Prince William County School Board Work Session - March 13, 2024

001okay I'd like to call this work session and final markup for the final or for the fiscal year 2025 budget of the Prince William County School Board to order thank you we will begin tonight's work session and final markup with opening remarks from superintendent Dr McDade followed by updates from Shaquille Yousef our Chief Financial Officer and then I will share the ground rules for markup and we'll open the meeting up to board members for discussion following tonight the board will vote to approve the final budget for fiscal year 20 2 at next week's meeting on March 20th at this time I'll turn things over to Dr McDade thank you so much Dr Latif uh welcome all to our work session for the final markup of fiscal year 2025 the budget team and School Division leadership

002work together to De develop this budget which continues to support our vision 2025 launching thriving future strategic plan on February 7th our team submitted the fiscal year 25 proposed budget to the school board the school board then held a public meeting on the proposed budget on February 12th and then a public hearing on February 21st tonight we are here to conduct a work session for the final markup of fiscal year 25 Budget on March 20th the school board will consider approval of the fiscal year 25 budget and capital Improvement program which will then be submitted to the board of County Supervisors for their consideration later this spring I want to thank um each of our school board members for your engagement your thoughtful feedback and suggestions throughout the budget season also look forward to partnering

003with our school board as we collaborate to to ensure a budget that best addresses our students needs a couple of things I want to reiterate that I think is important not just for our discussion tonight but also for our public I want to reiterate that this budget reflects specific strategic investments in certain areas as our students needs have shifted so where you'll see in certain areas of the budget where it may look like a significant increase I want to remind everyone specifically that what we're seeing is an overall increase in the percentage of students who are English learners as to date 25% of our student population are identified as English Learners so where we have increased needs um as we continue to grow in our uh student population for English Learners you'll see that reflected

004in increases in the budget our percentage of students that are economically disadvantaged as determined by federal criteria has reached approximately 42% and our students with disabilities have increased by approximately 10.7% over the last 5 years and when we look at how uh funds are alloc ated the higher need students also have a higher per pupil dollar amount and that's reflected in different um both school and Department budgets where you may see some significant increases given the significant growth in the student populations that I've highlighted the cost per pupil to educate students with higher needs has increased and this impact how we allocate funds and consider resourcing our schools uh and our division offices that support schools so what's being proposed in terms of additional markups are directly driven from um strategic priorities as well as

005feedback from our school board members and our constituents through various opportunities um in public comment and so you'll see some of that reflected in what we're going to propose here in uh in markup so at this time I would like to welcome our Chief Financial Officer Shaquille Yousef and he's going to provide an update on the proposed budget for fiscal year 25 also our chief operating officer Vernon Bach is going to provide an update on the Capital Improvements project Shaquille thank you Dr McDade uh good evening uh Dr Latif Schoolboard me Members I have a short presentation here on what has transpired since um we last met and proposed the budget in in February um before I start I would like to introduce uh the members of my budget team sitting in the back there

006Natasha Valencia uh Cath clean Addison and Joe manduro do this so in terms of County revenue we the bo BCS is meeting on March 19th to to receive a revenue update uh the tax rates that they advertised uh is the same from the previous year at 96 cents 9966 for Real Property um the real property taxes may come down depending on how the county uh votes and and and what the budget processes they did add a $370 advertisement for computer and peripheral taxes which is the highest rate possible so the county revenues we we plan to keep the same but it is pending finalization of tax rates from from from the BCS the next um item is State revenues I'm sure a lot of you have received updates and followed where State revenues are the

007general assembly on March 9th approved uh the budget the governor's proposed budget uh they approved the budget with uh additional K12 resources primarily dedicated towards um compensation supplement for 3% they had uh they reintroduced the hold harmless grocery tax uh supplement uh they also introduced um LT Staffing ratios which present a challenge in implementation given our current hiring environment Plus in terms of looking at how we going to staff this in addition one of the things we do not have right now is the vdoe state revenue calculation template now this is considered for us the gold standard In from which we are able to take the state state budget numbers and and provide it in terms of what it means for pwcs uh we're still waiting for that to happen I'm not sure where the

008uh disposition of this budget will go I've uh we've heard we really haven't heard anything concrete from our folks in Richmond other than there may be a lineup item veto by the governor um so we really at this point do not have any other information so our current estimates are still at the levels held by the governor's budget pending the governor's action on the budget the next two slides I'm not going to go into detail I really cannot do a good version of Donna Eagle she presented this but this this is just uh the slide carried over from when we proposed which talks about the different uh groups we have and the percentage increases that we are proposing for each of the groups and the next slide talks about average salary increases over the years

009since 2021 we've gone from 2.8 5% 7% 5% and a range of 5.2 to 6.1% in the 2025 budget the next slide is the markup additional Investments and I'm going to hand it over back to Dr McDade thank you so much Mr Yousef so following uh the first presentation to the board of the proposed budget um we've since then had a significant amount of input and feedback from the board as well as we've heard public comment on the budget and as a result of that you'll see some additional Investments that are being proposed tonight um that is in direct response to the feedback that we receive and I do want to thank the board for your proactive involvement and the many conversations that we've had to really push thinking around how we can maximize every

010dollar for the benefit of our students so I do want to go through each of these um and specifically give a short summary of where we are the first one is the opportunity to provide student telea health services for all students and we will need to allocate one um FTE to oversee all of that and manage that the total cost for program for it in in addition to the FTE is 1.5 million because it would cover uh all uh 90,000 plus um students who would want to take advantage of this and do want to note that student tah health is being used um in other school systems uh within Virginia and there's um it follows all of the compliance and regulations and there's protection for um you know student protected information as well all of

011those things are considered in this the second one is the an addition addal assistant stem and Robotics coord coordinator which is a a really dire need we are growing in Leaps and Bounds in our robotics programming um and so we're adding $165,000 to the budget to cover the need for the assistant uh robotics coordinator the third investment that we're proposing as an addition is um software and this is to support the Foya office to make sure that we are in compliance uh legal compliance with records um document review retention and preservation and production um Foye demands have increased significantly um and it is outpacing uh the actual bandwidth that we have within the office so this is a $150,000 investment to make sure that we're making good on our commitments and legal requirements for Foya

012the the fourth item is an additional uh staff member support staff member in the School Board office to achieve a more effective 1:2 support ratio for each board member that's $108,000 $18,600 keeping in mind that you know what we give here can be um wages salaries and benefits additional funding for the Communications Department this is a $25,000 investment to support marketing for specialty programs particularly specialty programs that may be struggling and need an additional boost in support in marketing um and then we're also adding a human trafficking specialist um and that is $111,000 we are also just as a reminder um we are required to implement the Virginia literacy act in full force beginning next year we right now only have one language arts supervisor and and they represent k12 and the lift for um

013vaa and science of reading implementation uh will require a focus on K8 a focused person dedicated for K8 we really need someone K8 SU 8 and then 912 instead of one person 912 and so we're at least proposing this year to add one at minimum to address the needs for K8 and then we have additional administrative interns for middle school and high schools this was something that I did um you know bring forward to the board as a concern after getting you know reports and feedback from our school administrators around uh some of the burdens the administrative burdens that exist especially in schools where you know there are higher percentage of students with um with needs that require additional attention from Administration so this will go a long way in supporting our schools and that's

014all of our middle schools and high schools we also are responding directly to feedback around the compensation package um so we initially proposed a lift for teachers 12 through 18 we're going to expand that from 12 to 18 to 12 to 20 years um and then we're also going to lift the experience experience cap for years of teaching experience to 25 years now both of these together the first one ex increasing the lift is going to be to the tune of about $2.1 million and then raising the cap is $1.3 million and at this time I do want to invite um Donna e Dr Donna Eagle to just give us a brief o brief overview of what this really means for our Workforce thank you Vern so good even evening um in terms of the

015expansion of the cap from 12 to 18 or the lift excuse me from 12 to 18 years to 12 to 20 years um you know we compare our salary scales to um counties that are contiguous to us as well as Manasses City and Manasses Park School divisions our primary competitors for our salaries are Fairfax and lden because their hiring requirements are similar to ours so those are the primary counties and also they're the most competitive as compared to us and so when we're comparing our salaries we do keep a very close eye on our teacher scale as compared to their teacher scale by years of experience and based on these comparisons you know when we started this work when we established a compensation unit in the in the division in the HR department in um

016fy20 we realized that we were lagging the market in several areas throughout the scale in some areas the lag is larger than others as compared to lden and Fairfax and as a result as resources have become available over the past several budget years the school board has funded differentiated compensation for teachers with various experience levels um and just to kind of give you the history lesson as a reminder uh in FY 23 we allocated an additional $112 million over and above um the division um raise for teachers with one to four years of experience that received the equivalent of another step and also teachers from 5 to 20 years experience that who would now have 7 to 22 years of experience um they received a total of between 10.1 and 11 11% increase in raises

017and then in fy20 um 4 we put another this current school year we put another 6 million um because we're continuing to close these gaps um and we allocated an additional step to teachers from six to 15 years of experience which would now have 7 to 16 years of experience and those teachers received an average of 8% and in our proposed budget as Dr McDade covered um in the initial proposal um we did have um where our teachers with 12 to 18 years of experience would receive an additional step which is 3% over and above the division average um so which that would yield raises from 8 to 9% um and as she stated in this markup we're recommending that we expand that lift to include teachers completing 12 to 20 years of experience at

018a cost of a little over 2.1 million and the lag from for teachers from 18 to 20 years of experience is the next priority in terms of ensuring competitive salaries as I think you're all aware based on the information that you have been provided as we move up in years of teaching experience our scales become much more competitive eventually surpassing the salaries offered by our competitors in fact pwcs continues to offer step increases after a teacher reaches 30 years of experience whereas fairfox and Lowden do not and should additional funding become available the next priority area in our scale would be for teachers from 21 to 25 years of experience um but at this point in time we are recommending an expansion based on the funding that we know we have to extend the lift

019from for teachers from completing 12 to 20 years experience as of June 30th 2024 in regards to the experience um cap you know this is for new hires to the division who um have previous experience and historically these experience caps have been used as a cost control measure to prevent extremely experienced teachers from seeking employment in the final few years of their teaching careers and so over the years um you know we have continued to increase this cap The Experience cap as the labor market has become Tighter and Tighter uh in order to attract teachers with you know experience to the division and the superintendent's recommended budget what was initially proposed was to lift it another year so to take it up to 23 years so what that means if a teacher comes to the

