001okay welcome I'd like to call this meeting the prince Willam County School Board order a motion is now in order for the approval of meeting meeting agenda Miss wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended uh do you have a second Mr chairman I second M Williams any discussion please vote um moving on to the motion to enter close session a motions in order Miss Jackson or Miss Miss wall Mr chairman I move that pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 and 2.2 3712 the principal County Schoolboard enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss with staff the appointment transfer release assignment and promotion of specific officers and employees pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 and two to review a disciplinary
002matter for a specific student that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the Scholastic record for the individual student and to receive legal advice regarding same as provided by Virginia code sections 2.2 3711 A2 and 8 three to discuss with division coun Council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 a 7 and 8 for pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A3 to discuss or consider the disposition of real property easements requested across Schoolboard property because of discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the school board's bargaining position five to discuss division counsel with division counsil specific legal matters involving collective bargaining pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A8 and six to discuss and receive briefings by
003staff members related to the security of school facilities the safety of persons using such facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 a19 do I have a second Mr chairman Mrs AR for a second any discussion please vote the vote is six yes one not president vote Jessy one absent Ralston motion passed okay the Prince William County Board will move into Clos session we'll return in 1 hour [Music] the Prince William County School Board will now reenter open session at this time uh we're going to do close session certification and we're going to move on to agenda item 9.01 close session certification a motions in order Vice chair wall Mr chairman I move that
004pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3712 the closed session of the prince Willam County Schoolboard meeting of November 1st 2023 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be it resolved that the Prince William County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge one only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies and two only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board do I have a second I second Miss Jackson seconds any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ron motion passed moving on to close session action item and motions in order for 10.01 approval of appointments
005and releases of specific employees Vice chair wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented and close session do have a second Mr chairman m araport a second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed on to um 10.02 of motions in order Vice chair well Mr chairman I move that for the reasons set for forth in the student management and alternative programs Department's smap d letter of October 6 2023 the school principal County School Board approve smap PD's recommendation to reassign student srh2 24- 053 to the computer-based instruction CBI program via remote access only based on charges of unlawful acts in the community do I have a second Mr chairman Miss zapor second any discussion
006please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Roston motion passed okay that wraps up close session action items at this time we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance we have our student representative here tonight Isabella aversano senior at Gainesville she will be leading Us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible liy andice for all at this point we will uh move to our thriving Futures focus and this is our opportunity to highlight the exemplary work being accomplished in our schools to fulfill our vision that every student will graduate with the knowledge skills and habits of Mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their Community we dedicate this time during our meetings to recognize
007students staff members and schools that have earned an honor or award at the state or national level we appreciate how these honores have positively represented Prince Wayne County Public Schools and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments tonight the school board will recognize a five Prince William County public schools that have earned recognition as 2023 Exemplar performance Awards by the Virg Virginia Department of Education the Exemplar awards were established in 2019 to recognize schools or School divisions that exceed state board established requirements show continued Improvement on academic and school quality indicators in schools School divisions and school boards that Implement effective Innovative practices these prestigious awards show exceptional efforts to prioritize the school Community essential achievement needs are five schools met or exceeded best practice standards in one or more
008topic areas related to school Excellence for students teachers and staff We Begin our recognition um in the neabsco district and here um I'd like to recognize and and who earned the highest Achievement Award from the vdoe a school to meet all the following criteria the school okay here's the criteria the school must be accredited must meet State benchmarks in reading math science all student groups within the school must meet State benchmarks in reading and math for schools with three or more student groups there is no more more than 10 percentage points between student performance standards the criteria for the highest Achievement Award set the ideal precedence for a school's overall performance the Nasco district is proud to recognize King Elementary School as recipient of the highest Achievement Award by the Virginia Department of Education all
009right very good very good King King Elementary School is represented tonight by principal Amy lson Cindy hustad Title One math teacher Andrea thoron instructional coach Jennifer all right d Damo I'm sorry fifth grade teacher and cor Corey Rose Stafford and second grade teacher uh and second grade Cory Rose Stafford second grade teacher principal Larson would you care to share a few words oh yes thank you so much thank you for having us this evening I want to start by thanking the Virginia Department of Education Prince William County schools Dr McDade for this recognition it really is an honor to be here to represent our hardworking students our dedicated teachers and our supportive parents of King Elementary we are really proud of the hard work that we do every day and it is a privilege to
010be recognized by V dooe uh under the Exemplar School recognition program so for King Elementary we were one of only 48 schools in the state to be recognized with the high academic achievement Exemplar award and as you heard we met all benchmarks for all students in reading math and science and that is without the English language learner growth indicator so it was our raw data where we earned those scores um we also met the benchmarks in reading and math for all of the reporting groups again not including the English English language learner progress and finally we do have three or more um student groups at our school we actually are a small community school we're 40% English language Learners and we represent 20 different languages in our school this year and so in those student
011groups there was no more than a 10 percentage point between the lowest performing group and all students so we are really proud to say we are closing the achievement Gap at King Elementary and as a school we really are committed together to work in partnership with our parents and the community to achieve that Collective purpose of high achievement for all students and we know that the work we do every day is very important and it is essential to launch our students into a thriving future and so we're honored to be recognized tonight again we'd like to thank vdoe Prince William County schools Dr McDade and my own associate super superintendent Mr Todd Erikson thank you so muchoo wonderful okay now from the brentville district Mrs Adele Jackson please introduce the continuous Improvement award and begin
012the recognition of our award-winning schools I thank you Mr chairman to receive Virginia Board of education's continuous Improvement award the school must be accredited or accredited with conditions and meet one of at least the following criteria the school demonstrates an increase in Combined rate for math reading science for each of the past three years with a total increase across three years and 10 points and more the school demonstrates an increase in the combined rate for two or more student groups in reading and math for each of the past three years with a total increase of the three years of 10 points and more or the school demonstrates an increase in the graduation and completion index for each of the past three years with a total increase across the three years of 4% or more and
013the school demonstrates a decrease in the dropout rate for each of the past three years with a total reduction across three years of 15% or more the first Year's dropout rate the brentville district would like to recognize Chris Young Elementary School for earing The Continuous Improvement award [Music] Chris Young Elementary is represented by principal Stephanie Downey an katron assistant principal Monica Watford assistant principal and Melissa Morgan reading reading specialist Miss Downey would you like to speak on behalf of this outstanding award and congratulations thank you so much Mrs Jackson I appreciate that introduction good evening and thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening as the proud principal at Chris Young Elementary I am deeply honored to join you this evening as we celebrate this recent recognition conferred by the Virginia
014Department of Education thank you to Dr McDade our school board members and to Prince Prince William County schools for extending the invitation this recognition serves as a testament to our Collective commitment to providing a thriving future for our students it underscores the unwavering support and commitment of our school board the dedication of our staff the resilience of our students and the consistent support of our parents and the community to our Educators our teachers our teaching assistants whose knowledge of best practices commitment to high standards and love of children have fostered a culture of academic achievement at Chris Young Elementary School my deepest gratitude to those folks to our parents and our supportive Community Partners who have been instrumental in shaping our school environment over the past 3 years I offer my sincere thanks and to
015our students who embody the spirit of Chris Young and Inspire us daily with their energy creativity and curiosity this recognition is truly for them this evening I look forward to continuing to Champion the cause of quality education for all children as we work to prepare every student to be a productive thriving member of their Community I believe the future for our students in Prince William County is bright again I want to say thank you to Dr McDade to Prince William County schools to our school board and certainly to the Virginia Department of Education for this [Applause] recognition thank you Miss Jack thank you Miss Jackson and congratulations I invite the Woodbridge District representative Miss Lori Williams to speak on behalf of her schools Miss Williams thank you Mr chairman uh with great honor the Woodbridge
016District would like to recognize Featherstone and Von elementary schools representing Featherstone Elementary we welcome principal Christina Treadwell assistant principal Mr mcmanis parently aison Gina Sosa first grade teacher Tamica Bowen and kindergarten teacher Zamara Frank Fran OES principal Treadwell would you like to say a few words yes thank you so much Miss Williams good afternoon it is with great honor that we are here tonight representing Featherstone and receiving one of the Virginia Department of education's continuous Improvement Awards thank you to Prince William County schools the Prince William County School Board and to the Virginia Department of Education for allowing us this opportunity to be recognized for who we are and the work that we are doing at Featherstone at Featherstone we have remarkable Educators and an outstanding support staff who go above and beyond every day
017for our students to ensure sure that through high expectations and rigorous learning our school's commitments for Learning and achievement for all are at the front the Forefront of everything that we do we would also like to thank all of our Featherstone students and families the incredible motivation that our students bring to school every day continues motivating us more and more to continue giving our best to help each student be their best our family support and understanding in ensuring that children are at school every day and how important that is for their academic achievement has truly made a difference in helping our students continue to grow to their full potential so we thank all our families for their continued partnership again thank you to Dr McDade for your leadership and to the Prince William County school
018board for always supporting us in making sure we Thrive as a school [Music] thank you principal Treadwell uh representing V Elementary School we welcome principal Mark boy assistant principal Michelle Edwards lead Esau teacher Dedra white gifted resource and talent development teacher Kelsey Conroy and third grade teacher Misha prior principal voy would you like to say a few words I'd love to take the opportunity first I'd like to say thank you to Dr McDade and the school board for recognizing this accomplishment this is an especially impactful award for vaugh we have a staff that is just packed full of dedicated teachers who give it their all each and every day and what we recognize in schools like ours is that you know every every play doesn't result in that touchdown but it's all about that 10
019yards so this by Design shows that it's about the growth recognizing that everybody's not starting at that same point but it's that growth mindset that we might not be there now or yet but we can get there so on behalf of vau Elementary we'd like to thank our parents our students for all of their hard work and dedication we want to remind them all to be here on time every day it is very important we're making gains there too but um it really is a chance for me as a principal to give back to the teachers and recognize all that they do each and every day to make vaugh a great place to learn for our students I'd also like to thank our supportive associate superintendent Mrs Worley who gives it her all each and
020every day and once again thank you for the opportunity to be recognized we appreciate it congratulations again to you both thank you Miss Williams moving on to Mr Justin wil of the pic District Mr will thank you Dr Latif on behalf of the pic District it is my honor to recognize mon Clair Elementary School Montclair Elementary School is represented by principal Tim Slater fifth grade teacher jacqulyn zizo fourth grade teacher Mall Delgado third grade teacher Sydney Lanza and school counselor Adrina McDonald principal Slater would you like to share some thoughts chairman Latif Mr wil members of the board Dr McDade thank you for acknowledging the hard work of our teachers our staff our parents and our students um I feel a little awkward being up here I'll tell you because I'm new to Montclair so
021a little out of place but I I couldn't be more proud and in the few months that I've been here I want to tell you what I've seen and this is what I know is why the teachers who are behind me are here with me now representing uh the awesome staff of Montclair Dr McDade told me she said Prince William county is a destination and it's true um but so is Montclair Elementary I have discovered that um I am uh pleased to uh share with you that while I know that teaching is one of the toughest careers that teachers uh can undertake uh the teachers who are behind me and the ones they represent are heroes in the Community for sure um they bring such efforts to the classroom setting their extensive efforts to build
022classroom communities to promote engaging learning environments to teach in a student centered way to see the students that are in front of them to discern what have they learned and then what do we do about it if some still need extra help in the few months that I've been here that's what I've seen them do so I know that's how they got where they are today as a continuous improving school it's my hope though that these teachers behind me one day Inspire the next generation of teachers because we really honestly need that I can tell you this I'm inspired as their leader uh having been here for just a few months I really appreciate um the recognition that vooe has um given to Montclair and when I asked the teachers you know I my viewing
023looking around and I finally said so tell me why are we here their answer was teamwork he said we learned from one another and when we needed help we looked to a peer and we looked to a colleague and U we contined to do that and so first of all I'm inspired I I'm impressed by the work that they do I'm pleased that the school board um gave us this opportunity for me to speak about their great work um and I thank you for honoring these teachers and then all teachers and their colleagues here in PR County thank you very [Applause] [Music] much thank you Mr wil congratulations again to our five bdoe Exemplar performance Award winners I think the words spoken by each of our principles and uh were fantastic and thank you all
