Prince William County School Board Meeting - May 21, 2025

001I would like to call this meeting of the Prince William County School Board to order. Due to the unexpected technical issues with our online board meetings platform, board members will vote tonight by a show of hand and the clerk of the school board will record the votes. Uh, a motion is now in order for the approval of the meeting agenda. Mr. Mr. Chairman, Miss Zagur, I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda. Do I have a second? Second. Mr. Jesse seconds. Any discussion? Please vote by hand. Five yes, two not present at vote. Williams wall, one absent. Latif motion passed. Moving on to a motion to enter close session. A motion is is in order. Miss Egapore. Mr. Chairman, I move that pursuant to the Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 and

0022.2-3712, the Prince County School Board enter close session for the following reasons. One, to discuss with staff the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of any public body pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-2711A1. two, to discuss and consult with legal counsel regarding requests for religious exemptions pertaining to specific students under Virginia code section 2.2-3711A, section 2- 2.2-3711A, 2 and 8. Three, to discuss with division council and actual and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving staff, students or and other civil litigation involving the school division under vision code section 2.2-V711A7 2-3711A7 and 8. Code 2.2-3711A29. And four, to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security of school facilities, the safety of persons using such facilities, and actions taken

003to 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. Thank you, Miss Agort. Do I have a second? Second. Mr. Jesse seconds. Any discussion? Please vote by hand. The vote is five yes. Two absent. Two not present at vote. Williams wall, one absent. Let motion passed. All right. The Prince William County School Board will now enter close session and return to open session in 1 hour. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] The Prince William County School Board is now returning to open session from close session. A motion is in order for 8.01 close session verification. Vice Chair Uh, I move that pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3712, the closed session of the Prince William County School Board meeting of May 21st, 2025

004be certified by 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 the certification resolution applies. And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed session meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Agort. Thank you. Any discussion? Please vote by hand. We're all hand votes today. All hand votes. All hand votes. The vote is seven yes, one absent. Latif motion passed. Moving on to the close session action items. A motion is in order for 9.01. I move that the Prince William County

005School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in close session. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Zagur. Any discussion? Please vote. Vote is seven yes, one absinate vote. Latif motion passed. Thank you. Moving on to close session action item. A motion is in order for 9.02. Thank you. I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the request for religious exemption from compulsory school attendance for case number RE24-11. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Zagur, any discussion? Please vote. Vote is seven yes, one absinate vote. Latif motion passed. All right. Thank you. Moving on to the pledge of allegiance. I'd like to invite Miss Williams to lead us in the pledgece of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation

006indivisibley for all. Thank you. Okay, where we at? Moving on to thrivers f thriving futures focus. Good evening. 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 to recognizing students, staff members, and schools that have earned an honor or an award at the state or national level. We appreciate how these honores have positively represented Prince William County Public Schools and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments. Tonight, the school board will recognize four awards that highlight the quality and care of our PWCS staff and schools. We

007will begin with Miss Tradenic of the Brentville District for the first two recognitions. Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Brentsville district would like to first congratulate Patriot High School's Amy Dignon for receiving the 2025 Teacher of Excellence Award from the Southeast Region American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association. This award is given for outstanding teaching and service to Driver and Traffic Safety Education. A vital part of learning for our inexperienced drivers is that this knowledge not only teaches our students proper driving etiquette, but also compassion for those drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians who share the road and sidewalks. As some of you may remember, Miss Dignen was also named Virginia Association of Driver Education and Traffic Safety incar teacher of the year in 2024. Miss Dignen is accomplished here, oh sorry, accompanied here tonight by Patriot High

008School's assistant principal, Chris Brown. At this time, I would like to invite Miss Dignon to share a few words. Good evening, esteemed school board members and superintendent of the schools, Dr. McDade. Thank you so much for this opportunity to be recognized. I am incredibly honored to receive the Southeast Region Ata Teacher of Excellence Award. This recognition means so much to me and I'm grateful to be a part of a school division that values driver education and traffic safety. I always had a passion for helping teen drivers build the skills and confidence that they need to stay safe on our roads. It's more than just teaching the rules of the road. It's about shaping responsible decision makers and protecting lives. Thank you to our superintendent, school board, and leadership for your continued support. And to my

009colleagues and students, thank you for inspiring me every day with your dedication and drive. This award is a reflection of the work that we do together to make our community stronger and safer. Thank you. Congratulations. Your work has made the Brensville district immensely proud and Prince William County roads and walkways safer. On behalf of the Brensville District, I would also like to recognize Buckland Mills Elementary School Student Advisory Council for being awarded the 2025 American Student Council Association Student Council Schools of Excellence Award. The award sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principles honors the exemplary elementary and middle level schools and their student councils for their outstanding commitment to the four pillars of ASCA community service, student leadership, citizenship, and school spirit. Upland Mills is represented tonight by principal Manaxi Odedra, instructional technology

010coach Laura Shallow, and fourth grade teacher Courtney Warell. At this time, I invite Principal Odedra to introduce the students here and to share a few words on this award. Go ahead. Okay. So, uh I am George Murphy and I'm the president of the student council. And this is Ian Colton Colton, the vice president. And this is Emma Lee, the secretary. And Baron Ogre, the reporter, is not here today. This is our school principal, Mr. Mrs. Odedra. And this is our teacher advisor, Mrs. Warnell. And Mrs. Shallow, who is not here today. The purpose of our group is to help the community and our school to become a better place for students and adults through community service and projects and creating school spirit. Our three main projects that we have worked on this year were the

011animal drive, the canned food drive, and the coat drive. In the canned food drive, we donated 696 pounds of food of canned food to h the hay market food pantry just before Thanksgiving so that our community would be able to enjoy the holidays. In the coat drive, we donated 180 coats plus other warm accessories to the House of Mercy during the cold winter season. In the animal drive, we donated cat food and litter to the for the cat's sake, which is the nonprofit cat rescue and dog food to Faulier SPCA. Guess what? Our school won an award called the ASCA American School Council Association award. And we won it because of our community service, our leadership, the only school, school spirit, and citizenship. We are so proud to be given this award as we're the

012only school in the entire state of Virginia to win it. And we couldn't have won this done without we couldn't have won this without our class representatives from every class from first to fifth grade who led our weekly class meetings to hear the voices of their classmates so that we could could improve our building. we could work on bettering our building to include leaving our bathrooms clean and improving school spirit. We are very honored to receive this award and thank you for allowing us to share this great news with you today. Would either of you like to speak as well or you okay? Congratulations, Buckland Mills, and thank you for coming. Wonderful. Wonderful. Congratulations to the Brensville district, Miss Wall. Thank you, Mr. Blake. The National Merit Scholarship Program established in 1955 is an annual

013academic competition that recognizes and awards college scholarships to high school students. I am honored to share that the National Merit Scholarship Corporation named Daniel Cho, a senior at Battlefield High School as a 2025 National Merit Scholar. Daniel emerged from a pool of over 15,000 exceptional finalists and is among the 2500 students nationwide to receive the prestigious National Merit $2,500 scholarship. While Daniel could not be with us here tonight, we do want him and our community to know how proud we are of his accomplishment. Thank you, Miss Wall, and congratulations to Daniel. Turning to our next recognition, the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principles or VASP is a professional organization serving elementary and middle school principles and other educational leaders throughout Virginia. The organization serves as an advocate for excellence in education, promotes and maintains professional

014standards, and serves in local communities to elevate future academic achievement. This year, the VASP has selected one of our principles as the recipient of the 2025 distinguished principal award for Virginia. And that recipient is in the Aquan District. Mr. Jesse, please tell us about our recipient. The Aquan District proudly congratulates Keredell Elementary principal Alisa the Pharaoh on being the recipient of the Virginia Elementary School principal 2025 distinguishing principal awards for Virginia. The award honors principles who excel in instruction, student achievement, character, and creating a positive environment for the learning community. Mrs. Sapphiro has been the principal of Keredell since 2018 under her leadership. K Caryell has many awards including the distinguished this designation as a national title one distinguished school and the 2024 Virginia highest highest achieving exemp exemperor school award. Kyell is also the

015only school in Virginia and one of seven in the United States to receive the visible learning plus school award recognizing schools that encourage students to take charge of their learning using visible learning principles. I want to invite Miss Safero to share a few words about your awards and I need to come to your school to learn how to say this stuff properly. Thank you so much. Thank you uh school board vice chairman Mr. Blake, school members, and Dr. McDade uh for the opportunity to be here this evening. I am humbled and honored that I have been named this year's recipient of the National Distinguished Principles Award for Virginia by the National Association of Elementary School Principles. This recognition is not just a personal achievement. It is a celebration of the incredible work we have accomplished

016together as a school. As I reflect on my 20 years in education, this honor stands out as a defining moment. It brings me immense pride to serve as the principal of our school. Leading a community that has created a nurturing and inspiring environment for our children to learn and thrive. Our collective commitment for to fostering a strong sense of belonging and providing an equitable education for all has made a profound impact on students and their families. I deeply value the support, teamwork and dedication of our teachers and staff and how they demonstrate that every day. It is through our shared passion and efforts that we have built a welcoming environment where every child can succeed. I thank them for their hard work and for being a part of this essential journey. Together, we continue to

017make a difference in the lives of our students. While my leadership and vision have guided Carale toward excellence in education, this achievement is not mine alone. It is the result of the unwavering belief in my leadership and support from our amazing school community, colleagues, friends, family, and Dr. McDade. Their trust in my leadership has fueled our collective success, allowing us to bring my vision and to life and to create an environment where students flourish and thrive. I look forward to heading to DC and the White House, proudly representing Prince William County Public Schools, NAESP, VAESP, and elementary principles everywhere, advocating for the amazing work leaders do for kids every [Applause] day. Congratulations, Principal Zero. It is now my pleasure to recognize the next award winner. The Neapsco district would like to recognize Neapsco Elementary School

018Counselor School Counselor Lydia Larore for being selected as the 2025 Virginia School Counselor Association's Elementary School Counselor of the Year. This honor recognizes the outstanding and exemplary work of Miss Lairmore and the life life-changing work and dedication to counseling students, families, and staff in PWCS. As you may recall, Miss Larore has also earned the Virginia Department of Ev of Education's 2024 Difference Maker Award. And she was honored as the PWCS champion for children in 2024 for her innovative stars support stars program, which decreased chronic absenteeism by 36% at Neapco Elementary School. We recently learned that the Virginia School Counselors Association has selected Miss Larry Moore's application to move forward for consideration at the national level for the American School Counselor Association National School Counselor of the Year. Congratulations. We know you will Yes. Yes. Yes.

019We know you will represent PWCS very well on the national stage. NAVSCO is represented tonight by principal Brooke Leveki and Lydia Lairmore. I wish to invite Miss Larore to share a few words on this accomplishment. She don't like that. Oh, thank you for the warm welcome. Good evening, Dr. McDade, Dr. Fernard, Miss Worley, Mr. Blake, and the members of the Princip County School Board. I'm honored to stand before you as the Virginia Elementary School Counselor of the Year. a recognition made even more meaningful by the VSCA committee's nomination for the ASKA school counselor of the year award. This journey has been shaped by many who encouraged, inspired, and prayed over me. I started my career as a school counselor just four and a half years ago. Driven by a deep desire to serve students during

020one of the most challenging times in our history. But obstacles don't define us, they help us grow, just like how a sea pushes through with the dirt to become a strong and beautiful tree. At Nyapskco Elementary, we believe in empowering our students to thrive, not just to survive. When faced with ongoing chronic absenteeism and possible accreditation deferment, I drew on personal experiences and created the Star Supporting Stars peer mentorship program where 77 fifth grade students embraced a simple yet powerful idea, checking in with younger peers. The result it was 36% in five weeks but by the end of the year it was 44% reduction in chronic absenteeism and a ripple effect of achievements and success that garnered attention even beyond Virginia. This recognition therefore belongs to all of us naps admin team Mrs. Lebecki, Miss

021Carrington, Miss Cunningham, my creative partners, Risha, Diana, Magda, Allison Scott, Miss Black, Miss B, who's also here tonight, and all the dedicated teachers and staff, families, and community members committed to student growth. You are rock stars. To the incredible student services and college and career support staff at the KC, Denise Hapner, Becca Schlater, Andy Henry, Lisa James, Briana, Alyssa, and Janette. Your unwavering support fuels this work. To my husband Maddie and our boys Ethan and Luke, thank you for your love and understanding of the time and energy that I pour into my work coming home late even. I love you very much. And to my students, you inspire me every day with your resilience, empathy, and growth. Together, we lead. We listen, encourage, adapt to your unique learning styles to develop an inclusive, supportive learning