020division for instance with 28 years of experience they would be placed on the same spot on the scale where a pwcs teacher with 23 years of experience is placed so it's it's called a experience cap so what we're recommending in markup is to move the experience cap um from 23 years to 25 years and this move does allow us to better compete for talent um in addition Any teacher who has been previously capped here at pwcs will be moved to the appropriate step for their years of experience up to and so those teachers you know currently a pwcs teacher going into fy2 who has 25 years of experience is placed at step 19 so this would allow those 262 previously Capp teachers who have between 23 and 25 years of experience to move to the

021appropriate step relative to their years of experience so it allows us a better compete for talent and it also rewards are previously capped veteran teachers that are in the division between that have between 23 and 25 years of experience to actually move up uh a step or two depending on how much experience in addition to the step movement that they would have received and the increase that they would have received as part of the base budget okay thank you Dr eagle and just to reiterate um and double down on our commitment we knew that you know we couldn't do everything in in one fail swoop uh when it comes to compensation because there's a lot of work that has to be done to get us to the place where you know we are on par

022and we have parody with other school systems as it relates to to compensation so what we've done is incremental changes and investment over the years which was something that we have outlined in the Strategic plan that we were committing investing in competitive wages um and so we've done that so if we do get additional dollars um you should expect that we would be targeting that next group that uh Dr Eagle just described that we knew already um we needed to Target so but we started with the 12 to 18 based on the the dollars we had and that was where the biggest lag was but we knew the next um group had to be going up to 25 so additional funding would allow us to to move more aggressively into addressing some of the areas

023that we already knew existed and was a part of the plan but was a phased approach year-over-year great thank you Dr McDade it is important to note that the board members have previously had the opportunity to share with the superintendent any additions or revisions to the proposed fiscal year 25 budget and those have already been taken into consideration we will Begin by going around the table to each board member for an opening comments um and then following the brief opening comments will then follow this process where each board member in turn will have the opportunity to present any proposed changes they may have um uh that they have not previously shared with the superintendent if there's a change each change must be moved and seconded followed by discussion and a vote and a vote no

024board member may speak twice about a budget change in less until all board members have spoken once about it after all board members comment is complete the matter will be called upon for a vote by the chair a change may be offered and voted on once there should there be any changes there'll be compiled and a final vote on the budget with all changes Incorporated will be taken likewise should there be no changes to the proposed budget a final vote will be taken to accept the budget as presented board members are not so Bound by Otherwise but otherwise pledged each other not to offer amendments to the budget in Open Session as being duplicative of the work session efforts allowing for a straight up or down vote on the budget that is reflected in the

025final vote of the work session board members may make any comments or discuss changes offered in the work session in Open Session um at the budget meeting okay we will now move on to opening comments and then following open comments board members will have the opportunity to present any proposed changes um would you like to start Mr wil thank you Mr chairman thank you executive cabinet and staff that are here tonight I know this is the most exciting things for you um but we appreciate your time and obviously the hard work and diligence that went into uh formulating and composing this uh budget um I think you know I always say this especially kind of post uh pandemic you know in the past I think one of the big things for me is with uh

026previous administration was trying to connect the dots it felt at times that things were just put into the budget for nice to haves but it didn't really align with what was ultimately the strategic plan at that time I'm probably couldn't even tell you what the full strategic plan of that was I do know we were promoting a world-class institution but the core components of what we offer is a big reason why I'm not what people might have saw in the past of someone who was literally breaking down and cutting things or trying to cut things Galore out of a budget uh those days are done largely because when these budgets are presented well first of all they hear our feedback uh but this budget is aligned to our core values of equity inclusivity Innovation Integrity

027resiliency and well-being and it goes along with the Strategic commitments of learning and achievement for all which we see with the academic support obviously the support and the raises for our teachers positive climate and culture that goes even to facilities and Renovations and programs family community engagement um one thing I you know I want to highlight that was I'm appreciative of is uh the additional funding uh to promote uh specialty programs you know a Hot Topic has been uh last couple uh weeks has been uh the underutilization of some of our buildings and so for me something like this is really important to me uh when I have one of my buildings that is under capacity uh that I believe has great uh specialty programs but in my experience there's been a disconnect with the

028community and understanding like what the Cambridge program is um because back in the day apparently the credits didn't transfer as seamlessly as a P credits to college those days are done so I think we have to dispel that I think and do our best especially targeting uh those uh buildings like of Freedom or pomac A Garfield that are under capacity uh organizational uh coherence I think again you know we've seen with the CIP uh and the structure you know in the past I felt like a lot of you you know the central office hes were people who were strictly based in a central office position but what we've done is expanded and Al those those those positions might be categorized as central office the majority of those people are school-based they're just not kind of

029in one School uh they don't have one real location in a hub therefore they're uh categorized or classified as uh central office employees ultimately in the end our goal I always look at as our our output which we saw a couple weeks ago with our student Vision profile reports is to produce students who are critical thinkers digital citizens innovative Visionary resilient and Global collaborators that is our ultimate goal and in this budget I feel like we have met those goals you know a big area of mine that was a focus this year um is you know I've always been passionate about the Arts and I know Dr Latif has um expounded over the Cappies and having participation and stuff like that and a lot of it's not necessarily funding you know it is you know

030yes I did make some requests and things but once I understood that it's more of a facilities issue we got to kind of figure out the out of buildings you know one big focus of mine is you know what we've seen with the pandemic post pandemic there was an immediate decline in enrollment in like our choirs our Orchestra our theater and Performing Arts uh I want to look into that more I want to make sure that our counselors both at the middle and high school are definitely promoting those as much as the specialty programs because I think they can be in conjunction with one another and we don't necessarily want kids dropping choir or orchestra because they feel like that's the only period that they they have to take like an IT class uh in

031one of our things so we we got to figure out that process um I want to make sure we figure out you know when it comes to performing arts and really everyone uses those stages um you know in our schools and our high schools you know um I understand that every building cannot be a colan obviously it's one of our newest buildings newest facilities uh but what can we do to further help our Arts programs in some of our older high schools uh if we can't make space uh for them to house like props and sets why don't we get rear projectors or something where it can be more digital and it can appear like a set whereas you can't store them in normal situations I'm very happy with the stiens um I think that's

032very good um one area that I know the administration is looking at is the strings um and looking and seeing um with their team I'd like to see them get that ston but I also understand there's logistical work that has to be done with that um before anything happens like that with the vote um so that's enough of me rambling that uh is My overall feedback and uh I reserve whatever time is left thank you Mr wil Mr trenic I don't think you had any time left um thank you this is my first budget season with the Schoolboard so I am um learning and studying and going through the budget um I appreciate the chart clearly labeled um with all of the additions I know in my district the robotics position was um something huge

033so I think that that's or the funding for that so I think that that's great I also um I know that that that will be appreciated across the across the county uh the other position that I liked in this chart was that human trafficking specialist I think that's much needed um in the year that we're in right now and uh the other thing that I appreciated also is the additional administrative interns I know that that was a huge topic with uh amongst our schools and of course the teacher the teacher jump in Pay that's great and I appreciate that we're still trying to further increase that jump um and so I hope that our teachers are excited about that that little effort that we made even though that's a big effort it's a big leap

034so thank you guys for for doing that um and I think that's it that's all I have thank you thank you Mr Mr Blake uh good evening everyone uh I don't have much to say I'm I'm very happy with this budget it aligns with our uh strategic plan uh and that's it thank you Mr Jesse I'm going to uh read through my statement some of these are sort of questions that I'm not expecting an answer to tonight but uh uh it's it's something that I think we should discuss us so the first thing is uh when did the staff recommend for significant delays to brinville high school for example for the renovation and the 14th High School uh for the construction moving back in Prince William County afternoon response I got some answers uh the

035question was the declining rment of the UVA article that first or the UVA article that first triggered the need to delay projects so where did that or Who provided the UVA article upon which the staff begin to determine if it was necessary to postpone all of these projects Dr mcade I'd like to ask did you or your staff decide to overrun the previous board last year board said this is what you're going to do and this year during mid year it was it appears that that was overruled or did you uh did you have a discussion with any board members before your staff begin to overrule the last board regardless of whether this was done with or without the knowledge of a board member there are two points I'd like to point out once last

036year board approved a project I don't think that neither your staff nor a single board member including the chair has the authority to stop or delay the process on a approved project Dr Latif as you did today did you send the first uvr article to all the board members and encourage us to consider that the other thing is then when is this important because I find it's hard to believe that with all the adjustments needed to make the the budget these changes were being considered and created by the staff not in November or December 2023 but probably last summer or early fall no one has the authority in my opinion to stop a project approved and started by last year uh by last year board casual two on two discussions are not a for formal

037vote to amend the project this includes planning drafting RSP Etc the who is essential because any stomp should work on an approved project by previous boards need the board approval I cannot believe the staff moved forward with all these significant delays without discussing this with you Dr Latif Dr Latif wasn't one of your campaign campaign pledges to build more schools to relieve overcrowding now we are delaying those schools did you decide Works to stop and wait until 2024 before the full impact of delays were presented to the new board at this last board meeting I said that data presented to the board was a bunch of here's what I meant when you shows trailers but not Rovers you are not providing a comprehensive analysis to the board you are not acknowledging the loss of time

038that the Rovers and the teachers assigned to the rooms lose when one leaves and the other one has to set up you are not acknowledging students of Rovers have a more challenging time meeting with their teachers either one of them the one that's left the room or the one that's in the room when you present us with the data you have declared will be placed by the you you in your presentation in the CIP your data uh you say for the program capacity will be done in 2024 you know the data that you're using does not accurately reflect the capacity of a school yet you list schools that are under or over capacity based on that data and declare that they are over underc capacity and some board members last week used that data to

039say that they are under capacity or not based on May 20th May 20 20 17 planning capacity and program capacity presentation generally documents that the older the school the more likely the number of students that are overcrowded increases regardless of whether a school is over under capacity When The Fire Marshall post that a maximum seating capacity of a class is 30 but some periods have 35 the teacher will do the work have the class but really we are asking them to break a law when you don't have the need of classroom you are overc regardless of the number of students the and 19 Rover is 19 Rover is at Woodbridge High School is a prime example irrespective of what classroom are used they are needed by that school there are SI significant development that are

