesn't work out for some and they get bankrupt with worthless degrees. So, um, also
075make sure you're fair and objective and that, for instance, efforts at equity don't don't become institutionalized discrimination like the Harvard vs SFA decision. Uh, for for skipping ahead, that also helps people make the most of of school, which can be efficient way to learn lots of different things. It makes our county more marketable. Say every kid could get the equivalent of learning their best in Thomas Jefferson. and um we'll do the most it will decrease child care costs where kids are ready to enter kindergarten and make the most of our um students and families lifetime earnings. A year of extra earning power at the beginning is as good as 10 at the end. Thank you very much. Thank you Meline Bka Morse Hill. Thank you for having me today. I will say I have brought
076some materials with me that I will leave on this podium um because I am assuming I'm not allowed to pass them out or anything but it's some research that I have and I'll be starting here today and I want to say I sincerely thank you. Oh, are you Yes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, I sincerely thank you for giving your time and attention to me this evening. I am a jun junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and my exploratory early education from Prince William County has been what has enabled me to survive at such an advanced institution. I'm here to speak to you about my recent holistic study exploring math preparedness among Prince William County students at TJ, my results and my plan for action. I want to
077preface this discussion by enunciating I am in no way discouraging Prince William students, demeaning them or attempting to unfairly favor any group in any way. I am simply sharing my observations with you from a place of love and gratitude for my upbringing. So my study was simple and straightforward. I interviewed students from Prince William at Thomas Jefferson High School with three questions. I asked them, "How would you define the math experience at TJ?" "How would you define the math experience at Prince William? and what do you think is an environment conducive to comprehensive and deep learning in math? List some factors. I cross-examined the answers to these questions and compiled a collection of case studies for each student. Overwhelmingly, students mentioned they felt behind in mathematics despite excelling extraordinarily in other areas. The reason for
078this, the TJ curriculum omits foundational concepts and expects students to come into the school absolutely 100% fluent in these things. students answered my final question with some variation of the fact that they needed more reinforcement of foundational concepts. With these results in mind, I crafted a program alongside an experienced TJ math teacher from Prince William County designed to do exactly this. Myself and my peers do not lack the ability to comprehend at the same speed or difficulty as students from other counties. There is simply possibly a weaker bridge between elementary and advanced concepts that we want to work to remedy. My proposal to amend this is a two-week optional math intensive program revisiting concepts like factoring, solving inequalities, and more. I have endorsement from TJ teachers willing to volunteer their time for Prince William students
079as well as I happily would. What I asked from you is to review the syllabus I have here with me tonight, which you'll find in the blue folders that I passed out, and to help publicize the program by working with me to possibly inform middle schools who have graduating students that will be attending Thomas Jefferson High School. Thank you so much for your time and for listening to me tonight. It's an honor to be here, and it was so wonderful to see all of these students recognized for their achievements. I mean, some of their speeches just gave me chills. It was amazing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up is Riley Oasey. Good evening, Dr. Latif. Board members, Dr. McDade. My name is Riley Oasey and my address is on file. It's been a
080long time since I've been at this podium. As a veteran teacher in this division, I spend the summers reflecting on the year behind me. the good, the bad, and the truly excellent. Tonight, I respectfully ask every adult in this room to do the same. I come before you not just as a teacher, but as someone deeply invested in the future of our children. I believe in the power of education to to transform lives. But I need to be honest. I'm not sure I can make it the five more years I need to reach retirement. Every decision made by central office leadership should be guided by two essential questions. Is this good for our students? Will this create more work for our educators? If the answers are no and yes in that order, then we are
081not making the right decisions for our kids. One more step added to one more form for one more person to check one more box. This is not what's best for our kids. The crushing workload placed on teachers is pushing us to the brink. The endless stream of accountability measures are stealing time and energy from the very thing that matters most, our students. The pressure to collect data, raise scores, raise them higher, and keep going higher, and administer constant testing has reduced our students to numbers. It has stripped them and us of individuality and joy. Every time a new directive is issued, I wonder, is this from the national level? Is it from the state? Or from here at home? Regardless of where it starts, we cannot continue at this pace. What will raise test scores?
082Let teachers teach. Let us stay in our classrooms and do the work we know how to do. Why are all students expected to take the same tests, the same retakes, the same formatives? Uniformity does not raise achievement. What will improve outcomes? Give teachers the time and space to plan, collaborate, and reflect. Are CLT notes really improving instruction, or are they checking a box? What will help? Encouraging administrators instead of pressuring them for better and better and better data. They cannot lead effectively when they are constantly focused on what's wrong. This is not about being frustrated. This is about a system that many feel is breaking. If we are losing our educators, thank you, Miss Oasey. It will impact students. Thank you, Patricia [Applause] Bright. Hi, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to
083you this evening. Uh, my name is Dr. Patty Bright. I'm a resident of the Yakau district. I'm a proud foster mom of an Osborne Park High School student. Um, I'm also a veterinarian and that's why I'm here to speak to you tonight. I am the former chair of the animal Prince William County Animal Advisory Committee. Um, I'm here to ask to request that you consider the creation of a veterary science or an animal science CTE program. I know this is a discussion that's been brought up here before. I know there's been support for this and I just really want to reiterate from the veterary community as well as other animal science related communities how important this is. As a veterinarian, I've spoke with a number of my colleagues not only at veterary clinics but also
084uh groomers, breeders, um boarding facilities. And what I'm hearing over and over again is there just real shortage of staff that are qualified to fill these positions. Um, we know that both Fairfax and Arlington County have similar CTE programs. I've spoken directly with the leads of those programs and they have indicated to me that they have a very, very strong student demand for those programs. We also know that when the graduates come out of these programs, they have very marketable skills. So again, this is not just for veterary clinics, but we're also looking at a host of other uh businesses here in Prince William County that would benefit from this. But it's not just going to benefit those students who might want to graduate from high school and immediately go into the career world. It
085would also benefit those who may consider doing higher education. So for example, the Northern Virginia Community College, they have a program out there right now for licensed veterary technicians. There is a dramatic shortage of license licensed veterary technicians out there. If you go back and look at the um Bureau of Labor Statistics, they did a report back in 2020 and they indicated that there were about 110 licensed veterary technicians across the country. In the past 5 years, the number of jobs have grown by 20%. And they are actually projecting that in 2029 there will be a gap of 50,000 individuals that are needed in that field. So, as you can see, there's a real strong demand out there for this program. So students would have the opportunity to go on if they wanted to and
086do a licensed veterary technician program at at uh NVCC, but it would also benefit those who may want to go on to college to go to veterinarian, to become a veterinarian, to do biomedical research. The good news is the state already has an approved curriculum for this. So there's materials and sources out there. Fairfax and Arlington are willing to help support and provide uh their expertise and and lessons learned. We have a fantastic teacher over at Osborne Park named Dr. Christina Melbourne. She's a PhD as well as a licensed vet technician. I've spoken at length with her and she is very excited about uh this idea and helping to create this program. It aligns with the strategic vision that the board has laid out. As I said, Dr. Martin, I've spoken with her in the
087past. She's given support. I know our PTOAC representative has given support. So, what I'm really asking is that I hope you will consider putting this in the strategic plan for 2027 and allow us to begin to implement this process. And I know that the animal shelter is also very interested in working with you on this because I work very closely with them. So I think there's a lot of support for this program. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um next up, Jacqueline Thurman. And then after her, just so everyone knows, Katherine Lechbat Lechbod, Robin Norris, and Ana Stroy. Jacqueline Thurman. Okay. Jacqueline Thurman. Katherine Lechbad. Okay. Good evening. My name is Katherine Walker. My address is on file. It's nice to be back. Um, Chairman Latif, members of the board, Superintendent McDade, ladies
088and gentlemen, I come before you with comments and concerns regarding the code of behavior for school year 2526. I am currently a middle school teacher and a very mature graduate of Woodward Senior High School. Student Bill of Rights. I sponsored the student voice committee at my middle school and I loved every moment of it. The students gave some input for the student bill of rights. While not legally binding, it is a good way to let the voices of students be heard. As a civics teacher, I applaud the power of agency and advocacy it can bring. The student bill of rights mentions career support in 1.2b. And I will assume that career support includes teaching students the societal expectations of the workplace, especially in corporate America. As such, let's talk about clothing. Student dress. Okay. Students
089are urged to dress for success. End quote. Can we define that please? Is it success in the modern social media environment? It appears that our students think so and they are passionately hitting their mark with style and flare for bare skin and sagging pants. Or is it success in a business or work environment? Objective 2.1 in the strategic plan says PWCS will prepare all students for post-secary education in the workforce. The way students present themselves is a key aspect of being prepared. We need to have clearer definitions of what is acceptable regardless of the style and standards in social media. Parents, please encourage your students to dress more like they are going to a job and less like someone who is going to be on social media. MTSS section 4.1 of the student bill of