024for speaking so U passionately about the staff you have the teachers you have the great work they're doing and the children and our parents who do all the work to help us get to where we are um my good friend Derek wood the mayor of dumre says the dumre is um uh not the place to drive through but the place to drive to so as Dr McDade says we do believe this is a destination School District as well and you all are making this truly um a reality for um everyone to to know about Prince William County schools thank you Dr M oh and then before uh we take some pictures Dr McDade would like to share a few words Dr McDade thank you so much Dr Latif um for the 2223 award year only
02593 schools across Virginia were recognized for the continuous Improvement award and I just want to congratulate all of our awardees this award highlights the work uh Chris Young Featherstone Monclair and V elementary schools are doing to pursue a greater School experience for their Community close achievement gaps and ensure success for every single student so congratulations again to each of you and your entire staff for all of your hard work and your commitment likewise the 2022 23 award year only 48 Virginia schools met the criteria for the highest Achievement Award and as one of the recipients of the highest Achievement Award King Elementary School has demonstrated how a rising tide lifts every boat and how Collective progress translates to Universal achievement congratulations to you to all of you um for setting high expectations and engaging students
026in rigorous learning because of your work students will have the knowledge skills and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their Community congratulations you make us pwcs proud thank you Dr McDade at this time I'd like to request our honores to come forward for a photo with the school board and receive a small token of our appreciation we'll start with the first photo that includes King the second photo um will be Chris Young Featherstone Monclair vaugh thank you a picture to e oh op could you [Music] don't you don't [Applause] bre are you serious be my that's okay thank you very much now we'll move on to um I lost my vice chair you you want to read it you going to read it 1301 oh uh thank we're moving
027on to adoption consent agenda motions in order Mr chairman yes M Williams I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended can I have a second Mr chairman yes I second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed okay moving on citizens comment time those citizens whove signed up in advance for the clerk May address the school board this evening when they're called to the podium the citizen comment period for regular school board meetings is 1 hour and citizens may speak on agenda items or topics gerain to the operations and policies of pwcs please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium or you'll be asked to step aside we ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker
028and refrain from any clapping cheering or jering to avoid disruptions of the meeting if you do not do so the board will recess and I'll ask the room be cleared to restore public order tonight we have 20 citizens sign up to speak when I call your name please come to the podium and state your name and address I will call the first five Folks up if they'd like to make their way up front Jessica Quinn turkia mcau Mary bounds Michelle rert and Carl greton Jessica Quinn hello my name is Jessica Quinn and my address is on file I'm a special education teacher in the county and have been working with children and adults with disabilities my whole life but professionally for 9 years I would like to walk you through my day when I was
029working in a self-contained classroom I would arrive to school get myself settled in and before the bell rang I would go to the front to meet my students and get them off the bus we would get breakfast and then have our morning meeting the rest of the day consisted of going to and from general education classrooms if their IEP stated that or learning within my classroom that included the general education curric curriculum modified curriculum social skills and interventions for both reading and math all while managing multiple behaviors I would have at least 10 to 15 timers set depending on the students in my classroom so I knew when my TA or I would need to take a student uh wherever they needed to go some of my students would have lunch in the classroom and
030eventually we would go out to recess at the end of the day we would pack up and go home except we'd have to wait because buses were were late anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour now that you know about a fourth of my day did you notice what wasn't mentioned a planning and a lunch for five years I ate my lunch in my classroom because I had to make sure my ta had their lunch there was no one to cover my lunch as I couldn't safely leave my TA in the classroom alone I never got a break outside of my classroom planning I had to do that in my class classroom if I could because I taught multiple grade levels I was told on multiple occasions by Administration that I should do my plannings
031on weekends or after school so on top of being a single mother at that time who had to take care of a four-year-old and an elderly disabled Father which included cleaning the house cooking running errands Etc I was supposed to complete work and not be compensated for it is this a job you would want is this a job you would want your children or your spouse to have I love my students we all love our students but at what point do I love myself and my children you wouldn't dream of taking a job that didn't provide you with basic human rights so why are you denying us ours put a lunch in the contract Tura mcau uh my name is tra mcau my address is on file I'm here tonight as a teacher uh that
032is a parent struggling to manage all the responsibilities that I have and I'm not doing it very well I wish I could say that it was just me but we are all breaking down a little each day there's so much on our plate that it and it's overflowing that overflow of work is constantly on my mind it's an unliftable weight because I know I can't get it all done even when I'm cutting Corners to save time I still can't manage to get it done because there's always more added to that plate that's when my guilt and my stress and my self-doubt tells me that I'm not good enough or I would be able to get it all done the Overflow of work and feelings of failure that keep me awake at night and the Overflow
033of work that keeps me from my family in the evenings and locked away in my office during the weekends because the time needs to come from somewhere so my family has to take the hit because sadly that's what they're used to miss wall quoted Barbara Bush and talked about fathers and mothers and if you have children that they must come first and you must read to them and you must hug them and you must love your children and hearing this was one of of the biggest gut punches I felt as a parent and it's been gwing at me ever since in those moments after it was like I was watching flashbacks of my kids in their lives and there many of them were wonderful until I remember the countless times that I chose that overflow
034of work over them and I didn't make my family the priority I'm not proud of this and I'm completely mortified that I'm up here admitting it out loud in front of you I've worked while uh I've been at family gatherings at holidays skip numerous events in order to catch up with the Overflow of work I've attended events with grading in my lap the laptop or the phone to my ear planning with co-teachers because there wasn't time of the day I rationalized and believed the sacrifice would pay off in the long run and that the payoff was not only about money but also being able to provide my family with good health care my children with opportunities that I never had and enriching their lives I was proud of my loyalty to the same employer for
03525 plus years and I wanted my children to see what hard work and dedication looked like my children that see that I'm exhausted stressed out and unable to meet their needs I realized what I was trying to accomplish wasn't working and I must change we all know that definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results my family needs to be first and the Overflow of work can no longer be my priority when I get home because I feel guilty and think that I'm a bad teacher for not using every bit of time that is free to catch up we all know actions speak louder than words and my actions have repeatedly told my family that my job is more important than they are no matter how many times I've
036told them differently I need to start showing them and not telling them Barbara Bush also went on to say that at the end of your life you will never regret having passed on passed one more test and not winning one more verdict or Closing one more deal you will regret the time that you didn't spend with your husband a friend or child or parent moving forward when I'm faced with the choice between overflow of work and family I have to change my mindset and I have to choose my family because there will be more work there tomorrow and I must be a parent first and a teacher second Mary bounds good evening board members and Dr McDade my name is Mary bounds my address is on well first of all I want to thank the
037board members and the people here that are watching us while we are speaking looking at us and paying attention um the very first item I want known is that we love our schools we love the places we work we love the children we love our ad Ministries we love what they do what we don't love is the fact that we're working 40 50 60 hours a week to do what's best for our children I want to give you a little example here imagine you going to your job and somebody comes in walks up to you and punches you and call the police imagine they come back again the next day get them arrested how about the next day no trespassing here's what you're going to have a hard time understanding me last year after the
038first three weeks of school every single day every single day I was kicked or I was hit I was scratched and bled I had books thrown at me I had toys thrown at me and you know what was done we met with parents we met with had intervention meetings I met with principles I met with everybody we did everything we could everything I felt so incredibly supported but you know what nothing happened nothing happened to those children we know suspension doesn't work so we're not going to kick them out of school but what do you do I went home every night and just didn't want to get up the next morning I didn't want to go to school I didn't love teaching anymore and it's the one thing I've wanted to do sorry since I
039was 8 years old but how do you expect us to teach when we do not feel safe if I did that to a student what would happen to me I would be taken out I would be handcuffed I would be prosecuted I would lose my job I don't know what the answer is but it's not okay I've already been punched once this year I teach four five and sixy olds it's not Middle School it is not high school and nothing is being done last year a six-year-old brought a gun to school and shot somebody you know what most of my colleagues think we don't think oh well you know it's not going to happen we go out on the playground we make sure we know where everything is what are we going to do to
040ensure that teachers are also safe bus drivers are safe staff members are safe that's why we want a contract it's not just about money it's about safety and it's about having a safe place a healthy place and a place where you feel accepted and that's all we want in our Fair contract thank you Michelle rert my name is Michelle rert and my address is on file at the last meeting I spoke about the lack of stiens for our middle school music directors and requested compensation equal to that received by our high school counterparts I trust that this matter has been thoroughly discussed since then I have continued to gather data and have conversations with my colleagues in Prince William and surrounding counties I hope that you will soon take action to rectify this issue providing
041us with Fair compensation for the extensive work we do outside contract hours tonight I return to address another concern of the Middle School directors the outrageously High student to teacher ratio the Virginia standards of accreditation provides compensation to teachers when student counts exceed specified weekly limits which range from 200 to 400 students this expectation places an unmanageable workload on a single teacher effectively demanding them to do the job of two full-time instructors the additional compensation which caps at 6,000 for 400 students not only falls short of addressing the real issue but also fails to benefit our students it's disconcerting that you think paying someone $6,000 extra to do the work of two people is acceptable but I suppose from your perspective that's a bargain section g of the SOA stipulates that an appropriate contractual Arrangement
042and compensation shall be provided if a middle or Secondary School music teacher exceeds 200 students per week I seek clarification on what you consider an appropriate contractual Arrangement our neighboring Counties have set the threshold for additional Staffing at 200 students offering a more Equitable and consistent approach across the county instead we cap student numbers at 400 what are you going to do when someone goes over 400 one Middle School orchestra teacher is currently at parents the quality of your children's music education is being directly affected by class size and scheduling unlike other subjects middle school music directors teach all three grade levels numerous for me 14 plus different instruments within my class this requires a lot of planning individual instruction assessment and feedback unfortunately all of these things suffer with overly crowded rooms and long
043rosters the current compensation for excessive student numbers is both inadequate and detrimental to the quality of your students education I propose an alternative solution eliminate the stiens tied to student numbers and site based decisions on Staffing and instead Implement countywide staff allocations based on student enrollment our dedication to our students and their musical education remains steadfast we're eager to collaborate with the school board to find Equitable solutions that benefit both teachers and students parents expect a First Rate music education let's give it to them Carl greton good evening I'm Carl greton of the Gainesville District due to the elections next week we hope all you on the board right now do not make inappropriate lame duck decisions we need a change the school board is failing our kids at the October 18th school board meeting
044super intendent McD revealed that chronic absenteeism achievement gaps and Dropout rates are all on the rise Democrats are throwing all they have at the current Schoolboard race to avoid talking about a very unfortunate fact they are failing in their Central mission to graduate kids instead this school board under their control has lowered academic standards brought back virtual learning and ignored parents we need to get our kids back on track we can't afford another four years of this mismanagement thank you from Steven Spiker a presentation was shared on 12 September 23 with the proposals from the pwea and Associated cost as estimated by the school division the number for a 17% raise proposal is $37 million the cumulative cost of P pwe's compensation benefits proposal is 364 I'm not sure about the rest of you but
045there's a negotiation there of 330 million with a compounding effort over 5 years the Prince William County School System average teacher salary increase was 27.3% under Dr mcdade's tenure there has been an increase of 18% compounding effect in average salaries that's just over the last two years we constantly see teachers here complaining about a negotiator because they're the ones representing you in negotiations not the school board have you realized that the negotiation process is not working we hope you have been looking at the news and have seen the killings from the extremist Hamas Palestinians and the Islamic jihadist terrorist groups we have a concern with Prince William County students if they walk out of class while supporting these terrorist organizations we H we hope you have a plan to give an unexcused absence for those
046students who participate with this terrorist organization's process those students should be labeled as terrorist if they support barbaric killings Please be aware that teachers may also support this terrorism and make need to be admonished and disciplined accordingly students students need to be in class we hope all parents or Guardians are aware of the parent view location and use this location frequently to see student scores we also hope this website is updated to mention preferred pronouns and sexual orientation this should be part of a student's record if this site is updated with student accomplishments this process will help to start student resumés and college applications support the model policies from the governor why is Prince William County not supporting State compliance it will be ironic if the state of Virginia sues Prince William County for your
047decisions why are discussions with parents and the community not occurring regarding gender identity disorder thank you next five Afton schwam Jared gay Emily Cherry Shannon Corel Jane Coburn hton schwam who was first Afton schwam okay uh Jared gay my name is Jared gay and my address is on file with the clerk over the last few weeks I've spent a lot of time down at the early voting site at the Woodbridge dmbb supporting uh Shantel Rock for school board over that time I've had many conversations with folks who were there volunteering for the local Democratic party the local Republican party their candidates of choice and at times even the candidates themselves my conversations with voters have been pretty uniformly positive with regards to our activism and collective bargaining campaign and they've generally shared the opinion that