040planned for our area around this new school and I say significant it's not just a small uh amount and so on one hand I understand your study about kindergartens but the the development for the Prince William County does not seem to uh equate with what is happening no one has been able to tell me when Woodbridge High School has not been overcrowded the school is 50 years old old and everyone I talked to everyone said it's always been overcrowded yet any possible relief other than the 14th high school has not been provided based on last year's board the earliest that would get any relief was 2 years and 8 months from now but now we are recommending it'll be four years and 8 months from now a whole class of students will go through Woodbridge

041High School in the overcrowded City situation Woodbridge High School will do what it always does it will do what is required and watch as new schools get relief the growing number of supporters and I will continue to remind the aquan voters what is public publicly or I would say not being done for woodb high school thank you Miss Williams thank you uh chairman Latif I appreciate it I just want to um sorry I was trying to read when something happened um I want to thank the the staff and uh Dr McDade for preparing a very comprehensive budget that aligned uh with our adopted strategic plan um wasn't going to go into this but I think at this juncture it's wise that we may want to as a board board that um has new members take

042it upon ourselves really to look back at some of the historical things that have gotten us to where we are um Justin brought up the old strategic plan it was like a sheet of paper there there wasn't a lot of bullet points and and so we have moved into a new chapter of this Division and operation and we should take our time and our due diligence to learn where we were but we also need to respect where we are and where we're going and use that as the light post to make our decisions along with taking into account some historical information um I personally am very appreciative of the additions that were brought up this evening um for example the stem and Robotics cordinator that's something that I personally have been asking for for years

043um I am so proud of the fact that our division is one of the only in the country that now has air Land and Sea robotics it is the skills that our students learn and um gain knowledge of participating in robotics we know are some of the number one soft skills that all major corporations are looking for when hiring people I hear often the chatter about sports versus that versus this yes it's a team effort but we hear right out of the corporations directly we hear directly from them if you can't work on a team if you don't know how to fail we don't want you we don't care you're a straight A student and so I'm glad to see that uh we are valuing that and we are giving um right now it's just

044miss Carol so I could say Miss Carol some additional support in her office I just want to take a moment to give her and Shout out for sticking with us and coming back to us and really um bringing other faculty into the fold to continue to develop our programming needs for students um I've always been a big robotic fan so clearly I'm biased in that situation but it's not just me we are being told by our business partners that this is the right direction to go in so I really appreciate that additional funding for that um obviously our Foya office we are a Foya office of one um there is technology and software out there so I think that it's wonderful that we are utilizing that um the Schoolboard office member I have had some

045very Lively conversations with the current board members and board members in the past about the need to support our um wonderful uh Clerk and Deputy clerk I think people highly undervalue administrators at all levels we are and I'm going to say we cuz I been one for over two decades the backbones of what makes the executives run and offices run and if you don't know um as the saying goes you better ask somebody because you won't have anything typed up any reports made any appointments made any anything so um as this school board continues to grow and modernize we do need additional help and support for us to be able to function to do our job um so I am greatly appreciative of that and I hope that our board as a whole agrees with

046us um the Communications Department I I give them a standing ovation um just watching all of the new areas that they are advertising not only for employment but also helping us change the reputation of some of our schools um Mr wil you brought up freedom and um some of the older schools that have uh a a reputation problem in the community right we how many people I spoke to during the election season that did not even know that freedom had won two national Awards and had only really seen what they read on Google which wasn't even accurate because most of those incidences didn't even occur in the school or on the school it occurred around the school so taking time out to Rebrand our division to give those schools that suffer from reputational um injury

047depending on who you talk to a chance to really Thrive and flourish and help our community members understand what is going on in our community schools right now and not what was I think not only is a benefit to those in the building but also our community at large because we know that people move for schools we're the largest employer in this County and if you don't have good schools you're not going to have a good County budget none of us will be here and you know we might as well end this discussion so I really appreciate that I appreciate the technology that's being utilized by our communication department and the new avenues um that they are taking to really spread the word reaching people where they are um because we are a county that

048does not have a centralized Communication System we don't have a news paper we don't have anything that really um binds us together as a community throughout um from one end to the other Prince William County um the additional support for human trafficking I think is wonderful I would love for us as a board to be updated at a later date about what we're doing programmatically wise but that's not not right now it's not the time or the the place to do that um the continual investment in providing administrative support at our middle and high schools as they continue to grow and the needs um of our student population our staff changes I think that'll be very instrumental um I I do appreciate the upper the not to the more experienced teachers that has been something

049that I feel that they have been left out of the conversation so I'm glad to see that we are acknowledging that and trying to do what we can um within our budgetary constraints as we move forward not only I think we should be looking at the Upp end of the scale but I would also like for us to revisit the bottom of the scale $5,000 after coming out of college is still uh Wick approved at this point in time time like we shouldn't have anybody working for us that has to also go seek stake benefits and um that's the reality of where we're headed I don't know if we're we're there now it's not our fault um but I do think that you know when you work for a School Division as a full-time employee

050you should be able to live somewhere full-time and I know that's not solely up to us it's the community that we live in but um I think it makes a difference that we continue to do everything that we possibly can to ensure that our employees are well compensated um we we have not talked um in this update about the CIP um I think it is something that from what I'm hearing from our fellow board members that we may want to consider a separate session to really understand how the CIP has developed um what our cutoff date is versus when the bo uh BCS approves projects the timelines involved in getting um rfps plans construction all of those things um I keep hearing out in in the atmosphere the reason and rationale for some for this

051decision specifically Mr Jesse brought up the 14th High School is being Incorrect and being solely based off of a UVA study um I don't I don't feel that's accurate we've talked about it in our first uh board when we did our CIP session initially um some additional reasons were outlined that seem to have been lost in the crowd I did ask for an additional update um and some more in-depth information that be provided not only to this board to be reiterated but also to the public because we know that the media just picked up on the one study and ran with it as if that was the sole decision and there should be no reason why any member of the public would think at this point in time that our school administration would base anything

052on One Singular lens um we have not acted that way to date so I I would like um not only the information that's been shared with us but another Avenue for us to have that discussion for educational purposes um we often get a tagline in the press and it's not an accurate reflection of the amount of work or the decisions that go into this process having two by twos are to prepare us to do our job and so that we can come to meetings and make decisions and and be informed and ask questions so we don't hold the public Heir till 1230 1:00 at night um it doesn't mean we can't ask those some same questions I'm happy to do so if that's going to provide more information to the public but I would like

053to recommend us having an additional work session maybe on um CIP and capital Improvement projects I happen to have a love affair with facilities and things of that nature um but I I feel like we've missed the be the mark on that um and educating our public and that's part of our responsibility to do so so I would like to see some further discussion on that um just for our own under for the Public's understanding and for some of our new board members understanding as well because it's a very in-depth topic um and you just can't cover everything all the time when you have new people so I want to reiterate that I appreciate the work that's been done um but I I could use a uh a little brush up myself so thank you

054very much and I look forward to the remainder of the work session miss wall thank you Dr Latif um I just I'll uh try to be brief I want to thank everybody who's worked on the budget and the CIP I know it's very heavy lift there's a lot of data that goes into this a lot of preparation a lot of Team Planning and who knows what else I know I don't know all that's in the sauce but I know the sauce is good so I appreciate it um I uh I also want to Echo the comments about the Strategic plan guiding this process I think that's one of the things that we do really well um when I look at a new budget or a proposed budget I can see exactly where this fits with

055the Strategic priorities that we identified and I think the public appreciates that those who are paying attention understand that um and I appreciate it as a board member as I reflect the needs of my community and I also consider the needs of the community of Prince William as a whole um so awesome process um I know the development of the budget starts probably well as soon as we pass this budget we're going to start developing next year's budget I know it's a year-long process so I just want to say thank you for that um and on that topic um I know even you know the development of the CIP is also an ongoing project it is a living document it is year to It's A Five-Year Plan but it it rolls year to year to

056year so while something may be in the plan now it may come out of the plan next year something that wasn't in the plan may come into the plan because we are a living breathing community and things change so that's something really important to keep in mind with the budget and the CIP um but I do appreciate the additional Investments a number of these things are things that I specifically asked for um and I'm really pleased to see them in here um things that as I've been out and about in the community people have told me or have talked to me about over you know several years and I'm pleased that we have the resources to be able to put some of these things in not just what's additional but also what's in the budget

057um of highest priority to me is those in investments in learning and achievement for all um but I understand we you know we have four Strategic investment categories um and so I'm very happy to see you know a number of these stem coordinator um software for Foya sport Foya ecovery that's we need to we need to relieve there are ways to do smarter better um and and more efficient and more accurate so um and not drive people into the ground with doing things the way we've always done them so I'm really excited about that um I can go on I just think this is great I really appreciate it um I just want to say in my closing um as we consider the budget and the CIP we remember that we are fiduciary um holders

058of the budget um and the public expects us to make wise decisions and decisions to the best of our ability that will last far into the future and when decisions are made that are rash or aren't supported by data or the facts on the ground then there is a consequence later on and in past years well nobody is perfect you know we try to do it right but sometimes there have been mistakes and some of the problems that we're challenge challenged with today are because of decisions that were made in the past um so as we work on this budget um I do um hope that we will keep in mind wisdom fiscal restraint and adherence to data the best that we have and and on on that point I do I did forget I

059was going to say this I know um it it is my observation that our folks who work with data and um all the numbers and try to forecast do a really good job I think um and and when and when they have noticed that they've been outside of a very small margin of error they go back and they look and they say okay we kind of missed it by a little bit what happened and then they adjust so I really do appreciate the Fidelity to good data and good research because that drives all of our decisions we need to be data driven and I see that in the division I appreciate that and I'm I have been all over in this data so I've I've been relying on it as I would as a board

060member I'm not the subject matter expert but I rely on the hardworking staff and I um have confidence that the information that we're given is useful and accurate and we can make decisions based upon it so I just wanted to say that um uh and I will close with that thank you very much Miss Miss uh Vice chair of Zar gapore thank you Dr Latif um uh thank you to everyone who worked on this budget who works with the numbers with the the CIP with the with the how many students and and what we're doing I know that's a um an ongoing iterative process which is one of my favorite things about bringing you here Dr uh Dr McDade um the Strategic plan absolutely drives everything we do and I'm grateful that not only do