090rights speaks of a respectful school environment. Article 5 speaks of a positive and safe school climate environment. And I ask that these lessons be being respectful and positive and safe begin at home, continue throughout the community, and get reinforced and solidified at school. In my opinion, the ability, excuse me, in my opinion, the idea of accountability and responsibility have begun to erode in the larger community. This spills over into our classrooms. Assault and battery. I bring your attention to what I hope is simply a typo. The 2426 code of behavior that I have indicates the assault and battery of a staff member does not need to be reported to the police. Page 25B SO2. I downloaded the code of behavior yesterday. I double checked it right before this meeting. It says no. Number 10 on
091page 20 says violations of the law will be handled by referring the case to the law enforcement officers in addition to the use of other duplicitary measures. simp. Surely I I cop surely the copy of this download is a mistake because earlier in the media it said yes. Thank you so much Miss Kath Robin Norris. Hi, I'm Dr. Robin Norris and my address is on file. Thank you for your willingness to care, listen, and learn about the reading and writing difficulties that at least 15% of students face. Your attention to these issues is deeply appreciated. I urge you to also remember that as summer approaches, sadly, children can drown in silence, even in a p pool full of people. In our schools, some children with dyslexia and disgraphia are sinking silently every day. They are
092bright, capable, and full of potential, but without the right support, they are left struggling beneath the surface. Their challenges are often invisible, but no less urgent. I know you're given guidance from VDOE, but they too are learning at the same time as you. So, they cannot always offer the suggestions as fast as they need to come. You are the leaders of the lifeguards. Your choices can shape whether these children are seen, heard, and helped. Teach them not only how to swim, but how to stay afloat, how to navigate both the calm and storm, so they can recognize both the beauties and the dangers of the world of the written words around them. As a counselor, I have seen that some may need to access the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. As a counselor, they also
093may have turned to scripture such as the Bible, the Quran, or the Torah. Some may wish to write notes of thanks or share expressions of love or reflect quietly through their own thoughts in a journal a counselor or friend may have given them. For those reasons, I implore you to keep empowering them to do this in the ways that work for them, through their eyes, through their ears, and through their fingertips with the tools, methods, and technology that affords them the access they deserve to uphold their right to read. You have the opportunity and capacity to make a lasting difference not simply in this county but in this state. As stewards of our children's futures, please meet with a person like Dr. Howard Bell III from Learning Ally because he has made the commitment to
094innovation and impact as you have. Continue conversations with actor and advocate Amir Baraka. Help all those children to rise to the level of abilities that they truly have. I thank you with gratitude and continued hope and I hope you all have a good summer. Thank you. Thank you, Ana Stroy. Anessa Stroy. Okay, that concludes citizen comment time. At this time, we will move on to student representative time. Um, tonight we have our two student reps and our alternative alternate student rep with us this evening. All three of these accomplished students have graduated from their high schools and tonight is their last school board meeting. We are proud of their leadership and successes this year and we'll give each of them time to address the board tonight. When I call your name, please step up to
095the podium. First, we have Al Medina Melendez from a senior well a graduate of CD Hilton High School who graduated on May 28th. Almadina will attend the University of Virginia. Congratulations, Miss Almadina. would you'd like to please share a few words? Thank you. Uh good evening to everyone who took the time to be here today and for the people watching. My name is Amul and I'm honored to be here as one of the student representatives to the board. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and voice the opinions of fellow students in Prince William County. If I'm not mistaken, this was the opening I gave on my first remarks as a student representative to the school board. Now, it will be the opening of my last remarks. Over several meetings, I've had the
096privilege of serving as a liaison between the school board and students across the county. It is connections like this that makes Prince William County Schools thrive. Now, as a graduate of City Hilton High School, I look forward to the future. I am happy to know that other students will follow in my footsteps and sit at the days proudly representing PWC. Alongside the school board members Alla and Kaylee, I have been able to make unforgettable memories. Seven years ago, when I first moved from Peru to the US, I would have never imagined that this would be my reality. This is why I want to encourage every student out there to keep trying. Otherwise, you will not be able to find out how capable each and every single one of you are. Finally, I want to thank
097those that made it possible for me to be here today. In particular, my mom and my family. They have always been there for me. This includes driving me to and from meetings whether they liked it or not. My experience shaped me. They are what made me believe that everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard and I want to help people discover it. I know that being part of the school board has brought me one step closer to this goal. For that I am also very thankful. Dr. Mcdade, Miss Biola, board members, peers, everyone. Thank you for giving me the honor to be one of the 2024 2025 student representatives to the school board. Thank [Applause] you. Wonderful. Up next we have Allah Rashid, a senior from Unity Reed High School who graduated on
098June 2nd. Alla will attend Colombia University. Congratulations. Allah. Would you please share a few words? Thank you. So, good good evening to everyone here today. I'm happy to be back speaking up here even if it is my last time doing so and my first time back here. So, it has been such an honor to be up here in the deis representing my peers alongside Almina and Kaye. Throughout the year, I've been giving numerous opportunities within this position to find my voice as a leader and a student. from going to the Capitol for a day to speak about SEAL to the numerous student workshops that I've worked on that I've helped participate in and also helped take charge and lead and each have really just developed who I am as a leader and what I do
099as a student and this opportunity really has been beneficial for me and I hope it continues to grow the way it has throughout the county since it first started. It really is something that I've enjoyed being a part of and it's something that I really honestly would not imagine high school without. It's been so nice. Student voice is truly so important and allows for students to have more opportunities and become more confident. And if you told me last year, I would be in awe of myself that I did all this. I really was not expecting to get this position last year. I was I remember it was a year ago. Tomorrow, I like opened my email and I was like, "Wow." It was just a very shocking moment for me. And I think that that's
100really the beauty of student voice, the growth that one a person has. And that's what I experienced as a leader. And I really went from a shy and reserved person which everyone kind of faces at some point I think to someone who actively tries to now speak out for not just myself but others. And I just want to say thank you to everyone on the school board, everyone who helps out with the school board. And especially thank you to Dr. McDade. It's been so nice sitting next to you. You've been so kind and helpful to all of us. And lastly, thank you to Miss Viola and all the student voice committees and student sen sponsors because you've all done so much for just myself and others throughout the year and throughout the county. So, have
101a good night. Thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] guys. And on the dis this evening, we have our alternate student representative, Kaylee Tom, a senior from Brensville District High School, graduated on May 30th, 2025. Kaylee will be attending the College of William and Mary. Congratulations, Kaylee. The floor is yours. Hello. Good evening, y'all. We have made it. We're almost there. The finish line is insight. For some of us, we have already crossed it. Congratulations to the PWCS graduates of the class of 2025. I'm so excited to see the impact that we're able to make in this world. Whether our next steps are college, trade school, the military, the workforce, or something else entirely, I know that we will go on to and accomplish great things. I want to thank all the teachers, parents, administrators, and community
102partners that have aided our graduates in reaching this crucial milestone in their lives. Your commitment to us every day is what allows us to succeed both in and out of the classroom. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the county and its language initiatives with the last with several hundred graduating seniors receiving the prestigious Virginia Seal of Biiteracy last Tuesday. It was a beautiful ceremony and I am extremely proud to report that all three of us, Al-Muda, Alla, and I all received our biiteracy seals alongside of our diplomas. Prince William County has done so much work to increase the pathways available for students to receive this seal. And that was clear in the significant increase in seals awarded from last year to this year. And I also want to take a moment to
103express how thankful I am to be a part of a school district that truly values student voice. I cannot wait to see how student voice will continue to grow and make a positive change within Prince William County in the coming years, especially with the recent passage of the Prince William County student bill of rights. I also cannot express how much this experience has meant to me and my peers. We have met so many amazing and talented people, including each other. Shout out to my fellow reps who are amazing. Um, and I hope that the reps next year will have just as much of an amazing experience as we did. And I'm so thrilled to find out who will be sitting in this chair for the next school year. I want to end this all by
104saying how proud I am to be a graduate of Prince William County Public Schools. To all my teachers both at Pennington and Brentville, thank you for everything you've done for me over the past decade. To Miss Merrill, Miss Living Good, Miss Bennett, Mr. Wonders, Miss Meal, Miss Johnson, Dr. Mines, and many others. I would not be on this day as today if it were not for you. To my parents, thank you for pushing me to be the person I am today. To this board and its members, thank you for making the tough decisions over the past couple of years, especially as those decisions have become less and less clear-cut. To Dr. McDade, thank you for being such an amazing role model and inspiration, and I aspire to one day be a leader like you. To
105Miss Viola, I don't know how you do it all, but I'm so grateful that you continue to advocate for our voices as students. Thank you everyone for everything. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for this [Applause] county. Wow. Um couple words that I just add to to these remarkable young women. Um they are the senior class who started uh miserably in masks in ninth grade and have navigated incredible change over the course of those four years. And in this year alone they navigated the change of an election of a um uh you know contested argument on how we're going to do with school uh cell phones moving forward. They've helped us with security in the schools. They've helped us with um grading change policies and they've been a voice for
