Prince William County School Board Meeting - October 18, 2023

001I would like to call the Prince William County school board meeting to order um notice of electronic participation pursu to Schoolboard policy 139 Schoolboard member participation in meetings by electronic communications Schoolboard member Adele Jackson will participate in this meeting through electronic means from her home Doo a medical condition that prevents her physical attendance the clerk will so note in the minutes of the meeting a motion is now in order um for the approval of the many meeting agenda uh Vice chair wall Mr chairman yes I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting meeting agenda as recommended do we have a second Mr chairman Mrs araport second any discussion please vote the vote is six yes one not present a vote one absent Ralston motion pass okay moving on to motion enter

002close session a motion in order Vice chair wall Mr chairman I move that pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 and 2.2 D 3712 the Prince William County School Board enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss with staff the appointment transfer release assignment performance and promotion of specific officers and employees pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 1 A1 two to review a disciplinary matter 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 a 2 and 8 three to discuss with division Council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving collective bargaining and specific staff and students under Virginia code sections 2.2 3711

003a 7 and 8 and four to discuss and receive briefings by staff members related to the security of school facilities the safety of persons using such facilities and actions taken 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 M AR second any discussion please vote oh you Miss J Miss Jackson my apologies how do you vote um I vote Yes and I'll put it in board dos too you're the best outstanding Miss Jackson votes yes and she's putting in board dos this is great maybe can all do that when you're at home the vot schard member seven yes one okay and at this time the Prince Will County Schoolboard will enter

004closed session [Music] he the Prince William County School Board will now um re-enter Open session from Clos session at this time uh close session certification is uh in order Miss Vice chair wall 8.01 Mr chairman I move that pursuant to Virginia code 2.2 3712 the closed session of the Prince William County Schoolboard meeting of October 18th 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 Mr

005chairman do I have a second Mr chairman have a second we have Echo yeah right um I'll second any discussion please vote can we have um Jim the feedback the vote is s yes one absent Ron motion pass R motion pass okay let me see if we'll move on to um move on to close session action items Miss wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County school board approved the appointment M ments and releases of specific employees as presented in closed session do I have a second Mr chairman M Zar second okay any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent rosson motion passed moving on to 9.02 a motion is in order Vice shair wall Mr chairman I move that for the reasons set forth in the student management and

006alternative programs Department's SM mapd letter of September 20th 2023 the Prince willm County Schoolboard approved smap PD's recommendation to reassign student SRH 24-42 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 Williams I second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent rson motion passed that wraps up Clos session action items at this point we will have Fernanda morante our student who's a senior at Forest High School our school board rep for this evening um stud rep lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please stand pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all okay thank

007you uh moving on to the adoption of the consent agenda 12.01 Vice chair wall oh are we doing that yeah we are doing that I'm sorry why I missed that I'm sorry hold up we're going to do our thriving future focus and tonight it is that time to do it and tonight our thriving Futures Focus which is an opportunity to highlight the exemplary work being accomplished in our schools that 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 recognizing students 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 William County Public Schools

008and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments before we begin I want to recognize the retirement of our esteemed colleague who has dedicated many years of service to our school district on behalf of the school board and with our extended gratitude we bid a f Bond farewell to Mr John Wallingford for committing nearly 30 years here in Prince William County schools in 2019 John was named the Chief Financial Officer and has Faithfully served as an integral part of our school community and success as a county John's commitment to Excellence and unwavering dedication will great be greatly missed and we kindly request John's family to stand and be recognized for their wavering support throughout their loved ones career let's give him a round of applause and congratul to our retire [Music]

009[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] re congratulations John I invite you to share a few words with us John if you want to share some words Dr Latif members of the board and Dr McDade uh just a brief comment 30 years is a long time it's a long time and I I want to thank you Dr Latif I want to thank you for friendship and and the relationship that we've that I've had with all board members Dr McDade thank you for all your support and thank you to my wife and my younger daughter who are here with me tonight um who really supported me over the past 30 Years thank you all very much [Applause] [Music] [Applause] much I you know I I I noted this earlier um at dinner and I think it's important

010for the public to recognize John took over as Chief Financial Officer probably during the most turbulent time in Prince William County History we saw um um a trans you know we saw a transition in new Financial systems we saw the pandemic hit the school school division like it did Nation wide we transitioned to a new superintendent after many years uh 15 years with Dr Waltz and now with Dr mcade we have um seen enormous uh improvements in our relationship with the bard of County Supervisors and the staff here at the school division has worked so closely with the staff over there to really create a um a pathway for successful relationships that have resulted in significant increase in funding for our school Division and I think John Wallingford is a big part of that and