061does it drive our work but it drives our um evaluation of our work I love that you're never afraid to tell us and the public where we are where we've fallen short where we need to go and how we need to get there and I'm I'm proud to do that work with you so I I'm grateful for all of that um I want to specifically thank you uh for putting in the student teleah health services um if you are a parent who has had to deal with mental health with your child in Prince Willam County you know how hard it is to get uh kids on lists kids to get seen and I'm hoping that since this has worked in other districts that this is a good way to kind of catch our students before

062things get super serious um I've I've been that parent I've I've waited for a bed at Dominion that never came I've sat in emergency rooms with my child um it's not cool uh and we're solidly middle class I have relatively good insurance so um I I wonder if it had existed when she was in Middle School if it could have caught some of those things that we just were bewildered by if it would have been a better path for her so hopefully this provides a better path for some of our kids and gives uh our parents and families a peace of mind um the other thing I'm going to just highlight super quick are the the teachers um thank you so much for continuing to work on the pay scale I know it's it's easy

063to sit and say well teachers deserve to be paid more and they work hard and and it's so hard when our buckets of money only come from a couple sources and we are riant on what they give us and we have to be smart as the decision makers here on how to make that money get into the right places so I am grateful that we can consider our teachers who were I know they were feeling a little ignored or not heard and I'm glad that we're able to do something and I know we're going to continue to do things so um the the budget has been um it's been a pleasure to do this over the past couple years I thank you and Dr letif I'm done thank you Vice chair zore all right um

064excellent um just brief comments again we re reiterate thank you for all the great work um the budget um is fantastic it aligns with the Strategic plan it's another good budget again to remind everyone final numbers won't really you know we'll approve our budget next week but the county then has to approve theirs that might change revenues depending on what they do with tax rates and the state budget won't be finalized until the governor signs it which may or may not happen and they may go into special sessions on that I think the high points in this year's budget really align with teaching and learning if you really look at the work we do and so from the teaching standpoint it's another significant raise and I truly appreciate the extra work we're doing to adjust

065the pay scales in the mid-range es um in the now 12 to 20 years and we still have work to do as you heard from Dr McDade which I think is critical um but this is something we have continued year-over-year to really make significant improvements and I'm very proud of the efforts we've done on that um and it's not easy you know I mean we have but you know we've prioritized salaries because we believe and improving Recruitment and Retention and that does work but you know prioritizing salaries takes money away from other things that we have to do as well so it it is a it is a careful balance um and this is I'd like to remind the public the 6.1 is on top of the two that went into effect in January so

066just at January 1 was a 2% raise which we rarely ever do a midyear raise but the way the state budgets worked out they provided some late monies and we were able to do that so this will be 2 plus 6.1 so it's really 8.1 moving into next year so that's very exciting and and and if you take a look at the other numbers they're they're great so that's on the teaching side on the on the on the learning side we have invested heavily in tutoring that's in the base budget we've invested in um adding um you know there's the science of reading we're adding some experts for that we're adding you know more instructional coaches um you know I think with every budget you know and there's been very few budgets that I've been

067disappointed with really over the last few years but I could always want more and I think everyone who looks at the budgets with would say you know I didn't get everything I wanted um and that happens to me every year I would love our Council ratios to continue to drop I know the recommended Council ratios are 1 to 250 I'd love to see them at one to you know I'd like to see us beat the national recommendations so you know I have a wish list that's that's really big and and and continues to sort of you know unfortunately be disappointed by just you know where where I think we we just as a society need to pour much more money into education but with what we have this has been terrific I appreciate Dr all

068the um added additions to the proposed budget um this is very exciting and let me let me reiterate the important part also on the teaching and learning on the learning side mental health and we've all talked about how important that is we we've heard a lot we've the public has come to speak about it students have spoken about it student board member has spoken about it it has been something that has been accelerated from the pandemic and a real issue this um tella Health um effort uh has been successful in other counties AC Ross the Commonwealth and the country um I'm excited about it I think there is a movement in the state budget um to help um there might be more monies coming to us earmarked for tella Health as well which may help

069us recover some of the monies we're going to make that investment on but this investment is going to happen regardless is my understanding right we're going to do this so this is very exciting so anyways that is um you know all I have to add and and just to say that you know every time we make a vote you know not everyone gets what we want not every everyone who's out here you know um um you know certainly um we have to make changes and adjust for for for the data that we see so we will now move to the next session of the meeting where each board member in turn will have their opportunity um to make remarks and so we will I'll start by saying are there any proposed changes um at this

070time we can go either who wants to go first or we can start down with Mr wil if you'd like or anybody does anyone have okay let's let's first start does anyone have any recommended change to the budget any motions Mr Jesse Yeah I'd like to move that the uh CIP be amended the proposed C amended to have the 14th High School go back on to the original schedule that was voted on and approved last year do you have a second Mr chairman with a disclaimer please sure um out of respect for Mr Jesse uh and that this really Ends Tonight this is a work session the chance to change the markup of the budget um full transparency I'm not supporting this uh but in the effort of allowing him to make his pitch once

071more and if any board members choose to speak uh as to why they're making their decision I'm going to open this up I've heard a lot of people say well this is what you know the Dr McDade wants well the reality is she makes a proposal for us and what she believes is in the best interest of our School Division and so I'm not saying everyone has to speak on this but if people would like to add after he speaks and I think I get to speak with the second um I think this is a good opportunity to have that out because the Press is here people have covered this story there's a certain narrative and I think this is a great opportunity for everyone to kind of speak so we'll call that your discl

072cler in your first comment okay um who would like to go next on the discussion so the motion's been seconded we we're now open for discussion wait sure Mr Jesse Yeah first of all I just want to clarify a couple things uh it's been sort of on the web that uh when Mr Wigan spoke that he was talking about bullying and people were some people were saying that was Dr McDade that was not Dr McDade who he was talking about so I want to make that clear the second thing uh is that as I said before Woodbridge High School is 50 years old uh my kids didn't go there we went to Garfield and as somebody spoke uh a few minutes go the reputation of the school also helped determine whether people want to go

073there or will do whatever they can to get out of there and Garfield did not have the greatest reputation when my kids went there but we still sent them there and I can say in all honesty that uh they started the IB Program uh while my two kids were there my oldest one could not get into the program and my youngest one it changed her life the IV program really worked so even though it didn't it was a good school for us and I want that but I wanted the teachers and the uh students they make things work whatever it is and this school is not only overcrowded it's grossly overcrowded and we need to do something about it now am I tied to having a 14th High School no I want leave for Woodbridge

074High School and I would like the staff to figure out something because we shouldn't have to wait five years to but as I told people last night regardless of what we do it's going to take five years but uh to get done so but we need the relief the number of developments that are scheduled to go around where the school is is high over 2,000 people uh are apartments and so forth so that's slow I is this is this boggling to my mind that we don't and yes it is a living document but a living document has rules and we we make major decisions in the middle it deserves a vote if when we moved all these projects back uh two years one year those were major decisions and that should not be a casual

075conversation in my opinion it should be a conversation and a special meeting called to get that done we need that we need help and we need to get this done the teachers they will do whatever you tell them to do they're not going to come here to the boardroom it's not in their best interest to come but they will get the job done they will teach your kids but they deserve and Woodbridge High School deserve and I don't know much about brinville high school I just looked at it it's older than Woodbridge and it deserved that renovation and I don't know why we're waiting so you know as Mr wil said and I appreciate the fact and I knew he was not supporting the program but I appreciate his second thank you Miss trenck thank

076you Mr Jesse for explaining that um I I again have been overly clear about the CIP and the and the changes that need to be made and I what I heard you say Mr Jesse is that Woodbridge High School needs relief um I I don't know that relief is brought about with a new school um I think that we as a board have other options in providing relief for these incoming developments that you're referring to that are happening all across the county um Prince Wayne County is growing um and in different districts more than others which I explained to you last week you know you're talking about 2,000 incoming projects um the brentville district has 6,000 homes incoming on on a paper um and and they're not voted on yet so they're in the air

077which means if they do happen we're not prepared um in the next four years so it's something that we have to look at which we're we're having those conversations we're talking about it and it's about planning and I think that when we have the conversation now it can prepare us for the future to be prepared later on um so I understand where you're coming from needing relief and a lot of people have said you know the redistricting and the re and the realigning of of lines and things like that that's a conversation um and and I appreciate your perspective I appreciate the parents and the teachers and the students that came out and talked about the need um again we're given numbers and I do think that you guys have done a great job you

078mentioned brinville High School um and it's no secret that I love that school um and I went there when it was a middle school high school and it was very overcrowded while we were all walking those Hall way together um brentville high school has gotten Renovations there are Renovations in the CIP for them it is an old school there are things that are failing but they have addressed those items and the other items of need are on the list to be addressed in the order that they're needed um and I trust that if something were to happen sooner something breaks down we're going to fix it we're not going to leave it un um broken um but but brentville has gotten a lot of Renovations and it is an old school but it is a

079great school um the bones are good there so I I see what I see where you're coming from I understand what you're saying but I do think that they're doing a great job addressing all of those needs in the CIP I do think that there is is more work that can be added into the CIP more things that can be added in order to um to help us further down the road um and I've had those conversations with both Fern and and Dr McDade um so thank you that's all I have Miss Williams thank you Mr chairman um so I'm going to take the opportunity as the only current elected board member that has spent um close to a decade on this very topic of overcrowding in schools and land and land utilization and Banking

080and serving on committees and all of the things um I want to say that there is a significant difference from the way that we approached this in the previous administration to how we are doing it in this Administration to start with um I also think that again I'm going to re reiterate what I said during my opening statements and that is when it comes to facilities and land utilization there there's an educational deficit not only among newbor members because you just got here but also within the public the the amount of time that it takes to secure land the process from then each parcel that has to be secured to then developing um a blueprint putting those out for requests out for proposals getting that approved um then having the board approve each step along

081the way I think that um it would behoove this board and the public if we had a separate session on just basic understanding of whe when we make these decisions versus when land or developments are approved at the BCS what that means to us what our cut off date is all of those things make a difference and when we do our budget cycle to say I I remember for example when I first started I used to get very upset I was like well we know that so and so development is getting ready to be approved I I'm sure the planning office was not thrilled every time I called because I didn't understand that having a development being proposed but not yet approved we don't count that because it's not a reality yet I've also come