106um all of the students across Prince William County. I want to commend them on their ability to collaborate with each other, with this board, with the student senate, which folks is is a tremendous asset to our school division. And you have overseen a historic document for the first time Prince William County Schools student um um Bill of Rights. Um, and and I think that is um a legacy that you each will leave here uh as you go forward. And I want you to know that this board will always consider you a friend and a colleague moving forward. And we wish you nothing but the best in your future. Um and uh and we know you'll make us all very proud. Thank you very much. Another round of applause for them. Mo, moving on to uh
107Oh, yeah. We were doing a picture. Okay, let's do a picture with the schoolboard members and their family. And we have some gifts for them. Yeah. Okay. Next up is the appointment and announcement of the next year's student representatives for the 2526 school year. Uh that'll be 1402. Uh vice chair Blake. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board appoint Karina Grover and Bula Sara as the student representatives to the Prince William County School Board and appoint William Tyler as the alternate student representative to the Prince William County School Board for the 2526 school year. Mr. Chairman, yeah, I second. Um, so discussion. Um, can we get the names of the schools? What schools do these students represent? Kan and Hilton. Okay. Can Can the students and what student to
108what school? Please and Brensville. Yeah. Can we say it in the mic? Please turn it on. Uh Karina Grover is from Kogan. Okay. Bula is from Hilton. And uh Billy Tyler is from Brentsville. Okay. Fantastic. All right. Well, no, they're not here, I don't think. But uh we have a second. That was a discussion. Please. Oh. Oh, yeah. Please stand. Yeah. Oh, we got to vote first. Oh. All right. So, that was Bula Sarsa. We're going to vote first and then we should clap. Uh, please vote. Let's make it official. The vote is eight. Yes. Motion passed. Oh, congratulations. Fantastic. Wonderful. We look forward to working with you, Bula, and for um our other members next year. All right, let's go. Superintendence time. Dr. McDade. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening. Good evening.
109I want to start um as we are now in June speaking on the diversity of our community. We always say in Prince William County Schools that diversity is our superpower. Inclusivity is a core value within our strategic plan and we're committed to a positive climate and culture. Which is why we join many others in recognizing June 2025 as LGBTQ plus pride month. We acknowledge our students and staff because we care and we are committed to encouraging school environments that are safe, secure, and welcoming to everyone. Creating this environment is a necessity to fulfill our vision to see every student graduate on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves in their community. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the class of 2025. As
110students walked across our stages, placing their diplomas in one hand and shifting tassels from right to left in the other, I could only be proud of every student. Thankful for each supportive family member and grateful for the educators who helped ensure every student graduated with a concrete post-secary plan in their back pocket to secure their future. And with graduation comes the close of another successful year with our school board student representatives. And I too would like to personally thank Almadena uh Lour and as well as from Hilton High School as well as Alashraad from Unity Reed and Kaylee Tom from Brinsville District High School. Our student leaders contributed significantly to the school board's mission by serving as dependable partners in the educational process with our students, families, and the community. I was just incredibly proud
111of the way that they elevated their voice on behalf of their peers throughout the county. really representing all 90,000 plus students and ensuring that their voice um rever was reverberated throughout the county on behalf of their peers. I deeply value your insights, involvement, and contributions both within the boardroom and in our school communities as well as all of the work that you've done being a part of student voice committees and the Senate. You have been extremely productive this year. It's been a successful year and I couldn't be more proud to have you sitting next to me in every single board meeting. I know the student representatives selected tonight um uh to serve one-year term during the 2526 school year will continue to lend their unique voices to help better PWCS. I've worked uh with Bula.
112I've worked with Karina as well. Um excited to get to know Billy from Brensville, but they have been incredible leaders throughout the school system. So, it comes as no surprise that they will be our new student representatives to the board. Um also earlier today, something exciting happened. We had the distinct honor of congratulating three of our amazing principles for being selected to participate in the prestigious 2526 Khan Distinguished Principles Fellowship. The Khan Fellows program acknowledges and supports efforts to improve education by assisting school leaders. The fellowship provides principles with opportunities for professional, intellectual and personal development. It is an extreme extremely rigorous and competitive process and our principles join only 60 principles recognized nationwide for this program. This isn't a PWCS program. We didn't do the evaluations. We nominated what who we thought were the
113best and brightest leaders that we wanted to represent Prince William County. And then the national organization took them through an application process, did school visits, interviews with families, interviews with students. Um, and these three leaders uh were selected to represent Prince William County as distinguished principles in the country. Dr. Heather Abney from Woodbridge Senior High School. Also, congratulations to Dr. Abney on earning her doctorate this year. Mr. Matthew Fifthian from Bull Run Middle School and Mr. R.J. Luciotti from Patty Elementary School. And as con a con fellow, each principal participates in a one-year program focused on real world challenges and measurable outcomes within the con professional the uh within the con professional development model. And the model allows fellows and what a person they select as what is called an ally and that's an aspiring
114leader that they will develop individuals identified by the principal for their leadership potential to apply academic research more effectively to practice and enhance their learning experience. Um, a lot of that training will happen at Colombia, welld deserved by our principles, and we look forward to learning about all that they will experience and bring back to enhance teaching and learning in Prince William County. We are incredibly proud to have um these three individuals again who are part of a group of only 60 nationwide to be selected. That concludes uh the superintendent's time. Dr. Latif. Thank you, Dr. McDade. up next for committee updates. And we have um tonight we have two committee updates from Miss Wall um Gainesville representative regarding uh as she chairs the chair of the internal audit committee and student health advisory board.
115Miss Wall, floor is yours. All right. Thank you, Dr. Latif. Um internal audit committee update. I'll begin with that one. We met on May 7th at 4 in the K four o'clock in the KC and the committee consisted of myself, Mr. Jesse, and Mr. Blake who was attending for Dr. Latif. Um we received a status update of audit activities. These included a review of completed school audits which have primarily focused on turnover audits um for when there is a change in leadership such as a new principal. We also discussed audit observations and findings. We spent some time discussing the proper way to approach oversight over parent organizations such as PTO's and fundraising as well since this is an area that does deserve further attention in um our approach for how we interact with the PTO's.
116Um, we received information, we received information on follow-up observations um, from previous audits, both those completed and those in progress. And we discussed the fundraising activities audit and opportunities for strengthening controls in that area. Um, we covered in progress audits and upcoming activities um, including an employee retention audit which is in progress. The Office of Internal Audit is looking to hire an executive administrative assistant this summer, bringing the office to three. Um, we also covered the 2025 meeting schedule and briefly reviewed progress on our 2025 audit plan. So, the audit committee will internal audit committee will meet again on September 3rd, 2025. I want to thank everybody who serves on that committee for your attention um to audit matters. Moving on, I have a committee update for the school health advisory board. Mr. Wil and
117I serve on that committee together. We met on May 30th at 9:00 in the morning here at the KC. Um, and I'm I appreciate the opportunity to be on this committee. The meeting objectives were to review and and approve regulate well, I think we approved it um to regulation 275, which is the wellness plan. Um we had a really good discussion uh as we went through the plan and gave some feedback on the regulation for consideration. Another meeting objective was to be informed of the use of secondary devices in the population of students with type 1 diabetes which this board spent some time and attention on earlier in the year. Um I as I've spoken many times before, this is a topic near and dear to my heart because I have a type 1 diabetes
118student um who ca went K through 12 through Prince William County Schools and I saw the evolution of care from when he began as a very tiny little kid to when he graduated. Um so I know I know this topic. Um the pilot went really well and will be fully implemented at all schools where our parents are requesting support with remote glucose monitoring. This is going to be awesome. Um, I can't tell you how many hours my student missed of class instruction because three times a day he had to walk down to the nursurse's office and sometimes had to stay there while his blood sugars regulated. Um, and that was year upon year upon year. So, this will allow students to remain in the class as much as possible, which will be amazing for our
119students and really does put students first. Um, and it's the pilot went really great. So, everybody was happy with it and they learned some things too which we'll be able to roll into the next year. Um, and there I they said that there will be a parent meeting on June 11th to gain additional feedback because it's a very collaborative effort between staff and parents because we want to be there to support our kids. Another meeting objective was to receive an update on the secondary school's vaping pilot. Um, this was addressed this was addressing a couple of objectives. One, students who weren't using the bathroom because they felt unsafe because of drug flagrant drug use going on. and two students who two students who didn't want to be associated with this kind of behavior, didn't want
120to get caught up with it. Um, you know, so they would didn't want to get kicked off of teams or anything like that. Um, there were seven schools that participated in the vaping pilot, three middle and four high schools. Um, and I wish to note that we funded vape detectors in all secondary schools for fiscal year 26. Um, and the security crisis readiness department will coordinate for installation. Um they'll also be developing standards of excellence guidelines and helping us focus on maintaining a healthy and safe learning environment for our students um and all of our schools. Um another meeting objective was to receive an update and provide feedback on immunization vaccination clinics and those are going really well because we have requirements where students need to have certain vaccinations in order to attend our schools.