011I think the school board um you know can't be any more grateful and would be glad to call you a friend for life and we we thank you for everything Mr Wallingford and for your family for sharing you with us for all these years thank you once again thank [Music] you at this time I'll just miss Jesse hi John I know you're going to miss me because I asked all those stupid questions and I recall when we were on during the pandemic you were at the beach and I called you with a one of those questions one of those Lily Jesse questions and you were so relax I don't know if you were relaxed or just saying why is she calling me but I just want to thank you for everything that you've done this

012financial system has always been an award-winning system and personally I just love working with you and I just thank you for everything that you've done thank you thank you Miss Williams thank you Dr Latif um I just want to say along with Liam probably the second longest tenure board member up here and um I appreciate your leadership and your service um same response all of the many questions as many who have watched and followed me on my journey a finance was not my favorite subject by any means when I first sat on on the seat but I can definitely say that I've learned a lot and I appreciate the time and your expertise and your guidance um it is had a tremendous impact on my ability to govern and also I think the Public's understanding

013patience that you've had with the questions making answers easily comprehendable um to people who are not familiar with finance and and just the guidance and I will generally miss working and collaborating with you and it's been a truly an honor and a pleasure to um be able to call you a friend as well so I wish you well on your next chapter Vice chair W Mr Wallingford um I've only been able to work with you for the past four years or almost four years but my earliest memory is asking you a thousand questions about the budget because that was the first thing that you know we did um as new board members and you were awesome in answering every question that I asked you and not only that you would off and say that is

014an excellent question which I really appreciated cuz I knew this is a dumb question and I feel dumb but you were always so polite and you were always um willing to spend the time especially in those early my early months as a board member to get me up to speed on budget everything budget so I you know that's my earliest memory of you um but thank you so much I know your family's going to enjoy having you around more um and we're going to miss not having you around but um you know best wishes for retirement and thank you so much for the impact you've had on all the children staff and community members in Prince County Schools miss araport Mr Wallingford um I Echo the same sentiments as Miss wall um I when we

015first came on I remember we had a long conversation about budget and understanding the ins and outs and and um I I think um it it's it's been an outstanding career you've been an amazing part of Prince William County schools you leave quite the Legacy behind in the uh I'm hearing things go off there um in the standards of excellence that you leave behind I'm going to miss our conversations because I learned a lot from you and um I I hope you pass that on to your grandchildren wil so I'll take a different angle because I think I'm the only one that also has um uh a child who had your amazing wife as a teacher and um and you know from that perspective I often always say you know I am only who I

016am because of my wife who lets me go out all the time and I know uh your wife is a steadfast supporter of you our school system and the kindergarten students she took care of and cherished for many years and so as I got to know you I also saw another side of you through your amazing wife and family so I thank you and her for your service to our school system Miss Jackson thank you Mr wallf I I'm so sorry I couldn't be there tonight to help send you off and celebrate you your kindness and your willing to help I I really appreciate um so much it helped me serve brinville and all of BR County better and um really grateful for your service and I wish you all the luck on your next

017chapter thank you again for your service thank you Miss Jackson and then last comment I'll make is is the um um during the pandemic and you know it was um you know I I have to say that you know John was one of the pillars that the School Division was B able to stand on and to get us through some of the very toughest times um in in education in America and we can't be any more grateful for that um John I invite you and your family up here we'll take a photo it'll be an honor and a privilege and then but but first superintendent Dr MCD thank you Mr chairman um John I want to congratulate you on your much well-deserved retirement um my transition into Prince William County was that much uh more

018smooth and easier because of you you have led with such integrity and fiscal responsibility in service to students to families to schools in our community um job well done we will certainly miss you I will miss you and all of our chats thank you for sharing your family with with me with us um I remember when Matthew was born and and you coming in as a proud po and sharing all of the photos um I when I learned that Mrs Wallingford was retiring u i all I could think of when you announced your retirement is now that she gets to have you fulltime every day I don't know if you know that's always what she might want she's looking at me she giving me the side eye um but no seriously I know that um

019I know how much uh of a family man you are and I know that because of how much pride you have and how much you share share your family with us and so I'm excited for you to have rest and relaxation because you work so incredibly hard and you deserve this time in this new chapter to spend with your family and to enjoy it so rest have fun enjy because you earned it and we will truly miss you in Prince William County Public Schools thank you John you could join us up front it' be an honor for us to have a photo with you and your family s okay well thank you now let's shift our Focus to the outstanding achievements of our schools tonight the school board will recognize nine Prince William public schools