082to learn that just because something is approved does not mean it'll be built right away either I remember discussions with Mor and cigan long long ago about the type of development that gets improve approved in the student generation and we just were updated not that long ago on us utilizing new student generation rates and how we Factor students um I think that all of those things make a difference somehow the rhetoric has become whether or not we need a high school I don't think that that's Up For Debate I I think the debate is what I don't even think it's a debate I from my understanding what we were asked as a board is do we want to build a facility that houses 2,000 and some students or do we want to build a facility

083that houses a thousand and some students we haven't made that decision yet because we haven't had a vote on the CIP you you can't continue to do construction if you don't understand if you don't know what footprint you're going to use and it would be a waste of our taxpayer dollars to do that I don't think the argument is whether or not we need another High School type facility we know we do I personally am still really upset that I don't have program capacity because I've been asking for that every year for seven years because it's fantastic how many bodies you can put in a building but it doesn't make any difference if we're not planning to how we if we're not planning to plan for how we plan to utilize that facility we need

084that information and I think what's missed in this conversation it has been said by this Administration and please correct me if I'm wrong um Dr MCD or anyone from the administration that we are undertaking a study to look at all of those factors so that we can make well-informed decisions like we are elected to do I've not trust I do not like the idea of delaying a building when I know not only do we need it a traditional space for our high schools but we also need another Independence which we haven't even talked about we have so many students requesting to go there we have to turn them away because at one point in time again by reputation it was a school all the bad kids went to which I don't even know where that

085started to now being a school that students voluntarily go to we we have to turn them away because they don't fit a traditional education plan we have so much work to do and things to think about I think my understanding of the ask is that we pause and take a minute and utilize for once an Administration that's willing to hand us data to back our decisions or to help us make informed decisions which I think the public has asked for so I would like to continue continue down that path um and I think it would do us well to hold a separate work session on how we do this process from start to finish and clear up the rhetoric that's out there clear up the misinformation allow the public to understand the new changes the

086new processes that we have how we work collaboratively in some regards with the vocs because again I can't emphasize this enough we are two completely separate entities entirely but I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result when I entered woodberg High School in 1990 we had 3,000 students in the school there were rooms the classrooms just like there are now there were no trailers and we still have staff Dr H I think was he was my 10th grade English teacher so I mean I I understand what it's like to sit in in a high school that's overcrowded from a personal perspective I also understand that this building not only affects Woodbridge High School it affects Garfield High School it affects Freedom High School it

087has the potential to affect kogan it has the potential to affect Hilton High School because whether we like to acknowledge it or not when a new building goes up everybody wants to send their kid there because it's new even though this Administration has made it their absolute priority to ensure that every single school has the same technology and resources available at the division level instead of the school-based level so students don't have to suffer if you walk into Hilton or Garfield or brinville you have the same technology at each one of those those schools that's that's a huge change so I think you know if we want before we vote on the budget or whatever the case may be whether we need to publish something out there or have a separate Saturday session which nobody

088ever likes to do but I'm all here for it so that we can really inform the public and understand the full picture of what it is that we're trying to do I think would be a very smart decision and I'm highly encouraging that we we do that because clearly there's a lot of misunderstanding on how we got to where we are and what it is that we're trying to do it's been presented as like sole relief for wiers but it doesn't affect it's a high school it's not we're not building an elementary school we're not building a middle school where it's mostly the effects are within the district this affects all of us and I'm I'm going to actually say the thing that nobody ever wants to talk about but I've been saying quietly getting

089eyeballs of death at me but if we if we really believe in equity we should really look at all the High School boundaries and yes please gasp but it's true kogan had has more students Bounder within their boundary District than that building can hold forget program capacity what are we going to do when we build another high school and it's right next to three high schools we are we just going to boundary that one again and repeat the same mistake over and over and over again it it is painful to wait but it is even more painful to continue to make the same mistakes without honoring our own commitment which we said we do which was value equity do the best that we can for our students and our staff and our parents I don't

090want my child to go to an overcrowded school like I did but right now that's what's going to happen in my own family and the community that I live in it's because my community whoopers district has more Development coming on board sooner we have a whole other Town Center in addition to affordable housing coming and I know for a fact going back to Meine cegin when you put an apartments for low at low cost even though we were told back then oh it doesn't make more people young people make people that's the whole point so forgive me for the long Rampage but I think it's time while we have the opportunity this is a brand new board we're all very intelligent competent individuals we have an Administration it's dedicated to serving our entire Community we

091respect the stos for which we were elected but we Embrace Equity throughout our division and finally finally put a nail in the coffin of the East versus and West and treat everybody equ equitably redistrict our schools have meeting with real estate agents because they're really the ones that get us in trouble when it comes to where your student going to go and and move forward in the right direction for the benefit of all of us because my school has 11 some trailers the West now has more trailers than they ever had because they're growing faster so what What's Happening Here is now happening over there but we don't have to keep repeating the same thing we have the opportunity and the time and we will have the data to back up making a more informed

092decision and I'm going to continue to advocate for that and trust me it's painful seven years is a very long time to spend a looking at land and working with former board members and working with the bccs and and still be in this very same situation I hope that we can wait on the study utilize the information that's coming out of it and really make smart decisions and Dr McDade if you could re refresh our memory a little bit about what that study entails that would be fantastic capacity study yeah sure I'd be happy to um you know I just want to go back to you know earlier um you know the the high school was slated to come online in 2026 and we went to the board and had conversations regarding you know uh

093pausing and at that time it was still 2557 and we paused to um not not plop down the Prototype but go into a full redesign and then September 30 hit and we had uh we had seen something we hadn't seen in many many years with uh our enrollment dropping and Dr cage and his team as many of you have stated tonight is very efficient does a wonderful job at projections and for the first time in years they were outside the margin of error which is a one 1% uh margin of error so you know we had to pump the brakes and say hey what's going on here um and we leaned on several other organizations out there uh the Welden Cooper Center um at UVA uh uh projects and enrollment project or enrollment for all

094divisions in Virginia and their projections were in line with what we were seeing in fact the welding Cooper Center actually uh projected us to lose more students over the next five or six years than what our model's projecting uh Dr cage and his team also consult with two of the leading demography uh organizations um in the nation one on the east coast one on the west coast and their um interpretation was the same uh so we leaned on several data sources to uh really capture uh what we were seeing with declining enrollment and again this is the first time it's a phenomena for the first time that we've seen in Northern Virginia since 1970 so you know with that in mind um you know we took a look at at at high school projections and

095so you know looking at 2030 2031 um if we were to um with the 14th High School coming on in 2029 we potentially have 800 vacant seats in the high schools in the community where that's going to be impacted and so uh you know being FID you know being uh fiscal stewards we thought let's pump the brakes uh let's let's gather some more information we thought it would be responsible to take more time to study the enrollment to see if the enrollment projections were going to play out as as if everybody else is projecting gives us a little more time to study that gives us a little more time also to um engaging conversations around many different topics that folks had mentioned tonight like transfer rates any specialty programming at the 14th high school and

096again um we have not said that we're not building the 14th High School we're moving forward as if the 14th High School is coming on in 2029 uh with a capacity of about 1,400 students and I want to be very very clear when we design that building the design will be intentional so that we can expand onto that building so when we engage with the architect it would be uh with the expectation that that's a a building that we can easily expand onto uh should we see enrollment begin to um you know increase so that's the goal here um and uh you know that's that's kind of where we are with our enrollment projections so I just want to be clear it was it was a it was leveraging a lot of different data points

097in making that decision I do thank you for that ver but I do want to make sure that everyone's clear what the capacity study will entail so maybe if we could have um no no no that's that was good information but I do want um Matt to share like what what that will entail thank you Dr McDade so this year we've committed to updating the capacity metric at the high school level to mirror program capacity that has been rolled out first at elementary and then at the middle school level when we use planning capacity at the elementary level we soon realized that as a product primarily of the K3 class size reduction Grant the metric was not capturing the true space of these elementary schools for example if we were assuming 24 students per classroom

098at the elementary level and the school appeared to be at 80% of capacity but there were 10 trailers present something didn't make sense and with the reduction for grades K through three the grant could allow those class sizes to be reduced significantly from 24 you know down to 15 14 students per classroom so that was the primary motivator for shifting from a planning capacity to program capacity at the elementary level it also captures those nuances like gifted El's programs all those other variety of programs that can reduce a school's capacity when the class sizes are reduced when we moved forward and rolled out the middle school program capacity we noticed that division wide there was a difference of about 100 80 seats between planning capacity at the middle school level versus program capacity at the

099middle school level you pick up space in a middle school from the gymnasium as being one of the core classrooms that serves a class throughout the whole day in turn you lose a classro for the health course that's there periodically throughout the term what that suggests to us initially is that at the middle school level when you don't have a class size reduction Grant lowering class sizes there's still utility in having program capacity and at the same time the impact or the magnitude that we might expect at the high school level might be more similar to what we saw at the middle school level than what we saw back when we shifted from planning to program at the elementary level nevertheless our team is committed to updating the regulation that outlines program capacity and it's

100our intent to have this rolled out for high schools by the end of this calendar year okay Miss wall thank you that was interesting and I had forgotten that uh the the piece about thee Elementary School programming capacity etc etc um so that was good good to hear that um some of the arguments that I've heard for putting this since that's the motion that's before us putting the 14th back on schedule from previous cips proposed cips is um the methodology of the data which we talked about a little bit and I didn't know if there was anything you wanted to add to that um at this time but I had a couple of other things top arguments that I wanted to address is there anything you the only thing I do want um Dr cart

101to just when you when um Mr boach talked about the Weld and Cooper study which was only one study and actually that study was after our team had already done all of the data analysis and when that study came out it just really reaffirmed what they had already saw that study is a little bit more aggressive but we believe that our data is even more accurate because uh Dr Cartage and his team has had an opportunity to change the methodology and use data from um pwcs even resource that gives us more accuracy so I do want you to just give some visibility into some of the ways that you capture um data to project enrollment yes thank you Dr McDade so first of all one of the key enhancements this year is partnering with the