121Um, we also received an update on Hazel Health and that's going well. And another meeting objective was to get information on BOTVIN life skills training, which is opioid and opioid abatement after school program, I believe. Um, and um, both Mr. Wil and I had to leave to get to a graduation, so we didn't actually get to hear that part, but I'm sure it went well. Um, and lastly, the meeting discussed membership for the coming year. So, it's a great committee. um they do a lot of good work and um I if anyone has any questions they can ask me later but I just wanted to let kind of inform the board about what we talked about and what we're doing on that committee. So thank you very much. Thank you Miss Wall. Um first off
122I want to I want to thank her for chairing the highly soughtafter um position on the internal audit committee. Um she has done a spectacular job chairing that and and and I think it's important to note that the county has a AAA bond rating. That AAA bond rating is based on the integrity and um financial um uh fidelity the school division has with our $2.5 billion dollar budget and and that is directly overseen by this school board and internal audit. And um that work is very important and and and and I appreciate her thoroughess on that work and and her commitment to working with the joint audit committee with the county. Um thank you very much. Um and then and maybe you'll do it again next year. Yeah. Um all right, moving on to the
123the highly soughtafter position that so many people compete for. Mr. Wilk is looking at that now. Look at him. He's shaking his head like I'm on it. Uh moving on next to the uh 14th high school presentation. Um Dr. McDade. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time, I would like to um invite B Vernon Bach, our chief operating officer, to the to provide to the board an update on the 14th high school. and we do have um our partners with us and so I know that they'll be doing a brief presentation. Yes, thank you Dr. McDade. Uh good evening uh Chairman Latif uh board members and Dr. McDade. As you know, we're in the uh process of designing our 14th high school and we're very excited and want to design that for all of our
124programs that you've seen here tonight and then programs for uh into the future. Uh I'm excited that we've partnered with the DLR DLR group through this design and it's 100% employeeowned uh design firm that has a global footprint with over 1,700 design professionals uh who are backed by the entire uh resources of their firm. uh Tim Shimp who is a former superintendent and now uh employee of the DLR group uh will be uh guiding you through the presentation tonight and we'll be reviewing for you all of our stakeholder engagements along with the synthesis of what they learned through these engagements and how they will be incorporating this into the design of the 14th high school. So at this time I'd like to invite Tim to join me at the podium and he'll introduce the rest
125of the DLR group. Very good. Um, and I will I'm going to get right into it to to save time and then we'll um finish up here uh in about 10 or 15 minutes. So, again, I'm Dr. Tim Shimp, uh, former superintendent and lifelong educator, a member of DLR group. U, we're very honored to partner. Um after sitting through your uh earlier presentations and recognitions, I can certainly uh say that uh you've invoked uh hope and and certainly a lot of inspiration into the future of education and into the the schools in which your students are going through. Um so I want to share with you uh an over broad overview of the engagement opportunities. We we've had a great opportunity to interact with your various stakeholders uh throughout the the last few months. um
126some common themes that you're going to see permeate throughout. Um when you think about au from a design standpoint and the guiding principles that are going to lead our work um these it can't be understated the commonalities of all the stakeholders as we went through our engagements with them. So the the opportunity for uh creating a place for students and for your community uh to create that sense of belonging that you heard so much about this evening and how we interact with uh adults and our students. Um how do we prepare kids for the future with the skills and the programming that you want to expand upon and how do we design schools to make sure that occurs. It's really building that generational value um as we look at the future of programming. not just
127building for the next five years, but what's the next two decades look like? And do we create schools for you that are sustainable and scalable and that you can grow into and that your kids can grow into? Um creating the aspect of a safe and secure environment u from a mental, physical, and emotional well-being of students. We want to make sure safety is always at the paramount of the design work. and then certainly being good stewards and models of sustainability and the um user experience throughout. So, as you remember or you've heard um we've we've been doing this since March. We've gone through five or six different uh stakeholder engagement opportunities. You see there on the screen with the most recent of of having um interactions with the board. The first of which was our
128values workshop. Um, value stands for view and architect through the lens of the user experience and sustainability. So, this is really how the users interact with their environment. Um, it's a a critical factor as we think about the design that's coming and the decisions that are going to be made moving forward. Through this process, we we met with a number of we a large group of your stakeholders. You'll see on the screen there was six themes that emerged. Uh, each of these themes had sub themes. Uh so there's probably 50 or 60 different ones. Um all those were important. Um but the ones on the screen, not only do they interact in isolation, but they certainly integrate with each other. So when we think about uh air quality and health and wellness, we know those
129are going to have an impact with each other with the kids and the staff in your schools. The outcomes that we saw through the sustainability and the values work you see on the screen there. Um so we we talk about the health and wellness we thought talk about safety and security again that came up and that that's not only from a physical standpoint but from the emotional uh and the in the psychological safety of kids um obviously air quality um acoustics environmental quality are important when you think about lead certification net zero um and then the community connection. I started that first slide by talking about the connection with adults and kids having a place for your community to come. Um, this came out during the values workshop as well and how do we create
130the environment um for this to be a resource for your your families and your community as a whole. The next series of workshops included both a uh virtual and inerson and this is where we talked about the applied learning and CT. We heard a lot about that tonight from the robotics to uh one of your your public comments to uh the the project lead the way work. Um we will we got into the conversation about uh you know what kids are exposed to in high school many times is what they leave leave your walls and go into in the in the real world of of of postsecary experiences. We also know that more and more kids these days they want to have an opportunity to be exposed to exploratory classes to to uh careers and
131pathways. So how do we provide those opportunities? So we we talked to the groups about some of the trends nationally. But then what you see on the screen there is what really uh evolved as themes for uh your your county schools. Um from uh from IT to business to health sciences um and although again these were talked about in isolation. They were also discussed as how do we integrate these? How can business and culinary integrate? how can logistics and your robotics when you think about inventory and um and and the logistics and software aspect of that. So really when we think about the future of learning it is about how these all integrate because once they get into their postsecondary experiences it's not just going to be working in isolation. So that was one of
132the the a great theme that emerged and then over all the outcomes it goes back to the community. Uh internal and external partnerships was a common theme that we saw across the uh the pathway the work the collaboration and how do we expose kids to mentors in your community. How do we get them um interacting with the adults um throughout their high school careers? Um, and how do we get them to experience hands-on learning that's going to be relevant to their core areas but also relevant to their post-secary experiences? The next workshop is uh one that deal group is very proud of. Um, it's one of our um our most engaging workshops uh through a research methodology that we call photovoice. And what photodoist does is it gives us the opportunity to look at uh
133the user experience of a student um and what how they go about their day their feelings of sense belonging through pictures. Um so how do they connect with the environment? How do they connect with spaces? How do they connect with places in the schools in which they interact on a daily basis? Um so what we did we had an opportunity to talk to over three schools 60 students from 10th through 12th grade. Um we looked at areas of belonging, safety and engagement. And some of the areas that came out again for this were um no no doubt or not a surprise that natural light um in outdoor is going to be something that kids um they want. they they need they they feel that um it it gives me a place to go outside of
134the norm of a classroom. There was perceptions of safety, not just from physical. When I walk up to a a front entrance, how does that make me feel from that's the physical standpoint? We also talked about the perception of safety from the bofelic standpoint and the open spaces and the opportunity to collaborate giving me that emotional safety that kids crave and we know is good for their uh overall mental and health mental well-being and and health. And then the engagement aspect, how do we create open and collaborative spaces? Uh we talked, you heard kids tonight talk about the interaction with each other and how important it is to interact with adults. Um so how do we create spaces for that engagement to occur um throughout the design process? Then we got into the teaching and
135learning. There was uh close to 60 participants um at this workshop. We spent our time u going over some data about spaces uh and what the research says related to spaces and how they can be a tool for our educators and our students learning. This was an activity that we did called day in the life. If we took away the barriers and challenges of a of a facility, of a school, uh what might a typical day look like in terms of activities? Things like flexibility, creativity, and effective collaboration all came out as ideal. What they would like to see in the day in the life of a future uh for their their students and for staff to interact. We know that something happens from kindergarten to high school that curiosity goes down, creativity goes down,
136imagination goes down. So, how do we create spaces and programs and design a school that can help inspire and foster that and give the teachers the tools that they need to do what they do best with our kids. And that's what this activity really got to the heart of. The second activity was called learning connections. And this is where we looked at our space, our learning, our teaching, technology, and furniture and how those all interact with each other. And as you see on the screen, very quick snapshot, um they asked for more flexibility in their furniture. 10 out of the 10 groups said, "We want to be able to be able to move furniture, create collaboration spaces, allow kids the the opportunity to be both individuals and work in small groups or large groups." So
137just changing furniture would be a great tool to enhance the opportunities for engagement. Uh you see the nine out of 10 we're talked about moving from a a teacher being the dissemination person for knowledge to having them as a facilitator. So more kids are are being interacting with their peers and facilitating that knowledge. And then the other piece of it was the collaboration. How do we get more spaces that are adaptable? So at any point in time we can move from small spaces to medium or large based upon the activities. So when we think about inquiry based learning, hands-on learning, project based learning, how do we create spaces that allow that to happen at any given point in time during the week. So you see the outcomes of this. It doesn't surprise you. You heard