020that have earned recognition as the 2023 America's healthiest schools by the alliance for a healthier generation a leading Children's Health Organization for over 15 years healthier generation has worked with schools youth serving organizations businesses communities and families to promote Health Equity environments that support whole child health their work has impacted 31.1 million children across the country by increasing access to nutritious Foods highquality physical activity social emotional support and tobacco-free environments this highly regarded annual distinction is awarded for demonstrating exceptional efforts to prioritize the Essential Health needs of the school Community these nine schools meet or exceed best practice standards in one or more topic areas related to the physical mental and social emotional health of students teachers and staff We Begin our recognition in Miss Adele Jackson's brentville district and um because she's at home

021I will uh read her remarks this evening the brinville district is proud to recognize Buckland Mills Elementary School Piney Branch Elementary School and Victory Elementary School when I call your name please wave so we can see you we have Buckland Mills Elementary School represented tonight by minaki edra no no did I say that right no odedra o I was better just reading the name than the um the thing okay minaki aidra Piney Branch Elementary is represented by principal Steven Thorne and assistant principal Monica soers in Victory Elementary School is represented by principal Chad Ray Jessica Kaiser school counselor and Carol mcquillin fifth grade teacher congratulations to all of you okay now next the Cole's District Miss Lisa araport please introduce our award-winning schools thank you Dr Latif the Kohl's District would like to recognize Bennett

022Elementary School and Parkside Middle School Bennett Elementary School is represented by principal Michelle posel administrators Candace Schwarz and Stephanie Baron and fourth grade teacher Kristen Thorp yay Parkside Middle School is represented tonight by principal Aon Mera lead coach M hold on I had to turn the page gaspari and the director of School counseling Caroline Young congratulations to both schools thank you Mrs arore I invite the Woodbridge District representative Miss Lorie Williams to speak on behalf of her schools thank you Mr chairman with great honor Woodbridge would like to recognize Kilby element Elementary School representing Kilby Elementary School we have um assistant principal Amy Tuthill and school counselor Jennifer Hart congratulations congrats thank you Miss Williams Mr Justin wil of the pomac district thank you Mr chairman is my on my behalf of the pic District

023it is honor to recognize both Ashlin Elementary School and Montclair Elementary School two schools that my own children attended Ashlin Elementary School is represented tonight by principal Anna housworth Shaina Robinson assistant principal andal coaches Crystal Watt and Elizabeth [Music] Ry Monclair Elementary School is represented by principal Tim Slater and assistant principal Danny Miller congratulations both of you wonderful thank you Mr wil from the aawan district Mrs Lily Jesse thank you Dr Le the aquan district would like to recognize Marshall Elementary School Marshall Elementary School is represented tonight by Dr Sydney Cindy CL kayas kitas I think I got that right and by assistant principal Michael duger Katie sharp school counselor and Cynthia Cole's fourth grade teacher congratulations wonderful to and congratulations to all our award recipients at this time I'd like to ask Miss Denise

024hner associate superintendent for student services and postsecondary success to step forward and share a few words on behalf of our nine distinguished schools Miss heer thank you good evening chairman Latif Vice chair wall members of the board and Dr McDade I'm actually really excited to be here to celebrate this group so what you see behind me are people who stepped up when the call came to say we need our children to be well and that starts with with staff being well and they took advantage of this awesome opportunity so I have some remarks that I'm going to go ahead and read but I just wanted to recognize that you are very much appreciated so on behalf of the nine schools being honored for the recognition as America's healthiest schools we thank you for the opportunity

025to come before you this evening the alliance for healthier Generations is a prestigious annual recognition program which honors schools for implementing best practices to support mental physical and social emotional health needs of their Learning Community for both staff and for students awardees must meet criteria in the thriving schools integrated assessment which is an evidence-based information informed tool that helps schools identify strengths and opportunities for improving policies and practices to Advance Health and learning with an integrated approach Prince William County School's awardees were recognized in eight categories ashin school for staff well-being Bennett Elementary School physical education physical activity social emotional health learning and staff well-being Buckland Mills Elementary family and Community engagement as well as staff well-being Kilby Elementary School was recognized for family and Community engagement nutrition and food access health education physical education

026and physical activity social emotional health and learning staff well-being and school health services Marshall Elementary School was recognized for family and Community engagement health education physical education and physical activity as well as staff well-being Montclair Elementary School is recognized for social emotional health and learning Parkside Middle School was recognized for Social otal Health social emotional health and learning as well as staff well-being Piney Branch Elementary School was recognized for family and Community engagement nutrition and food access local wellness policy health education physical education and physical activity social emotional health and learning as well as staff wellbeing Victory Elementary school was recognized for family and Community engagement health education physical education and physical activity social emotional health and learning staff well-being and school health services additionally on October 13th and 14th healthier Generations gathered School representatives