022environment where every student can shine. NAPCO stars, we lead together. Prince County School Boards, thank you again for having me here tonight and for leading with us. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Larmore, for all you do for our students and for our families. And before asking Dr. McDade to congratulate to congratulate, I want to ask the families of our honores to stand for applause. Thank you. Yeah. Go ahead and stand up so we can recognize you. There we go. There we go. Okay. I now invite Superintendent Dr. Latana D. McDade to share a few words. Thank you, Mr. Blake. Well, I just want to take a few moments to congratulate each of our honores here tonight because the recognitions that were shared here this evening really reflect the deep commitment of our PWCS staff and

023students to excellence, innovation, and service which are all hallmarks of creating a thriving educational community. I'll start with Miss Digman. Uh congratulations times two for your recognition as the 2025 teacher of excellence in driver and uh traffic safety education which underscores the vital role that you as one of our educators plays in preparing students not only for academic success but for real world responsibility and care for others. Thank you so much for your continued commitment to our students and their success. I'm so thrilled to see Buckland Mills here and our students. What a wonderful speaker from Buckland Mills. Can we give him another round of applause? Our student council president, you did an amazing job. I want to thank each of you for all the work that you're doing leading in your school community and

024earning the ASCA school of excellence award which demonstrates how we cultivate student leadership, community service, and citizenship from an early age. Directly supporting our vision for graduates. Um, we say in our vision that we want students to not only graduate, but to be able to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. And I believe that at Buckland Mills, our students are a shining example of that vision. I am so incredibly proud of Principal Alisa Pharaoh from Caredale. Um, year overyear, you continue to show what true leadership really is and the impact that can be made in the lives of all students. Your distinction as the 2025 VASP distinguished principal just reaffirms that strong school leadership really does drive student achievement and a positive climate and culture which are all represented at Carydale. So

025congratulations to you. I tell you every time that we speak how proud I am of you and your leadership. Keep shining and making PWCS proud. To uh Miss Larry Moore actually was just at Neapco and you are absolutely right. Everything that you said about NAVSCO school community is true year overyear. Your star support uh stars program and I know it's been fully supported by the by the staff. It's a powerful example of how PWCF staff lead with heart to remove barriers and ensure that every child thrives. And I want to thank you for believing in every single student at NEAPsco and for all of the support of the staff at NAPSCO um for you to be able to receive this honor. And then finally, I know that Daniel Cho couldn't be here tonight, but we

026are immensely proud of his accomp accomplishment as a National Merit Scholar, which is a huge deal for a student to become a National Merit Scholar. So, we're so proud and he represents all of PWCS. It's an incredible honor and I look forward to witnessing everything that Daniel will accomplish in the future because his future is certainly bright. to all of our families, staff, and school leaders here tonight. I just want to thank you for not just being here to uh celebrate our honores, but for your continued support in making sure that PWCS continues to launch a thriving future for every student every day. So once again, to all of our honores, congratulations. We are PWCS proud. Thank you, Dr. McBade. At this time, I invite all our honores to come forward for a group photo

027with the school board and receive a tok of token of our appreciation. We'll begin with Amy Dignette. Good luck. Thank you all for being here tonight. This concludes our Thriving Futures focus recognition. Okay, we're now moving on to 12.01, the adoption of the consent agenda. Mr. Chairman. Uh, I move that the Prince County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Zag. Any discussion? Please vote. We're still voting by hand. We're voting by hand. The vote is seven yes, one not one absent. Let motion passed. Now we are moving on to 13.01 approval of acknowledgements and recognitions. Vice Chair. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Prince William County School Board approves the adoption of the acknowledgements and recognitions as recommended. Do I have a second?

028Mr. Chairman, Miss Zagapore. A second. Any discussion? Yes. Oh, yes. I just want to say we are recognizing Caribbean American Heritage Month, LGBTQ Pride Month. I'm sure that's what you wanted to mention. Uh, National Immigration Immigrant Heritage Month and 2025 internal audit awareness month. That's clearly the most interesting one yet. And Miss Williams, thank you. As uh, Miss Darkfor said, uh, one of the things I did want to highlight was LGBTQ plus Pride Month. I think uh now even more is an important time to remind our school community, meaning our students and our staff um that we continue to be supportive and um there has been no changes from us as to how important it is to recognize difference and how valuable you a contribution you make to our school community, be it student or

029staff. Thank you, Miss Wall. Um I wanted to highlight internal audit awareness month. I'm going to make some comments on that later when I give a committee update. But I just want to thank our intern office of internal audit for all they do. Oh, we don't. I will make it. Okay. Um, so sure. Let me get my notes. Sorry, I got my I have some notes on this. So, I want to make sure I don't miss. Okay. I will give the committee update in June. I'm sure you're all dying to hear it. But I will say um that internal audit is a very um important function of local uh government and it doesn't get a lot of attention but it gets a designation as May of May as internal audit awareness month. Um, it's a

030vital part of strengthening organizations and protecting stakeholders and is key to helping identify and manage an organization's risks and ensuring policies, procedures and controls are in place and working appropriately. And our auditors, we have a small office. We have two um auditors in our office. They are independent objective professionals who help us improve our operations and achieve our goals. um and I believe they are ex they are integral in achieving um all of the commitments in the strategic plan. So I just want to thank them for everything that they do. Um it really does make us a better school division and a lot of that work like I said is in the background but they do support every aspect of our strategic commitments and I want to thank them for their efforts. Thank you Miss

031Wall. Please vote. The vote is five yes to abstain. Walt tradenic. Motion passed. Okay, citizens. So now we're at sister comment time. To those citizens who have signed up in advance with the with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they are called to the podium. The citizen comment period for regular schoolboard meetings is one hour and citizens may speak on items, agenda items or other topics gerain to the operations and policies of PWCS. Please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium or you will be asked to step aside. We ask that the podium that the audience please be respectful and each speaker to each speaker and refrain from any clapping, cheering or jeering to avoid disruption of the meetings. If you do not, the board will recess and I

032will ask the room to be cleared to restore public order. Tonight we have seven citizens signed up to speak. When I call your name, please come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Um, so call the first five people. Jessica Sh, Gloria Jordan, Catalina Claros, Terara Cran Crannle, and Lily Gomez. Good evening. I'm here tonight to talk about food insecurity and the urgent need to protect access to school meals for students in Prince William County. According to the most recent report in the DMV region, Prince County has the second highest rate of food insecurity with 43% of households affected. Even more concerning, 40% of those households have children and more than 16,000 children are food insecure in Prince William County. Right now, Congress is considering significant cuts to SNAP and

033Medicaid. These programs are critical to how we determine eligibility for free and reduced price school meals through a process called direct certification. If these cuts pass, fewer students will qualify automatically, which would directly impact our ability to feed the kids who need it most. This puts at our risk um participation in the um community eligibility provision or C. So C allows the schools to serve free meals to all students if at least 25% of the students are directly certified. If Congress raises that threshold or if direct certification numbers drop, many of our schools will lose their C status. While current eligibility is locked in until 2028, changes made right now will affect future qualifications. This gives us a very limited window to act. So tonight, I urge our PWCS families and community members to contact

034our US representatives and senators and make sure that they reject cuts to SNAP Medicaid. They protect direct certification pathways. They keep the C threshold at 25% and they preserve access to free and reduced price meals for every eligible student. I want to thank PWCS for promoting Virginia Sunbucks, a program that provides a one-time payment of $120 per eligible child to help families with summer grocery cost. Benefits are automatically loaded into family SNAP card or special prepaid Sunbucks card. This is a lifeline for many families and we truly appreciate the division's efforts to raise awareness. Finally, a thank you to PWCS for continuing to offer free meals this summer through the summer food service program. Meals will be available at 35 elementary schools, five middle schools, and two high schools, and are open to all children

03518 and under at no cost or income eligibility. However, barriers still exist. USDA rules allow for meal pickup sites only in rural designated areas. And so we asked PWCS leadership to publicly reaffirm that our school meal sites are safe spaces for all families and to continue upholding the policies that build trust and keep our communities supported. Our students access to food should never be at risk. Let's continue doing everything we can to ensure that every child in Prince William County is nourished, supported, and ready to learn. Thank you, and I look forward to speaking with you after tonight's meeting about food and security. Have a good night. Thank you, Gloria Jordan. Good evening, school board members and Dr. McDeade. My name is Gloria and my address is on file. I want to express my gratitude

036to our teachers, social workers, counselors, principles, and nurses for their incredible dedication to our students. A few weeks ago, the federal government announced a $1 billion cut to school mental health funding. Your ongoing commitment to maintain a nurse in every school, provide trauma-informed training for teachers, ensure access to special education, and provide mental health resources are vital to student well-being. Public money should fund public schools and the essential programs our communities rely on. Please continue to fund student mental health regardless of what the federal government does. According to the American Psychiatric Association, teachers rank gun violence, mental health, and cyber bullying among their top concerns facing students. Maintaining and expanding free mental health resources directly addresses these issues for both educators and families. However, I've experienced difficulties locating these free services in PWCS, and many

037other families face that same challenge with access. I urge the board to make these vital free resources more visible in schools, on our county website, and in multiple languages to better serve our diverse community. Please continue prioritizing mental health and support for our students regardless of federal decisions. Public money belongs in public schools. I want to thank the educators at Benton Middle School who assured me they would uphold the law and do what's best for students regardless of the federal cuts to the Department of Education. Because of their ongoing support and their and my daughter's own hard work, my daughter with ADHD and a learning disability was recently invited and accepted to join the junior honor society. I also want to recognize the incredible professors at the Governor's School at Innovation Park. My graduating senior

038excelled in that environment, and I am so grateful for these public specialty programs that meet the needs of diverse learners. As a young mom in my 20s raising a gifted child, I was overwhelmed. He was smarter than me in third grade. While private school built his work ethic, it couldn't meet his intellectual needs. More work does not mean stimulating or innovative learning. Thanks to the G gifted programs in this county, he earned over 20 college credits, went to prom, built robots, and just got to be a kid while still being academically challenged. He's earned hundreds of thousands of dollars and will attend the University of Michigan to study aerospace engineering. You helped make that possible. PWCS sees every type of students and helps them thrive. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for keeping

039public funds in public school. This mama is grateful. Thank you, Catalina Claros. Good evening, Dr. Midday and schoolboard members. My name is Kataria Claos and I have been giving speeches here since fourth grade and now I'm back as a middle schooler. Being in middle school has stress the importance of leisure time/resess in the school day. Students in middle school are more disrupted and distract and distracting which can also affect other kids learnings. But if we had a break/ recess period in the school day, kids would get their energy out. People say that's what PE is for. PB is a required class that is also graded and not everyone does well in PE. Some of the reasons our recess initiative has been denied are the following. P PWCS was one of the shortest school days in

040Virginia. Limited teacher support. Principles need to allow prayer times for diverse populations. 32% of middle school students are below grade are below grade reading level. We are still fighting for recess um and PD for PDCs middle schoolers. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Tara Kle Tarandle Lily Gomez Ana store story. Ana Stroy and my address is on file. Per Virginia code 22.1-2760.1 defines bullying an aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate or humiliate the victim and so on. My daughter experienced threats, insults, humiliation, teasing and pushing all which are considered bullying behaviors. However, I was told repeatedly that what she was experiencing was not was not getting bullied. Another student at Coington Harper was violated when student A looked over the bathroom stall while students B's genitalia was exposed. Administration felt

041this incident did not need to be reported. Keep in mind there is no bullying prevention coordinator currently at Covington. PWCS has a commitment to organizational coherence. However, what are the checks and balances in place to eliminate not only just bias but personal opinion when disciplinary action is needed? The implementation of the code of behavior should be for the most part unformed and handled the same. How is school staff being held accountable when behaviors are not being addressed appropriately? I asked that an audit be completed to determine the 64% of bullying online inquiries that were founded not bullying. I'm going to quote Mr. Wil today that some of the worst bullying can be mental bullying. I believe in this statement. It is easy to be dismissive when there are no physical bumps and bruises. Easy to

042belittle what many children are going through. easy to be not be sympathetic and understand that bullying and cyber bullying must be addressed with more seriousness. Therefore, I do support Mr. Wilk that after excuse me, that after innovation um the consequences should be at a should not be at a level three. What my daughter endured on May 8th is proof of this when her hair was violently tugged twice during recess by the same student that was removed from sharing the same classroom and had been spoken to three times prior. I heard a saying recently, speak up even when your voice shakes. I will continue to do so even when it hurts and when it's exhausting. My voice shakes because I am a mother. My voice shakes because my heart is hurting not just for my daughter

043but for all children and families that are victims of bullying. for those that feel hopeless and for those that are no longer amongst us. Thank you. Thank you, Caitlyn Weston. Dr. McDade and members of the school board. My name is Caitlyn Weston and my address is on file with the clerk. PWCS must do more to protect immigrant families and students who are living under the growing threat of immigration enforcement in our communities. As the National Immigration Law Center states, the Trump administration has increased the threat of immigration enforcement in our communities. The government has also cancelled the long-standing policy of limiting im immigration enforcement in schools and other protected areas and replaced it with a directive that gives ICE agents unbridled power to take enforcement actions in any of these areas using common sense. As