048our division is not doing right by its employees or students by proxy as you can probably imagine my conversations with some of our Democrat volunteers as well as some of their candidates have been less uniformly positive just ask Lori Williams I think I'm a nice guy but apparently my tone and my assertiveness rub some folks the wrong way when they're on the receiving end of it anyway so I thought I'd speak to a couple of things tonight to set the record straight first of all I'd like to remind everybody that for months leading up to the school board's passing of the collective bargaining resolution we were a lot more positive in our tone we came and shared personal stories about what it was like working for the School Division and we were trying to elicit
049empathy from our elected officials our tone has grown more Stern as these politicians and their hired union busting team have made it more and more apparent that they don't take their staff or these negotiations seriously and I'll remind you we're talking about the livelihoods of 11,000 human beings 11,000 human beings who are suffering and whose families are struggling under the weight that our School Division has placed on their shoulders there are only so many members who can reach out to you in tears and Desperation sobbing about how the undue burden placed on their shoulders is left them feeling utterly worthless as if they failed every Duty and every person in their sphere of influence despite having worked themselves to the point of breaking in order to satisfy you there's only so many phone calls and
050conversations you can have like that before you stop sucking up and start calling out and that's what I've done for months now wish that I could say that it's yielded more positive results to everyone listening we are a union we do not exist to elect politicians we do not exist to raise money for the Democratic party we exist to collectively demand the respect and the dignity that our responsibilities as Educators and caretakers of almost 90,000 children in one of the largest school divisions in the country should already afford us we don't owe you civility when you steal from our families it's far too late to play respectability politics when we're a month away from setting president for every educator in the Commonwealth of Virginia that will ultimately determine the future of our Public Schools instead
051of asking us to be nice perhaps people should be demanding that these elected Servants of our County take the prospects of their own reelection seriously enough to put their egos aside and work out a compromise I'll have a press conference and I will praise you for being a champion of Ed thank you Mr Gay Emily Cherry you're welcome my name is Emily cherry and my address is on file I currently teach at Benton Middle School but I want to make sure that you know that none of the events that I'm going to talk to to you about tonight happened during my time at Benton a little over a year ago I was diagnosed by a licensed mental health care practitioner with PTSD as a result of my experiences teaching in Prince William County Public Schools
052my first panic attack happened at work after after student dismissal a parent sent me a page long email angry because schools closed during the pandemic and asserting that we and that I had failed their child because of the closures my heart raced I couldn't breathe I sat with a colleague until it passed I thought it was dist stress a few months later I had a panic attack during my planning period that day a student submitted classwork to me full of comments about how I was an effing bee that deserved to die pages of die Emily Cherry I spent hours that day and the next day after school begging for a full investigation to take place a few weeks later one of my students was hospitalized after attempting to die by Suicide I was tasked with
053informing all of their other teachers about what had happened then I sat in my classroom and and cried that same day I had a pop in observation by my administrator their main concern was if the verbs in my learning targets matched the verbs in my objectives but my main concern was if there was any way that I could have known is there was anything that I could have done to stop my student from hurting themsel it was around that time that the nightmare started I dreamed that my students were in danger and I couldn't save them I dreamed that my students were in danger and it was all my fault I started waking up an hour earlier so I could try to calm down by the time I had to start getting my kids ready
054for school I started staying up later and later every night night because I was too scared of the nightmares to go to sleep I told almost no one what was happening to me none of my friends none of my colleagues I pretended that I was fine that I should just I thought that I should just be stronger that I should just be a better teacher that I should just be a better person I was ashamed that I couldn't handle the job that I've loved since the very first step I took into a classroom even now I don't want to tell you the story I am scared to tell you the story but I need you to know that my my experience because my experience isn't rare we come here meeting after meeting begging for you
055to listen and so many of us are drowning we need you to listen to us negotiating isn't just about a salary it's about listening to us so we can create an environment where the trauma that I've experienced isn't the norm I have my power to use my voice but you have power too you have the power to ensure that this this the contract that is negotiated creates a school district where can teachers can do the jobs we love in an environment that allows us to be healthy and whole thank you Shannon [Applause] Corel my name is Shannon Corel and my address is on file with the clerk I am an educator and resident of Prince William County and I'm here to address contract negotiations between the pwea and Prince William County schools I'm here to
056empower you to make the decisions necessary to support the crumbling education system in this County a system dependent on unpaid overtime from its staff I believe that the school board is unaware of the conditions your staff are facing and that has led us to this point of Crisis this is my sixth year as an educator and my second year working in Prince William County schools 3 minutes is not enough time to review the 62o list I drafted with which explains my daily responsibilities instead I will focus on the extra duties we are required to maintain on top of teaching keep three things in mind one none of us are being compensated for these extra yet required responsibilities two we have only been in school for 9 weeks three these points do not include the difficulties
057that our classified and support staff also endure I have spent 7 hours on State testing during my planning I have missed three planning periods without notice covering classes because of the substitute shortage I have attended 6 and 1 half hours of staff meetings outside of contract hours I have spent 2 hours towards after school duties and have 16 more scheduled for the year I've spent 6 and 1/2 hours watching kids after school because of the bus driver shortage I co-sponsor a club that was supposed to be a 3-hour a week commitment but with the bus driver shortage has become a 5H hour a week commitment for no extra compensation I have spent 16 hours in professional development and I have 40 more hours of mandated training but we only get six contracted PD days a
058year these hours spent on things not related to lesson planning or grading forced me to spend 10 extra hours outside of my contract every week and at the end of these long days I go home to a basement rental with no kitchen why because it is the only way I can afford to live in the county I work while paying off the student debt required to enter this career a second job to help support myself is not feasible because of the 360 hours of unpaid labor I do in a year for this one Prince William County began the school year with 300 staff vacancies and it is clear why we the classified and certified staff are counting on you to make this a sustainable career by passing The Seven contract negotiations thank you Jane Coburn
059good evening members of the board and Dr mcade my name is Jane cob my address is on file uh so here we are again me standing here you sitting there uh me giving a speech you trying to pretend you're listening to it it's kind of the same thing again and again right so every time I come here I spend hours writing a speech I hope that something I'm going to say is going to make some kind of difference that you will understand how bad it is and every time I leave I feel like nobody listened um I want to be really clear I don't come here because I have a problematic School site that's not why I'm here I come here because I have a School site where I know my principal will allow me
060to be here and will not retaliate from me being here and there are many many voices across the division where that is not the case and I'm here for them honestly I'd much rather be home with a book and my family but we can't do that I could tell you how bad it is but you're hearing it I don't need to repeat any of that I I can just point out to you that none of these stories are isolated incidents last year alone I had a death threat um I was hit I was bit I was kicked I was punched in the face um that's just me I had a colleague who was threatened by her student that he was going to rape her until she died I just want to be clear on that
061elementary school student who told his teacher I'm going to have sex with you until you die and he didn't just say it once he said it repeatedly day after day after day after day and she was so traumatized she didn't want to come to work but she had no choice so if you think this is isolated and the stories that you've heard today are just a few people you're kidding yourselves it's that bad that's why we're here that's why we're talking to you that's why we're wearing these lovely black shirts by the way black not my color I can't wait to get rid of the black shirt that's why we're here and you won't even give us lunch I want you to think about that we're getting beat up we're working for free and you
062won't even give us lunch in the contract really you can't even put lunch in the contract how do you think that makes us feel just consider that for a minute the disrespect to your staff when you won't even put something that's in a policy and a resolution into the contract you're telling us you want us to have it you wrote it in the policy and the resolution but you refus to put it in a contract because once it's in that contract guess what you actually have to do it you're accountable and you don't want to be accountable you're not fooling anybody we're intelligent people we are well aware that you don't want to do it it's time to step up put it in the contract next five Erica Weiss Sophia Hobbs Andrea bortner Anthony Morris
063and sofhia Cruz Erica Weiss my name is Erica Weiss and my address is on file tonight I'm speaking not only to my personal experiences but also to the experiences of my colleagues who are also working every day with our students if for some reason you haven't heard this enough my colleagues and I are tired D and overworked according to a 2022 study completed by the Marat College the median amount of time spent teaching is only 25 hours per week the act of teaching our students is not the source of the excessive workloads and exhaustion it's the administrative tasks would have increased dramatically the last two years we're being told to work without pay sometimes it's direct staff are often required to sign up for special duties spread throughout the year such as supervising after school
064sporting events we're also given schedules for multiple after school meetings scheduled regularly for the whole school year often it's indirect when teachers are regularly required to attend meetings cover classes complete required professional development courses or supervise hallways during their planning periods this is an un spoken expectation that they are to sacrifice their evenings and time with their own children to do the work that they would normally be doing during their planning periods more often than not if a teacher expresses their concerns related to the additional work they are scrutinized often phrases such as work smarter not harder or just make it work are weaponized against us Educators take this abuse because we have a strong inner motivations the desire to prove our importance and an overdeveloped sense of Duty we spend a lot of time
065and energy asking ourselves who is to blame we need to be asking is this additional work resulting in better student outcomes are we effective as Educators operating in these conditions well there's a large body of research suggesting that regardless of our reasons for for overworking it does not help students students suffer when teachers are overworked a 2016 study involving 380 teachers in 7,899 students determined that teacher exhaustion not only negatively affected standardized test scores but also diminished class grades School satisfaction and perception of teacher support sounds like County initiative these workloads are borrowed Investments with a high interest rate it's taxing Educators energy levels without translating to a higher student performance thank you m so if this working us to death is not helping Sophia Hobbs we do good evening my name is Sophia Hobbs
066and my address is on file first I would like to thank the school board for allowing me to speak tonight this is my first time speaking at a Schoolboard meeting and I'm definitely nervous I'm a first year teacher at Freedom High School I did my student teaching at freedom and I knew I wanted to start my career at this school I teach us history and world history too I want to emphasize how much I love and adore my school our students are amazing and I cannot imagine serving another group of kids our staff at Freedom are so incredibly passionate about educating our students as a new educator I was excited and hopeful about starting my career with Prince William however teachers are clearly not being respected in this County at my school teachers must work
067unpaid security and attendance duties during one of our two planning blocks for the entire year including those teachers who teach not five but six periods that means that 50% of our planning time is taken away for the whole school year as a first year teacher with two Preps this makes planning high quality instruction nearly impossible I've been told by some that I should get used to this because it is just how it is this is not how teaching should be I may be a young teacher but I know what is happening to teachers at freedom and across the county is not acceptable even the most experienced teachers at my school are feeling extremely burnt out and it is only the beginning of November not only are teachers being worked to their limits in this County
068but we are also being pressure to raise graduation and so Pass rates at the same time how do you expect us to plan rigorous instruction when we are not given the time or opportunity to be creative and practice our craft I have no doubt that education is the field I am meant to be in I want this to be my career but I am on the road to burnout already and I know my weariness comes from more than just being a new teacher I and so many other passionate educators are being driven out of this County if teachers are not treated fairl Prince William you all should expect a mass Exodus of teachers from this County and this profession as a whole as much as I love working with students I cannot continue to work
069under such abusive and disrespectful conditions we are all Highly Educated professionals and deserve to be treated as such I urge you to to collaborate with the pwea bargaining team to ensure that Prince William County teachers are compensative fairly for our work and not taking advantage of as we all know we have a crisis in education on our hands right now and Prince William is not doing enough to get ahead of this issue thank you Andrea bortner my name is Andrea bortner and my address is on file I'm a kindergarten teacher and this entire year I've had about five planning periods that haven't been taken up with meetings my planning is 45 minutes and if you'd allow I'd like to subtract a few minutes for going to the bathroom filling my water cup and walking to
070and from to pick up my students now I don't know if anyone on the board has ever planned an entire robust and rigorous day for 23 24 25 26 plus 5-year-olds but perhaps you have planned a birthday party for 8 to 10 of them before I'm guessing that the birthday party was planned to last about 2 hours and I'm guessing your objective for them was I can eat a cupcake a cupcake that I'm guessing you took time to bake or perhaps spent time researching available Bakers in the area and their pages to check out their style and prices and availability you may have spent time researching activities decorations capacity specifications maybe time buying gifts party favors maybe making invitations you arrange the menu the venue the seating I think it's quite safe to assume that
071you spend at least two to three hours or more planning and prepping for this birthday party where the objective was I can have a great time and rightly so members of the school board when we had a 4-day week and I had three CLT meetings during my planning time in which I'm not even allowed to bring my computer by the way I was left with a total of 35 minutes in my contract in the entire week to plan prep and annotate objectives for reading phonics writing small groups science math and differentiated interventions for the following week tick for my classroom bursting with bright and curious kiddos that's five core subjects per day plus several differentiated objectives for reading and math small groups and interventions times 5 days Talk Plus the prepping of every activity for