138it tonight before this presentation. They want authentic real world opportunities where it's student driven. you are very student centered, student driven um school district. There's no doubt. I heard it all tonight. I've seen it in your vision, your your strategic plan that you have. So, how do we create spaces that support that? The other things that came out were the collaboration aspect, the sense of connection and community. Do kids come to school every day and say, "There's a place for me here. If I want to read quietly, if I want to interact with my peers, if I want to work in a small group, is there somewhere for me to go? Is there a program for me to go to? Like robotics or art or band or math or whatever that is, but do we
139have spaces to support it? Because we know if we can provide those, kids are going to want to be here every day and they're going to be have a much greater success when they leave our your schools in in the future. And then the health and well-being going from a a a physical standpoint, but also the the connections. Are we creating those places for kids to interact with each other and for kids in the classrooms interact with each other without running into each other or to be able to move their desk and interacting uh with their peers. And then certainly we had an opportunity to share and get feedback um from all of you as the the board of education with our 2 by two meetings. Um very very similar themes that we learned from
140from all of you. Uh there were some opportunities to talk about you know how do we create CTE opportunities with kids. You know many kids are doing entrepreneurial things outside of outside of school. How do we bring some of that into the into the school and help them um uh really promote their their passions, their interests and their aspirations for the future. Um then you see on the screen there just some of the themes that came out from all of you. Um wasn't very much different making sure there's that community connection, the community uh access to our schools, uh inclusive culture uh that um Dr. McDe talked about uh few minutes ago um and being innovative. You are a very very progressive district. Very progressive. I travel all over the country with work with school
141districts of all size and shapes and you have the heart of kids at the forefront of what you're doing. How do we create a school that makes that come to life and make sure that we're supporting your progressive vision and making sure we're we're we're staying at the forefront of of that work um five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now. and then I'll have you all have a copy of the site plan as well as the schedule moving forward. So, we're very proud partners, DLR group, to work with all of you. Um, we we don't always get a chance to work with um public schools like yourselves that that that have such an inspirational vision for the future. Um, and we're very we're excited about this opportunity. Thank you, Tim.
142And uh we're that concludes our presentation. I I would be remiss if I didn't mention Dr. Sullivan and Denise Ener and their collaboration throughout this process as well. So I do want to extend a thanks to our folks on the the instructional side of the house. So that does conclude our presentation. We're happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you, Miss Williams. Thank you. I don't have a whole lot of questions because we did uh meet really uh regularly or thoroughly I should say. I just want to thank you for taking the time um and the division staff, Miss Huner and um I think did you say Dr. Ry? Dr. Sullivan. Dr. Sullivan, sorry. Um I think this is an important step in building this school and it will really um make
143a difference in the outcome of our student population and our community. Um for me, I have been pushing I don't know since I got here pretty much for open spaces, uh integration of subject material, having hands-on learning for our students. I'm very excited about the path uh this high school is is taking and it's nice to know that our community reaffirms those ideals. Um I think it's really important as you mentioned us being progressive but um I've been doing this over a decade. I go to the national conferences. We when I first started we thought of building buildings for 75 years and housing students in academia. And we know now that the future of learning moves faster. Uh it's moved fast and and since covid we've seen so many changes. So I I just appreciate
144us taking the the opportunity to really capture those voices, but more importantly also the student and the the administration, the teaching staff voices. Um they are the people who inhabit the building the majority of time and our students know very well um more so than us sometimes. They they live in a world that we we don't and it's important that we continue to do our job to shape them for that future. Um and I think that this presentation and really captures a lot of that energy. Um, I I appreciate really just not only being heard, but listened to um because it does make a difference. Of course, I'm excited by this and hope that it is the most innovative building that we do put up. Um, because I think that's important. Our students no longer
145live in silos or operate in silos. We see that with robotics. Uh, we heard it from the cell phone policy and we heard it from the student bill of rights. they are fully aware that without the integration of all of the skills, soft, hard skills and cultural perspectives and respects for each other that innovation doesn't occur and learning doesn't occur. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that. Um, I'm excited for the rest of this timeline and seeing the high school through to fruition. Thank you, Miss Williams. Mr. I also would like to thank you for your thorough and very exciting, interesting and unique way of looking at this stuff and I think it's really uh something that uh you know is important the just where you are when you sitting doing anything
146is important and as a student you spend a lot of time uh and I think it will improve everything in the system. So I thank you very much for everything you did. I attended I think the first thing I found it fascinating just to see how you were approaching stuff. So thank you very much and look forward to the new building. Thank you Mr. Jesse. Uh Miss Wall, thank you for the presentation. Thanks for taking the time. Um, I don't have uh a whole lot of questions, but I think the design is going to be really great. And it's great to see this level of community involvement and um educator involvement at all levels to get an idea of what the community wants since we're going to be spending a boatload of money on this
147school. Um, it's good and it and it does directly impact students. And my question is I had attended a VSBA meeting where I went to like a mini class on the impact of buildings and the building environment on student achievement and I and I don't know if this is the right time to ask this but do you want to speak to that because the what I came away with was an understanding that an environment in which learning takes place does have an impact on student achievement and that's what I'm all about is you know promoting student achievement and student realization of their own personal academic goals. So wondered if you wanted to say anything on that topic. I think what where we find the environment has the impact is on the engagement of students. Um
148where you know just putting them in a new building, just putting flexible furniture is not going to change necessarily. It might impact some, but I think it's how more how much more students are engaged uh in what they're doing because of the environment and how do we create that atmosphere for that to happen. Um, and we're certainly planning to work with all of you when we look at preost occupancy. We have our own student in engagement index and a teacher engagement index that we'd love to partner with you on um, as this school opens um, down the road. Um, and we're also we are also part of internationally and nationally. We're one of the only firms in USA. worked with nine other countries with an organization called ILES and we're we're embarking on a uh
149uh international research study that's going to get to the heart of exactly what you're talking about and each of the countries are is going to look at student achievement data, professional development, all the aspects and variables that go into that question you just asked. Um and I would say in two years we'll have that data. Uh it'll be um the pilot or the pilot's been done. So the study will be occurring in the fall. So we will make sure we get that back to you as well. That's very interesting and thank you so much for answering my like out of the box question on that without any pro any head head like heads heads up. Um I I also and I'll make one additional comment. I do hope whatever we learn that like you said,
150it's not so much like the desks or the building, but that it's the engagement piece and maybe we can find ideas that we can use to increase engagement at our other older high schools. Um perhaps there will be things that we learn that we could apply um to increase engagement across the division. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. Something to add just thank Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, folks. I think that's it. Oh, Mr. Wil. Sure. Yeah, let's roll. I'm here. Yes, let's roll. Uh, first, thank you for being here. I appreciate if you guys had to travel up from elsewhere. I know, uh, it's very timeconuming and I know the work that you guys do and I really appreciate the presentation. Uh, all I want to say
151is, you know, I everything looks great. Um, I think this is a great opportunity currently with the smaller projection enrollment numbers to have though a greater footprint in the community. Um and you know as we discuss as you present whether it's you know space for entrepreneurship whether it's uh offices or meeting rooms or presentations stuff like that I think that'll be really beneficial for the community moving forward and a partnership you know with other entities in the surrounding greater area. So thank you for being here tonight. Thank you Mr. Wel think I just have one question. Um we're we able to capture voice from any of our independent non-traditional community um teacher staff and and students. Um they I think provide a unique and distinct lens uh that some of our other students and staff
152may not have. They have a unique culture over there and um have a way of supporting our students. So were they able to That's a good question, Miss Williams. I think through the engagement at the different schools, we did incorporate and reach out to uh and I will say initially student senate was considered as one of the groups to reach out to and we wanted to make sure we got a a broad cross-section of students. So yes, we when we went out to the high schools, we worked with the principles to really get a broad cross-section of students including some of those non-traditional students. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yep. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you guys very much. We appreciate it. Thank you to the DLR group for sharing the community engagement outcomes regarding the 14th
153high school. Now we move to agenda item 17.02 um uh yeah revision of the homebound based extended school year instruction. Motion's in order. Vice Chair Blake. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I move that the Prince William County School Board wave the second reading and approve the proposed revisions to policy 687 homebound and homebased extended school year instruction. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Williams, second. Any discussion? This a first. Is this a first reading? Oh, got it. Oh, we're waving that. Wait. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Um all any discussion? Yeah. Oh, so I need a two-thirds vote to wave. Does anyone have any object? Okay. So, um all any discussion? Please vote. The vote is 8 yes unanimous. Motion passed. Um Mr. uh Anderson. So that means that passed and the whole thing passed.