044a result, many immigrant students and families are living in fear of arrest, detention, separation, and deportation. While PWCS has taken some steps to safeguard vulnerable communities, these efforts are not enough. The information currently provided by PWCS is limited, difficult to access, and insufficient for families who need urgent clarity about their rights in the face of possible immigration enforcement. We call on PWCS to do more. Families must be informed and students must feel safe. While schools cannot provide legal advice, they can and must share publicly available multilingual resources such as know your rights guides from trusted legal and advocacy organizations that help families understand what to do if they are approached by immigration agents. 65 community members have joined us in signing the following petition. We are reaching out to urge you to take additional actions

045in support of immigrant students in our community. It's important that all students in our district, regardless of their immigration status, feel safe, supported, and protected. Here are additional steps you can take. One, define and mark private school areas. Anything past the visitor's side of a school friend's desk to uphold Fourth Amendment rights. Two, require all guests, including law enforcement, to pass through an administrative office. Officers must present a valid judicial warrant or subpoena for review before entering the school. and three, provide know your rights materials, posters, and trainings to educate immigrant students and families on their rights. Other districts in the across the country, including Arlington, Fairfax, and Lowden counties, are providing general resources to their families, and we need to do the same. Please live up to your promise of protecting every student. I

046have a copy of the petition to share with you this evening, and I will be following up with an electronic copy for your records. Please take the time to review each petitioner's comments. Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue. Thank you. I'd like to turn it back over to Dr. McDade for agenda item 15.01. All right. So, uh, at the last board meeting, Mrs. Heapner presented the 2526 code of behavior. Um, and so tonight is the night for the board to uh take action on this policy. We can take questions if you have any additional questions beyond the presentation questions from from the last meeting. Um, Mrs. Hener will not be presenting anything new this evening, but is here to answer any additional questions that you might have. I do I

047I do want to make note that um there's there was one question that was posed prior to that I want to address um upfront around um students with special needs. So and I I do believe Miss Heapner is prepared to answer this. I know Miss um uh Dr. Ryder's not here, but the question was really around um students with special needs uh in terms of discipline and the difference uh that maybe some parents are not clear about in terms of the code of behavior and how it applies to those students that may have a disability that affects the uh the the consequences that may be administered when there's an infraction. Sure. Absolutely. Um, you've heard me talk before that all discipline requires us to consider the age developmental ability of the student circumstance by circumstance.

048Additionally, when there are certain infractions that occur for a student with a disability, we also have to consider is this a manifestation of their disability. So, meaning is this occurring or happening because or related to their disability? And in that situation, um, the consequences would be different. It would be a learning experience. It doesn't mean that we don't still address the behavior, but in certain situations, we would not apply the same sanctions that we would for a non-disabled peer. I I do also want to just to build on that. I am not Dr. Ryer because she's really amazing and would probably have more comprehensive answer, but also I wanted to just note that behaviors when that does occur, we do address that through the IEP process. So there are certain aspects of, you know, doing

049an FBA, a functional behavior assessment or behavior intervention plan. So, it's not the behaviors go unressed, it's just we address them differently through supportive measures. Thank you, Miss Heman. U Mr. Blake, any questions that the board might have on this policy? We got We're going to do the motion and then discussion. All right. All right. Do I have a motion for agenda item 15.01, the proposed 202526 code of behavior? Mr. Chairman. Yes. I move that the Prince William County School Board approves the proposed 202526 code of behavior. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, Miss Agor seconds. Any discussion? Mr. Wil, of course, Miss Hunner, I know you're going to miss me and I'm going to miss you. This is our annual little event. Um, no longer now you're not the COVID queen anymore. We

050moved past that. So, we're now going to miss you on the coded behavior as well. Um, I know your staff spent an inordinate amount of time working on this and I'm very appreciative I'm very appreciative for the easyto read charts. I know that was a recommendation actually. I think a lot of the recommendations um were implemented um in regards to uh some of the areas with the code of behavior. Um, and just going to reiterate my points. These are not questions, of course. You know, this is my little sage on a stage before the vote. um you know uh focusing on a couple different areas and just reiterating my concerns and my concerns are more about the severity of discipline. It's not so much the consequences necessarily that are laid out but where the consequences

051start or where they might end. Um I want to pay a couple attention to a little bit of attention to assault and battery. Um, I understand um that legislation may not require mandatory report to law enforcement, but I think we as a school system should make any type of assault and battery or causing physical injury to another person or most especially striking staff the use of force against staff member when no injury is caused as a requirement for police report. Um I think you know and it's not just here overall in society there's been a degradation um against uh the profession of educators and teachers all across the board in this country and I've seen it in the severity and the levels of respect even since I've left the classroom in 10 years and again

052this is not just for us uh this is kind of more a societal thing and you know often in issues when it comes to discipline and behaviors um you know the teachers in a sense become like the punching bags. Uh they're put on social media, they're put on blast. It seems like they can't do anything right in the eyes of some in the public. And and not only is this degradation with students, but in a lot of cases, it's the adults. Um you know, the the parents um you know, I think gone are the days. You know, I feel like maybe I'm a boomer when I say this, but you know, 30 years ago, if a teacher called my parents, you know, there was going to be an issue. at least it was going to

053be addressed and there wouldn't be the automatic assumption that the teacher was wrong and did something to your child. So when those um assumptions or those decisions are made even before a conversation occurs, I I see that as problematic. Um and again that's not just us. This is a societal issue. Um, so I feel in the sense of especially if you look at striking a staff member, I don't think it should be incumbent on the teacher to have to decide if they want to call the police and press charges. I think that's something we can take off them and have that decision made by someone else and not necessarily put that on the staff to have to make that decision should they be assaulted um by a student, especially at the 612 level. Um, you

054know, I think again the K235 is a little bit different. Um, but if you've hit middle school and you're assaulting your teacher, um, I think we're at a different point of contention there. Um, next area, second area, and then I'll go to three and then I'll be done. Board members, don't worry. Um, you know, it was said two weeks ago, uh, the normalization of bullying. Um, which really stuck out and that's why I have it written down from last week. Um, this has been an ongoing issue of mine when it comes to bullying. I understand we are obligated in most senses to follow some of the state regulations um as it pertains to bullying and the severity sometimes of discipline. I'm concerned when we look at various things and I think it was flagged earlier.

055I'm concerned about what happens after intervention because when I look at the chart when I see the bullying first initiate that it can be option starting at level one two and three then it goes about the three but then after intervention there is still the opportunity for a principal can give that child a level one two or three I I personally disagree with that I think if you are going to be a repeat offender bully whatever you want to do Uh and and you know we I I said this um two weeks ago about you know the unfortunate the horrible tragedy of you know people who take their lives because of bullying cyber bullying mental bullying you know bullying you know can be pernicious and can be something that could really destroy lives and families

056and I think when we look at these different levels and severity of bullying especially after intervention I think the consequences should start higher on the chart. and and and and again, you know, with the uniformity piece, my fear is that, you know, if you look at after intervention, you might have a leader say, you know what, we're going to still do a one and do a restorative circle or whatever. Whereas another principal might say, we're going to go to three, we're going to go to four. And so me to make it more uniform, I would personally say after intervention, it should start at least at a three, not leave the options of a one and a two for the severity level of bullying. That's just me. Okay. And then lastly, I want to focus on

057a last concern. Um, uh, transportation. You know, uh, over the years, and I think postcoid, you know, we're seeing a larger amount of parents, uh, drive their kids to school. And I think again that a lot of that is the postcoid effects and stuff like that. Um you know unfortunately as as um Vern will often say like our schools a lot of them were not designed with the kind of the arrival and dismissal entranceways and even the parking lots itself for that type of influx and the sheer number of parents who are driving their kids to school. I look at the the transportation expectations and I look at especially on a bus endangering the safety of others on a bus and the maximum something like that can go even for a 6 to 12 grade

058level is a level three. And and to me, if you're in a position where our bus drivers already have enough on their plates with the liability having all these students on the bus and having to also obviously drive their route and maintain the safety of the road, and you have a student who clearly is having these issues more than once over and over again, I think it should be able to escalate to a four or a five, definitely losing their bus privileges. And I definitely believe there should be more severe consequences. put the onus and the responsibility in that case on the parents if the child's going to endanger the lives of other kids on the bus uh over the repeat amount of times the repetitive amount of times. So long story short, those are

059like three of my biggest most glaring concerns and I could expound on this for a long time but I'm not going to because we are making the vote tonight and I have colleagues who want to talk too. Um but ultimately I will be voting no on the code of behavior tonight. Thank you Mr. Well, Miss Williams, thank you uh chair vice chair. Uh this is as Mr. Wil said, Miss Huner, I will also miss you at this time of year for code of behavior. It's my favorite time. Usually Mr. Wil and I have opposing views for the most part in agreement this year. I do want to thank uh you uh Miss Ryer and Dr. McDade for making uh comments for special education. I spoke with a few special education parents and they were very

060concerned about the new layout and um my comments were that exactly what you said, we do have pay special attention to that. Uh I think that that's a wonderful thing. My ask is that we just kind of bold it a little bit more in the actual document. Um going through and reading it, I note that it's there. Um but I think it's very easy to miss and it's something that I heard quite about quite a bit of feedback on. Um, which leads me sort of to my next statement and I'm going to be quick, which was uh their belief of increasing the school to prison pipeline when it comes to assault and battery and those kinds of things. Uh, as someone who has advocated for the reduction of the school to prison pipeline for a

061number of years, I just want to make rest assure that uh every individual disciplinary case is handled um as its own. We recognize that all students don't intentionally do things. it depends on whatever their their diagnosis may be that may interfere in their decision-m or their behaviors and that we acknowledge that as a division and that we're aware of that. So, it's not um something that is a blanket approach for everyone. I do believe that having a deed and students next year to help implement the code of code of behavior with fidelity will also help our school community um understand a little bit better about how that process works. They'll have a direct person to speak to about it. But um back to that just want to remind our school community that we're dealing with

062children and my expectation has always been that we should not treat children uh harsher than adults are treated and that this is the environment where we are supposed to educate them and teach them appropriate behaviors as well as their home uh environment to support those decisions. And um that's pretty much what I wanted that's what I wanted to focus on because we don't want to be sending kids to jail unnecessarily. Once you have contact with law enforcement, it's highly likely that you'll continue to have contact with law enforcement and that you may end up further incarcerated. So the goal is not to have that happen to teach them good behaviors to model good behaviors because we know that harsher discipline harsher discipline does not equate better behavior. Um it that's why we have restorative practices

063and that's why uh children aren't treated like adults. So thank you um Miss Hunner and Dr. McDade for answering the question earlier. I really appreciate that and I would just like for us to continue along the road of treating children as children who have the opportunity to learn and grow and change behavior. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Miss Miss Zagapore. Just yeah just very quick that um our code of behavior is research or evidencebacked based right correct okay and um we will be using data to inform decision- making and yada yada yada right okay and we are offering training to our principles teachers staff yes consistently okay and when it comes to anti-bullying we are we want to reduce the incidents so we want to be proactive by offering social support peer groups group activities,

064do social skill training, things like that. That would start in elementary presumably. We can grow our our our um efficacy in our kids to also be proactive in this as well. Yes. At the elementary level, our counseling lessons do address that. We have our positive behavior um interventions and supports through um Dr. Barker's office. And so, it's embedded into all that we do. And then bridging into middle school, you have we now have the the deans who will presumably be the data keepers and the um peacekeepers and all of that good stuff. Correct. All right. I I support this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dapor. Mr. Denn, sorry there's a lot of comments. Um thank you again for all your work. I know it's I know it's a lot of work. Um, I do genuinely

065appreciate the charts. Um, I do feel like they're very eye opening though. Um, like I would like to blow them up and put them on board so people could see. Um, I can only imagine as a teacher something happens in your classroom and if you don't memorize the code of behavior having to turn and find this chart um, and then being given all these different options and which one do I choose? Um, so one of the things that I have an issue with, um, I'm just, again, these are comments, not questions, but a principal or designate may use any of the following. And there's a whole list of 15 options going from warning or counseling all the way to class restriction to short-term to suspension to a referral to law enforcement or removal. One of

066my biggest struggles with this whole thing is the lack of consistency. If we are leaving it up to a dean of students, which I appreciate. I think that a dean of students can help. But each dean of students at each school can choose anything from that list of 15 as long as it matches up to the chart. What if you know that it ranges with any of those possibilities? Um, but it did say a principal or design may use any of the following. So, anything from warning, you get a warning or we call law enforcement. So, one school can call law enforcement and someone else can warn the kid. I just struggle with that wholeheartedly. Um the lack of reporting to law enforcement is uh very eye openening on this chart as well. Um for