072every day tick plus three speech referrals Talk Plus vkrp social skills scales tick plus scoring the beginning of the year writing samples talk plus a required Weekly Newsletter tick plus informing a parent that their child is coming home with a few scratches from the playground Talk Plus helping the three participate teachers on my team one who is new to the school two that are new to the country learn how to use perform to access their pgp ESS to access their pay stub and school status and Gradebook and report card Matrix in campus and time for school and SF or where to find the State Testing identifier to add the four missing kids on their Pal's assessment list since all new teachers in pwcs are tossed into their schools with zero training on any of this
073leaving that task to veteran team members to help with on their own time tick talk members of the school board we have asked begged and now rightly are demanding that unencumbered planning time every day for all teachers be included in our contracts because right now I don't have enough planning time an entire week to bake a cupcake Anthony Morris good evening board and community members my name is Anthony Morris and my address is on file I'm a former pwcs student K through 12 and a pwcs employee for 12 years 10 years as an instructional assistant and two years teaching seventh graders with autism on a provisional license from the state of Virginia uh the long sleeves aren't just for the cold uh this year I have a student that displays that has documented aggressive behaviors
074I've seen a wide variety of aggressive behaviors in my time as an instructional assistant scratch kick bite throw you push a student with a wheelchair use a wheelchair as a weapon spit vomit regularly that's not assault that's a little different uh I would bet every school in the county has at least one if not more classrooms with at least one student who has some of these who has some of these behaviors usually hopefully somebody with my job title is beside that kid all school day both to help provide the services in that student's IEP and and if things go sideways to help protect everybody else in that classroom from that student's Outburst or meltdown some kids when they when they be when they go past their frustration Point engage in self- injury others strike out
075at whomever or whatever is nearby when my classroom has a student with aggressive behaviors I know I eventually will bear the brunt of that behavior functionally an instructional assistant is a large majority of the time the only other adult in the classroom at the time unless the unless the classroom's large enough to have more than one uh let see practically it's either me my classroom teacher or one of the other students with special needs who may just wander into the situation let's part of my routine part of my afterwork routine this year is to check myself for bruises broken skin and bite marks other school staff joke that we should be getting Hazard pay uh my arms look like I have a big dog that doesn't listen uh last year a special needs uh special
076needs teacher down the hallway from us suffered two concussions in the space of four to six weeks from the same student despite all this I clock in 5 minutes before the students come off the bus and clock out before dismal is finished especially not that there's so many late buses because my school on your instructions only let only lets instructional assistants work six and a half paid hours a day and only a handful of days where students aren't in the building if you expect me to act professionally in a situation that could be stressful and maybe even dangerous and you should wouldn't I be more likely to do that successfully with a few minutes of prep time even if it's just to talk to my teacher without students around you really can't afford for me
077to stay until 3:15 to either stay with my students until they're probably late bus arrives or to pick up and restage the classroom or to debrief with my teacher if things went sideways to try and do better tomorrow you're asking me to assist in delivering what is supposed to be individually tailored specialized instruction to kids with developmental disabilities who may not have verbal language skills at all and you want me to do that having no time without kids in front of me the the classroom teachers the LIC person they hardly have any planning time for to make anything thank you Sophia Cruz Sophia Cruz Shantel Rock then after her will be Maggie Hansford Andrew McCarthy Tanner Cruz and Aiden Vias good afternoon everyone my name is Shantel Rock and my address is on file I'm
078speaking not only as a Woodbridge District candidate for school board but also as a concerned parent of students in Woodbridge and a constituent of Lori Williams first of all let me say that I know Lori Williams personally for a few years I consider her a close friend and an ally in our desires to improve the schools that our children attend my kids once referred to her as aunt and we serve together on the racial and Social Justice Commission with me being the chair unfortunately over the last few years that I've known Lori I've seen very little follow through and addressing many of the issues plaguing schools in Woodbridge don't get me wrong many of our school administrators staff bus drivers and teachers are doing a phenomenal job with the limited resources made available to them
079but more needs to be done for example giving our teachers a real duty-free lunch by adding it to their contract I am running because I got tired of hearing my children who are here by the way telling me about the same problems over and over and over again the violence in our schools lack of discipline in our classrooms the drug use and the inability of our division to hire enough qualified education professionals to provide a safe secure and environment conducive to learning as a parent having to learn of a robbery taking place inside your kid school from online from an online news source is disheartening or your son and his friends being threatened inside the school on a Tuesday and a driveby happened on a Wednesday and those same friends been shot at immediately following
080the missile of school in the first week of school that would anger any parent I am tired of hearing hearing the same excuses come out of Lorie's mouth from someone I considered an ally and a friend but she isn't making excuses anymore last week she she told us or she told voters that Freedom High School had 100% senior graduation rate I called the school and they said that was not factual that she was not telling the truth similar to the graduation rate Lori downplayed the drive the driveby shooting I'm not here to campaign but the fact is a parent should not have to run to become a member of the school board to feel like the person representing them actually cares about our children in schools our school board members should care about us Maggie
081Hansford hi my name is Maggie Hansford and my address is on file with the clerk I'm a mom of three boys I have a fifth GR grader I have an eighth grader and a 12th grader I want all of their teachers to have lunch we all know in this room our staff is not getting lunch every day we know that it's no secret it's not protected by the policy it's not respected by the regulation that states when they can provide lunch we know this and we know that it's not happening something that's happened with collective bargaining is the sharing of data and that kindergarten teacher was so much fun right she made you feel good right your data says she's gone in 5 years you can't keep staff you have the largest vacancies in this
082region and your staff is asking you for lunch what we're told at the bargaining table with disrespect is that it's a scheduling issue and we're not allowed to bargain it you all told all all of us that when the resolution didn't work that you would be open-minded and you would amend that resolution I don't need you to end that resolution that is a human need that your staff needs through working conditions it is not scheduling you know better you should do better but you continue to choose not to that kindergarten teacher she's not g to have that energy for 30 years a great data example we asked how many of your staff have been able to take the pay scale from start to finish have you ever asked that question what we've learned at the
083table is you don't ask questions you don't ask questions you don't seek to understand you don't have a single teacher who's ever done that not one not one teacher has moved from beginning to end on the pay scale you don't have many but you have a few 30 years experienced Educators in Prince William County they're in the middle of the pay scale how in the world do they plan and afford to retire no one is able to get to the end of the pay scale but again let's talk about lunch your policies and regulations show so you are lazy because they don't align we're asking you to protect the staff's lunch Stand by Your Word and put it in the contract this isn't a scheduling issue this is a working condition your staff deserve it
084my kids teachers deserve it we deserve lunch Andrew McCarthy good evening my name is Annie McCarthy and my address is on file Dr McDade and Prince William County Board I first want to thank you for recognizing the importance of student mental health uh safety and academic success in our division at one time you showed a willingness to listen to us when we asked for more Staffing in the counseling offices and when school divisions Across the Nation realize that trauma uh trauma's impact on learning Prince William teachers doubled down on student relationships and supportive welcoming environments uh Dr McDade supported these teacher efforts through professional development in deescalation and understanding childhood trauma this cooperation of the division with its teachers is invaluable to our students Miss Jesse in her Schoolboard Roundup uh she lauded Mr uh
085Dr McDade approach uh as a research-based and instructionally focused Dr McDade is helping teach teers to fix problems in education that get to the root of marginalized and disadvantaged students but as we continue these commitments to our community division leadership is missing a very important piece of the process that's teacher efficacy I'm sure you all heard that before um teacher efficacy is the belief in their ability to affect student performance and how do we increase teacher efficacy one we allow teacher participation in School Division process and two we collectively value the teachers as a collective as a whole but as you have heard over and over and this is the first time I finally been up here in 20 years you you drew me out here to address this over and over it's not happening
086clearly clearly so the division refuses such simple requests as guaranteed lunches and planning the division continues to ignore bargaining team requests the division continues with top- down mandates why is the division doing these things knowing full well that these actions impact teacher efficacy morale and in effect student achievement why why are we ignoring that when it directly impacts student achievement Mr wil as you know when you endorse pwaa use and and collective bargaining you mention the importance of teacher efficacy while attaining our administrative degrees together Professor Esposito said again and again and again teacher efficacy has an effect size of 1.57 more than any other factor in student achievement Dr McDade your doctoral disertation examines teacher efficacy in students with trauma clearly everybody in here knows that teacher efficacy is number one but you don't
087have it and you're losing it December's in one month bargaining and mediation over in one month we have culture climate engaging Community you're not going to be able to do that without teacher efficacy thank you Tanner Cruz uh my name is Tanner Cruz my address is on file as I stated in my speech the last school board meeting my mother is one of your teachers within the county and I am one of your graduates when you're mom is a teacher you con you're constantly learning but I'm actually not here to talk about what mom's taught me I'm here to thank you for what you've taught me over the entire last year you've taught me that I should never expect any employer to care for my safety my well-being my mental and physical health or my
088family after all if an elected body that oversees a public service involving children doesn't care about their employees it seems unlikely that any boss would care you've taught me my family and my employers are natural enemies and that my employers will always try to steal everything from my family that they can since they will view every minute spent with my own children one day as a minute that we have stolen from them and since time equals money reading my kids a bedtime story basically is the same thing as grabbing a handful of bills from the cash register at work you've taught me there's no such thing as a work life balance you've taught me that anything my co-workers and I try to do to organize a better pay or working conditions will be met with
089retaliation and public attacks you've taught me that I will always have to work another job in addition to my career if I'm expected to pay my bills and make a living you've taught me that the school my children will attend one day will be staffed with miserable stressed out overworked people that may or may not quit before the end of the year but really more than anything else I've learned from you over the past year from watching what my mother and her colleagues have been put through is one lesson that I'll never forget uh I'm never going to be a public teacher at any point in time and on a side note I would just like to state that my little sister sister spoke last week or not last week the last meeting and there
090was somebody that decided it was a smart idea to talk crap about an 11-year-old girl on the internet so I suggest you pick on somebody your own size and if you choose to talk crap about me tonight my last name is spelled c e WS not CR Z I look forward to the next book you read to this board Aiden Vivas hello my name is Aiden vivos my address is on file first of all let's get this out of the way Shanel Rock candidate for Woodbridge District district school board and speaker tonight is my mother but I'm speaking speaking tonight because I am a student in Prince William County schools I go to Freedom High School in Woodbridge because I am a foster child I am somewhat new to Freedom High School and while I
091can report that the teachers and staff at Freedom High School work incredibly hard to do the most most they can to help students like myself I can tell you that they are struggling enough I've been alarmed by a lot of what I've seen going on in the schools I've never expected to see so many fights and so very little done about it afterwards it seems that no one in our school has the authority to actually discipline students vaping in the bathrooms is constant including we Vapes and I've also seen a beer bottle and the toilets despite all of this I work hard to maintain my education I'm able to hold a 3.6 GPA but I but my experience at the schools here have led me to support my mom and her campaign to work harder
092because I know how badly we need leadership to address the problems our school is facing I'm speaking tonight because it's the right thing to do just like I see my mom doing the right thing by running for Schoolboard to fix these issues just like I see my brother doing the right thing by running as a candidate for delegate in the 19th District I guess public public surface service runs deep in our family I wish people like my mom and brother did not have to run for office to fix things I wish that the people already working in our schools were given the resources or the manpower to fix things and I wish our current elected officials were already doing everything that they could so this wouldn't have to be necessary I used to call Lori
093Williams my aunt I thought she was a kind person than my mom is but I can tell you when I've been out knocking doors in Woodbridge with my brother a lot of Voters have told me that they're deeply worried about our schools in Woodbridge many of them have no idea who word Lori Williams even is I'm not saying that because I'm trying to score political politicial points for my mom or to hurt Lorie Williams I'm saying it because it's true and the fact is that it should not be true voters should know who represents them and voters should be able to trust that a person serving in the office for 10 years is accessible and is is doing everything that they can to help our students that's the kind of person I want to represent
094me that's the type of person my mom is thank you very much okay that concludes citizen common time we'll move on to 1501 uh new course offerings for the 2024 25 school year this item is on for Action we need a motion Vice chair wall Dr Latif I move that the Prince William County school board and the superintendent of schools approve the new course offerings for the 20242 school year do I have a second M chairman Mr second all right I'll open this up for discussion and turn over to Dr McDade thank you Mr chairman um our students interests vary widely across the curriculum and we are constantly revising and improving our course offerings to ensure we are delivering the engaging subjects and content required for students to launch their thriving Futures requested by our
095parents students and schools we are excited to propose a range of new courses to our curriculum these additions reflect our dedication to providing well-rounded and Innovative educational experiences that equips all students with the knowledge skills and habits of mind necessary to thrive in the 21st century at this time I would like to introduce Dr Stephanie solivan associate superintendent for teaching and learning and she will share information on the proposed new course offerings with the board thank you thank you Dr Latif Vice chair wall members of the board and Dr McDade I am pleased to present to the board and our community our recommendations for additional courses for the 2425 school year as Dr McDade mentioned sometimes these course requests come directly from the schools sometimes from the staff and sometimes from the student interest level