027in Washington DC for the America's healthiest schools leader Summit to honor awardees who met criteria in four or more of the topic areas we're very proud to recognized Kilby Elementary School that had seven topics awarded Piney Branch out yeah clap for that it's like a really good thing and not to be left behind Piney Branch Elementary with seven topics as well Victory Elementary had six topics awarded and Marshall Elementary had four topics awarded the amazing work that's happening in our school of across the division in implementing best practices by supporting the physical mental and social emotional needs of our staff and students is being led by our social emotional learning coaches these coaches are dedicated instructional staff members who believe in creating a positive and inclusive learning environment for our staff and students that it's

028a building block for creating academic success we must recognize um several of our important um team members all of our team members are important but a special recognition to Von Thomas who's our Prince Willam heels administrative coordinator who supports our coaches and as she continues to work collaboratively with our Kaiser prman and the alliance for healthier generations to enhance best practices um in supporting the mental health of our staff and students also want to recognize supervisor Heather wi who is also a leader in this initiative thank you so much for recognizing these nine healthy America's healthiest schools this evening their contributions and support of social emotional stewardship helps the division move forward toward meeting its goals for inclusivity wellness and belonging together we are all launching thriving Futures by providing a welcoming and supportive and

029safe environment for teaching and learning we are moving from healing to thriving thank you thank you Miss hner with all the will all those involved in supporting our nine schools including family members stand in recognition of their support we have any family members here okay anyways I'm going to clap again congratulations again to our nine recipients of the 2023 America's healthiest schools by the alliance for a healthier generation before taking a few pictures Dr McDade would like to share a few words Dr McDade thank you so much chairman I am incredibly proud to recognize our nine pwcs schools as 2023 America's healthiest schools by the alliance for a healthy generation and since only 10 schools were recognized in Virginia it is truly an honor that our schools claim nine of those 10 spots for each

030of you your work reflects the important and outstanding work of social emotional learning coaches and staff throughout the School Division as we work toward ensuring a positive and caring environment in every single school thank you so much for your hard work thank you for your leadership um thank you to all of our building leaders our principles for being here and supporting um your coaches that have been working so incredibly hard and your entire staff We Salute You thank you Dr McDade great remarks at this time I'd like to request our honores come forward for a photo with the school board and receive a small token of appreciation we'll start with the first photo that includes Piney Branch Bennett Victory and Buckland Mills the second photo will be Ashlin Monclair Kilby Marshall and Parkside so again

031the first one Piney Branch Bennett Victory and buckin Mills than trous every time e [Music] EX okay at this time we'll move on to 12.01 adoption of consent agenda motions in order Vice chair wall sorry all right Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended do I have a second Mr chair M Williams I second any discussion okay please vote the vote is seven yes one absent motion passed okay very good moving on to Citizen common time the citizens who've signed up in advance with the clerk May address the school board this evening when they're called to the podium the citizen common period for regular school board meetings is 1 hour and citizens may speak on agenda items or other topics gerain to the

032operations and policies of Prince William County schools please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium you'll be asked to step aside we ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and refrain from any clapping cheering or jering to avoid disruption 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 signed up to speak when I call your name please come up to the podium and state your name and address for the record I will call the first five and they can grab a seat up front uh Jared gay Carl gr greton Sophia Cruz Amanda laer and Michelle rert Jared gay my name is Megan Landis and my address is on file with

033the clerk okay my name is really Jared gay Megan Landis is my wife I feel like I needed to state that explicitly since the the school board and their clerk denied her request to speak tonight insisting that the request form that she filled out with her name her phone number and her email address was obviously an accidental duplicate request by me they insisted it was a duplicate after she called and verified that she was in fact not me pretending to have a wife so that I could sneak back up here and speak a second time but then again perhaps at the school board were afforded adequate staff and by adequate I mean like more than one uh then mistakes like that wouldn't happen as a matter of fact I was just talking about this with

034Justin wil last week when we were uh handing out candidate flyers and sample ballots during early voting I even told Justin and I mean this I told Justin that Schoolboard members should be paid a full-time salary so that they can fully direct their time and professional energy towards their elected roles I I fundamentally believe that all elected officials should if that were the case maybe Justin wouldn't have been so obviously miserable and out flyers last week cursing under his breath about how he had just come from his full-time job and didn't want to be there then maybe he also would never have to feeled questions about conflicts of interest considering that the divisions purchased educational materials from his full-time employer but you know what that's a side point my point is I know that you