067illegal drugs, we don't report to law enforcement. Um and that's on the chart on here. It it says it on bees7. On the chart, it says lack of reporting to law enforcement, no. Illegal drugs, no. So I just that's another another struggle. Um our our goal is to prepare our students for the real world. Um and in the real world uh your actions have consequences and so I think in school providing that environment as well which we do um but again it varies and and that's one of my struggles. um we do have support groups. We do offer all of those things, but at some point there has to be a consequence um for these actions that occur and for uh verbal bullying, which verbal bullying over time can cause a child to then act

068out in another way in a physical manner. And nobody knows that that child endured years of verbal bullying before a physical act occurred. And um that's a struggle. you know, if something would have been done before that, could we have saved that child that heartache? Possibly. Um, and it another thing I I feel for my principles. Um, a lot of pressure on one principal. The principal shall be responsible for deciding what actions constitute a fight. Again, at one school, a principal can say this constitutes a fight, and at another school, they can say that happens every day. It is what it is. And I think that that's um that's another struggle that the bus transportation was eyeopening to me. Um Mr. Wilk pointed that out. Endangering the safety of an entire bus should just be

069a a larger consequence. Those are kids' lives. Um if that was my baby on a bus, I would be very upset. Very very upset. Um, so again, and and the dress code, I you know, I mentioned this last last meeting, but the dress code is something that um these middle schoolers and high schoolers talk to me about all the time. Um, you know, again, they can and and this is boys and girls. They wear a shirt and they can wear it all year and one teacher finds that shirt offensive and nobody else did. And it's it's a struggle of mine because I feel like we need more clear guidelines or or a girl wears a shirt. Um, you know, I saw that undergarments exposure was was not allowed. Yeah. If that's not consistently enforced. So,

070it's I I just think we need more clear clear guidance. But I understand this is um I I don't even know how many pages it is, Miss Hunner. So, I I understand that there's so much verbiage. There's so many things that we're adding and I appreciate your hard work, but um I also cannot vote in favor of this code of behavior. So, Thank you, Mr. Miss Wall. Oh, you got something. You got something, Mr. Blake. Okay, Miss Wall. All right. Thank you, Mr. Blake. Um, thank you for to you and your staff for all the hard work. It's a big document. I know you work, you guys spent a lot of time on it. Um, my general thoughts. Um, I actually don't have a question for you. Um, so you have, it's kind of an

071you have to stand and listen to us talk, but thank you for doing that. Um the proposed changes to the code of behavior in most are in most respects excellent in my opinion. Um the um proposed revisions contain a number of good improvements. And while I may take issue with one level here or another level there for the various different types of infractions, I agree, you know, assault and battery may need to be edited or modified. Bus behavior is a big one and uh drugs and drug use. Those are things that really bother me that, you know, they they happen in our schools and and I just discipline is a tool to help kids get get their attention besides any number of other purposes for discipline. Um anyway, but um oh, as a whole, it's

072a great document and it's been greatly improved. Um and I would like to go through and speak on some of the things that I really do feel like are excellent. Um, but before I do that, I'm going to disagree with the inclusion of the student voice bill of rights in the beginning of the code of behavior. Um, well, I appreciate the efforts of the students to create this document and I know um it took a lot of work and I appreciate knowing their perspective as a collective body of student leaders um to come up with that the list of rights. Um it in the end it is a student it is a statement of what the students believe their rights to be and not necessarily what I think their rights should be or legally speaking

073represent objectively and with a specificity specificity or clarity that I would like for what their rights are. Um and I do know there were a number of changes that improved it, you know, little footnotes and things and I read listen I read every single word in the entire thing. Um but I I still am troubled by the fact that it is placed at the beginning of the code of behavior. I don't think that's the right place for it and I don't want to vote on the students work. So I have issue with that. So but anyway speaking to the code of behavior apart from the student voice portion um we do need to remember that the code of behavior is a public facing document that parents and students access and use. There are other documents

074and other guidance for principles and leaders of schools and who are involved with discipline and and all the other aspects that I mean obviously it correlates but um this is our public facing document and as a as and as a result I think it is it does accomplish those purposes. I'm really glad to see the inclusion of the unauthorized possession or use of cell phones or personal electronic communication devices in the code of behavior. In past years this was one issue for me I was like where does it say we you know how can we behave with cell phones in school? Um, so I am thrilled that we have incorporated our cell phone policy and the behaviors around cell phone usage into the code of behavior. That is a huge improvement and I want to

075champion that. Um, I also am glad to see um the unauthorized uh it says un the title was unauthorized or misuse of technology. I'm going to give you a suggestion. I do think the headline should be edited to say unauthorized use or use unauthorized use or misuse of technology. Um, makes more sense that way. That's on page 45. Um, I also approve of the additional detail on page 47 that spells out what items can lead to serious disciplinary disciplinary consequences such as pocket knives, box cutters, pepper spray, ammunition blades, razor blades, fireworks, slingshots, and other items and look like toy weapons. I think it's good to spell this out. So nobody's surprised and nobody says, "Well, I didn't think that there would be a problem if I brought an airsoft gun to school and brandished

076it." Um, I also approve of the language made in the categories of behavior on page 63. Uh, that language, whoever worked on that and put that in that included ration and explanations. I think that is helpful because if somebody takes the time to read through entire 63 pages of the code of behavior, which they're supposed to, um, they'll they'll understand more the ration for what we're doing. So, I was happy to see that. Um, the purpose statement on page 11, loved it right there up front. Great, great addition. Um, including the section on monitoring PWCS computer systems and networks and safety screening technology. I felt like that was an excellent addition. Very necessary to have that in there. I'm glad to see it there. Um, boy, I have a lot. I'll try to shorten it.

077Um, I appreciate the definitions of the disciplinary penalties being spelled out. Um I think that's really helpful for families and students. Um it's some of the stuff that we get when we are on the disciplinary committee and we see all the language and they you know once a student has misbehaved seriously they get a letter which outlines all of this. But now that language is in the code of behavior which again improves transparency everybody's on notice like if you commit you know one of these level four level five things like this is this is what we're going to tell you. So I I really like that. Um, transparency is really important and I think there's a big effort to improve that here. Um, likewise for if you are getting assigned to an alternative education program

078or expel expelled, those details are spelled out. That's also very good. Um, the edits to the level responses are also helpful. I do like the SBAR codes being included in there. The tables are easily accessible. you can see kind of the range of discipline options that are available for student or for building administrators um within reason. I mean some have lots of X's in the boxes and some are very narrow. So it does inform the public on what we think is really serious and what we're willing to work with kids on. Um okay, I just have two more comments. Um, I like the additional language on par page 38 that addresses the possession, sale, distribution, or use of a controlled substance. Um, I do think that's that additional language was important that in to have

079in there that we spelled out the details for parents and students. Um, I also like the additional language on drug paraphernalia, alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, or nicotine nicotine vapor products. In my opinion, drug use and abuse is serious, serious, serious. And unfortunately, we do have this problem in our society and um a lot of kids think it's not that serious and they will do these things in school. So, if there were a category where I'd like us to be a little tougher, uh that might be the category, but I do understand that we um have great substance abuse specialists who are helping us work on the front end, putting up the fence at the top of the cliff instead of the ambulance at the bottom. Um so, I do appreciate that. So, for all of those

080reasons, I'm just highlighting what I think is an improvement in the code of behavior. And and I wish to thank staff for all of those thoughtful additions. Um, holding in reserve my primary concern, which was the bill of the student bill of rights or whatever it's called, the voice, student voice, bill of rights, ended up in there, which I don't um think it should be in there, and I I don't um want to have to vote on it. So, anyway, but I do appreciate the students efforts. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Wall. Go Mr. Jesse and then Mr. Denn I'm go go ahead Mr. Jesse and then Mr. And then it kind of I think the problem we have is that we're dealing with people. Uh you got a 100 schools, you want

081everything to be exact in the same way and everybody to come to the same conclusion all the time. It's not going to happen. It will never happen. We have a policy that we're putting in place here that is covers a lot of areas and as you can see even on a eightp person board and seven members here tonight you're not going to get total agreements but I do think that we have come up with some reasonable agreements and things that can be amended or changed later. So to not vote for this policy at this point in time, I think is not the proper way to go. Uh because to get it exactly the same way you want it is probably going to not work for somebody else on board. So I think we deal I

082definitely do not feel that every fight should re be reported to the police department. uh I would have been probably in trouble. I was never a big fighter, but I did get in in a fight and started the fight when I was in high school. Uh which was out of character for me because I was considered the goody goody kid. Um but every now and then but to call the police department every time is going to be difficult for the police department and uh as is this something I don't think we should do but I do think and I will support this uh tonight but I think we have to be realistic and I think in my opinion some of our board members are you want things that can be changed later but should not

083be a reason not to support this tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jesse. Mr. Dennick, I just um I did get a few questions from con constituents about the um student voice bill of rights. Um and I just feel the need to read this statement because I did read this to a couple of parents that were also concerned about the student voice bill of rights. And I know you all spent a lot of time doing this, but um at the bottom of the document, it says, "The student voice bill of rights is a document created by Prince William County students communicating to the school board, Prince William County School Administration and parents the student body's collective views of their needs and expectations that being met would allow them to achieve academically, to feel safe, and

084to participate as stakeholders in the school community. The student voice bill of rights is aspirational and not intended to create any legally enforcable rights beyond those set forth by federal and state laws, Prince William County policies and regulations or other provisions of the code of behavior. So it does not over or supersede the code of behavior or Prince William County schools regulations or guidelines. Um so I do support that the fact that the students did put this together and that they have a collective voice in this. it does not mean that this trumps or goes over the actual code of behavior or rules or violations. So, I do appreciate the students work on that and I think it's an awesome practice to have them practice um their voice, their government doing student government. You know,

085we encourage these students to do all of these things. And so, um stifling that within our code of behavior, I would not agree with that and I do appreciate this statement. So, I could read that to any constituents that were concerned about that or students or parents. So, um, thank you for doing that. I know it took you guys a lot of work, a hard work. So, thank you, Mr. Fredennic. Okay. So, I would just say thank you, Miss Hubner, and uh the broader student services team for the for your dedication and thoughtfulness in this approach to revising this uh code of behavior. The clarity, comprehensiveness, and responsiveness to the community feedback are evident throughout this proposal, and I'm definitely going to support this. Um, what stands out to me the most is the intentional

086effort to create clarity for families through the simplification of the language, the user friendly navigation, and the link policy supports now. So I think that's all good especially in an era where family school communication is paramount. This is very important. So it's appreciated and it's essential. And um I'm also I'm very happy about the inclusion like Miss Wall said of the clear cell phone and wireless communication section. So that reflects a timely and much needed policy alignment that addresses one of today's most prevalent school-based challenges. So I thank you for that too. And so I just think the the revisions of this code of behavior demonstrate a significant step forward in building a more inclusive, transparent and responsive uh discipline framework for our schools and I fully support it. Thank you. Uh is that it?

087Uh do I have a second or I had a second. All right. Will all in favor All opposed. The vote is four yes, three no. Wall Wilkenic. Motion passed. All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. We are now moving on to student representative time. Joining us tonight is Amaduna Lator. She's a senior at CD Hilton High School. Well, Miss Ltoriray, the floor is yours. Good evening to the board members, Dr. McDade, and everyone who has taken the time to be here today or watch from home. As always, I'm honored to be here sitting in front of all of you as a student representative. Today, more than ever, I am filled with bittersweet feelings since it will be my last time giving solo remarks in front of the school board. I'll try to make them the

088best yet. So words cannot describe how important diversity and inclusion are in Prince William County. This is why I'm proud to say that in April, Garfield High School hosted a unified prom. Now earlier this month, Ronald Wilson Rian Middle School was the host to a unified middle school track meet. I applaud those that came together to plan the event and the students, parents, and teachers that participated. 16 schools participated overall. That means that students across 16 schools had the opportunity to witness what we're capable of as a community in the future. Let's keep up the great work. To continue my remarks, I want to remind everyone that the month of May marks more than just the blooming of flowers. It is also the Asian-American and Pacific Heritage Month, the Jewish American Heritage Month, and Mental

089Health Awareness Month. Today, I wanted to take some time to talk about the latter, mental health. As a county, we have to do our best to ensure that no one suffers in silence. Throughout my time as a representative, it has been clear that bullying is a topic of concern for students and parents. I am hopeful that the revolution to the code of behavior that makes reporting links for discrimination, harassment, and bullying more visible will give more students the ability to report incidents. However, this will not happen unless the students feel supported. Parents and teachers, it is important to educate students on the signs and effects of bullying. It is important to listen for the concerns of kids regardless of grade level. The safe and no place for hate organizations already have chapters in some schools.