154Right. Right. Right. We we we weren't waving on we weren't voting on the waiver. We were just voting on the whole thing. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Yep. Wonderful. Very good. Yes. I'm working on it. Erica working on it. 1703 revisions the 2025 schoolboard meeting calendar. Motion's ordered. Vice Chair Blake. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I recommend that the Prince William County School Board revisees its previously adopted meeting calendar and approve it adding the joint meeting with the Prince William County Supervisors to Wednesday, October 8th, 2025. Mr. Chair, have a second. Miss Williams. A second. Any discussion? Please vote. You have a discussion, Miss Trinetti? No. Okay, great. Let's vote. Let's go. Oh, I agree. I secretly take it out next year. I know. That's okay. I'm just joking around. Um, okay. Any
155discussion? Moving on. Do you vote? What's the vote? Okay, the vote is eight. Yes, unanimous. Motion passed. All right. Um, next up is board matters. But before I do that, I do want to make a statement um about our folks here. I want to thank the staff who made all these schoolboard meetings possible. Our director of communication, Diana Galada, her staff, including Maria Dofav, Wendy Dietro, Dr. Kyle Trotton, Megan Silus, Tim TWalt, John McOD, Jim Lep, Mike Davis, Indra Lavine, Raul Rosado, Jimmy Davis, John Gimenez, and Marcos Selenas. I'd like to thank our director of information technology AJ Phillips and staff members Howard Pond, Orlando um Canos Cruz, Jonathan Torres, Tonio Accassio, Alajuan Sims, Andrew Choy, Kevin Sur G, Sarah Giello, Raymond Null, and uh Mauricio Martinez. These meetings would also not be possible without
156our outstanding custodial team led by Aritra Fernandez and our top-notch security team led by Ron Crowe. And I want to also thank our clerks uh and and and the school board clerks for all that you do. And we want to thank you for your dedication and hard work to make these meetings possible for another successful school year. Okay, on to board matters. We'll start with Lisa Zaraport. Thank you, Dr. Latif. um not to to draw everything out, but again thanking Mr. Ericson for all of his uh time that he spent as a principal, an associate in Prince William County Public Schools. Thank you for your service and for Miss Hebner who was a principal for my young uh in elementary school and in middle school to my some of my children. So I thank her
157for her service there and all of the work that she did getting us through the pandemic. It was truly fun times. Um, want to shout out to Kan for winning three Kappies at the Cappy uh awards the other night. Um, yes. Yes. So very proud of them. I It was uh You went It was Miss Wills went. Um, what was it? It was best I'm sharing my time with you. Uh, best male vocalist Andrew Serrano Bremer. Uh, best lead featured actor, uh, Jeremiah Gates. Best song, Wait for Me. Yes. Yes. So, and it was a great show. That was all from Hades Town. Um, so I'm looking forward to whatever else they uh whatever performances they're coming up with next year. Cannot wait to find out what the musicals will be. Um, I went to
158several graduations, but this is the first year in my time on the board where I didn't have two graduations for two of my schools at the same time. So, I was able to go to OP Hilton and Kan to watch our graduates cross the stage, which was very exciting. Uh, I'm thankful to all of our student reps for your student voice. Um, one of the things that I think is really important is, you know, I we're if you if you have a kid in the system or you're a grandparent or just an adult who cares about public ed, what our kids have to say about their experience or how they view things is is is absolutely legitimate. And the things that they care about, they will come and talk about. And I think they're far
159more flexible than the adults in this world. They they understand what is and what isn't really going on in schools. And they are very helpful in in making sure we understand what feels like a thing that needs to change and what's a thing that they completely ignore that maybe we we we care a little too much about. So, I'm thankful for them because it gives me time to reflect and really hear hear your voice. and I wish all three of our uh schoolboard representatives luck in their uh college next year. I'm also grateful for the teachers who share their voices. We got a couple tonight here in our boardroom. Earlier uh in the month I got to meet with um u many high school teachers uh concerning the grading policy and really their concerns set
160more in the regulations. So I I'm happy to pass those things along, but I do think with when we talk about grading policy, we have differences in, you know, elementary, middle, and high. Content areas uh are all going to be different. And I know teachers want some parody from uh school to school. They want they want things to be the same. So I think it's really worth the time for uh the division to take their input on how they see things and as professionals how they feel grading should be. Uh lastly, I just want to make sure that I give No, I said that. Um oh yes, when we have speakers that come in, I I I want to just point out two things that absolutely need to be in our next um um strategic
161plan. I I we really need to do something with the uh um dyslexia because I I am hearing more and more about our kids that are struggling and maybe they're on the bubble of things but they but they they deserve those support and help. And then the other thing is the veterinarian um stuff that that sounds compelling. Everyone have a good night. Miss Williams. Thank you, Chairman. Um, I also want to again congratulate our retirees, Miss Hunner and Mr. Ericson. It has been a a joy and often interesting experience, especially during COVID, uh, to work with both of you. Mr. Ericson, your uh, smile and demeanor will be missed. You light up the room and um, all of our elementary schools. I worked with you initially. were Eastern End uh represent associate superintendent for Eastern
162end elementary schools when I got on the board and it's just uh you will be missed. I'll be excited to see you when you come back and romp but hopefully you will spend a lot of time doing the things that you really want to do. Um next I'd like to congratulate our student reps. It's been um an honor to serve with you all this year. I wish you all the best in the future. I know that you will be successful and for me personally, it's been a joy to see the legacy of our student representatives grow and deepen and be more enriched by every uh student who takes the position. So, I hope you'll come back and let us know what's going on in your lives as you move on. And thank you again for
163your service. I'm excited by the new oncoming student representatives um and wish you all the best of luck next year. Uh I also attended graduations. Most of our students graduate during the month of May. I am so proud of all those who have graduated and thank you to all the parents and staff and administrators and everyone really who played a hand in that journey. But I also want to be mindful as I am this time of year for all those students who have not yet graduated. Uh may I see you at summer school graduation. I look forward to seeing you there. I I've had a few friends in the past that missed it just by a few and they often need that encouragement when all their friends are graduating on on time. Just want to
164remind you that um graduating is the on time for those who don't make it uh by our traditional standard time. I don't want to encourage anyone to be delayed, but they work really hard and uh so does the staff and their parents who support them. And I want to make sure that you are honored in this moment and you keep up that journey. And I definitely look forward to seeing you at summer school graduation. Next up, I would just like to congratulate all of our robotics throughout the county, especially those teams that were here tonight. uh as a robotics first year full-time robotics parent coach. I can absolutely tell you that it is a lot of work. Um I missed a lot of school events this year as a board member because I was learning
165how to be a parent coach. I am so proud of Miss Carol and especially our new uh robotics coordinator, Miss Aaron Lowry. This was her first year doing coordination uh for robotics. It showed uh we had so many teams competing, so many firstear teams um participating. I hope that every school next year has a robotics program. I highly encourage our listening community. Please do not be afraid to volunteer. I have been going to robotics programs for a long time, but never was a robotics coach. Um one of the intricral things to know as a coach is that you don't know you don't have to know how to build a robot. You don't have to know how to code. You don't have to know anything about robotics. you have to show up and be present. There
166will be orientations and things of that nature for parent uh coaches or volunteer coaches next year. So, please don't let that intimidate you. Um the the best reward is watching those students be innovative, be creative, learn all the soft skills that our community and our businesses are asking for our students to graduate with. Um and to me, it's one of the top tier programs that we have in this county that uh prepares our students for a thriving future. and we have it both airland and sea. So I highly encourage everyone to take advantage of that. Um and lastly, as we found out late tonight, but I would also like to congratulate Dr. McDade. Um it is under your leadership that uh we have grown and thrived. Innovation shows for me personally as someone who's been