035can relate Justin especially I know that you can relate to the ne negative effect that being overworked has on a person's morale so imagine how you'd feel if you did not receive the $26,000 stien that comes with being on the school board that's how your employees and our schools feel every day but just like you put a smile on your face the other day and shook hands with voters despite being tired and miserable the Educators you employ suck it up and try with all of their might to greet students with a smile day in day out hoping Against All Odds and outward appearances that you'll take pity on them and stop forcing them to work without being paid trusted or respected after all Lisa zapor receives a stien from Fairfax County schools for the after

036school duties that she performs in Fairfax not to mention the $26,000 stien for her seat on our school board yet the contract proposed by the highly play paid lawyers on her bargaining team denies stiens for after school duties to the majority of her employees honestly I'd love to know how she can justify that I don't even know what else to say at this point for two years we've tried to make you care about your employees about your students being chronically underserved or about even your own political prospects for reelection none of it has moved you Carl greton good evening I'm Carl greton of the Gainesville District hot off the presses from the Associated Press is the V Virginia Beach school system has adopted Governor Yan's proposals we hope the Prince County will do the same

037attending Schoolboard meetings I've heard many complaints there have not been many solutions if there have been solutions to the progress to that end please let the public know with the emergency of low staff numbers and low student scores it is unfathomable that the school superintendent and School Board cannot come up with a way to raise money in a county of 500,000 people there must be Financial gurus that will help with the situation here are a couple of my thoughts fungible money and data center Equity Funds are sources of income regarding the Board of Supervisors funable money after talking with Lor Williams of the Woodbridge District I decided to search for funds Prince William County funds have been reallocated from the remaining balance of the American Rescue plan act why do we not see money allocated

038to the school system which was directly affected by coid and mental issues does the Board of Supervisors talk to the school board would the reot me have been better served given to the school system since February the 28th of February 23 the Prince William County Board of Supervisors had resolutions to spend 4, 864,000 $ 635 or dollars on neabsco holiday lights an Emergency Operations Center renovation purchase of one bookmobile construction of a segment of the bomic Heritage National Scenic Trail a Judicial Center HVAC project and purchase of a piece of equipment for the community accessible vivarium that's an animal observation a municipal utility relief in Fairfax County the Amazon housing Equity Fund has invested 118 .2 million into affordable housing in total over $1 billion in loans and grants have been committed to affordable housing

039initiatives in the northern Virginia and Washington DC areas through their housing Equity Fund a list of projects can be found on the Amazon housing Equity Funds website why can't we set up this type of fund for teacher pay related to Data Center profit regarding burning books why do people want to get rid of books on the 20th September 23 Prince Schoolboard comment time the akaan district Democrat candidate Mr Jesse said some want to tell us what we can and cannot read you as parents can determine what your kids are allowed to read the problem occurs when teachers read books that are not in the program of study is this saying Mr Mr Jesse does not want to get rid of indecent books from the school libraries what parents align with this nonsense who chooses what

040types topics of murder rape violence RAC IST and pornographic topics that are allowed in school what is next supporting barbarism Florida law because we've already heard about Virginia law requires that all library books selected be free of pornography and material prohibited thank you Mr greton n sorry next time sofhia Cruz hi my name is safia Cruz and I'm and my address is on file I sign up to speak tonight because I am basically an expert not only am I a student in Prince William County my mom is a teacher of Prince William County schools I see with my own eyes how the the choices that the school board and superintendent make impact life at school and my life at home and I am here to tell you that both have been harmed by the changes

041over the past couple of years students see that so many of the teachers they loved are no longer there they have either quit teaching or gone to a different District students see when their class is way bigger because there aren't enough teachers students see when their buses are always late because there aren't enough bus drivers students see when our teachers are always tired and frustrated because they don't have time to do all of the new stuff that they are making them do students see when their teachers are wiping tears from their eyes after school meetings students see when their teachers don't get their to eat their lunch because they're either pulled to a meeting or trying to finish paperwork students see when their bookcases are empty in their classroom because the teachers aren't allowed to

042have books unless they censor them students see all of this please try to put yourself in my shoes I SP spend all day with teachers who are too exhausted and too stressed out because of all of the new work they have to do I spend all evening with a parent who is exhausted and stressed out because of the new work they have to finish I keep hearing the teachers should accept all of this because they should do it for the students stop saying that this doesn't help us students it doesn't help it doesn't help us at school and it doesn't help us at home please give our teachers and our parents their lives back if you won't do it for them then please do it for the students and me Amanda loer good evening my