090Students in these clubs works towards creating safe school environments. With the help of all parents and teachers, this mission can be accomplished. To the parents and teachers who already advocate for students, thank you. On a slightly similar note, the student senate was able to present the student bill of rights last schoolboard meeting. After more than a year of work, we finalized a bill of rights that we believe accurately reflects the needs of the students in Prince William County. This document is important because it ensures students have a voice and it promotes promotes a more equitable education. I am glad that the board agrees with the standards that we have set. As a student myself, I am happy and proud to see it implemented in the code of behavior. Continuing on to a different topic, this

091week's marks the final week for most seniors in Prince William County. To everyone in the class of 2025, graduation started on May 28th. That is only a week away. For students of the class of 2025 at the Governor's School and Innovation Park, congratulations. These former students became graduates last week. I am so excited to see what they do in the future. These coming weeks are time to celebrate the graduates that worked hard to complete their high school education. It is also the time to celebrate the teachers and family members that helped them get there. It is thanks to them that I personally became the person I am in front of you today. Next, I want to discuss some topics that I want everyone to keep in mind as possible revisions to the grading and assessment

092policies are discussed later today. It is critical for our school system to focus on ensuring student successes. Our mission is to help students graduate on time and with the skills necessary to succeed in their future careers. In order to do this, students and parents should have quick access to grades once they're available. Dates and times for remediations should be clearly set in advance, and accommodations should be made in the case of a student faces extenduating circumstances. Late penalties on an assignment should be communicated in advance since the students are not used to having them in the first place. Finally, teachers should work towards ensuring past summitive assignments are graded before the next summitive assignment is given. Otherwise, students wishing to remediate have to complete two remediation assignments in a short period of time. In my

093opinion, summative and formative assignments should accurately reflect what was taught in class and they should not be used as punishments. Now I'll share some comments on the revision of policy 124 student representative to the school board. As one of the current student representative for the remainder of the year, I want to ensure that the selection process for those who feel this position in the future is equitable. I believe the revision to policy 124 will help with this goal. Giving students a broad range of time to complete the initial application will allow for more people to demonstrate their interest in the role. It will also give us student reps more time to communicate with the people who reach out for advice. I was happy to see that the number of applicants increased this year and I

094hope this trend continues. Moving on, I'll now share some news and updates about student voice committees and the student senate. Recently, the student senate had its last meeting. I speak for all senators when I say we are eternally grateful for the support of Miss Biola and Dr. Sha Shaver gave us throughout the school year. We were only able to accomplish all we did thanks to their help and dedication. I hope next year's senators continue to receive the level of mentorship we did. Finally, I want to congratulate high school and middle school student voice committees. This year was amazing and I enjoyed all the events we were able to participate in. I know some SBC's are still holding recruitment meetings. So, if you're an underclassman and you're interested, it's not too late. At the beginning of

095next school year, XBC's will also host recruitment meetings. We hope to see participation grow even more than it already has. All voices should be heard and that is what we're working towards. This concludes my remarks for tonight and my last solar remarks for the year. I thank the board once again for allowing me to be a student representative to the school board of Prince William County. Board members, Dr. McDade and everyone listening, thank you for having me. Thank you, Miss Lator. We now move on to superintendent's time. Dr. McDade, the floor is yours. Thank you so much, Mr. Blake, and good evening to all. I would like to invite the PWCS community to join our family engagement series webinar, which will be hosted from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night, May 22nd. It's titled Stop

096the Scroll, Take Control: PWCS Cell Phone Policy. In this webinar, we will discuss the new cell phone policy for the 2526 school year. The online seminar will cover research supporting cell phone free education and provide strategies and resources for a collaborative approach to electronic device usage. As we get closer to the end of the year, I also want to wish uh and congratulate our class of 2025. While I cannot be at every graduation ceremony, and I absolutely would love to be, I want you all to know how incredibly proud I am of all of your accomplishments and the fulfillment of the PWCS mission to see every student graduate on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. Graduates, the support of your families

097and teachers has been instrumental in helping you reach this important milestone. Their unwavering encouragement, guidance, and dedication have provided the foundation for you to achieve your goals and dreams. Be sure to thank your families, teachers, and other supportive mentors and friends for the role that they've played in your success. Congratulations, class of 2025. As a reminder, two important dates. Monday, May 26, schools and offices are closed in observance of Memorial Day. And Thursday, June 12th is the last day of school. and it will be an early release day. As students plan for summer, I encourage our families to take advantage of the many learning opportunities available to all students. PWCS summer school offerings include our academic recovery program and discovery, an enrichment program for students in grades kindergarten through 12. Registration for our summer programs

098is in high demand, and selection is limited to one enrichment program per student. Registration concludes this Friday, May 23rd for elementary, middle, and discovery programs. For our high schoolers, registration will end Friday, June 6th. So, please visit our website, select academics and programs, then summer programs to make your selection today. As a reminder, our school age child care uh summer provider is Alphabest Education, which also provides two summer programs, specialty enrichment and excursion. students can balance the relaxation of summer with the excitement of discovery and I encourage families to take advantage of this program. I am proud to share that for the sixth consecutive year the namm foundation nom foundation has named PWCS a best community for music education. Yes, that deserves a round of applause. The non best communities for music education designation is

099awarded to school divisions that demonstrate outstanding achievement for providing music access and education to all students. Congratulations to our very own Dr. an Dr. Anna Marie Bolino, PWCS supervisor of the arts and our amazing music teachers, students and their families. Additionally, nine PWCS schools have earned the Virginia Music Educators Association Blue Ribbon Award for 2025. Miss Zarapore, we're really trying to make you proud here. Each year, secondary band, Orchestra, and Coral Ensembles perform at the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association District Concert Assessment and Virginia Coral Directors Association stage assessment. During these assessments, student ensembles perform for a panel of adjudicators who assess students on their performance and provide feedback based on specific categories such as tone, inot in inonation, rhythm, technique, diction, balance, blend, and artistry musicianship. To qualify for this award, all disciplines

100in a school must receive a rating of superior at their respective state music performance assessments. Dr. Dr. Bolino and all nine schools will be here in June to be recognized during thriving futures for this unique accomplishment. We are so proud of them and I want to wish them all a congratulations. At this time I would welcome Dr. Tim Neil who is our director of research assessment and data services department and he will be presenting the final quarter uh overview report the 2425 quarter 3 overview report. Thank you Dr. Neil. Good evening. Uh tonight I'm going to do the quarter 3, excuse me, update. I'll be covering our active enrollment uh information, uh our attendance and chronic absenteeism, uh course performance, and progress towards graduation before we discuss some of the strategies and supports that we've

101put into place. So the table uh shows the active enrollment at the end of the third quarter and you can see we have had a fluctuation in the various levels and student groups over that time. Uh it is important to note uh that this is active enrollment. So these are students in the school. Uh just to contrast that with our projected enrollment which is a different process used to anticipate what we're going to be looking uh to have at the start of the school year. Uh this is actual counts of students. In terms of the the next few slides, um some of the key points that stand out is our attendance rate has stayed uh pretty steady at 94 to 95% average daily attendance. As of uh the end of April, our chronic absenteeism rate

102was just over 16% and our student our 12th grade students have uh demonstrated progress towards graduation. So this line plot shows the average daily attendance from the start of the school year through the end of March. And again you can see um it is pretty steady there about that 95 94 95% range. Chronic absenteeism which is defined as missing uh 10% or more of the membership days. Um this is unexcused or excused and it is a component of our current accountability system. When we look at the time span from the beginning of the school year through uh the end of April, what you can see compared to the last year at that same time span uh we have a decrease from 16.9% uh to 16.3% in the current year. We see this pattern manifest when

103we break this down by level. So if you look the gold bar is the current year, blue bar is the last year for a comparable time span. And across all three levels, elementary, middle, and high, we do see a decrease uh sometimes a substantial decrease over the prior year. So this this slide shows um course performance broken down by elementary, middle, and high school level. On the left, the stacked bar charts show uh quarter 3 from 23 24. On the right, you see the current year 2425 for quarter 3. The solid blue bar shows a percentage of students that are passing all of their courses. So, when we compare uh the percentages to the prior year in the same time span, uh what we see is there has been a slight drop in the percent

104of elementary students that are passing all their courses. uh but we see increases at the middle and high school level of students passing all their courses. It is important to note that at the elementary level this does reflect only grades three through five and D's and D pluses are incorporated into that uh failing um category. When we look at progress towards graduation, uh it is tracked and monitored on a uh dashboard and there are lots of different indicators that we would look at uh to track a student's progress towards graduation. Uh we've chosen to look at some uh key indicators and that would be our core academic classes and our verified credits. So the gold bar on this chart shows uh course credits. The solid blue bars are verified credits. that means they've uh either

105passed an end of course test or a substitute test such as a work keys uh that would give them the verified credit for that course. The horizontal line on each of the bars represents where we were at the end of last quarter. So when you look across the core content areas that would be English, math, science, and social studies. Uh compared to last quarter, you see slight increases in overall course credit acral. But then when you look at verified credits, we see uh significant increases there. The percent of seniors that have achieved those credits. At this point, I'll turn the floor over to Dr. Sullivan to talk about our instructional strategies and supports. Thank you, Dr. Neil. Good evening. Um for this overview of the quarter, I wanted to focus on some unique strategies and

106approaches that we haven't talked about thus far in our other updates. Um, one of the ones that I'm really proud of from the student learning team is the work we have done on the development and implementation of so preparation unit guides. You've heard us talk all year about the great data resources we have, the information we have from different assessments. And for this project, we took together all of that work, all we learned from progress monitoring and identified the general weaknesses and strengths that we see in our student performance. We compared that against the so blueprint data. So, the Virginia Department of Education releases an extraordinary amount of information on what is going to be on the so and we wanted to make sure we hold all that information so that every teacher had that

107information at their fingertips and every student had the benefit of that knowledge. We didn't want that information just sitting on a V DOE website. Um, so our team rallied together and developed fourth quarter curriculum guides for the teachers in every single tested subject that brought back top of mind the skills and strategies necessary for success because ultimately our students are facing that assessment and we want to make sure they have the benefit of everything. Um, we did some crosscurricular preparations. We utilized all the resources to make sure teachers had clarity on how to focus their instruction. So for example, uh you just see one of the sample ones from math. We can clearly see from the blueprint the percentage of questions that are targeted in certain areas that with our knowledge on how our kids

108are doing have helped us make sure that our students had that last ditch support in really focused content. on our next slide highlighting some of the additional supports because we don't end support at the end of the school year. We know that some of our students need some continued work throughout the summer to build those skills necessary for success in the subsequent year. And I'm really really proud of our summer school team which includes our fleet of teachers who are really remarkable educators committed to this work. Our teachers came to us and said, "We want the kind of clarity in the summer that we have during the school year. We want unit guides that give us really clear expectations that we can monitor our student progress and we can report weekly out to our families.

109But we also know that sitting and doing work in a concentrated environment all day, especially for our little ones, is a little exhausting. And so, you heard earlier this year from our gifted education team. they collaborated with our summer school team to plan enrichment activities and games and hands-on to support summer school. And so all that came from our uh gifted education team. So I thought you all would appreciate that as well. And then of course uh continued resources for families after summer school, how they can continue to ensure that summer slide does not occur. And then finally, I know you've heard a lot. You've heard ontime graduation task force a lot. You've heard the phrases a lot. I just couldn't leave this school year without really shining a light on the incredible work that's

110being done. Want to thank Dr. Fenard for really spearheading the entire team that are related to instructional practices. And this is everything from our social workers to our counselors to our teachers to our principles to multiple um departments in my office. Um, we were meeting with extreme regularity, with really focused deliverables on understanding every single student, their risk, their situation, and then troubleshooting how we could mitigate some of those strategies. And we came up with some ways this year that are new to Prince William County that expand flexible opportunities for kids. And so, I really thought that was worth sharing. um summer school. Last year, we began some additional supports for especially those seniors that we're going to get through at the end of the summer. We're going to have an amazing end of summer

111graduation for those that need a little bit more time. But we've added counselors, we've added Lteers, we've added special education teachers and social workers. So, we have the full paniply of services helping kids get across the finish line. Um we've also expanded non-traditional education. We've spoken before that there's some flexibilities in the VDOE for our accelerated students and our students who need support to take courses through additional online opportunities. And in the past, some of those have been barriers to students either for financial cost or disorganization or support from their school. So, we've shined a light on that and opened up opportunities. The VDOE affectionately calls them MOPS. Um, and that means multi-division online providers. And new to some of our schools and families is that the VDOE has pre-screened online providers from throughout the