102Virginia Department of Health and using address level data to identify where past life births occurred and then correlating that with the attendance area to which they're assigned today as Dr McDade mentioned the Welden Cooper projections that came out months after we projected and in effect validated what we were anticipating that was kind of the third validation the first one was with the lapof and goala demographic research firm based out of California and then the other one was with statistical forecasting this is the firm that the prior board used to audit pwcs is projection meth methods back in about 2019 so working with those two independent firms on the redesign of our model assisted in our confidence and moving forward the statistical forecasting firm in fact projected some of our schools so that we could compare

103our models projections to what that firm would have projected using all the most current data and the gold standard for projection Methods at the K12 level thank you Dr carage thank you that's very interesting and I think it's important to note that we wow am I too close that um we were using our own methodologies that had been new and improved from 2019 and the things that we learned right and that we also had been pulling in statistical data from you said the Virginia Department of Health and I remember we had that conversation because it explains some of the things that are happening in my district schools that are very underap capacity um next to schools that are very overcrowded because we were able to narrow down you know zoom in on the ZIP code

104data um and like the opening of innovation and how we kind of underestimated or we overestimated how many kindergarten classes we were going to need for instance and that has implications it was small but then we had to move people Etc um so I appreciate that a lot and I think it's important that we understand you know we do the best we can with the data that we have and we have a lot of good folks working on data science for us us um my other thing that I've heard a little bit about and people have come in and talked about and I'd like to know a little bit more about is this um is situation of like Rovers um versus trailers at a school um you know Battlefield high school for instance is at

105the same percentage capacity as Woodbridge High School right now currently um Battlefield has experienced a precipitous drop in capacity it used to be at 150% maybe 5 years ago now it's at 103 those two schools are at 103 um but Battlefield has a lot of trailers and Woodbridge does not and so if I wondered if you could speak to um the some of the ways that the division offers schools to deal with the EB in flow of a few more students because as I'm reading the data here um Woodbridge High School in the 2023 24 year has an excess or sorry as a deficit of 110 seats but then by just the school year 20252 6 school year the projection is a deficit of only 20 seats and then by the 26 27 school year

106it would have a surplus of available seats of 64 so this is this is a little bit of an accordion going on at Woodbridge right now um and yet the school as I can tell from our data doesn't have any trailers so would somebody like to speak to maybe what that is maybe give the public an answer or some light Enlightenment on that Miss wall I'd be happy to speak to that and Dr cage and his team really lead an effort every year that uh really takes a look at enrollment at all of our schools uh really starts uh fairly early in the year after the year starts uh looking at you know where the September 30th enrollment comes in and then what are the needs to supplement space at schools and and uh uh

107you know one of the ways we supplement is through portable classrooms uh we go out on site we send teams out on site meet with the principal walk the space review the space uh look at options for how we might be able to address the overcrowding and one of those Solutions sometimes is portable classrooms um to date Woodbridge High School is not elected to uh utilize portable classrooms to help mitigate any overcrowding that they might have and is that a school-based decision um up to now it's been a school-based decision uh Dr Cartage and I have have worked pretty closely with leaders and and so we'll be taking a little bit of a different approach moving forward we always want the input of our school leaders and what we're doing to impact their school environment

108uh but it'll be a collaborative decision so the comments we've heard about 19 classes on Rovers that that was a school-based decision yes ma'am okay um and then um the last question I had I think was perhaps addressed by Miss Williams a little bit but um just this idea of um having student we show student student population decreasing yet others say that it's going up you know just kind of this like declining and Rising population and I know I think we addressed that I think we probably addressed that um but just those population estimates in general for our region I know I've seen news articles on this that don't even relate to pwcs but they just relate to the northern Virginia area in general this is a phenomenon that we have not experienced in the

109northern Virginia area in the last well since the 70s right um is there anything you want to add to that because obviously it is going to affect it does affect us it's a new mindset that we have to get our heads wrapped around that we're not rapidly growing like we were in the early 2000s yep Dr C can you recap um some of the reasons why we're seeing some of the enrollment um projection decreases that we're seeing and which has already actually started this year yeah so kind of at a a larger scale thinking about population Beyond K12 we're seeing increases in domestic net out migration from Northern Virginia of populations choosing to move further out from the DC City Center so the excerts of fulier County Stafford they're also moving farther south to the

110Greater Richmond area and even farther south to the Carolinas and Georgia and in some of our speaking engagements we've learned just from anecdotal pieces of evidence that variety of families that leaders knew you know in fact did relocate to Georgia so we're kind of seeing some anecdotal evidence validating what we're seeing through US Census Bureau data suggesting that there are increases in population moving away from the region we also look at the international migration to our region that's another component that can influence population here and the northern Virginia Regional Commission they've published recently um validating that yes domestic net out migration for Northern Virginia and Prince William County specifically we are seeing more people leave domestically we're seeing a little bit of an uptick in international migration but the study cites that because there were

111several travel restrictions that have since been lifted that's kind of a pent up demand that is coming through and the most recent data that's available from the Census Bureau um in addition to that we have decreasing birth rates that's a nationwide Trend and given the data that we received from the Virginia Department of Health Prince William county is not immune to that Trend we are seeing decreases overall in the most recent data that then become our kindergarteners five six seven years into the future okay thank you I mean it's clear to see that what we're observing with our own data is being validated by many other data points and as I look at the data from this chart which is the current and projected capacity utilization Amendment assessment and I can stop actually Dr Dr

112LA and pick it up at a different time but okay go ahead we'll wrap this up all right so um you know as I look at this even if we were to build the 14th School the 14th High School in 2029 as proposed um and at a reduced cap seat capacity of 1400 even if we were to do that we would still have 459 seats available division wide at the high school level that's delayed with a reduced capacity now if we proceed the way I'm looking at this data if we proceed to add this back in as the motion um put forward by aan District representative if we proceed to add this back in in 2027 without adjust ing the seat capacity when it would open with over we would open it with over 3,000

113Surplus bases for students am I correct in how I'm reading the data we'd have an over 3,000 Surplus I'd like to kind of to summarize what you're seeing there in the data if we moved forward with a 2557 capacity 14th High School by 2030 our furthest out projection year we would have a projected 2,856 seats vacant throughout all 14 high schools in the division that equates to the largest school in our current institution so there' be more seats empty than we have seats at Garfield okay wow if we reduce the capacity to 1,400 then in that 2030 year across the whole division we would have just under 1,700 vacant seats projected if we build nothing and we're not suggesting that we're at this point the data is supporting a delay but I'm just saying if

114nothing were built in 2030 the projections suggest about 300 seats vacant throughout the whole division at the high school level so redistricting in theory if these projections come true you could effectively balance enrollment across the whole District okay that that's really interesting and and something to think about and I understand it's not being taken out of the CP CIP it's being proposed for a 2hour twoe delay to assess and and build a new plan and assess specialty program and everything else but even if we were to remove it and we redistricted everybody we'd still have a surplus of 300 something seats okay all right thank you Miss Z I'm to ask a question top that sorry okay when you when you do that projection because I we're talking a lot about development and growth and

115things that are incoming I think I asked this before but do those numbers include and let me be clear voted on development because I am also speaking about things that have not gone all the way through yet which I understand but in the past we we didn't plan and we ended up with an issue at Battlefield and P and Patriot and over there on that side for those years because I was here for that alive and paying attention um so I'm just asking you out loud does that include the voted on projects incoming so in the projections we are projecting a snapshot in time in the future each projection year is September 30th of that school year therefore our Baseline for projecting is our current September 30th point in time the developments that had resoning

116approval at that point in time are built into the projection models anything that has since gained resoning approval will be picked up in the projections that we project this coming September so in the spirit of the CIP we're in ad agile process we we respond to things that come to fruition um let me have Miss araport because she hasn't commented yet and the rules are such that we'll have and then we'll go back to questions Miss aror so um as the representative of colan who that is very overcrowded we have Rovers at C at colan um and we have trailers and um we had them when my uh my daughter's now graduated but she she went in as a freshman with with those experiences so um it's been it's been a while there too um

117meanwhile Hilton which is just a couple miles down the road is under enrolled and um we we've heard people talk about different kinds of facilities that we may want to consider I'm not against building something I think it's well worth the time to wait and see what we learn in our reports and see what it is we our community actually needs um there's potential I you know I work for Fairfax County Public Schools we have secondary schools um Mr denck said she went to um you went to basically Middle High School right at one point right so there's a lot of things we can consider about how we do whatever we're going to do and I am um of the mindset that I think if we take in the information uh we can make a

118better decision that way so I'm not against building something I just want to make sure that something really suits the needs of our of our School Division and our students so uh Miss Williams and then Mr Jesse and then Mr wil and oh I guess Mr Blake you haven't talked on this issue have you okay Mr BL I don't I mean I just think that we have to be uh good good uh fiscal stewards and I think that going with uh Mr Bach and Dr McD's recommendation is the right thing to do I mean in just in my district even though Hilton is not uh in my district it's still a Dale City school and both of my schools are under enrolled if I would say both of my Dale City Schools so I think

119that taking time to study and see like everybody up here is mentioned Shifting the lines and sending kids to schools might we might alleviate I'm not against not building this high school I'm not very happy at the the spot where you want to build it but um I think that we should definitely delay and get all the right information so that we can make the right decision to $300 million is a lot of money to spend you know and not do the right thing so that's my comment thank you Mr Blake Miss Williams and then Mr Jesse then Mr W thank you I just want to for the sake of clarity do we have already and I believe the answer to this is no um but do we have already uh a footprint for the

120smaller scale school or do we only have the footprint for the larger yeah yes ma'am we have a footprint for the larger high school or which has been our prototype so uh to uh we would have to do a full engagement a full redesign effort to design a building at400 and so we do not have that at this point okay so that's also part of what extends out the process yes ma'am should the board decide on budget uh approval night that we whatever I'm just theoretically change our mind we do the 25 it would condense the amount of time to actually build the school because we already have the plan correct yes ma'am it would okay and then um but that is part of the the discussion and debate the board has to do and

121that's why we pause and then um what I'm concerned about that I hear in this discussion and I think is brought up every year is we we have to sort of figure out some better mythology or some sort of backup plan for lack of a better way to to term it in the sense that we only operate off of what is approved but we don't have a contingency plan for if a development goes offline if a development that was approved 20 years ago suddenly comes online during the middle what do we do with these students what do we do with the staff what do we how do we handle that we we don't ever talk about that and I to me that's one of the most uh challenging things I'm not saying that you're going