043name is Amanda lock my address is on file I'm here today with another real life situation you see I wholeheartedly believe in being judged by a jury of my peers last school Year my son was excluded from 22 out of 43 social studies assignments AKA lessons 22 excluded from over 50% of the curriculum and he earned an a when this was brought to my attention I brought it to the state after waiting for Prince William County to self-correct the issue Prince William County was found non-compliant with federal and state regulations and told to create a corrective action plan to ensure that my son receives any compensatory services to which he is entitled excluded from 22 out of 43 assignments what is he owed you would think it would be simple right what do you think

044he was offered 10 hours you see according to someone he only missed 17 not 22 even though the grade book and a Foye Quest showed that is was explained that out of those 17 four would be covered in sixth grade and three would be covered in seventh grade so there was no need to compensate him for those lessons a total of 10 hours to make up 22 lessons I'm having troubl making sense of this 43 lessons in the fifth grade curriculum took a school year to provide to all of the students in the Gen end classroom there were 178 school days last year I'm going to use 160 days for my purposes because of Hol and parties and stuff like that let's say social studies lessons are 45 minutes to an hour using simple math

045divide 160 school days by 43 lessons this would equate to 3.7 days spent on each lesson now I'm going to go faster some go faster than others so I'm going to use 2.7 days for my mathematical purposes If I multiply 2.75 by 22 lessons I'm faced with a total of 60 days take the 60 days multiply it by 45 minutes I get a total of 2700 minutes divide the 2700 minutes by 60 Minutes I get a total of 45 hours my son was offered 10 can someone please make that make sense I told one of your KLC employees many months ago that I like to help people teams organizations in the background I like to fly behind the scene I really do that does not mean that I will not and cannot fly in the

046Forefront what I didn't tell you last time I was here when I buried my mom is that I buried her on top of my dad that was murdered when I was five both retired DC police officers we were raised to help always air on the side of what is right no matter who what where when or why justice will prevail you see some of us come from Humble homes with sad stories we are not trying to impress or be better than anyone we just want change want to change the storyline of those coming behind us thank you Michelle rer my name is Michelle rert and my address is on file on September 20th we witnessed a moment of Celebration as you extended your congratulations to the Osborne Park magicals and the kogan high school philarmonic

047for their remarkable achievement in earning repeat performances at the vmea conference in Richmond next month these students have undoubtedly participated in numerous extra musical activities and their directors rightfully receive a stipend of $2,745 which though lower than surrounding counties is a recognition by you of the additional hours they invest in these extra activities that extend not only Beyond regular school hours but even into weekends but what most people probably don't know is that there's another group of directors who are just as dedicated and invest just as much time as their High School counterpart Parts these are the middle school band Orchestra and choir directors they participate in the same events but without the support of parent booster organizations to share the workload parents do you know what the stip in for a Middle School director

048in fairfox county is Lisa does it's $4,699 and do you know what it is in Prince William it's zero it's important to acknowledge that while some directors rece receive a club level stipend from their principles this is yet another inconsistent and site-based decision across this County these stipend fall significantly short of recognizing the extensive hours we Middle School directors invest inside and outside of our workday as well as the fact that we're not merely running clubs we continue to provide comprehensive music instruction during our personal time easily averaging 125 hours annually even at the uninstructed rate that would be $4,000 we agree that winter and spring concerts are to be expected but all count auditions all count event District audition event assessment solo and Ensemble Junior Regional auditions Etc these go far beyond the scope

049of Duties as assigned in response to this inequity Middle School directors are uniting collectively with the majority refusing to work for free any longer it is important that the parents listening understand that we care deeply for their children and want them to make amazing musical memories during their time in middle school but we also believe that the school board is taking advantage of us it's time for a resounding call for fairness and equity for your middle school directors thank you for your attention and I hope that our concerns regarding compensation will be addressed this fiscal year or this year you might be listening to The Sound of Silence next five will be Thomas Robel Tanner Cruz Jane Coburn Richard Jesse and Jackson cherri Thomas Robel good evening Dr McDade distinguished board members my name is

050Thomas Robble I'm an attorney and I have been practicing law in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over 33 years beginning January 1 it will be 34 the reason I'm here tonight is to express some extreme frustration and concern over an event that occurred at Signal Hill Elementary School back on May 24th a Wednesday evening a teacher from that school went to the parking lot and found her car had been shot I've handed up a packet of material materials for you all to consider tonight if you look at the first two exhibits those are the pictures of that vehicle you can see the driver's side window has four shot marks in it and it's a close grouping you'll also notice that the car door has nothing on it and the rear door excuse me rear window