096the first two courses that we will be adding are both advanced placement courses we'll be adding AP africanamerican studies as an opportunity for all of our schools like to emphasize that this course is uh really uh focused on developing skills across multiple Fields with an emphasis on developing historical literary Visual and data analysis skills we think this is going to be a great class for our students to enrich their understanding and ability to process uh primary documents and do historical analysis AP precalculus um this is is a course that the advanced placement through college board launched last year and this is an opportunity for students who want to take a precalculus course that's not necessarily directly tied into AP Calculus so this will be an additional opportunity um against our other pre-calculus courses for students
097to engage in this rigorous level uh coursework I checked just today 14 of our state colleges are already accepting the course for credit so that's great news Osborne Park High School has a biotechnology program I know many of you are familiar with and we'll be adding chemistry to organic chemistry to that program and this is a deep course focus on analytical skills in The Sciences that'll be a great addition to that biotechnology program Woodbridge High School has requested that we add Dance 3 and Dance 4 those are a great compliment to the offerings that they already have for our students who accept in the creative arts especially excited about Dance 4 that focuses on leadership in that space as well so we may also have some budding entrepreneurs in our talented dancers one of the
098course offerings that I have to say I'm especially excited about is data science um many of our board members and our communities know the importance of data analytics in today's world and this is a course that students can engage with that advances those mathematical and analytical spaces a little differently our kids who look at numbers and Concepts in a different way and we're excited to be able to offer that course dual enrollment calculus again it's another way for children to engage in rigorous coursework that is slightly different than the traditional path our goal is to continue look at different ways that students can engage in content in a way that is suited to their career goals du enrollment environmental science was specifically requested by Forest Park High School and this is a really interesting opportunity
099for students to complete two dual enrollment courses in the span of the Year totaling eight college credits a lot of Hands-On interaction with the community in the environmental science classes our Career and Technical uh Career and Technical education program is adding two courses to its program offerings emergency medical technician and medical terminology was able to verify that these courses are going to be available for all schools to be able to add the course and do the coursework along with it um the fire department is one of our partners in the EMT work so I know there was questions about our community agency we've developed this alongside the fire department so really excited about that partnership as well and finally we want to make sure all students needs are met um we are requesting the addition
100of weight training and conditioning program and performance and this is actually a highlevel course in that field for our students that um really excel in those areas so thank you very much questions comments okay well I have some because I never won't uh on this issue but but thank you Dr Soloman Dr McDade I I am I I am thrilled that we are adding these courses I am particularly excited about AP African-American studies and and that um and I understand that will when we offer it that's something that any of the high schools can choose to do if they find yes they have faculty capable or or wanting to teach that student interest there and then secondly on the um just real quick question on the um data science as well so on the data
101science course is that something that will also be offered across the division or is that something that's just um one school request y that that uh we actually requested that course and it will be available we will be conducting training for interested teachers and we're certainly hoping that U many of the schools have the capacity to add the course sometimes it takes a couple of years as students attrition between different courses Dr San I I really appreciate that you know data science at the University of Virginia we created that major a few years ago um they have a whole new school now for data science the um uh Virginia um board that oversees all higher education has encouraged universities to create a whole degree in data science and and that's happening across the country um
102you know just something to think about you know Thomas Jefferson um at their school the first course that they are required that every ninth grader has to take his data um statistics and data science it's the first semester it's the first math everyone has to take there is mandatory um and and and I know that the Virg Department of Education in their math reforms a couple years ago that became somewhat controversial for no really good reason but one of the things that vooe really wanted to do was to embed stats and statistics and data science um in 2 third fourth fifth sixth seventh grades that was one of the biggest pushes and and it's because that's a practical thing that we all use regardless of what field we in and data science is becoming one
103of the hottest miners for anyone in college because you know just but um I just I just hope we can um you know as as you look at this and see how this gets um uh adopted in the schools to really maybe consider this as something that we really push hard wherever yeah it it's an outstanding compliment to any of the research areas and so it would be my hopes to uh potentially have our students that are engaging in research also take part in the class because it really amplifies their data their outcomes their analysis of it whether it's social sciences of course or the hard Sciences as well so we definitely see it fitting as a compliment um to many many different fields certainly biology The Sciences mathematics but also uh other fields where
104maybe it's an untraditional look at data analytics yeah no great thanks and then and then I know the governor school has a sort of it's a different its own thing but you know they don't have data science at the gov school and I think this is something that if we could take a look at also as well for um implementation because many of the gov schools across the Commonwealth all already offer it yeah we will definitely make sure they're looped in the information string yeah no I mean this is all very exciting and and you know just add the weight training and conditioning program performance course I think will be popular and I'm excited that the health and PE Department um has requested this course I think that will be very exciting and I think
105it'll be incredibly popular with our students so very very grateful Dr McDade um Dr solivan these are Great Courses and I and I hope that next year we have another bunch of Great Courses already got a list working on thank you uh Miss Williams thank you chairman um excuse me thank you chairman I'm also very excited by these cor course offerings especially with the AP African-American studies I know that Prince William uh County was part of the pilot program uh I think that's a necessary part of our history is teaching all of it I'm also equally excited to see all of these science courses uh I hope that freedom is able to take advantage of them I am excited that there be offered everywhere available um a lot of have to deal with environmental sciences
106and they have the center for environmental science so that's wonderful and I'm encouraged by all these new uh course offerings especially the dual enrollment I know that's very impactful for a family's budget and often times some of our students sort of max out um depending on where they are um in their love of science or their ability or their love of math so it's nice to see that we're continue to go above Beyond to meet those requirements so thank you thank you Miss araport yeah I have a couple question questions about dual enrollment um just because I it was not uh available in any subjects my children were interested in when they went through um what do they also have to apply to Nova when they're in the dual enrollment class yeah they they are
107doing the processes for both um and the teachers have to qualify according to those standards as well um so I am uh very interested in expanding dual enrollment opportunity so we'll be looking um further at ways to do that and we all do our children play pay tuition or is it covered by no it's covered that's excellent and then um dual enrollment is actually different than AP yes yes ma'am okay um so if you're taking AP then you could take the AP exam and you might get credit dual enrollment gives you college credit that if it's at Nova that you could then transfer to a Virginia University or college yes correct and and some of the ideal pairings are for students to really work closely with their counselors so so that they are complimenting their
108AP credits with their dual enrollment and then those AP credits can fold into that uh transcript at Nova and not hopefully be duplicative and so it's very important um for them to work closely with their school counselors to make sure they're maximizing those opportunities that is excellent I almost wish I had another child to go through but no no um I I think this is a great opportunity uh think about it in terms of like banking for the future if your kids are head headed toward this this is a great way to get a jump start on College where you're not paying the tuition you're going to walk in with the skills that you need to be successful uh I I know I did a little research in one of my my courses that talked
109about the advantages of taking AP in dual enrollment uh even just taking the class maybe not even for AP taking the test but I I encourage everyone to do it anyway uh it it gives you the skills and the habits of mind as Dr um McDade likes to say uh to be ready for college but it also increases your persistence in college so if you're going to go if you've had these classes you're more likely to finish college so it's it's this is a fantastic thing thank you so much oh you're welcome Miss Jesse good evening I wanted to also chime in and say that I really am excited about the dual enrollment courses and also the African-American studies on dual enrollment in the past there's been a situation with not having a teacher teachers
110available has that changed somewhat um it's really course dependent and school dependent because the teachers do have to meet those qualifications as well and so I can't say for certain if that challenge has been eliminated um because it does require an additional level of Competency okay and the Woodbridge High School the dance help me with this how does that relate to their request for in an addition uh courses and Specialty programs they have a dance program and they have requested for their students to be able to continue beyond dance one and dance two does not relate to the other requests correct thank you Miss Jesse one point of clarification um I believe that the request around fine and Performing Arts from the you're referring to the conversation about um potentially having a specialty program around
111finding Performing Arts was that the so if you will recall um in that conversation about woodbridge's um find and performing arts program what I do remember um uh principal Abney sharing is that they they had the they would have the full Suite of offerings if they we they were able to add these two course these two dance courses and so it is it is direct connected to um to the conversation that we had about what it would take to um ensure that they had all of the offerings of the F and performing arts program Miss wall thank you chairman um I I am pleased so pleased with this um with this list um it's it's a great variety it's we have Career and Technical education courses on here we have science classes on here we
112have fine and performing arts classes on here and some new and and math classes as well um you know this is impressive because we've added a lot of rigor with this like organic chemistry in high school that's pretty amazing really amazing data science amazing that's so great it you know two AP classes um you know Pathways for kids who are you know wanting to get additional instruction and rigor with mathematics you know pre-calculus is a great option if you're not necessarily going all the way for multivariable calculus or AP Calculus BC right this is this is great I'm really really pleased to see this um and I think I believe it will complete some of those Pathways that students are looking for right like if they're you know they want to take like organic chemistry
113regular chemistry then organic chemistry um like the Dance Etc um so I just I I think it's fabulous and I had one question and I think you might have answered it but what what happened after this when the entry now these courses enter the course catalog and then where does it go from there I believe that's site based decision based on availability of teachers to teach the course and the schools will figure out if students want the course or how do can you give me a little how that works it it really becomes a combination of obviously student need interest teacher talent and availability and whenever students are going into a new program they're leaving a different program so we always try to take a tempered approach um and I I would expect in each
114of these it would start off with one or two sections and to see that it builds from there um because we're constantly pivoting courses and we can't just add we have to look at uh what that means for some other spaces um but yeah we've shared with the principles that these courses are coming I know they're excited after today um they will be included in the course catalog development um that will be coming in January for our high school students and then become part of those course selections we're currently reaching out to schools to look at their interest what they're looking to try to offer in some cases they will try to make a class and certainly when it's new to try to get kids excited something like data science I think is awesome the
115kids first year might not necessarily think it's awesome so it'll take um some really inspired teachers to bring some of those kids along and so we expect to see uh some dabbling in at first year as we get through the first year school's growing capacity that is great news I think it's going to open a lot of opportunities for students so thank you to you and your staff and for everybody you know all the hard work and for listening to the requests of the schools to build out their programs thank you thank you Dr solivan thank you I you know I don't like to use the word mandate but data science would be a good mandate I'm not going to say that any further okay thank you thank you um doc I think at this
116time if there was no further questions discussion I'd like the board to vote on the motion please vote I don't know where I'm at here we go please vote Yes the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed excellent right on time now moving on a student representative time we have Isabella aano aano senior at Gainesville High School on the Das with us tonight miss Isabella please good evening to the school board superintendent in Prince County Community I'm excited to serve as one of your student representatives and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak tonight um thank you to the quarter of the room that actually stuck around as the first quarter draws to a close I'd like to congratulate the student body for making it to the Finish Line additionally last night was
117the primary early action and early decision college application deadline I commend every single senior that has submitted an application of any kind speaking from experience I know how hard it is to juggle School extracurricular activities a social life and then applications on top of all of that so once again congratulations um and in honor of American Education week and International Education week I would also like to extend my congratulations and gratitude to Educators across the county um because they are truly the backbone of the preparation that goes into postsecondary educational success and Beyond on another positive note student voice committees have successfully been implemented at nearly every High School throughout the countyc oh sorry at a meeting this past Monday the student Senate shared that committees have already begun to establish Norms identify unique school-based
118concerns and solutions share feedback on District level ideas and host meetings these committees aim to bring a variety of students together to Foster collaboration as well as generate feedback that reflects the wide array of concerns that a diverse student body faces tonight's agenda discussed Prince William County's recognition of inclusive schools week and the Vitality of understanding and respecting different student backgrounds ways of thinking and learning I believe that student voice committees are a step in the right direction and will contribute to the progress schools have already made in supporting these principles additionally the input generated by student voice committees will be crucial as the student Senate also begins to draft the student Bill of Rights also at my own school I have started to collaborate with the parent teacher student organization they reached out to