167um pushing for progressive buildings and collaborative learning. Um, I'm excited that our division is going that direction, continues to go that direction, and that you are being recognized, as well as all of the hard and working staff under you for for putting us on that path and continuing to follow it. So, with that, I just want to say congratulations to my little guy who had a band concert tonight. So, thank you, Miss Wall. Thank you, Dr. Latif. Um, I'd like to start out by saying I do like the idea of veterinary science or vette as a specialty class, um, a CTE class, um, somewhere in our division. I think that's a great idea. I also appreciate dyslexia encouragement about learning more about it and making sure we're meeting the needs of high learn especially kids
168who are their grades are good, but they're still having challenges with disgraphia and dyslexia. Um, Miss Heer and Mr. Eriken, we're going to miss you. your work ethic, your positivity, ability to carry out a lot of responsibility, carry a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders. Um, I wish you the best of luck in everything that you do. Um, I want to congratulate Mr. Fifthian and Bull Run Middle School on their on his nomination to be a con fellow for this upcoming school year. And wow, Bull Run really knew how to celebrate that. I will say they had the pep band, the cheerleaders, all the teachers, the students. I walked into the gym and it was just absolutely awesome. So, good job, Bull Run. they excel at that feeling of school community. Um, I also want
169to mention um June is Title Nine month. It's the 53rd anniversary of this important law signed um on June 23rd, 53 years ago. Title 9 prohibits sex-based discrimination and federally funded programs. It opened countless athletic and academic opportunities to women and girls across the nation. And it's important that we protect women's hard-earned rights and um promote um the following careful adherence to Title N. And now graduation. Wow. It's been really great to share so many moments for uh these special moments for our graduates and their families. Um I believe wholeheartedly in the purpose and of helping our students move forward with their personal growth goals to thrive and build that glorious and beautiful future for themselves and their communities. And this is the culmination of that vision. um in Prince William County School. So, it's
170been really fun. The graduation walks have been awesome. I went to one yesterday with Sinclair. It was just so sweet to see the little kids cheer the um older kids on and to see the look in the graduate spaces as they walked through the halls of their elementary school and realized I think the building shrunk. Um it's just so it's so fun. Um these graduates five years ago when the pandemic hit were seventh graders. their eighth grade year was for most entirely online um since we closed up schools and it was a fight on many levels to get them back open and it was very very hard for many many children. Um there's really no arguing that 2021 was a huge setback for the for every single kid in some way or shape or another.
171Um this group is the first who attended high school in person for all four years. I think that's really something to pause and meditate upon. this group of kids first time since 2020 to have a normal four-year high school experience. Switching gears, uh I'm it's largely been ignored in the press except for very minimal coverage, but PWC PWA serves as the exclusive bargaining representative for our certified and classified school staff. Frankly, I was angry when I heard about the allegations made by the VA about PW financial mismanagement and I ser sincerely hope the VA can get to the bottom of what is going on. You have a minute. Okay. Um, but you know, it's it's our my contention that thousands of employees have a right to know how the PWA is using their hard-earned dues.
172Not only that, they have a right to hold their union leadership accountable. And I look forward to hearing what the VA finds with regard to the PWA's financial activities and fiduciary responsibilities. I want to know what's been going on. To wrap it up, to the class of 2025, you've arrived at a crossroads in your lives. Remember that learning is a lifelong journey, not just a destination. Stay curious, keep growing, and let your pass passion for knowledge light the way forward. In the way, the words of Socrates can't read anymore. Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. It was BB King who said, "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. There is an enduring power and value in continually learning and improving
173each day." We are so very proud of you, class of 2025. You did it. You're Mr. Jesse. Yeah. I I also like to thank the student reps and that uh been on the board this year. Uh and I want to thank my wife, Lily, Jesse, and uh my buddy down there. And I'm losing names all of a sudden. But uh yes, Lori Lori Williams. Okay. Uh you know, getting old is not all that crack, I tell you. But at any rate, no, thank you very much for doing that because it's very important. and I think it really has added a lot to our uh system and it's very important. Also like to thank uh Mr. Ericson and Miss Heer for all their service and I think uh because they are uh already gone. I hope
174they listen to this at some point. But uh I you know you're doing the right thing uh by by by retiring and enjoying life as early as you can. Also uh Dr. Latif took away something I was going to talk about and that's a thank you to all the staff uh that have to be here while we talk and and so forth. It's very important and I appreciate everybody here that uh supporting this organization and this organization here. Uh somebody missing during the citizen common. I just want to talk about that. You know I I've been to two graduation this year. Uh I went up to Delaware for another one so I missed several. But at the first graduation, I was looking at the boys shoes and 90% of them had really nice shoes on.
175And then I went to the second graduation and it maybe 10% had is this, you know, and as a former Marine, you look at stuff like that in your dress, but the person tonight was talking about the dress of the students. We need to address the dress of the teachers and so forth because you know you you're expecting students to hold a a good standard but you we're not holding it in good examples for them in some cases. So at any rate that's all I want to say tonight. I thank you. This has been a wonderful experience this year and I look forward to next year. Thank you, Miss Tradenic. Did you fix my time? Because I gave Miss Wall a minute of my time. Um, I have truly enjoyed graduations. You know, a lot
176of people ask us, I can't believe you sit through that many names and those kind of things. And um, it it is such a joy to watch these kids walk across the stage and be so excited. Um, I also think that one of my favorite parts is watching their parents excitement. Um, and for some reason this year there was a wealth of teacher parents on stage at some of our graduations and watching them hug their kids and the excitement. Um, and selfishly I cannot wait to do that next year. Um, but I do want the time to move very slowly as as it goes. Um, and getting to see that and also watching some chorus concerts, watching uh, many teams in the Brensville district make it to their regional semifinals um, was really cool. And
177I think we've got one or two more teams that are still standing ready to go to states. Um, all as always, the Brunsville girls soccer team does not disappoint and they are headed that way. So, um, good luck to the Tiger girls. I hope you do it again and I hope we get to watch you win again. Um I think last month I failed to uh recognize Memorial Day and the sacrifice uh that so many men and women have given not only them but their families and just acknowledging and respecting um what what they have sacrificed. Um not only that but but making sure that our children um value and understand freedom and sacrifice in that same way. Um, in that regard, this month is uh, Father's Day. Uh, we don't we don't, you know,
178as we know, I'm not a huge fan of all the proclamations that we do because there's about 20 more that we could add on. Um, but Father's Day, I believe, is a is a big important one. And I think that so many of our homes um, are enriched by uh, the presence of a dad and a father and what they do in life. So, thank you to the dads who um have such a profound impact on their children and keep at it and keep encouraging your kiddos. Um but yes, there were a lot of other months this month such as National Home Ownership Month is in June. National PTSD Awareness Month is June. National Caribbean American Heritage Month is June. Migraine and Headache Awareness Month is also June. National Portuguese Heritage Month is June and
179National Returning Youth Month. So, we have a lot of things to celebrate in June. But most of all, we're almost to the end of the school year. So, please hang in there for about what is it? Seven more days. Please just hang in there for seven more days. We got it. We can cross that finish line. Congrats to all of you guys for the grades that you're finishing. And I hope everybody has a great summer. Mr. Wil, Erica, thank you for queuing me off. I always appreciate that. Um, I just want to again reiterate my appreciation uh for Denise and Todd and the work that they've done for the school division. Um, you know, I've said it before, I jokingly I talked to Denise all the time during co, probably not as frequently as Bobber,
180but um, we were in regular communication whether she was in Florida or wherever she was. She was doing a lot of different things on the personal issues uh, with her family as well. and I really appreciate everything she did and her dedication that she put towards the school system. Then Todd, we, you know, come full circle. My first time I think met Todd 10 years ago was at an event at Patty Elementary and one of my last events probably with him uh tonight was uh this morning at Patty Elementary uh where we celebrated um R.J. Luchiotti as uh Dr. McDade mentioned was one of the 60 principles uh chosen for the Khan Distinguished Academy. couple quick events that I attended. Um, you know, Dumprey's multicultural night was a couple through this last two weeks. It