051has no marks on it it's my understanding that the teacher contacted security contacted the administrators and the police were called to this day I have no idea what has happened in regards to the police investigation one of my exhibits that I have provided to you is my letter or my email to the police department for a foyer request I was told that since I do not represent a party the only way they could give it to me is through a subpoena as an attorney I know this I anti anticipated this answer also Dr McDade back on August 15th I sent a letter to you personally raising my concerns about what happened on August 30th I received a letter from Mr Wade Anderson legal counsel I do not know Mr Anderson personally I do know people

052that do and he is highly respected by that that person but the letter that do uh Mr Anderson sent to me basically said I've referred it over to risk management and to the assistant superintendent and we consider this matter closed I am sorry that is not a good enough answer how would you all feel if your loved one was a teacher or had a student at that school and looked at that particular those particular exhibits that I put up there exhibits one one and two you can see the amount of force that would hit that window and shattered it four different places I can only imagine what would have happened if that was human skin or an eye to this day I do not know any protocols or safety procedures that have been put in

053place to protect the teachers or the the students to this day the parents have not been notified of this thank you Mr Rob thank you Tanner Cruz uh hi my name is Tanner Cruz my address is on file uh you see a lot of the same kinds of people speaking at the school board meetings month after month a lot of them are parents come and raise complaints about policies that disagree with or suggest reforms that could help their kids many of the taxpayers are disagreeing with reforms to the budget or whatnot and Pull It in their favorite political issues some are politicians themselves but for the last two years most of the speakers have been teachers bus drivers and other people who work in our schools personally begging you to treat them better and for

054the last 2 years they've been ignored my mother is one of them I have seen firsthand how disillusioned she and her colleagues have become I've seen how many times how many of them have no time for their families because every evening is spent trying to finish work that they are no longer given time during their day to finish and since their pay is stagnant or even lost ground to inflation a lot of them working minimum wage jobs every weekend so they can still afford the cost of living for their families in Prince County many of your employees are barely making a minimum minimum wage working for the school division but you already know this you crafted the policies and set the pay scale that causes your employees to struggle like this and at meeting after

055meeting they patiently explain how your decisions have harmed them their families and their students they beg you to include them in the decision-making process to compromise with the Union contract proposals and to pay them for all the work required from of them they have tried appealing to your sense of empathy they've tried logical explaining and all of the negative impacts that your decisions have they've extended the olive branch on more than one occasion and yet you guys continue to ignore them they've had silent protests and they're kind of getting a little peed off and a little desperate with what youall are doing uh at the end of the day I'm speaking because everything else your employees have tried has failed to move you I'm not going to tell you how to do your job but

056at the same time I don't think you are doing a good job but that's me personally if you like to focus if but I will focus on how it's impacted me with one simple request can y'all stop hurting my mom uh I can tell you for time and time again as long as I can remember being a student my mom's com home she does school workor and I will come out at 1 2 o' in the morning use the bathroom get something to drink and she's still sitting there clicking away on the computer what you should be doing when you come home from work is getting time to wind down from the rest of the day and not have to sit there and continue to stress about holy cow how am I going to do

057the next day what am I going to do to finish this you should actually be able to take time for your families and not constantly be moving moving moving moving moving that's all I got Jane Coburn um good evening members of the board superintendent McDade my name is Jane cob my address is file and I want to say a personal thank you to all of the children who are out here supporting us because they have seen what it's like living with a teacher so I appreciate that so today I had a salad and a muffin for lunch um and it seems a little strange to start a speech about what I had for lunch but I bet every member of the school board could tell me what they had for lunch and I'm willing to

058bet that every person who works in the Celly building could tell me what they had for lunch too um sadly there's a lot of Educators and other staff in the schools who didn't have a lunch break today they didn't have a few moments to themselves to be quiet to make a phone call or chat with peers instead they supervised students during their lunch and they went without planning because they were never relieved of Duty imagine working non-stop all day 7 hours in a high stress environment responsible for the lives of others without the chance to ever sit down and rest to eat or even go to the bathroom it doesn't seem right in fact it is in direct violation of schoolb policy which says teachers shall be provided with a dutyfree lunch and planning daily

059so how does it happen policies and regulations do exist to ensure lunch and planning every day so why are so many Educators forced to eat between lessons and supervise their students Non-Stop and forco paid planning time and the answer is very simple accountability when a policy is passed or a regulation is written there's no consequence to ignoring it or breaking it in fact regulations are written in a way that leaves plenty of wiggle room for administrators to break the policies the regulation for dutyfree lunch States every effort shall be made to provide teachers with a dutyfree lunch period every effort so when self-contained teachers for special education are not provided with their dutyfree lunch after day after day after day of it and they go to their administrator they're simply told every effort's been made