119me asking if they could work with me and eventually the student voice committee because they wanted to get students involved and ensure that their opinions would be incorporated into projects before this I had no idea how many events were planned and funded by the ptso these parents put in a lot of effort and students should be aware of that I also appreciate that the ptso sought out student voice because that isn't very common and I haven't ever experienced it before I would like to encourage student leaders and voice committees across the county to see if similar collaboration at their schools is possible or necessary thank you for your time that concludes my remarks thank you Miss aano make next Dr McDade moving on superintendent time thank you Mr chairman providing a positive climate and culture
120is about providing a learning environment which Fosters inclusivity connectedness and encourages social and emotional Wellness for all of our for all of our school psychologists play an important role in supporting a positive learning environment from November 6 through 10 we are celebrating the work of our school psychologist through school psychology Awareness Week our dedicated School psychologists are trained to listen help and heal and are available for support to our students and others I also want to extend my appreciation for those who ensure our students are developing a love for learning especially during attendance officer appreciation week from November 6 through 10th in our launching thriving future strategic plan we have a commitment to reduce chronic absenteeism by 5% students who are in class on time every day will be on time for graduation and we
121know that attendance matters our attendance officers work passionately to ensure students are showing up to school and they need our help to show students we care about their Wellness as we move into the winter months let us collectively support students Success Through prioritizing our St students time in class healthy habits and engagement in after school activities moving into our presentation for this evening we are excited about the progress toward the Planning and Building of our first Net Zero elementary school as outlined in our strategic plan pwcs will complete our first Net Zero new construction school replacement this new building will symbolize our commitment to providing a future environment for our students to thrive the three-story floor plan will honor AA kuan's connections to our proud Native American history and incorporate elements from nature throughout the
122design The Net Zero school will be us Green Building lead certified use solar energy along with 96 geothermal walls and serve as a teaching tool with indoor and outdoor learning spaces Mr Bach I hope I got all of the yeah you're rocking it too all the points for this amazing new school pwcs is excited to make this incredible first step toward a brighter and sustainable future for our students and I want to invite our chief operating officer Mr Vernon Bach Heather Heather de uh deetz our director of facility services and Jessica wymer supervisor of engineer management and sustainability and they will together present um uh an update on the acaan elementary school building process and I do notice on the side through the side eye that I see Mr Buddy L principal of acaan here
123and he will be supporting this presentation as well awesome thank you Dr McDade and good evening chairman Latif Schoolboard members uh I'm very excited to be with you tonight uh because we are sharing a groundbreaking initiative that we're embarking on uh the development and planning of a net zero elementary school right here in Prince William County this project is a testament to our commitment to not only provide exceptional education but but to do so in a sustainable and environmentally responsive manner I want to extend uh my gratitude and our gratitude to the school board and our Forward Thinking superintendent Dr McDade for her Visionary leadership and your commitment to being good stewards of the environment and reducing our carbon footprint and it is exceptional this Net Zero school project is a reflection of your dedication
124to the Future and your understanding of the profound impact our actions today will have on generations to come for me personally I have to say it's an exciting moment in my career having the privilege to be a part of Designing a net zero School a first in my career is a source of immense uh Pride it's a testament to our Collective commitment uh to Innovation and sustainability and thank you for your support and vision in making this project a reality I want to take a moment to recognize uh Heather DEET our new director of facilities her dedicated team that Dr McDade just mentioned and we do have Architects here from Perkins of East and Eastman Perkins Eastman who have worked tirelessly to bring this Vision uh to life I'd like to ask Heather to join
125me at the podium and since this is her first time presenting to the board I'd like to take a couple of moments to properly introduce her to you Heather comes to us with 25 years of professional experience with her most uh recent time as the Director of design and construction uh for Fairfax County Public Schools she's a licensed civil engineer and has a master's degree in public administration Heather has managed a a comparable Capital Improvement program uh of Renovations and capacity enhancements for schools in her previous position and we're excited and really lucky to have her join the team so at this time I'd like to turn over our presentation to Heather and she's going to present to you the acaan elementary school design great thank you Mr Bach chairman members of the board Dr
126McDade I'm very happy to be here this evening to provide an update on the aaan elementary school replacement which as you've heard this evening will be our division's first Net Zero school it will also be taking one of our oldest facilities and transforming it into one of our newest school facilities here's a cap a capture of the proposed school entrance which includes a two-winged facility on the right hand side you'll see the administrative area and large group area such as a gymnasium cafeteria the center of the school is considered the heart and is also connector Wing between the two wings and on the left it is the three-story um instructional grade levels for all of the school this is a glimpse of the engagements that the facilities department has engaged uh various community members schools
127the school itself other departments uh executive level leadership and most recently October we had a community meeting at the school with surrounding area community members just to orient everyone of the existing school that's located bordered by aaan Road just going to make sure I have my pointer here aawan road on the left and Oldbridge Road on the top of this uh slide that you're viewing where we have also been partnering with Prince William County as they work to realign that road at the same time we will be undergoing our construction of the new school we currently have the school at the front of the site and Fields at the rear of the site here's an overlay of our proposed school which shows us doing the construction of the new new school at the rear of
128the site while students remain in session at the front in their existing School partway through the um construction we will have a ceremony relocate students into their brand new school and then we will restore the site at the front with fields here's a glimpse of our site plan where we have added separate entrances for the Bus Loop and the kiss and ride drop off for students so at the top of the page you'll see the Bus Loop which we're recognizing all of the congestion on aaan road we work to pull that traffic off of the road and onto our site with an extended Bus Loop that brings students to the front of the school as well as at the bottom of the page where you'll see uh kiss and ride for drop off and student
129pickup it'll allow parents and community members to Circle back out with staff parking at the rear so another extended off the road um enhanced safety and circulation pattern to the site here's a massing image that shows the neighboring properties of Industrial and Commercial over on the left side which is where we intentionally have our higher limits of the school facility we step down over to the administrative side on the left as you near the residential components of the the community there's also a river themed walkway that will connect the fields over to the new school as we uh include a nature component of the design of the school a glance at the first floor which includes the center of the school which I mentioned was the heart and the connector on that bottom side of
130the screen you'll see the administrative Wing the suite large group areas of gym and cafeteria and the other side is our early grade levels as you rise throughout the school the second level includes Rising grade levels a library including a maker space and workroom as well as art and music classrooms you come up to the third floor which again is only the instructional levels carrying up to the third level which is our upper grades as well as a science class which is next to the Outdoor Classroom featuring sustainability initiatives including a a photov voltaic array which is solar panel out at the Outdoor Classroom for Learning and teaching opportunities classrooms throughout the upper grade levels include shared adjacent resource rooms for breakout sessions and collaboration between classes or for the individual classroom the interior concept
131was set on a longstanding culture within the school of four tribes one Village which you'll see those indications on the left and that is part of the color scheme throughout the school and then on the right we have colors as you graduate from the lower level of the school and rising up as if you're actually the growth in the forest from the forest floor up through the leaves into the canopy of the trees as the students develop and grow over their career in the elementary school here are some snaps of the as you approach again you'll see those color schemes going up through the forest levels um of the school itself this is the approach you'll see the solar array at top the building a lot of natural light while still maintaining security features are
132throughout the interior and exterior of of the building in the upper right there you'll see floating ceiling with some of the forest theme those floating panels May consist of lighting noise attenuation in the lower right you'll see a classroom with more natural light coming in as well as that nature theme again here is our library proposed on the left again with the with the floating ceiling light and abundance of natural light and on the right the gymnasium which again includes the long standing theme of the school and I'm going to turn it over to Jessica wymer to discuss the uh very important energy and sustainability initiatives with this design thank you for the introduction Miss STS good evening again everyone Dr Latif members of the school board and Dr McDade I will be providing you
133with some additional details regarding the sustainability and Net Zero design element elements for the aaan elementary replacement so a very important goal for this project is for us to achieve Net Zero Energy meaning that we will be producing as much energy as we use so we've highlighted some energy projections here for you and we should see a substantial decrease in energy use than that of a typical Elementary School and even more savings once we include the energy offset by the solar additionally we incorporated Green Building aspects using our pwcs sustainable design principles for high performance buildings and with that in mind as Dr McDade mentioned we are pursuing a minimum of lead silver so lead being that third-party Green Building certification some other design elements have been considered as we move toward the goal of
134Net Zero Energy and these include the way the building is oriented on the site how we best maximize daylight in the classrooms and then for the HVAC system we are planning for a ground Source heat pump using the Earth's heat for 96 geothermal Wells also we have a solar panel array on the roof and since occupant Comfort or user experience as we like to call it is very important in a Sustainable Building we are considering things like Acoustics color patterns room layout and lighting to make it a welcoming and happy space for students and staff and finally we are projecting an emissions reduction that will impact the division's overall carbon footprint we've also thought a great deal about how the building can be used as a teaching tool so some of those features include a
135public interactive dashboard an indicator showing energy used versus produced a visible mechanical room and an outdoor classroom with landscaping and panels solar panels and educational signage throughout the building and grounds and finally we are planning for building specific curriculum developed in partnership with eise related to that my team has already started discussions with Mr lint and his staff about creating professional development opportunities specific to aaan teachers that will be guided by our division's environmental literacy plan so that way All AA aaan Elementary staff and students will better understand how to use their new building as a teaching and learning tool so at this time I'd like to turn it back over to miss Deets who will go over our project timeline thank you um late this past summer and early fall our site plan and
136building plans were submitted to Prince William County for review and ultimate permitting of the project I mentioned the oct October meeting where we engage with the community for a final update and design input as soon as our plans are approved by the county we intend in early 2024 to competitively procure a site contractor and a general contractor to build the building and starting construction in the spring of 2024 partway through the project timeline ideally in the winter of 20125 we will move students to their new school and then spend the rest of the season until Su of 2026 uh restoring the front of the site I'd again like to recognize our partnership with the school the principal is here this evening buddy lint and our architect partner Perkins Eastman Shan O'Donnell is here from them
137and everyone else that we have worked with throughout this project thank you so Mr chairman that does conclude our presentation and we're uh happy to answer any questions that board members might have U Miss Jesse I would like Mr lent buddy lent to please come to the pro front I'm used to going to the principal's office good evening School Board Dr McDade how are you Miss Jesse Hi how are you I'm excited I am as well it's a beautiful building isn't it it is would you share with them a little the front can you show that photo of the front of the building I think it's slide number two or three the front with the emblem that one that one okay would you share with them the uh the emblem and the input students had
138and the tribe concept absolutely so what you're looking at right there is a uh a symbol that we have um the O that of the shape is for aaan obviously and what we did was we incorporated the four tribe symbols that we have into the O for aawan in order for it to symbolize the four tribes one Village uh mentality that we have at our school um you know one of the things that we have that we built upon was the indigenous people there were a lot of different um indigenous tribes that kind of split up and splintered around here um but they were all still part of one large tribe and we're trying to hone in on that and make sure that we honor that um with uh the education that we're providing the
139students through our tribal system in our school um our tribal systems based off of the Ron Clark model out of Atlanta that's an internationally well-known program uh based with a house system and that's kind of what our tribal system is is is a s is a is a house system uh with um Integrity you know initiative um that all the tribes uh have meaning for and those four symbols that are going around the O are uh the symbols of each individual tribe so it shows that they're all kind of unique but yet they're they all kind of fit together as well okay I I want to leave this the O give the opportunity for other people on the board to ask questions and I'd like for you to stand by at the end thank you
140thank you Mr ly any other questions go ahead Miss William thank you Mr chair I just think that this is amazing it's a a long time coming uh this board thanks to our chairman several other board members really advocated for um being a more green School Division uh I'm excited for my time I spent as being a facility person that I see those lead certifications and of course I'm a science nerd so I love this um and I especially love the fact that we are going to be able to incorporate an educational program around this uh I'd love to see more Partnerships maybe like of course I'm going to say freedom for their environment mental science program but I love when we can um utilize our buildings and our spaces um as Educational Tools I
141think it's an important uh investment in our children's future and hopefully we'll get some building Engineers out of it because it's a really cool job uh thank you Mr lint for coming this evening and all the work that you do in aawan elementary I wish I could have a thermal geothermal School in my district but the land doesn't support it but we're getting as close as we possibly can that's right um but I really want to thank you and all of your staff for all the her work that has been done on this um I know this is a tremendous undertaking it's right next to where I used to park every day as a commuter and when I first heard it was going to happen there I was like oh my goodness the traffic but
142the amount of work and planning um that has gone in to remediate any of those issues to ensure that there's no interruption to the students academic progress is just outstanding um welcome again miss Deets um because I had the pleasure to work with her at a community Community presentation um it's just an amazing what can happen when we have qualified and grow staff and growth in our division I'm really really excited by this and I can't wait to uh see the progress when it's all finished and done and I absolutely love um the incorporation of the symbols from the tribes right on the front of the building uh I couldn't imagine being an elementary school student seeing that every day welcomeing come in that's a fantastic idea and again I just love all of the