122to magically come up with a solution I don't expect you to have one because we've not asked that question and that's really I think the heart of what's going on what do we do in the meantime I heard you say a minute ago that you were reconsidering um the site based decision on whether or not to have trailers um which I think is a very important discussion that we we've not had before because it it does create inequities the the real question right now is not just at Woodridge but at Freedom At kogan what do we do in the meantime we know it takes a long time to build a school um some people love trailers some people don't but I think it might uh behoove this board and the administration if we started having

123those discussions on what could we do what are the options we've not really explored them we've always bandid we'd always peac mailed um and if we could at a later date really sort of um entertain those type of ideas and how what are the other options out there can't just be trailers maybe it is I don't know you know may maybe it's temporarily moving students not advocating for that I'm just saying we haven't done that maybe it's time to consider that in the future for when we have these issues uh because again 3,000 students 1990 Hilton open 1991 we lost a bunch of programs some of them never came back some of them just came back now we we don't have a a plan for that so I think it might be smart as we

124move down the line to start having those conversations because when we sit and we talk about you look at the student generation rate that snapshot is only for what we know right now if 17 new developments come online throughout the county those numbers are no longer accurate it's true so it's helpful that our CIP and our budget is a living document my school was elementary school was slated to open one year then it got pushed back then it got moved forward so I think we also need to be mindful of that there are all changes that we could make as we move on next year maybe pushing the high school up sooner maybe it's a discussion of another building um but I think we we owe it to the public out there to also entertain

125what do we do in the interum so I don't know where bar went but thank you m Vice chair uh Mr Jesse the uh the one thing I want want to say is that uh when I said that the last board approved something and when you say pump the brakes I understand what you're saying what I'm saying I want to make very clear is that when the brakes are pumped on something that has been approved that is a significance and when you talk about schools at $300,000 a million dollars in renovations that are very expensive the board should have a a special meeting to decide whether the break should be pumped because what happened if I understand it correctly is that uh the plans were going forward on the 14th high school and the braks

126were pumped correct well when I when I referred to the brakes being pumped that was with engagement with the board well the engagement with the board by two when and you're two two meetings is not is you overrode a decision from the previous board okay and you can look at Dr McDade or I think but you did overr yeah let let's have Dr McDade answer that Mr Jess that's actually I mean it's really for the board to respond to because we don't have the authority to overrule the board there's nothing that I can do or anyone on the staff can do without permission from the board so we don't have that Authority so I mean I I don't think that as a question for us I I think I would defer that to uh the

127school board because there's never been a time in my Administration that I have done anything without um going SE first seeking the board's um support so that's a question for the full board to address and I I'll leave it Al after this what you just said is that you never do anything without going to the board going to the board on two and two meetings and so so forth something as significant as these delays should have been in my opinion brought back to the entire board in a meeting and voted on and it was not so I I'll leave it at that uh just clarification Mr Jesse this is what we're doing today so if the board so Cho if the board so chose to vote to proceed and not have the delay that can

128be done tonight so that we are doing that and the this is a proposed budget a proposed CIP this is proposed the superintendent explained the development of the proposal to the board but this is the vote this is what we're talking about tonight and dror mday I you know I fully understand that but you're missing the point when the project was delayed before this vote and I have no problems within the middle of the year that we say we need to stop and we need to pump the brakes but on a project that has been approved by the previous board you stopped it and the board did not give an official approval now the problem with that is that this is the eighth delay the community is getting to the point where we don't trust

129you we don't trust the board because every time we look around this High School got pushed back the first time the first two or three times it was because the location over on the other side of near Hool Road and so forth the community didn't want it so two three times it was delayed but now it's delayed we have no confidence in our board that we're not going to delay it again and in the meantime Woodbridge High School is needing relief they say Garfield High School doesn't need it but we do okay and uh so that so that's that's just my point and you agree with it I I or not that's but I just want to make that the other thing is when we look Mrs Jesse fought for years to get rid of

130the trailers in acquin Comm district and we got rid of almost every trailer except for maybe one or two and they're coming back and they're coming back in strong thing and it's the sickening that we have a a school that we added an addition on within the last 5 10 years and now we have a trailer out in front of that school and my understanding from talking to some of my principls probably every it looks like almost all our schools are going to have elementary schools are going to have trailers so the other question is if all our elementary schools are getting overc capacity where in the heck are they going to go when they go to high school it it it doesn't just this doesn't seem to make sense to me okay the other

131thing I would like to say is stop if you're going to delay Woodbridge you're going to lay delay everybody until this is done uh you know adding on to elementary schools right now you're saying elementary schools are getting lowered so why are we going to add on to them it just doesn't make sense and let me see I think that's all thank you Mr wil okay well I was worried I thought this was going to be initially what I was going to say but that's okay because at first I was worried this wasn't going to be Germain anymore but now it has become uh so first of all I want to acknowledge that I understand in some sense although we're not talking apples to apples but you know if any of you recall that when

132we were at work sessions um you know my belief and my constituents belief was that Grand Park at the time was dilapidated and it was up for renovations and every year despite knowing that I was going to lose I did put it up for for emotion to move it up an additional year and respectfully it died 17 17 if I was Kitty Brit 17 17 17 17 17 and so my point is I get the frustration but I also understand afterwards you know I was reticent because I knew I was doing what I needed to do for my community and I made that attempt at the work session it failed I had to move on now I do want to highlight because it was just mentioned that we need to pause potentially across the board

133um and I just want to talk about where the CIP The Proposal currently stands um because of the modular classroom situation in the pic District um it's no secret I have the fastest growing community in the entire east side of the county um and that is pic shortes um and my community right now that elementary school we were talking about you know schools being young five six seven years old uh I have three I'm sorry five modular classes right out front with a projection of 150 to 300 more students coming next year leading to a total of eight modular classes now there continues being discussing about the future housing units and what is coming the projections let me tell you this So currently right now and I talked to the Head developer there there are

1342,152 residential units in pic Shores right now right now if we opened up an elementary school back there it would fill a traditional size we are anticipating by the time this is done 3,987 residential places whether it be uh single family homes single family Town Homes condos luxury vas whatever but we are looking at just under 4,000 students so this proposed CIP which has this moving up year which has always been the plan does free and alleviate space over 250 to 300 million for projects like this in areas that need it it also frees up additional funding for other things like Renovations I think Grant Park could get some additional support I mean heck in a dream scenario and like we all might have these dream scenarios I'd love money to go to dumpy's elementary

135for renovations but that's not where we're at right so we can't pause right now the stark contrast of what we're talking about here you can see it going down Riverview Drive and pic Shores there is nowhere for people to go it's bustling it's overcrowded Now quickly touching on the high schools everyone has thrown out there about their high schools their statement force park is at 112% capacity right it's overcrowded it has three trailers to help alleviate the overcrowding on the other end I have a high school that is underc capacity and for the foreseeable future that building is going to be underc capacity which in effect could impact things like Equity Pro not Equity programs specialty programs in other different areas that you know if we had a full building we could maybe do uh

136different course offerings and such so I see the situation you know to follow the proposals and look at potentially putting um additions onto our existing buildings where it's needed most and as I think has been kind of uh reiterated here by multiple board members look at these glaring boundary issues to fill the number of buildings that are under capacity right now um at this time so that is my piece thank you um Miss wall this is your last time okay thanks um I um wanted to address something a little bit um just kind of bigger picture about schools and construction and students um the the driver of a new school is need it's not that it was in a document or that was promised or anything else School construction follows students enough students stents equal

137a new school and obviously you can't build a new school if you have all the neighboring schools at approximately 100% capacity you have to have a large enough Surplus in order to justify the building and filling of a new school or else you you potentially decimate the neighboring schools because they're will be an outflux of students from the schools and then you run into problems where you have to cancel programs and classes and you can't get enough kids to be on the girls basketball team because you just don't have enough students to field all of the opportunities that students ought to have and that have that they have at other high schools so I think we need to keep in mind that yes if you have housing developments and you have an an an increase

138in students then you then you justify a new school but you don't justify it just because it's somebody's turn or it was promised in the past and things do change as we've seen in our region um you know even with something as simple as teleworking coming online and becoming so much more prevalent people are not commuting and so they're not living in in expensive jurisdictions like Arlington and Alexandria they're leaving and they're going to C pepper and somewhere else because they can work in their sweats from their basement so I I think these things affect us and we need to keep in mind what drives School construction it's neat need um and yes any school that is overcrowded has a need I personally experienced this with all of my high schoolers at Battlefield now we

139have the reverse problem at Battlefield where we're seeing a pre precipitous um decline in student enrollment and it will have its own set of problems because uh Gainesville wasn't right sized Gainesville was built too big and we've now experienced all these demographics that we heard about where we're having this ah moment of like oh we're not growing Leaps and Bounds like we were in the past so I think we really do need to be wise and Miss daper was very modest in her approach to colan but that's where our real overcrowding is and I want to emphasize it again according to our data colan is at 142% capacity with 10 trailers Freedom op and Forest Park are all at about 112% capacity from our latest data Freedom has 11 Osborne Park has seven I had

140zero for Forest Park I didn't know if they had three or zero but in any event the next tier down is Woodbridge and Battlefield at about 103 104 and then all the rest of our high schools all seven remaining high schools are under capacity and this is something that we really need to address we we have a a right sizing problem and others have mentioned it redistricting is not popular I know people don't like it but that's what our real problem is now as for the issue of um whether the division has done something improper by proposing that this 14th High School be delayed two years my opinion is it has not done anything improper the division works for us and has done their due diligence in assessing the data and has made a proposal

141to us and the proposal comes forward as a proposed CIP and we as the decision makers evaluate as Dr Latif said we evaluate the proposed CIP and then we make the vote depending on whether we accept the recommendations that have given been given to us based on the data that we have and our trust in our division employees and our superintendent or whether we think we know something different or something better so I think um I I disagree uh I think the process has been straightforward there's been Integrity in the process and just because we've been made aware of proposals through a 2 by two does not mean that our power to make the decision has been taken away from us because we sit here tonight having this work session our second one um and