112country and have already validated their courses. And so if a parent wants their child to take a course flexibly, whether it's for remediation or my child has to work or my child wants to take accelerated coursework, those opportunities are available with no questions asked and those are automatic transfers on a student transcript. Um so we've shined a light on that, opened up some of those opportunities again through the support of Dr. Lonard mitigated some of the cost in certain circumstances for students who might not have otherwise taken advantage of a multi-division online provider. And then finally, um the work we are doing in maximizing credits for our international students. As you all know, Prince County is a global destination. Our global community is really the spotlight of who we are and our identity. And with

113students coming from all over the world, being able to handle those transcripts is really important. And so we've extended our work with the metropolitan area um foreign student advisors, affectionately known as MAFSA. um that is the national organization that helps us translate international transcripts into Virginia Department of Education credits and ensures that our students are getting maximum benefits regardless of where the transcript is font is from. At the global welcome center, our counselors are actually certified MAFSA counselors which is really unique and they can translate transcripts to ensure that our students are getting maximum credit. So, those are just some of the ways that we continue to rally and just when we think we've thought of every strategy, we pull out another strategy to make sure there's no stone left unturned in ensuring our students

114graduate on time. And so, thank I'm going to turn it back over to Dr. Neil. So to close out the presentation, we wanted to give you a glimpse into where uh we are taking some of the data analytics and the um information that can be used by uh staff across Prince William County. Throughout the presentations uh over this year, you have either seen examples of of dashboards, for example, the focus stu uh student support dashboard or heard reference to dashboards such as the progress monitoring dashboard for graduation. The office of the CIO is spearheading the establishment of a unified data analytics platform that will be available to schools and central office that will help provide this information in a real time uh much easier accessible format. Uh we'll increase uh through baby steps our use

115of predictive analytics and advanced statistics to provide information that can that can inform targeted support for our students and our staff members. And we're also making a concerted effort to make deliberate and intentional use of artificial intelligence to enhance the accessibility of this information and ease of use. So our our goal is to take the information that we have been sharing with you all year and turn um accentuate and enhance its use across our school division to impact uh students and staff. Uh that concludes uh the third quarter overview. be happy to address any questions you may have. Thank you, Miss Wall or Williams. Thank you. First, I want to say thank you, Dr. Neil, Dr. Sullivan, and Dr. Fernard, for all of your hard work. Um, I appreciate the update. I see that we

116are continuing to imp our students grades are continuing to improve and I know that that is a collaborative effort from everyone from the uh the building here, Kelly leadership, in uh to our boots on the ground in the classroom. Um, I know that when we started this journey of data and and and reporting out, um, it it the numbers weren't where they are, but I like to remind people that a division this size, it's like trying to turn a cruise ship or a battleship, it takes a while to get everyone on board and on the same page. and the results um from what you present here and have we've seen even coming up to this evening show that those that effort is starting to pay off for all of us uh school families. I am

117very very excited about the update of summer school. something that I've been asking for for a very very long time. And I feel like we finally have all the right pieces in place, the people in place, and the technology in place to um continue to provide more rigor for summer school and of better benefits for our students and our families as well as our teachers. I really like the weekly report thing. Um for the first time ever, I will not have a summer school student. So, I'm a little sad because I was excited to see it, but um that's a whole another story. Uh I also like the way that we are trending towards utilizing AI and technology of the future. I think that's very important. Um it it's finding its way into corporate America

118and all aspects. So I like the fact that our staff is having the ability to put their feet in the water and to test it out and eventually I know our students also will be utilizing in the classroom even if we don't let them have their cell phones. I'm super excited about Yes, that was a little my own personal thing. Um, I'm super excited uh about the direction that we're going and I really want to commend everyone for all of their hard work. It is noticeable. Um, I can tell as a parent, but also as a board member and I'm really excited and I just want to uh say thank you so much and to keep up the good work. We'll always have room for improvement, but the hard work that has been put in

119is noticeable and it's paying off and um that's also why I do not have a summer school student this year. So, thank you very much. Mr. Blake, can it was one um statement in there that I would like for Dr. Sullivan to just unpack for families because I don't think that they'll understand what that means. When you talked about the um different online providers, it said multi-ivision. Can you just kind of break that down and what that means um in terms of offering? Yes. So, um, several online providers outside of of, um, Virginia's online platform have applied to the state for their courses to be accepted as core courses. And so, some of those providers are based in various states um, and families can look to them to see if they want to take a

120course in a different platform because it suits their family better. And so um one of the ones that we actually work started working with this spring is um called Ed Options and it's through Edenum. You know the name Edenum because we do some credit recovery with our teachers. They also have a full online platform that involves a certified teacher. And so different than what we do currently in our schools, they have a different platform where if you wanted your child to take a course just because maybe they wanted an additional course or maybe they knew that for this type of course I do better online and it doesn't have some of the weight list and challenges that the Virginia platform has. Families may choose those courses. Sometimes they're advanced placement courses, courses that are not

121available in their school. And so, um, there is a list that Virginia has prevetted and if a provider is on that list, any division in the state can accept those credits at face value without further vetting and then those courses can be placed on their transcript. Um, and like I said, that's it's a process that's actually been in place for a while, but it hasn't had light on it. And we realizing more and more we want to support our families with flexible options for their children and these are options that have already been vetted and approved by the state of Virginia. Thank you. Dr. Sullivan, can I just ask um do you Sorry, I'm the I asked Dr. McDate about what what that meant. Can you send us an email with those providers possibly a

122little bit of an explanation that we can share? Yes. With the um with the public and then I have one more question. So if a student were to take that course over the summer in that f fulfill it or could it fulfill a course requirement so that they can Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. No question at all. Um there I will share the link and um the link takes you directly to the VDOE website and it lists all the approved providers and the conditions of it. So yes and that link is where on our website it I'm going to send it to you. Okay. Um, I I can't say off the top of my head where it is on our website. I know exactly where it is on the VDOE website and I will make sure

123it's more visible on our website as well. Maybe you can have our sweet student rep do one more video before she leaves because we all she's pretty great. Yeah, very very very very she's very convincing and convincing. Yeah, I agree because we really do want um parents to be feel comfortable in exploring these other opportunities for their children. So, um, like I said, we've been shining a bit of a light. We'll make that light brighter, um, so that all of our parents fully understand the flexible options available to them. And I just have a couple more questions. Sorry. Um, okay, my colleagues are groaning. Um, the county did did we take away access to so pass this year to they used to use it to review for SOS. Jefferson Lab so pass. Do those no

124longer exist? Um, I've never heard the phrase so pass, so I'm gonna I'm gonna speak to that. Okay. Um, the state of Virginia utilizes what's called testNAV, which is sort of the state access to the official preparation and readiness for it. So, um, for sure we utilize that, shared it with all teachers and our schools. that's where they're practicing in the format and structure of so um so we might be speaking the same language but with different terminology and so kids have an opportunity to practice the calculators and the responses and there's a whole series of strategies built into it that we built into our so preparation guides. Okay. Yes. But I will in do a quick followup and and provide to Miss Bautell if there's anything else I need to share on so pass.

125But but we are we are still offering options for preparation. There's different Oh yes things the guides things like that which were extremely accessible to students this year. So yes and we we were um quite thorough in working through teachers and administrators and assistant principles that all of our students should have access to these resources. Um and so um for the first time that included all the high school courses as well as middle school courses in elementary had that practice um generation and we added we added that to it. So okay generation genius was another one that I got asked about if that went away as well. So any any information we did not mandate anything away I can tell you that. So but I can certainly follow up. ABC Mouse. Okay. Mr. Wilk would

126like ABC Mouse as well. Thank you, Miss Dr. Sullivan. Miss Miss Wall. All right. Thank you. Uh, so that was a lot of great information. I appreciate it. Um I um you know the summer school information, the clarity for teachers on the so guides, monitoring student in progress, communicating with families, um getting the gifted team's input into summer school content, it it's all awesome. If I mean, if summer school's a little bit fun, right, because gifted education is often very fun, then we're going to have, you know, more engaged students. So I really like that. Um, uh, it's great to hear all of the different instructional strategies and student supports like the graduation task force, the multi-division online providers. Um, I've had people reach out to me, you know, saying, "Oh, my kid found this

127class at like this university." Now, it will be even easier for them because they can have a pre-approved place where they can go get a class and it will automatically transfer, no questions asked. So, I think that is awesome. And then I guess just the front end is going to be publicizing it, socializing it. Um I do really like the idea of the unified data analytics platform. Have we made a decision yet on what platform we're going to use or we still is that like going to go through the procurement process? No, we we have um we are using click which is our front end. Uh that is it's extremely um straightforward and simple for the end user. Okay, great. So we already know what our data analytics platform is. Okay. Um, I think it's

128fantastic. I know in a lot of different industries, predictive analytics, AI, it can help you so much with data. So, I'm really excited about that because I know that will make a difference. I mean, it's already making a difference. The focus on data and data analytics, but having harnessing the power of AI is going to make a huge difference. So, that's great. Um, what uh I had a question about um uh sorry, I think it's actually on a different issue, so I'll wait with that question. I actually don't have any more questions. I know we're going to do a fourth quarter update, but that'll probably be in the fall, right? When when will our next update be? When will we get an update on everything that's happening in the fourth quarter? So, typically we would

129send something over the summer. Over the summer. Yes. Okay. And then we would maybe talk about it publicly and then in the fall and then the fall we would revisit kind of the in the state of the schools the summitative for the full year. I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing here in the data from third quarter you know those things those things ticking up for the verified credits etc. Um do we have any now I'm asking you to speculate speculate do we have any indication how things are going because I know SOS have already started and AP tests have already started but we don't have a lot of transparency into that but do we have any idea how we're doing? So what I can say is all the data is still really formative. Um so

130students are still acrewing credits they're still earning verified credits. uh we are seeing um uh improvements in terms of more kids earning them as to how it's going to ultimately end up when we compare last year. It's still too early to say. Okay, that's good. That's fair enough. I'm really hopeful um that you know we do see that progress that we're hoping for. All right. Well, thank you. Thanks to that was great to hear uh the data and the things that we're doing that are going to help our students. So, thank you very much. All right. Thank you. I just want to take this moment just to acknowledge that real progress that we're seeing with this third quarter update and uh even though you know there's more work ahead of course but this just reminds

131us that we are really moving in the right direction and you guys are doing a good job. So thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Not at board matters. That takes us to Mr. Wilk. No, it's no one. No, but Oh, that's right. I can go. Yeah, I was going to hand it back to Dr. McDeade, but that's that is for you. Um, policy 661. Do you want to talk about it? It's the it's on for first reading, right? Yes. Thank you. Oh, good. I believe the magicians were going to make it come up. And so, um, Vice Chair Blake, members of the board, Dr. McDade, thank you for this opportunity to share the work that has been done on modifying the existing policy um on student evaluation and reporting. I I have to open up and say

132that I think this has been a process you all can be very very proud of. Our community has been highly engaged in the work and providing feedback that is directly in what you are going to see here today. I also want to thank you for your thoughtful engagement in the 2 by twos. So you'll see some of those adjustments that we made after our discussions at the 2 by twos and brought some of that into today as well. And so policy 661 is currently entitled student evaluation reporting. We are as part of this uh request to change policy 661, we are also recommending a name change to grading and assessment practices because we want to be clearer. Um we don't want to make the search for policies and regulations more difficult on teachers and families

133than it needs to be. um because I don't think a lot of people naturally go to grading when they see that policy name. So we have changed that as well. What you see here is all of the regulations that currently live under the policy. So the policy as it is has very little to I would say zero guidance to our schools and our division on the expectations in grading. And when the policies are lacking coherence around that, the grading regulations are not providing the structure in support of the board's intent. And so throughout these regulations, you see overlap. You see sometimes um misaligned guidance because one of the regulations may have been written at a time different than a different regulation. And so we would often get calls from parents actually even students directly and

134teachers confused about the expectations and where to check. So today you'll see the beginning of the work in transforming uh grading practices in Prince William County to be aligned with first an overarching policy and then the work will begin on the regulations to hopefully simplify and clarify the expectations. On this next slide, you'll see additional policies and regulations that also touch upon grading. And so, as part of this work, all of these will be reviewed as well. So, I just want to be clear, we started off at the top of policy 661 and all the rest of that work will follow to include the additional policies. And so, how did we go about this work? I first have to recognize Mr. Bill Bixby. That is a name from the past. Um he did some ROP

135work with us last year to re-engage school communities into standardbased grading. and he just did a remarkable job of working with a leadership team within the district made up of teachers and principles and additional staff and then went and engaged with the student leaders with students at their schools, the parent groups and teacher groups and did a significant amount of work in identifying where we are at right now and what steps we need to take. And the word that comes to mind is inconsistent. um we were most certainly at an inconsistent point. So we started off this work already having that work. Then we had the opportunity to partner with Hanover Research because we felt it was very important to make sure that we were using third-party research perspective in identifying all the trends and