143collaboration at every single level that has gone into the development of this project so thank you thank you Mr wel this is beautiful for aaan so I want to know now uh is this happening happening concurrently or consecutively with the second pic Shores Elementary so we're beginning that work uh obviously as as you know we've purchased the land for that and so we will be uh looking at a third story design there at that site Mr wil uh similar but but somewhat different U but uh with the um the constraint of the footprint there we will be looking at a three-story design and we've begun that process thank you MH Jore uh I just want to thank you for putting in a strings room I believe that is one of the things that has been
144long time coming uh a separate space for Strings is really important uh and I'm hoping does aaan currently have fourth grade strings uh currently we do not but that is something that we have been talking about adding yeah into the new building yeah it I I mean it's a great opportunity for our kids and um yeah I I just know that that was something that was really important to our strings teachers and this is like the first place that's really just thank you thank you uh Miss uh Jackson thank you so much for the presentation tonight um it's nice it's wonderful to see what the school's going to look like and have the blueprints and that um the detail of the community Community involvement I am really excited for the aawan community and just for
145Prince County Schools as a whole this not only helps protect the future from an environmental standpoint but the also addresses the rigor that I know aquan elementary school has through incorporating science so it's just it's it's really exciting um I just I want to just put a plug in that as we change the design of our buildings maybe like we should consider how we allocate custodians because it's more glass to clean and I just want just just put that out in the thought sphere um so thank you so much for the presentation and congratulations aawan and I'm excited to see the final product thank you awesome thank you Miss wall all right so I visited a net School Net Zero School sorry in Washington DC and it was very very cool um so this looks
146this has a lot of the same things in it I believe um first of all though I want to commend the separate Bus Loop and the kissing ride and the teacher parking because this is a problem at schools in my district and with our older schools that didn't really anticipate that we would be in such a big County with so many students so great job I like to see that and I hope it works we'll be continuing to focus on that Miss wall as we design buildings that will be something we will continue to focus on I appreciate that because it's just it's just better for everybody yes ma'am as you know and um so my other question I guess and comment is um I one thing I like about the Net Zero school is
147the Net Zero aspect of it because to me that means we're saving money um in our energy costs year upon year upon year and so um I actually don't know how much those cost savings will be for like a cost Savings of a school being Net Zero I'm assuming it's pretty significant yeah I can ask I can ask Jess to come up uh and and I want to make sure I do a proper introduction here too because Jess it did assume a new role recently and she is our supervisor of our energy management and sustainability team so I just wanted to make sure to recognize that tonight but I'd like for her to share a little about uh to answer your question wonderful yes uh so to answer we will see significant savings I don't
148have that exact figure on me at this time but I could certainly get that to you um we will have some cost because in addition to the saving from electricity we will have a couple of other utilities that won't necessarily be um Net Zero but yes so we will eliminate our electricity costs awesome well I think I think that's that's great um and thank you and I'll yeah sure if we can get that data for me sometime yeah we we can certainly come back to you and and present that data to you that be awesome thank you very very much Miss Jesse okay um first of all there are this is a historic night for us because aquan Elementary School is 100 years old am I correct uh not quite yet it's 97 I believe
149yeah okay so it will be 100 years old and when I came onto this board I wanted to close the achievement Gap and Dr torian said well aquan District doesn't have an achievement Gap and I thought well maybe it doesn't have an achievement Gap but it does have an equity Gap and so he we had a school with the land that was available but we didn't place a school there so I want to thank Al shiroki and your work I I really I'm just very pleased that the school is been built and I want to ask a question about the the well system I think there's another school that in Arlington that has that has there been any any problem with that we should anticipate with this Net Zero School Sean would you like to
150answer that I think we may have an answer for you yes thank you for the question and pleased to be here uh I'm Sean oono I'm with the architect Perkins Eastman um the geothermal system is a system that we've been using for well over 10 years if not 15 years on schools across the the DMV at this point in time um and all of our clients at this point are reporting back that uh they are in fact the easiest systems you know in their inventory to maintain and operate so uh We've not seen any difficulties in in using the systems and they're actually quite significant contributor to the energy performance of the building and achieving The Net Zero goals that you're talking about this evening thank you thank you Mr Buddy Lyn would you please
151come to the podium uh yes ma'am buddy inherited a school that was nationally recognized and the principal there is now a national consultant that school is a highly highly performing school and I want you to know that at this point you have closed that cap and you know I gave you I came to your school and I gave these cups for schools in aquan that had 9090 uh Performance Based on the accreditation from vdoe and I want you to know that I I accidentally looked up the US US News and World Report and I didn't know they did elementary school so I want to share with you where you are as a school based on a national level first of all this school is according to this report 82.9% minority yeah and you are you
152according to US News and World Report 93% in math and 85% in reading and that you are number 76 and state of Virginia and you are number six in Prince William County schools which means as a tital one school you are above many other schools that are not tital one because I've had in this boardroom people have come in and talked about uh they would like to see us look at the I think the the sign said something like teach to ail and not to race and you've proven that you can teach to ability and to race of all Races and I think on your scores at the Veo vdoe what is your percentage of pass rate for your minority kids your black kids our minority African-American students were if I'm not mistaken our highest
153performing population in reading and math um so they were I believe uh three four points above our white um and maybe two points above our Asian which are normally our two highest uh subgroups uh but in this past year they were at least I believe Four Points higher African-American scores were four points higher this year 97% pass rate yeah and so I wanted to take this time to for this board to meet you as a principal and to say I applaud you and I enjoy working with you and it's going to be some school and of course you know I gave your teachers a cup so I have a cup for you thank you Miss Jesse so would you put this up thank you you please come forward I take a photo there we go
154[Applause] thank you Miss Jesse do you have any any other further comments Miss Jesse do I have any other comments no other than the fact that uh we are looking at the East Corridor you I I want to tell you that when I looked in that report by the way your school uh at Porter is number one not only in Prince William County but in the state of Virginia and there's some other data I will share later I just want you to know you hear a lot of about these minority schools and what you can and cannot do and this man has come in and done this with his staff because they are phenomenal staff and I want to thank you and I want to thank you for sharing this with us and putting together
155this presentation to the architect and to your new person I don't know her name but you did a phenomenal job thank you very much you're welcome all right well outstanding thank you thank you guys very much this was great um this just um I think is the embodiment of our resolution from four years ago and and it's uh another step forward so we can't thank you all enough very much thank you guys very much thank you have a good night and now next up committee updates Miss wall thank you chairman Latif I wanted to provide a quick update on the school health Advisory Board which met on October 27th last Friday from 9: to 11: and this committee um the purpose of the committee is to Vis the school division on Broad topics or specific
156aspects of the coordinated school health program and at this meeting there were two main objectives the first one was that members would be informed of the tiered level of support provided to pwcs students that provide mental health that promotes mental health and wellness and the second objective was to receive an update on immunization non-compliance within our schools and um highlight the partnership with Prince William County Community Foundation Prince William health district and the George Mason and Partners Clinic to continue to provide vaccines for students who remain non-compliant with required immunizations so that was a really good update um and the other thing that the committee will be doing is updating their mission statement and their bylaws and um this is a committee that does allow um community members um to participate and there will be
157a process for if individuals would like to volunteer to on the committee there will be an application process coming the next committee meeting will be February 9th um 2024 same time 9 to 11 here at the KLC so I expect there'll be more information coming about that and that's it thank you Miss wall and very good at this point we will move I think with anything further do have anything further board matters and um we did something different last time so we'll start with Miss Williams today how about that yeah thank you Mr chairman I love all the jumping around well it is officially November 1st which is uh the time to honor uh Native Americans it's also diabet awareness month and Epsy and National homeless youth Awareness Month um it it is important to
158honor and recognize these uh designations and uh I hope that we all will take the time out to do so in addition uh we have upcoming on the 9th of November the Governor School Innovation Park meeeting which will be a virtual meeting citizen comment uh time is always welcome uh citizen comment is always welcome um over the past several weeks I have attended a few events uh specifically Freedom High School for the community resource fair I just want to take a moment to thank all the staff uh especially the staff that is there um to support our student services the the they just do an amazing job and are always so gracious and welcoming um Featherstone celebrated their Monster Mash which was a spooky good time all F fun was had by all upcoming for
159uh I think most of us on the board will be the Virginia Schoolboard association annual convention uh the middle of this month I'm excited once again to be a delegate policy is one of my favorite things and for those uh who are uh able to it is November 1st which means the first day to apply to a specialty program which is one of my favorite times of year so I encourage all of our princic County School families many of our schools are hosting information sessions on specific specialty programs such as like Ripon math and science what Bridges same gender s uh fredlin excuse me fredin is IB and World languages and freedom has the sins program uh take the time out to attend a specialty program night or check on our website for more information
160they are um you have three opportunity three Choice selections and it's done by Lottery with the exception I think of uh the dance program or former arts program at colan so in addition to that I was unfortunately missed a few events this month uh due to myself being sick and my lovely Elementary School are sharing his lovely Elementary School germs at home uh so I look forward to catching up on all of the activities in my schools in my district uh in the upcoming months I know it's also dub no school November but that doesn't mean that we don't have to read at home so I encourage everyone to do so and this evening I just want to take a special moment to celebrate our student representative I never in my wildest dreams never my
161wildest dreams anticipated When Miss Jesse and I um advocated so fiercely for student Representatives that um over these years you guys would have developed into such a wonderful uh role and really expanded the opportunities and and student voice um because it's one of the things that I thought was so instrumental so thank you for everything that you do and for the other two representatives and I look forward to watching it grow even further so thank you Miss Jesse would you like to go next hi I'm ready uh I think I have a slide I always have a slide do I have my first slide please don't start the clock while they're waiting for the slide because it's just there we go okay I brought a dog into the boardroom I'm sorry uh this dog won't
162hunt this is uh sprocket and he only hunts for food he's at my he's my daughter's dog but you know I'm I'm making fun of something that is really very important to me because I've been on this board for a very long time I've been in this County forever and I decided I couldn't sit back and list allow various groups to be rate and give the skies falling type of speeches about our school system so I want to share I the SE the next section it's called truth be told truth be told the best schools best public schools in Prince William County are in Virginia in Virginia are Osborne Park High School Battlefield High School Charles kogan High School these schools are rank in the top 10% of the schools in the state of Virginia
163we have also outperformed five of the nine Northern Virginia schools listed on the Washington the wavy report you know you look at the wavy report you look at people schools like Alexandria where they there's their their peral expenditure is $18 and ours is something much less but we have outperformed those schools and I want to share some facts about aquor and I think the next slide has the cups I want to talk about the the cups because this is the political season I want you to know that every cup was paid for out of my money we gave a thousands of donuts at the beginning and that money came from Kenny bod and from me so I don't want people to think that uh I'm using Schoolboard money to buy these cups you know everybody
164has to be celebrated there's a book called love them or lose them and I gave that book I think I shared that with Dr McDade celebration of people I call these gratitude cups and I want to share a little bit about what's happening in aquicorn in particular first of all there are three 29990 schools that's 90% pass rate in reading math and science and those schools are Oldbridge and Westbridge and there are two there are another five or six schools that are 990 9090 school which means they have a 90% pass rate in reading and in math and those schools are carydale aquan Marshall Spring Woods and Rock Ledge and I would like to reiterate this the statement earlier because there is a national movement and I see these signs all the time and it
165says teach to ability and not to race and I think that I would like to change it to that we all Races have the ability and they're just waiting for somebody to find them so we need to teach to all of our kids whether regardless of race they have the ability they just need the opportunity thank you Mr wil thank you um I'm going to go off script a little bit I was going to go through my Litany of things I uh attended the last two weeks um but um tonight and the last couple meetings have been uh very compelling um some of the stor shared and stuff like that and I'd like to comment on some of that you know from our speakers from Mary talking about physical assaults in her room from four
166five and sixy olds to Emily detailing a very personal mental health situation and the emotional trauma Shannon's extra hours Beyond contract Jane death threats Andrea's Lively presentation about being a kindergarten teacher it brings to me and worry again some of the things and concerns I've had all along one I'm not a big fan of site based management and I know we've been looking at it and revising and looking at uh just auditing it and determining the effectiveness and moving forward and I've also been concerned with this amongst other feedback I'm hearing from families about the implementation of some of the changes we made with the code of behavior in June when it comes to discipline um and getting rid of tiered one and two for bullying and assault in our schools you know I said
167if you're not going to uh disrupt a parent by your discipline and your actions you're not going to see a lot of change behaviors and so I just really wanted to emphasize that you know Andy McCarthy was right we did go to grad school together and I did a lot of work and a lot of paper and research on teacher efficacy and it is important it really is to make sure teachers feel like they're part of the community part of the conversation and I agree with him so without after Consulting obviously Wade and what I can say not cuz we are in active um mediation I'll leave it at this when I was 14 just kind of makes me think of the John Michael Montgomery song when I was 14 I was falling fast um