142that's what we're doing now is taking in the feedback and and evaluating all of the evidence before us in order to make a wise decision okay um so I'll reserve my comments for last I I will not be supporting Mr Jesse's motion and I'll tell you why so first and foremost to add on to what Miss wall said um the process um as Dr McDade and the um her office and her Administration receives data they analyze the data and they share the data with the board and they do it through numerous mechanisms and the decision to um after the analysis to make a recommendation for the CIP or for the budget for that matter for the big budget which is about 1.8 some billion dollars um is a proposal it's called the superintendent's proposed budget

143and all the power to approve the budget is vested in the full authority of this board at all times and so she makes her recommendations she communicates the recommendations in many different methods and the board has been made aware of this proposal and all that went into making the proposal of delaying it we had a one hour specifically in the last CIP work session just dedicated to the enrollment Trends and the concerns and all of that that went into it so this hasn't come lightly um I I think it's important to know that the superintendent's office and and the administration is well aware of um the concerns of the community I have heard the folks in the community I understand their disappointment and concerns about overcrowding um as chairman at large I have to deal

144with overcrowding across the county and undercrowl which is way underc capacity that might get dropped from the Virginia High School leagues division 6 to a lower division this is a historic you know competitive Championship high school that has a really remarkable tradition that um has been cannibalized by the way the lines were drawn when kogan went into effect and so that is an issue we have some under capacity and we have some issues that that have to be dealt with there and you've heard a lot about that tonight so as chairman at large for me my responsibilities are to the entire community and it's not bounded by any boundaries and it is for the best of this division and so moving forward I do um appr you know um support the superintendent's proposal on this

145I think it's also important to know that Woodbridge is a great high school it's a fantastic place there's a reason why there's a lot of folks there there's a reason why folks don't choose to go to other schools that might have programs that attract them there is capacity for example the sizzle program at Hilton or the IB program at Garfield but folks love Woodbridge it's also a historic wonderful High school I don't get any emails about students being unhappy and parents being typically unhappy with the school is it overcrowded yes and I've seen those emails recently of course it's always been a little bit overcrowded but you know at a lot of our schools that are overcrowded folks are happy to be there and so I'm not saying that that's why I'm voting on this

146I do recognize we need to reduce the overcrowding I recognize we need to do that and that's something that you know we've built many schools um I think it's 27 or 28 schools um this Century Alone um maybe more than that um probably the most schools in any division this size in the nation this fast um and so we have tried to keep up but the enrollment numbers are concerning you the last thing I want to do is be closing schools and so you know we we don't want to have to deal with that but we we have to be thoughtful and methodical about this so if we do move to a 1500 1400 model that in it of itself puts a delay in it and so the the board has been made aware of

147that for the last 3 months and tonight is the night we're going to make that vote so at this point I'll call for the vote so all in favor of supporting Mr Jesse's motion say I what we don't have to remake the motion it's been seconded okay Mr Jesse's motion is um Mr Jesse's motion is to um he moved that we do not delay the 14th high school so all in favor of Mr Jesse's motion to not delay the high school say I raise your hand okay let the record show Mr Jesse votes I okay all opposed and that leaves seven votes all other members vote no motion fails we're moving on to does anyone else have any proposed changes to the budget that they'd like to make a motion for as seeing none we

148will now move to the next part of the meeting and that is so so this you know marks the end of the work session and um Dr L Mr chairman I think you had one hand up for um some questions sure I'm sorry so again I I am new here so I have not done a budget session with you all before I I had questions and I now I know for next year I will send them ahead of time I do think that these are important questions that people in my district have asked in the past and I just wanted them answered on the record and I think that if I can quickly ask these at a high level to explain some things I think that's going to be helpful um so sorry I know

149we sat here for an hour discussing but um that's yeah Justin what's the increase of 48% to the diversity equity and inclusion um part of the budget it's a $817,000 increase can you just explain because I know we had a conversation and you explained to me what some of those programs were and I wanted to be able to ask that all right um one I want to acknowledge that we did hear public comment on this so we um pulled out the diversity equity and inclusion uh budget and I think it's important to note that the diversity equity and inclusion office while IT addresses systematically um equity and access across the board it houses also multiple um you know federally required compliance uh pieces of the division for example in the Dei office it also hous

150as Title 9 as well as title 6 and the investigative process that goes with both of those um and can you can you just quickly say what title n title six is uh sexual harassment discrimination um harassment overall and um does that cover it weight yes ma'am it it covers any allegations of discrimination based on sexual harassment or sex which is Title Nine and of course race title six um and there investigators uh in that office who are tasked with investigating those complaints and rendering judgments in ACC ordance with our title n and title six responsibilities so that so it's just important to note that that's all housed in that office and so all of the the Personnel expenses that go with um uh both title 6 and Title 9 are also housed in the

151Dei office additionally anything that we do by way of programming that supports um ensuring that students across this system have Equitable access to programming for example in this is is found in their budget so for example um in this office we uh support paying for S sat uh tutoring um during and after school um budgeting to make sure students uh can take the SAT without having to pay for it that's all found in the Dei budget so we increase funding to support inperson SAT prep for high school juniors to the tune of $256,000 that's an off cycle investment in the Dei office so students who are um taking the SAT this includes both the teacher time for preparing students and access to the SAT materials that's in the Dei office um we've increased funding to

152support um the the staff members in the high school who are we have Equity teams that get supplemental pay in the high school and those money is used for high dosage tutoring before and after school for AP IB Cambridge and dual enrollment courses that was to the tune of about $65,000 we also increased increase funding to Support Compliance Investigator training to make sure that all of our uh investigators for Title 9 and title 6 are getting appropriate training and refreshing on the training so we had an off-cycle investment there and then for our equal opportunity schools which the board we presented to the board on that whereas students um across all demographics who are not currently taking apib or Cambridge courses but in would for all intents purposes qualify to take those courses we put

153in um supports to inform their parents Target um do St student surveys and target support so that we can increase access to Advanced cours work for students who traditionally have been underrepresented in those courses uh before we were paying for that um we had to pick up the cost for paying for Eos in the Dei office so that that's all the types of programming that you'll see there and then the last thing I would say is that uh that's a part of the increase that you just I mentioned our family and in community engagement we moved it from the office of multilingual services and supports into Dei and so because their job is to ensure that all families are are being engaged so we've increased funding to support our family and Community engagement series that's

154the educational series that we offer monthly to all of our families which also requires translation services which are extremely expensive and so we've increased funding to cover translation services for example um just for Cambodian translation it was like $7,000 um that's all in the Dei office and then any salary increases for for all of those positions that I just talked about in the compliance um salary increases there you that shows up in the budget and that's across the board sometimes when you may see a a a a Department's budget increase and they've really not added any new programming but when we have Staffing increases is in um a 3% the 2% increase we got in January the 6% increase all of that makes the cost for personnel increase and it shows up in that Department's

155budget so that's what you're seeing in the Dei office um it's it's all of the work that we're doing in the actual strategic plan but I think the one thing that was really important to note is that I don't think that people realize that in the de office we also house title 9 and title 6 and we're funding that um there thank you um the multi-tiered system of supports doubled for both budget Cycles um I just noticed that it was 108% increase can you explain that a little bit what went into that that's in um Dr fenard shop so she probably would be better poised to give some details thank you Dr MCD and good evening uh thank you for your question and actually what we did was an analysis of the title C 6B

156Grant which is a special education grant and the tenants of that Grant are actually better utilized and so we reorganized the uh individuals that were being funded from title 6B to mtss so it's actually a net zero uh although it does appear to be an increase it's really just a shifting of funds and can you just what is mtss for I'm sorry yes ma'am thank you multi-tiered system support so that is really looking at providing a systematic way for our students that have gaps and um have need for potential remediation and or intervention and then providing targeted support and instructional practices to identify and fill those gaps awesome thank you um see again I'm not a I'm not a mathematician but I can see where there's increases and decreases so that's what I was looking

157at the um summer school I noticed went down by 40% which which you know I like savings but I'm also wondering was there not as much demand or what was again that is a really good question because on the onset it does look like there was a decrease we didn't have a decrease in the students what we're able to do is capitalize on the Esser dollars to utilize those towards Summer School funds so that way we can better use our funds great and then one more I noticed it's um also in my district the Governor's School increased um by 65% is that due to enrollment or um It's a combination of stuff um in the 24 budget the governor School Drew Down on their fund balance they had fund balance and uh there was it

158was growing so in lie of us contributing the city of Manasses and city of Manasses Park making contributions we used fund balance and then yes there is an increase in um in in in in some of the enrollment but it's mainly due to that and so in 2025 we had to restore our funding because there was no fund balance thank you thank you Mr uh tranic appreciate it um any other questions comments concerns okay um just for for clarification Dr McDade uh or or Shaquille um if we do get extra monies on the state budget if that gets approved are those Baseline increases or they onetime dollars does anyone know that's a good question depending on the the nature so there compensation supplements and U the the grocery tax you could consider those Baseline adjustments

159one of the things I alluded to earlier on was that without the vdoe calculation templates we really can't determine what what our match is supposed to be but but uh I would say the majority of that would would help with our Baseline okay wonderful okay well that's that's great to know because if we if we do come back and we have to look at some of the um other things that support the Strategic plan we'll have an idea of what we can use that money for especially if it's uh Baseline adjusted that's always better than the one time okay wonderful okay at this point now uh there being no further other um questions concerns miss you have your hand on the button you're good okay okay um oh we need a motion so at this

160point we we call for a vote to typically accept the budget as presented or with changes there hasn't been any changes as presented and then like I said you'll go to the board meeting we'll hear the budget we'll have a presentation at the meeting again you're not bound by today's vote if you're supporting the budget you can certainly change there um but typically this is where we have the final questions if anything changes in the next week you certain have time to ask questions to the staff ask clarifications there's still more time for questions and discussion at the next meeting Miss araport please make a motion thank you Mr chairman I move that the Prince County School Board accept the fiscal year 2025 budget as presented in this evening's work session and final markup do

161I have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams second any discussion okay all those in favor of um the motion well this is a straw this is a straw it's not not binding right so that's what I said earlier so okay all in favor I hands in the air on seven yes and opposed and one no Mr Jesse okay do you have another motion that's what changes oh they got it got it got it all right at that point there being no further board business between before this board the meeting is adjourned this is so this is look at that look at that