181was great. A lot of excitement. Um, you know, the thrill of the community and the diversity of the greater Dumpries community um was wonderful and palpable. Uh, the PTOAC Senior High School Award night, great event. Seeing the awards that these um seniors have earned, um, you know, PTOAC is a great school. I was very impressed. you know, they had a student who actually earned a full ride to Georgetown University, which is almost unheard of now. Um, so they're producing great students there at their Cambridge program. Um, PTOIC also the next day had their um annual Grill on the Hill, which celebrates their seniors, which I was able to attend. Um, PTOAC Shores, two nights ago had their eighth grade promotion night. Last night was Graham Park. Um I also was able as my colleagues uh
182mentioned were able to attend um my two schools Forest Park and uh PTOAC's graduation. Um and then you know I'll end on this. Every year I try to um I think every year I write a letter that they give to the graduating seniors at Forest Park in PTOAC and I'm always looking for an idea. Um, and uh, for some reason the theme uh, one of my mom's crazy idioms that she always says must be the West Virginia in her uh, don't count your chickens before they hatch. It was in my head and and and it made me think, you know, um, with that, you know, the idea of course is that, you know, not every egg hatches the way you should expect it. But my message was trying to convey the idea that it is
183okay because I look at my own journey as I express and I didn't follow the path I originally uh envisioned. But the message I tried to convey to our seniors was to keep moving forward. Um as I say in my letter to the seniors and I'm adapting it to speeches at the fifth grade and eighth grade nights. Um life will surprise you. Stay curious, stay flexible, don't be discouraged if things don't go exactly as planned. With persistence, hope, and openness, you can create a life worth celebrating. So, don't count your chickens before they hatch. And that's all I will add tonight. It's been a great year. Uh, and I appreciate all my colleagues and everyone on our staff. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wilk. Mr. Blake. Thank you, Dr. Latif. I want to begin
184by just uh offering a heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2025. Last week I had the honor of attending seven graduation ceremonies at Eagle Bank. So I I was at Hilton Battlefield, Forest Park, Kogan, Osborne Park, Freedom, and and you know, of course, Garfield. So each each of those ceremonies was was just filled with a lot of pride, energy, um emotion, and honestly, some of they just felt like sold out concerts in there. It was like, well, it was really packed and um just loud cheers, families, you know, just beaming with joy. And in each of those moments, I was reminded of the power of persistence. And like Dr. McDade shared in her remarks, quoting um Coach Cara Larson, things don't get easier, you learn how to handle hard better. And our students have been
185through so much over these past few years. Like you heard, they're the first class that's been in school for for all four years since the pandemic. And uh that message couldn't have been timelier. They've learned how to rise, to adapt, and to lead. And now they go forward not just with a diploma, but with grit and resilience. And I also want to uh recognize another proud moment I had this week um for the arts in Prince William County Schools. You heard Miss Zagapore mention it earlier at and um at the Cappies this year's Cappies at the Kennedy Center. I had the privilege of presenting to the uh best vocalist in the mill role and that award went to Andrew um Serrano Bremer sophomore at Kogan High School. And um not only was this the Kogan's
186like first ever cappies is what I heard is they won like you heard three. So it was an incredible night for our division and a testament um to the strength of our fine and performing arts program. And in addition to the graduation in the arts, I recent I also took part in the uh stop the scroll take control webinar with parents and some of our administrators. And it was a constructive and necessary conversation around our new cell phone policy. And we use the opportunity to level set, set clear expectations, answer questions, and reinforce the fact that this policy is about helping students stay focused, connected, and balanced. And I appreciated every parent who showed up u for the dialogue. I also attended the JRTC leadership recognition ceremony, and that's always inspiring an inspiring evening recognizing
187the cadetses from across the high schools. These young people are already leading with purpose, discipline, and integrity. It's a great thing. I'm big on service. And just last night, I joined uh my families at Beville Middle School for their National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony. And I just want to commend every student there last night who was recognized. They're not just excelling academically, they're choosing to serve. And that matters. Leadership without service is just a title. And as we wrap up the school year and head into the summer, I want to leave you with a quote from the late Shirley Chisum. Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on the earth. Whether you're a student, staff member, or community partner, let's continue to pay that rent forward and have a good
188summer. Thank you, Dr. Latif. Thank you, Vice Chair Blake. Um, all right, folks. Uh, real quickly on the Kappies, that was the first Cappies I missed personally in seven years and they won three awards. So, I'll probably plan to miss them again next year. Um, congratulations to Kan High School. Dr. Healey had texted me in the morning that they won three and I said, "Well, I think I should just not go anymore." So, that was fantastic. Um, congratulations to all the schools that were nominated for the Cappies. It truly is a competition with the best and the brightest in the drama field. From Duke Ellington in DC to the MLAN Langley's, Jeffersons and uh Yorktown um in Arlington schools, we are competing among the best and I think we are doing very well. Congratulations to
189our team still in sports. Gainesville baseball I know is I think qualified for states. Battlefield lacrosse ladies just won regionals is heading the states. Brensville soccer girls as you heard from Erikica Trinetting still in the game. and for our other athletes who are still out there competing. We continue to um wish for the best for each of you. Um to Miss Heer, I know much has been said this evening and um and to Mr. Ericen, thank you for your service to the school division. To Miss Heapner, who I worked very closely with during the pandemic, school boarding at at time was like an extreme sport or combat school boarding if you would call it. Miss Heer took the brunt of the hits from everybody who was frustrated on every side of every argument about the
190reopening and um and the virtual schooling and she did it with class um strength, integrity and a commitment to the students first and foremost and I truly appreciate that and without her I don't think we would have been able to get what we needed to do done and so for that I'm eternally grateful. Um, I'm going to leave with some sort of final remarks. As we gather tonight for our final schoolboard meeting of the academic year, I want to take a few moments to reflect on where we've been and what we've accomplished and where we're headed. First and foremost, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the students, families, educators, staff, and administrators who make Prince William County Schools a remarkable place to learn and grow. The school year has been a testament to
191our resilience, our collaboration, and our shared belief in the power of public education. Our students continue to inspire us with their ambition, creativity, and perseverance. Whether it is on the athletic fields, and science fairs, on stages, and classrooms, or through service projects in our communities, our young people reminded us that the future is in capable and compassionate hands. To our teachers, thank you. You are the heart of this school system. Your commitment to your students and your profession does not go unnoticed. You have shown day after day that education is not just a job, it's a calling. This year, we've made important progress. We continue expanding academic opportunities through career and tech education, dual enrollment, and advanced coursework. We made strides in mental health support, school safety measures, and equity initiatives. We added new facilities,
192improved infrastructure, and deepened our investment in the people who make learning possible. These are not small achievements. They reflect the tireless work of so many in this community and the willingness of this board to make bold decisions in the interest of students. Of course, we face challenges, too. We've navigated difficult conversations that had moments of disagreement. That part that's part of our democracy and part of leadership. What matters is that we stayed focused on our students even when the path wasn't always clear or easy. I want to thank my colleagues on this board, each of you, for your dedication and service. We may bring different perspectives, but our shared goal has always been to ensure the success of every child in Prince William County. As we look toward the next year, our work continues. We
193will remain focused on academic excellence, staff support, student well-being in the making sure that every student, regardless of background or circumstance, has the opportunity to thrive. Let this summer be a time of rest, reflection, and rejuvenation for all of us. To the graduating class of 2025, congratulations. Go forward with courage and conviction. And to every student returning next year, know that we are here preparing, planning, and pushing to make your next school year even better. Thank you all for the strong and successful school year. May we continue to lead with purpose and serve with integrity. Have a safe and peaceful summer. We will see you all in the fall. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.