168when I was 14 I was hired in my first job I worked at a a country store if that gives you an idea where I grew up we had country stores right had a ice cream shop a little Bakery in it all that when I worked the full shift I received a 30- minute lunch from there I went and got hired at Arby's people always say my wife when I'm in a Drive-Thru why are you so polite all the time and say please please please honestly because I know what it's like to work at a fast food place and I truly value the workers who work at fast food restaurants and when you work the full Shi there I received a full 30 minute lunch and management had to make sure that was covered and
169then even when I went to abomi and fit my God they gave me a 30-minute lunch and I just again want to emphasize that and the importance of that and I'll leave it with that and thank you have a good night um Lisa I looked ready thank you Dr Latif um so I want to just I got to meet with a lot of parents this week a lot of students um oh bless you um I I got interrupted by a sneeze I still want to commend the the elementary students who are working on finding um um recess in middle school they are working really hard and they're thinking things through they they understand that scheduling is important they understand supervision is important and I'm really I can't wait to hear more from them they were
170awesome their parents were awesome um also had an opportunity to kind of correct things with uh some misunder understandings about code red code red is still in our is still one of our our things it's the first thing on our our weather um closing uh list we if you go to pwcs.edu and just type in weather you can find the inclement weather code code red still exists there is no Code Orange replacing it um but I had to have a little conversation to make sure people understood that Code Orange is own kind of little category uh code red will still stand if the weather's horrible we we aren't we aren't going anywhere so I just want to make sure people people get that and understand it um had my 35th class reunion I'm a graduate
171from osor Park High School and uh this week we got to honor Michael Foley so I'm going to read to you the honor he got uh it says Michael Foley has been the voice of yellow jackets announcing the home football game since 1986 his I iconic calls of there being laundry on the field and extra mustard don't do it as well as him on the hot dogs have been synonymous with Osborne Park football in addition to his volunteering in the Press Box coach Foley had a long and successful career as a teacher and a coach at Osborne Park for his successes involved uner time he was awarded the vhsl region 6D Award of Merit in 2018 for his dedication and commitment to osor Park High School over the last 47 years from this day forward
172October 27th 2023 the Press Box at alcro Stadium will be forever named Michael Foley press boox it's a fitting honor for this man he is awesome he is part of the he's just he is Osborne Park uh last thing I want to um basically address is we heard many many teachers come in uh I very moving stories um don't know quite what to say I I I I kind of sit here with Mr wil with some similar thoughts I'm sure but I do want to remind people that we have a section of our collective bargaining resolution 9B it says all collective bargaining shall only occur between the parties respective bargaining collect collective bargaining teams the school board is not on the the bargaining team I just want to remind people that because um we we
173do empathize thank you Miss Jackson right thank you last meeting I was unable to provide remarks during the meeting over this month I attended many events from homecoming games cheer competition field hockey game Title One Night an event car show at Patriot High School for the benefit Unified sports and saw some trunk and treaters great events great conversations pwcs recognizes October as National bullying prevention month I was reviewing the website earlier today to prepare for a post for resources for parents staff and students as I had some constituents reach out to me over the last few weeks about the world events and humanitarian crisis this month for me serves as a reminder to reflect to try and put ourselves in another's shoes I have been very open more open than I have ever been about
174having a disability and that as a special educator I love and serve my students I've disclosed my hearing loss either to break down barriers or to receive an accommodation when I was in my master's program we discussed the council for exceptional children's special education professional ethical principles they include protecting and supporting individuals upholding ethics and not tolerating and engaging in practice that harms individuals as a current and practicing special educator I take my role as an advocate seriously ableism is the discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities it can be imitating speech it can be purposely preventing access it could be saying that person doesn't look disabled and it can be posting on someone's Social Media Adele did you hear us at the school board meeting yeah I heard you and I know full
175well that I have told you that I'm heard of hearing so I heard the message of lack of Tolerance and respect that you were conveying in your post as a human I can tone the cheek again but that post was blatant and public and as a special educator and parent I cannot ignore the apparent disrespect this post was purposeful and disrespectful and you may think you were just attacking me and just attacking my disability but you were not I am thankful for those who've remained consistent advocates for the Educators that have reached out to me the family the staff sitting here and fellow board members I am proud of the Educators who come and speak with suggestions and conviction however if there's a systemic concern for the association has the fundamental responsibility to Advocate not
176wait until negotiations and an election but follow proper channels and Advocate with haste I spent some of my time during the collective bargaining vote over a year ago expressing my concerns about how collective bargaining would impact my ability to advoc at for my fellow special Educators and teachers my fellow Educators in general I had the hope and desire to see collective bargaining flourish but I was worried that my role would change with my vote although it can appears my concerns are valid I completely understand that there are real frustrations and concerns and there is a need to build and improve the school system in the spirit of this month I go worried about the tone and topics conveyed tonight and I hope we can move forward and negotiate I am thankful for those who came
177out and spoke tonight to those who stayed and I wish everyone a good night and love and respect and that we may all walk in each other's shoes thank [Applause] you thank you Miss Jackson Miss wall all right so I'll start on major note and end with a minor cord it's it's been a busy time of year um some of the places that I've been um Sinclair Elementary School advisory Council followed by Hispanic Heritage Month Al the elementary Trunk or Treat will run V Reagan soccer game Battlefield High School counseling advisory committee meeting Unity Braxton and unity reads pyramid orchestra concert um field hockey for Battlefield High School regionals for cheerleading and First Responders day at Patriot Pace West for their Fall Festival at Gravely Elementary for Halloween bingo Mullen for glow Bingo ask me
178about that later and battlefields pink out football game Sudley Elementary's first ever fall festival and battlefields Vota band assessment I love how much Community involvement we have from everybody at all these events that I've been to and I know students appreciate your support now to my minor chord I appreciate the comment shared tonight um we've heard some moving stories and grievances from some of our um dedicated teachers I'm glad that we can provide a forum for teachers to make their grievances heard the fact remains however that pwa is the only organization that has the power to Advocate on their or any other teachers behalf the union Representatives know that their that the negotiations as they agreed occur not here here but at the bargaining table where they currently sit reflecting on the last 6 months
179of meetings the tactics designed to Rally Community sympathy and shame board members into doing what the union wants have been persistent and at times ugly and those tactics have had in my observation precisely the opposite of their intended effect the tactics are alienating decision makers staff parents and community members who otherwise support the union seat at the table for those who did not support collective bargaining the tactics used by this Union in this boardroom and in other public fora are case in point for their opposition to the Casual Observer over the past 6 months pwa has confirmed many of the negative stereotypes they have they have of organized labor what has come out of this collective bargaining process so far is a whole lot of negativity and not much else moreover Union leadership's bullying tactics
180are direct ly undermining our strategic commitment to positive climate and culture with an astonishing lack of self-awareness the union would have you lay that blame at the feet of the school division going forward we should constructively discuss what we have learned from our experience over the last year we should look at how collective bargaining process has played out we should ask ourselves has collective bargaining helped us meet our strategic goals of positive climate and culture and student achievement most importantly we must ask whether at the end of the day this process actually benefits our students and staff since that is ultimately what we're all about for those seven or eight of you still here with us tonight who didn't get up and leave after public comment any or anybody who is still up and listening
181to the live stream you who are working so hard every day to do your part in accomplishing our division goals and helping students be the best that they can be thank you we value you we value what you do and so do your students thank you Miss wall um okay um um you yeah have did you sure miss Jesse uh you know tonight uh I've been a principal for 20 years and if any principal is taken away way duty-free lunch from teachers you need to stop it I don't know I you know as a principal I've done no survey but I will tell you that principls in my estimation generally follow the rule we were afraid as all get out to not give people their lunch period And I always provided lunch for my teachers
182and if we had you you have emergencies we're in a different time uh they don't have the subs to cover but if you don't have Subs to cover you need to wake make a way for those teachers to find an extra time for them to have lunch or to compensate them in some way so I don't know what I know Dr McDade and I know that she has done something when she heard this because she's as concerned about these teachers as I am and it bothers me that I saw all these teachers crying saying that we're taking away your lunch I don't know again I don't know very many principles who are bold enough to not follow regulation we're afraid of regulations and every teacher at my school had lunch I celebrate teachers I I'm
183not sure where I am with pwa but I will tell you these cups and these Donuts are not just I'm not doing that for for a small reason I'm doing it because I love teachers and I know how hard you work work and I know you work overnight and I know you do planning time at your tables I went to a teacher's house and she had so much stuff on her table I thought oh my God she's never going to have see her family but everybody on this board and everybody at central office you know I know you work extra hours too all of us work extra hours and I'm not saying that that's what we all should do but I do say that whatever we do we need to look at teachers and celebrate
184them and for God's sake don't take away their lunch and I don't think that they do their planning time work it out you know there's a way to work it out and I'm not beating up on principles because I know them I've worked with them for 20 years and I know that they they they value teachers and those people who had complaints tonight I would like for you to let your principal know or let Dr McDade know about your concerns thank you and I hope that that's not out of order the lawyer is over there he said Lily I don't know but everybody else spoke and I decided I had a right to speak to and it bothered me tonight that I had people crying saying you're taking away my lunch I don't know who
185those principles are but you need to stop it thank you Miss Jesse um okay well let me change topics here a bit um we had um last night was early decision applications some of the deadlines for some of the universities I'm encouraging all our seniors to continue filling out applications common apps regular General Admissions still early admission schools still have deadlines coming up make sure you're getting all your work done and in and um encourage I know the delay there's a delay on the FAFSA application this year but stay keep looking at your portals to make sure you're on top of that and filling that out had some great opportunities to see some playoff um field hockey and volleyball this past uh week and uh it's been very exciting I think our sports teams are
186doing fabulous um very excited to see all the great excitement out there congratulations Osborne Park and Garfield they inaugurated their new tur Fields op right new turfield yeah turfield at op and Garfield and um and and those look fabulous and I know the alumni associations at both those schools um have reached out to me and told me how excited they are to have those fields um regarding this even and and actually the course of The Last 5 Years you know I ran for this office I chose to be on the school board and I committed to four areas that I believe this School Division should work on and that is Student Success salaries space and infrastructure and Safety and Security and each of those four categories peaked in importance at different points in these five
187years whether we had to deal with school shootings and security and anxiety and the community of what to do and and how to keep our teachers feeling safe safe from threats from students that you heard tonight safe from threats of outside threats and guns being brought to school safe from drug use all of those things we have worked on we have invested in we have implemented programs and protocols and procedures will they be perfect I don't know we have um some of these Pro problems are historic require constant work and continuous Improvement and we continue to do that regarding salaries you know I believe teachers are vastly underpaid that's how it is Nationwide um our society chooses to fund schools with a tax structure that does not permit teachers to um get a salary that
188I believe they deserve which is why I fought for cash and money for the school division over the last five years and working with chair wheeler and our our Governors both mlli north and um Governor yunan yunan provided a a record budget last year and I commend him on that and a lot of that went to salaries we have to keep doing that work um and and that helps a lot with the way um teachers perceive their value um I try to thank them as much as possible we do it with our letters with our emails we do it with uh our public thriving Futures Focus we're doing it constantly and and I'm committed to that effort when it comes to space and infrastructure you just saw a great new school that's coming um you
189know the space benefits both the students and the staff and we're continuing to try to do that and and we have good buildings here we have older ones we have work that we need to do we have committed to do that over the last five years and um you know Student Success that is our goal that is our core mission that is our Core Business that is the work that I've been absolutely committed to tonight you saw another great example of us adding more rigorous courses we have put together a plan to to come out of this pandemic to recover from it to build from it and I'm very confident in Dr mcdade's leadership the Strategic plan and everything that goes into it and this board and I can vouch for every single member of
190this board has listened has heard over the course of the four and five years I've been on this board and has a clear conscience of what they believe in and votes they're conscious every time because they believe everything we do does have a benefit for everyone in the school division we may not get to where everybody wants to get to today tomorrow or even next year but it's you know what we're doing and as you heard collective bargaining is something that is done at the table at the negotiating table and that's where uh we will leave it for our teams to continue to work and hash out the things we believe will help all of our teachers and as as much as we can afford with the resources we have and so I as chairman
191will continue to advocate for more money for schools to allow us to do more things um but we will rely on our Administration to operationalize all the policies and procedures and the Strategic plan that we have to make sure our students succeed and we'll do that with Fidelity and I can tell you that every day I'm out there I talk to teachers I talk to folks they love our schools people love our schools Prince County school is a destination School District people are coming here they want to work here and I'm excited to be a part of it and we're going to keep making it better thank you very much at that point meeting is adjourned