136patterns because fe people feel deeply and differently about grading. And so it is a topic that we know has to come with a sense of balance with those deep feelings and those different feelings. And so working with our partner has been great and um they have allowed us to look at things through some fresh lens. Um, so starting off the beginning of the year, we did peer district reviews where we analyze the policies and practices at all of our peer districts in Northern Virginia and peer districts across the country with similar size, scope, and demographics. So this was not just a look in Northern Virginia, this was a look nationwide. Then we worked really closely with the superintendent's principal advisory council which is made up of elementary, middle, and high school principles who are committed

137to engaging in work beyond their school doors. And um they are really valuable team to work with to identify trends and patterns from their lens. I'm really thankful to our community for coming out uh strong and boldly on our surveys. Um we launched divisionwide survey for uh students, parents and staff in the fall and received some outstanding information from that as well. And I had the personal joy of leading multiple Zoom sessions myself directly with teacher groups. We extended the invitation to teachers across the division. sometimes support teachers, sometimes direct teachers to participate in a series of Zoom sessions where I literally listened and we tackled some of the areas and they were able to give me very honest, very direct feedback. Um, and that was incredibly beneficial and they were professional and focused and

138as amazing as you know our teachers are and so I really want to thank our teachers who did that. Um, as you all know, our board members had an opportunity to participate in interviews as well. I want to thank Laura for working with the handover team to set up those interviews um because obviously it's board policy. So, we were not going to do a draft without board member feedback. So, I really want to thank um those of you had the opportunity to participate it and our final step being a gradebook audit. And so what you see here are the trends and thoughts that were coming through all of these stakeholder engagements. And what was amazing is despite all of this work, the trends started coming together pretty quickly. And what we were first trying to

139determine is this is essentially a first policy because the one that currently exists doesn't have any guidelines. So the question was as we draft a policy representing the voice of the board, what are the things that are coming to the top that our board would likely to have like clear divisionwide voice on? And these are the things that um I know when we did our our our uh 2 by twos, everybody was kind of shaking their head. These are the things you're hearing. These are the things I'm hearing. These are the things that are coming through our parent inquiries, our teacher phone calls. These are the topics that did not have clarity. What you see after each one, for example, if we look at elementary late work, you see that it is currently in regulation

1406611. And so as you look across this chart, you can see bits and pieces are in different regulations and some not at all. Um, but we wanted to start figuring out what parts that are in regulation do we want to bring and elevate to policy and then what parts in regulations do we want to modify as related to policy. And so uh the next big step was those surveys. We had over 7800 respondents to this specific survey on grading practices. It was a really substantial turnover. we were able to validate that that was an appropriate sample size for our population. So, we hit the mark that we were hoping to hit. And uh the word you're going to hear again and again is consistency. We heard from our teachers, our parents, and our students that

141consistency is important to them. And I'm really excited by that because it reflects a move from individual school guidelines and practices to wanting to be a part of the collective and wanting to see Prince William County schools being that system and not just individual rules at different schools and that was our teachers, parents and students telling us that. So I was really excited to see that concern if that makes sense. Um, one of the things that was also interesting was the focus on how does grading impact student motivation. Is the way we're reporting grades encouraging more thinking? Is it encouraging reflection? Is it encouraging effort or is it discouraging it in some cases? And are we utilizing that those tools effectively to encourage kids to move forward? And then um strengthening clarity through teacher professional

142development. And um again I said our teachers were amazing but our teachers also reported very honestly and transparency and transparently the lack of clear guidance around grading and they want us to give them professional learning and expectations. And again that tells you the quality of our teaching staff. And so some of the just key overall findings when we looked at the trends in the survey, it was a pretty comprehensive survey. So I tried to pull out the essential elements. Um you'll see one of the ones that I thought was interesting. Staff largely agrees that grading practice is an accurate assessment of students and learning. Students and parents don't agree to the same level that staff does. Um they most commonly indicate that the lack of feedback and perhaps the oversimplification of how we grade is

143uh something that we want to work on that it is a limitation of the system that there's not representation and feedback enough to encourage positive performance from the student. Um you'll see the word consistency again in the next bullet. Um so ironically consistency is the most consistent feedback. This is something that our community is really looking for. Um again you see the comment on lack of guidance and um the comment on valuing grading for reinforcement and positive motivation you see getting called out again. And so I'm sharing a couple charts that I know are likely very difficult to see on the screen, but showing you some overall trends in some of the key response areas from our school community. So the first one for our viewers online that may not be able to see it

144clearly is what effect do you believe the current grading practices in your classroom, in your school um across the district have on the following? So they're telling us that the grading practices are influencing or not influencing them to certain degrees. Um so you look at student achievement, motivation, engagement, and their overall learning experiences. And these are components that are critical to what we do in education. So we certainly want to see a positive correlation there. And as you can see, we have some room for growth on how people are responding to our current grading systems in these areas. Um, I will remind you all that that lovely top teal line are our lovely prek families. Um, where we're not actually assigning grades. Um, but I appreciate how much they appreciate the feedback they are receiving

145on their children because that is important too. On our next slide, this is an interesting one as well where we've asked how much they agree or disagree about current grading practices, accurately reflecting dot dot dot. So, accurately reflecting their skills, accurately reflecting where they are struggling, accurately reflecting um where how they prepare for stu future courses. So, I thought those were some really interesting questions in the survey. So, if I'm an eighth grader, how the grades I'm receiving now are accurately preparing me for rigorous coursework in high school. And so, again, we're seeing we're not really connecting the dots on how we grade and how that impacts students futures. And then on the final slide I'm showing you with the data is how much you believe each of the following should impact student grades. And

146this is a really important data source. Um, one of the trends that we have seen over the last few years is that testing has become a more significant part of student grades than we believe was originally intended in some of the work that was done in this district around standardsbased grading. and that we want to remind our teachers and our families that you can assess student mastery of a standard in multiple ways and that our students often demonstrate mastery in different ways. And so we wanted to make sure um that we got some feedback on it. And as you can see, there's a pretty wide range of sp of responses where our families, our students, and our teachers are saying, "We believe grades should reflect these things." It's a current mismatch when we look at

147our grade book. So again, going to focus on some of the areas to add some more explicit guidance in that space. And on that one, you can see the differences in how students, parents, and staff responded. and interestingly not all that different in a lot of categories. And so from our board member interviews, I called a few notes um from the report provided to me. The report was um anonymous um from again using a thirdparty vendor made that really helpful and um you're seeing uh a request on clear guidelines. You're seeing transparency and consistency. So again in every single stakeholder group that consistency is coming up. Obviously wanting to improve parental involvement and communication. How can we ensure our assessment and grading practices are creating more meaningful parental engagement, teacher feedback, um student self-reflection, and

148then re-evaluating the homework policies. I promise you it's on the list. And so if you recall, it's one of those that we will be looking at in this, um, review of all grading practices. And so, uh, before we get to where we landed, I think it's really important, um, to share the considerations that we made. Um, and so something that was a big sticky point was what is most appropriate for policy versus regulation. So, I know that we want to be as clear as possible with policy, but that the specificity necessary really needs to be in regulation. I'll give you one of the most common examples, late work. That is a a good example of there's a very different approach to late work for a first grader than an 11th grader. There's a different approach

149to uh late work when you're working with students in different settings, whether it's homework or classwork. There's a lot of nuance. And so, while we universally want to see students doing work on time, we recognize that the language outlining those expectations really belongs in regulation and really belongs in regulation specified by grade bands, by ages, and even within elementary school, K2 is very different than 35. And so we we want to honor that and really work to choose the things for the policy that made sense from the governing board perspective versus the staff fleshing out the details. Um really important point that I've emphasized to every stakeholder group I've met with. We all said consistency, but to achieve consistency there's shifts for everybody. And so they're shimmying, right? So, some may want stronger here, some

150may want looser here or stronger or tighter. But to get to consistency, there has to be some give and take and balance and finding what really does make sense for a school division of 90,000 students with our volume of teachers and staff. So, I really tried to find that sweet spot balance of where I thought we could come together um and consideration for what level of autonomy is appropriate. Where do we want our teachers to have autonomy and flexibility? Where do we not? Those are things that are part of the consideration. Um, I want to call out that there's most definitely a need for explicit guidance on grading L and special education students. Um, we currently have a regulation on grading special education students. We do not currently have a regulation on grading L students,

151but it is a work in progress because the expectation of our teachers ability to be able to mitigate language against content mastery is very important. And so when you're measuring, for example, an English language learner's growth in math, you want the grade to reflect their math skill, not their English language skill. And so how can we assess students in different ways for content area where we make sure the grade truly reflects their abilities and then of course in English English language arts we are focusing on English language acquisition and then consideration by grade levels like the example I gave earlier what makes sense for a first grader versus 11th grader I don't think any of us would want the exact same rules applied to all and so how we separate some of those ideas out.

152And so the drum roll, if you will, um what I've done for you today to try to help uh bring some clarity is I pulled out the language of the six main recommendations in the policy. And again, I think you will see your feedback was taken to make some necessary adjustments after the 2 by twos. Um and I'm just going to uh do a quick overview on all of them. Um and not directly read them to you. For recommendation one, um I think we all universally agreed with the importance of prompt feedback. Um we had some robust discussions around what makes prompt and then we talked about again if it is a short quiz versus a research paper, if it is a artwork that the students taking a long time with with something smaller in

153class. So we added some language about the timeliness of the feedback should be related to the complexity of the task and the time needed for the teachers to meaningfully review the student work. So, we really wanted to tie in the board's understanding of what assessment looks like, but really underscore the importance of feedback and we are reminding everybody that feedback goes through potentially corrective feedback in the grading process, self or peer evaluations to your point, the board members calling out about that self-reflection piece, um, informal comments or other annotations. So from a board policy point of view, this clearly sets your values in the regulations. We will map out the details. Um in the second recommendation, um I mentioned to you earlier that um tests have kind of taken over as the primary measure of

154student mastery. So, we wanted to call out and remind um staff and families that, you know, a minimum of nine graded assignments would is more appropriate. That was currently in regulation. We pulled it out of regulation. That was one of the ones that we plucked out to add some light on. And then we specifically um one of the board members mentioned, let's specifically name it as separate assignments. Um so, we added some of the adjustments as well. Um, I also added the language from later in the policy just to be repetitive with intention that grades should be updated every week. And so we outlined that there needs to be regular grading and they should be updated weekly. That was currently in regulation that we also had to pluck out and add its importance of it

155because we know that's important. And then we go on to spend a considerable amount of time reminding everybody that you can measure progress through a variety of different assessments. And I think every one of us would not want to be judged on single mechanisms that we want to remind that there's multiple ways to measure. Um in the next recommendation um is where we really talk about timeliness and and we emphasize timeliness because lessons are developed sequentially. Lessons are developed to be taught in a sequence for students to master concepts along the way and therefore students should complete work fully and on time. Um, again, we're not saying there aren't exceptions, but we're saying is in general we are recognizing through policy that we value this. Of course, we emphasize that teachers have to align things.

156Um, a lot of times an IEP may call for extended time. we expect and well more than expect those to be honored as well and that we know that things happen and so that um to Elelliana's point earlier that any penalties if you're turning in something late should be transparent and clearly communicated in advance and again there's a difference between um a day late on a long research paper and three months late on classwork that was done previously. So we did not want the the board to directly address those nuances. We can do that through regulation. But we do want to say yes, we believe timely engaged work, students being engaged a long way is important, but things happen. Penalty should be clearly outlined. And then recommendation four, I've made a couple of tweaks of

157this since we last met as well. Um, we talked about students being able to uh retake, if you will, do test corrections, but I added another layer to that from some additional feedback because some of our teachers are actually very adept at students future assignments that include the same standard, them using that to replace it. And so we that's a great practice that we also wanted to encourage. So, in some cases, a student may sit and retake an assessment. In other cases, a student might do test corrections, very common in math. In other cases, the teacher is at a level where they're tracking student progress because they're hitting the standard later. And so, picture pretty in math when you're handling a more complex issue. When the student is succeeding at that, it is demonstrating their

158proficiency at the other skills. some of our teachers are using that to replace grades. Now, we don't want to discourage that. So, we cleaned up the language to make sure it recognizes that. We know that that is a great skill for teachers to work on. And of course um they should be done by the end of the marking period and extenduating circumstances um must go through a teacher counselor administrator unless that situation that I just told you the teacher is going to measure it on a later assignment. Um so got some great feedback um actually from a couple principles on that. So that adjustment was made. Um, and then in the next recommendation, I cleaned up the language on this one because I know the original language was super confusing. Um, but to simplify the

159language, the final yearly grade shall be calculated by those quarterly percentages being converted to the corresponding points of the letter grade. Um, and to uh some points that were made in the 2 by twos. Um, yes, we will be aligning with our current practices of where we have B+es and C++es, um, and leaving the A range the same for our high school students. Um, but we tried to simplify that language to make it a a little easier to understand. And this means the teacher's grade book is authentic. We're not asking the teacher to change a student's percentage from a 40 to a 50. We're not asking a teacher to manipulate a child's grade in a way that might make them feel uncomfortable, but we are doing equivalent uh intervals between how they're scored on A,

160B, C, D, and F, which makes it fair, which makes it appropriate, but also teachers being able to be true to their grading. And then finally, you'll see a reminder again on that weekly ba basis. We put it in there twice um for emphasis and um some reminders. Um what's not on here that I did want to mention is also in the policy draft for our viewers who may not have read the actual draft. We also aed all the language on appeals again. So it was in one spot for our families. And so if you were interested in the appeal process for a grade that was also added to the policy as well. You've seen it in the draft. And then our next steps would be uh once the board approves a policy, when the

161board approves a policy, I'm I'm going to be an optimist. Um work will begin on revising the regulations and working through implementation. Um we'll need to make some modification in some of the technical aspects of the grade book and then we'll commence professional learning, parent communications, and continued student outreach. Um hopefully you've seen that we really tried to find that balance of that little bit of give and take to get to a point where we can be consistent throughout the division. And I am happy to take any questions. I think that this is just first reading, right? Yes, sir. You could just email We'll just email you if we have any questions. Yeah, we'll just email you if we have any questions. Thank you, Dr. Sullivan. We appreciate you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay. Moving

162on to board matters. Mr. Wils. I pass. And I pass as well. What? I'm not passing. First of all, I I just want to say uh my heart goes out to the family, the country, and us on the passing of Jerry Conley. He was uh for a large part of Prince William County a congressman for a long time and uh his death came fairly quickly and suddenly and so forth. So, I just want to say, you know, I I'm going to miss him. He he supported my wife and I. Uh he he was a friend and in in my opinion a great congressman. So, my heart goes out. I do want to show I think I have a a uh picture. You know, we talk about building people in the system. So I want to

163give you an example. This was taken at the retirement at uh Hilton Performing Arts. And this lady is Shirley Bunch. Shirley started working for my wife in 1995 as a aid. She did not have a college degree, but she was a aid. And my wife kept encouraging her to continue get her education. And at first she was taking college courses or they were like PE and stuff like that. She she was taking the courses but she really wasn't serious. But my wife kept encouraging her. And then she became she got her undergraduate degree. And then she says I'm going for a master's. And in 2000, I think it was 2012, my wife has the date, she got the she got those uh the degree and she became a teacher and she retired this year. Uh

164but that's a system. The next picture, please. These two ladies, this is another lady that was worked for my wife uh in 1995. And my wife believes in celebration. And this was at a celebration. I asked her, "What are the red shoes for?" The red shoes are for moving forward, stepping up. And these two lady, this was another aid that became a teacher. And so, you know, the retirement of Mrs. Bunch, this we love her. And the other thing about Mrs. Bunch. If you want somebody in your school to create a celebration, call on Mrs. Bunch. It's called a bunch attack. She will she will decorate the room. She would do this and she will tell you she we hired her once to come over our house uh after Lily left as principal. But when

165she was running to do us, Lily got up at 8:00 to help her. And Mrs. Bunch says, "You know, I don't work with anybody. I'm doing this all by myself. I tell you what I want, you get it, and I'll fix it. So, she she was a thing. So, that that was really good. The other thing I I just want to say, uh these it's important and this is this is a story. I talk everything about the teachers wanting this feeling. And I'm going to give you one example. My wife talked about the doing the SOS and they uh the classes, one class did uh had the SL and they were meeting and this is elementary school. They were meeting in the library and a teacher call her and she came down to fuss at

166them and she was telling them, you know, this is something serious. We had this situation and I I just need to talk to you. And you know the kids were really tense at that point. And she said everyone in this room in this grade passed the so and you know kids the kids who knew they were going to pass got up and started jumping running around the room. They were really excited. And then the kids who said, "You sure?" They got up. And there was one little boy that never got up for a while. And she asked him, "Why are you not running?" And he looked at her and he said, "Me? I passed." And if you get that feeling as a teacher that you help someone get the confidence to know that they pass

167when they didn't even think they would pass, that's a win for you. Thank you. That was a good Thank you, Mr. Jesse, Miss Wall. Awesome. Uh first congrats to Battlefields Anandia Sath and Sakshi Gauda who I got to meet today um for their big win at the 47th annual Model Judiciary Program Supreme Court round. I'm sure they'll be in here at some point hopefully in June. Um but they got to argue before the Supreme Court of Virginia and they not only won their round but they also won the state competition and I was um earlier this evening I was at Battlefield and I got to meet with the student council association the leaders the outgoing leaders the incoming leaders and um it was really awesome and she came up to me and introduced herself to

168me which was which was absolutely awesome. So congrats to those amazing girls. Um, I want to just touch on a couple of events that I've attended since our last board meeting. Um, on May 8th I went to Battlefield High School senior awards night. Um, at that time they quoted that they've received 19 million in scholarship awards. I'm sure it's higher than that even now because you know it kind of rolls in. So um, I think that's awesome. Proud so proud of the class of 2025. Um, on May 9th I attended Miss Rston's funeral. She was a super sweet lady who lived a great life of service and found great meaning in lifting others around her. So, she'll be greatly missed. Um, May 10th, I attended Forest Park's 25th anniversary celebration and they are going to

169do a new brick walkway. Um, which will be really special for the Brewan community. I had no idea how many people like went to Forest Park or had kids who went to Forest Park. It just seems like everybody went to Forest Park. That and Osborne Park. Um, so I also went to Porter Traditional's 20-y year anniversary. That's a really special school. They have a wait list that is just absolutely gigantic. I think quote that I heard something like 1300 students want to go to that school. Um, so I'm going to continue to say this, but perhaps we can look into creating a traditional high school since it's such a successful model. We only have two in the middle school level. Um, but there's something there that families really crave. I think there's a demand. Maybe

170there'll be a supply. Um, I attended Beetlejuice Junior at Reagan Middle School. That was an absolute romp. Um, and there was just so much personality. The kids worked so hard and their efforts were re really paid off. Um, I attended the PWCS retirement ceremony. Congratulations to all our retirees. Uh, that was on May 13th. Um, that was a very special ceremony. I want to acknowledge these individuals for their efforts to help kids succeed. Every person, whether they directly interface with kids or not, is part of the team. And we're what we do is is number one focus is what helps kids. So, you will be missed. I hope your retirement holds opportunities for community service, time with family, loved ones, perhaps some hobbies and some travel, and maybe you'll even come back and rob for

171us. So, that would be fantastic. Um, on May 14th, I attended the VSBA Northeastern Spring Network Forum, which we hosted, which was a wonderful event. Thanks so much to our schoolboard office staff, um, for all the work that they did. And we had a great time talking about collective bargaining. I don't know if that goes together. Great time, collective bargaining and board advocacy. It was It was really It was It was fun. It's always fun to get together with other people who understand this unique role that we enjoy. Um it was even more powerful during co but it's still powerful to get together. Um and last Saturday was the first graduation of the season starting it off with Governor School Innovation Park. Congratulations to all the seniors. They are so impressive. They're such a distinctive

172group of scholars and I know they're going to go on and do amazing things. They they embody PWCs proud. Um, and then signing day was last night for CTE. That was really cool to see. There were so many great kids who walked straight out. They're going to walk out of Principal and County Schools with a job offer or an internship offer or a military career path. Um, it's just really great to see all of the different pathways we have in Prince William County Schools and how we're trying to help kids. Wow, in seven seconds. I'm so excited about the stop the scroll, take control. I'm just everybody join into that webinar if you can and I know we have a lot of work coming up to socialize and educate but um I'm I'm looking forward

173to seeing that implemented. Thank you very much everybody. Have a great night. Thank you Miss Wall Miss Williams. Uh thank you uh Mr. Blake. I want to start by also acknowledging um with deep sadness the passing of Congressman Connelly. Um, he was also uh someone that I would consider a friend, but more importantly someone that I looked up to as to how to be a leader and how a leader should act. He um by some amazing superhero ability, I used to tease him all the time, would make it from Fairfax to Prince William on time through pre- pandemic traffic, which I thought made him a superhero when I first u became an elected official cuz I couldn't do that in my own county. Um, but more importantly, he was a someone who recognized um when

174an individual was working from the heart and from the the goodness and purpose of what they ran for office for and stood by his principles and values. And I think that no matter uh what party you come from, where you come from, that is those are qualities that all leaders should have. And I really appreciate him his life of public service. uh more recently he did not re really represent much of Prince William. Uh but it he was just someone that I really tr truly do believe embodied leadership and good morals and um I know this area and I'm sure Fairfax County as well will be deeply saddened by his loss, but his legacy will absolutely live on and I'm uh proud to have been able to know him and uh be able to um

175have served at the same time. In other news, I just want to make it quick and say congratulations to all of our upcoming grads and those grads again who uh graduated from Governor School. That usually kicks off our graduation season. I look forward to attending some uh other graduations this year for the first uh time in a while. All of my uh life happened and I missed a few of the things that I would have liked to go to. So, I just want to say extended congratulations to all our retirees. Um, and and in case I miss a few other graduations, know we had firefighters cadet last night. There's nursing programs. There's so many uh above and beyond our traditional high school graduation. So, congratulations to all of y'all. I want to give a special

176shout out to our clerk's office for putting together everything for the VSBA spring regional meeting. Uh, this was the first time that I heard so many school divisions praise all of the work that went into hosting that event. And I would be remiss if I did not publicly congratulate um Miss Laura Mills and the entire office for such a wonderful job. Really appreciate it. I look forward to all of the upcoming graduations. And um hold tight to all of our staff and students. We're almost there. I know this is the time where everyone kind of acts a little wild if you're a student, especially the young ones, but we're we're so close. So close. You can make it. Uh, and the last thing I want to say is on the 30th of May, Fredland will

177be having its first ever resource fair from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Um, so I hope to see you there. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Have a good night. Miss Oh, hold on a second. Sorry, one more thing. I forgot. I just want to um embarrass my parents a little bit and today is their anniversary and say congratulations for see 47. So it must be 49 48 4. I'm bad with years, but 48 49 years of marriage and congratulations to them. All right, Miss Agapore. Well, congratulations to the Williams family. Um, I I'm going to keep this pretty short. I I've I have a broken bone in my foot which has kept me not at so many events. So, I am very appreciative to board members who have carded me places. I

178appreciate it. Thank you. Um, my niece is a CFPA student over at Kan and I am so proud of her efforts. She has been one of the students who has been nominated for a Cappy. She was nominated for supporting actor in a female role in a musical. It was Hades Town. It was excellent. Kan by my count looks like they have nine Kappy awards nominations in sound stage management. Ensemble in a musical, vocalist in a male role, supporting actor in a female role, which is my niece. I am uh supporting actor in a male role in a musical. lead actor in a female role in a musical song, Wait for Me and overall musical. So, I hope to hear some wins from that from uh Kan. Uh I know I went to see Hades Town.

179It was excellent. They did such a good job. Uh I've gotten a chance to uh see various performances at from the elementary, middle, and high school when kids are doing theater, musical theater. And it's a really important we we talk a lot about academics and we talk about robotics and and we talk about athletics and we talk about um you know, winning scholarships. I I don't want people to forget that there's a quiet importance in some of the work that goes on in theater. Um, specifically there are roles for everybody. If you are a shy kid, you can work on the set and costume and makeup and and and all of that good stuff, lighting, things like that. If you are um kind of want to do it, but you're not quite ready to step

180out in a in a in a major role, you can be in an ensemble. There's just so many ways that you can participate. So, I I just wanted to remind people that the um arts are always a great place to be. And um that's going to be it for tonight. I I hope everyone enjoys the last little bit of school. Um looking forward to the graduations I can get to and um have a good night. Thank you, Miss Dagger. Okay, that's it. All right. Well, um I would be remiss if I did not also um just honor the life and legacy of Congressman Connley and um I know this sudden passing is going to leave a deep void in Northern Virginia and uh especially this you know Fairfax Prince William area. Um this he was

181somebody that was a true public servant and I don't think many people know he started from you know soil and water to board of county supervisors. He went all the way through everything. So, he was really was for the people, really for the community. And um you know, he endorsed me. He offered me guidance too along the way. But like I said, more importantly, he just helped shape like the Northern Virginia that we live in today. I don't think many people realize that. And um I just I hope we can continue his work and just carry his example forward. And then so on some happy news, I just would like to say um happy 15th birthday to Bella Simone Blake. She turned 15 today. So, you know, we'll leave with that. And um and then

182I'll just close with this quote from James Baldwin, which which I believe speaks to some moments that we're living in. And not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it's faced. And uh so let's just keep showing up for our students, for our communities, and for each other. Thank you. And there being no further business to come before this board, I now declare this meeting ajourned.