060and they just don't get their lunch break forget about asking for planning time after all if you can't get a lunch break and you rarely even get out of your out of your classroom to take a bathroom Blake why would you bother trying to insist on planning time because you know you're not going to get it is it any Wonder special education teachers burn out at a higher rate than other teachers and we can't fill those positions we have an empty position at my school right now it's been empty all year the division bargaining team refuses to add any Clauses to the contract that is already a regulation or policy yet the regulations and policies are not being implemented putting lunch in planning time in the contract makes it legally an obligation for the division

061that's the minimum we should be doing for our employees if you truly mean for every employee to have the right to a lunch and to planning regulations and policies aren't enough it needs to be in the contract because only when it's in the contract will it actually happen and until it's actually in the contract you're going to continue to have administrators who said did my best thank you m cobber Richard Jesse good evening my name is Richard Jesse my address is on file during the recent school board Forum an allegation was made that it will take at least 10 years for our County Schools to return to prepandemic science scores I researched the Virginia Department of Education vdoe website and found that the 2018 18 2019 is The Benchmark and at that time Prince William

062had a score of 81% in science based on the vooe data for three years since the pandemic our scores were 57 63 and 66 so for a 2-year gain that's about 9% however for the sake our arguments let's say that the for the future let's plan on 3% growth in each year even at this rate of improvement it should take only uh the county five years to reach the previous 81% level however the acaan district schools have shown a remarkable progress in science the recent release adjusted scores for our 10 acquin elementen schools has two of our schools at above 90% four of our schools above 81% three of our schools above 70% and one of the schools was below our Middle School was at 79% and our high school was at 70% no I

063am not satisfied that many of our Prince Williams schools are behind on pre-academic level but the aaan scores demonstrate the ability to make this a countywide short-term problem the job of a Schoolboard member is to ensure we have a superintendent who knows how to fix the problem I trust in Dr McDade in addition i' like to say that I saw we have a Department of Defense Education Activity Award that's going to be a grant of $1 million it seems like it's will be a two years before the pro it goes into effect but it will provide the development and deployment of a portable stem station that also should help the situation thank you very much CH Jackson Cherry um hello my name is Jackson Cherry my address is on file I am a seventh grade

064a student at B Middle School since the beginning of the school year I have not been able to access the music I usually listen to on my school device I usually I used to listen to music each morning in before school to help me get ready for my day then as a student with ADHD I when I had my teachers permission I listen to music while while completing my schoolwork because it helps me you stay focused but access to music on school devices has become more and more limited though oh the school throughout the school year more music and sites have been blocked according to the 1982 Supreme Court ruling in Schoolboard versus Pico students have the right to receive ideas and and learn as an inherent corollary right of free speech therefore students should

065have the legal right it to access information including music via our school laptops not having access to music is really important to me specifically because my mom is a teacher being a teacher kid is hard I'm at school 10 hours a day with sometimes even with 3 hours of nothing to do after I'm finished with my homework I wish my mom had more time for me to come home and play a music with my friends in my basement after school I don't like seeing my mom worried and stressed out about work all the time please Grant more access to music on school devices it would I would also like you to take away in my mom's extra work that keeps her at school late M make sure she has enough time during the school day

066to get grading and planning done or at least pay her more or so she can afford to buy me the guitar I want for Christmas snow day thank you Angel um the next five will be Angela hens Monica Seaman Maggie Hansford miles McCarthy Katie Jefferson Angela [Music] hens Angela hens okay Monica Seaman hello my name is Monica Seaman and my address is on file I have been a Lo a loyal pwcs teacher for almost 20 years and I've also been a parent of pwcs students both of my children attended Prince William County schools for 13 years a total of 17 years I do love this County but I'm tired I love my school but I'm tired I love all three of my supportive administrators but I'm tired I completely love all my students but I'm

067tired and I adore teaching but I'm so tired why am I tired I'm tired because on top of teaching students all day I'm working on getting my 14 hours of flex time finished even though I give endless hours of Free Labor planning grading professional development and preparing for the next day I'm tired because I have to figure out how to input those Flex hours into time for school I'm tired because I have at least 25 to 30 hours of required professional development to finish on my own time for example I'm still working I'm on module 4 on the 5H hour Universal Divi design learning PD but I shouldn't have to do it on my own time and I do deserve compensation for my work I'm tired because I'm trying to figure out how to turn

068an in-person lesson into a virtual lesson with short notice on Code Orange days and with the youngest of students can Garts who have never been in a virtual school environment not to mention teachers have their own families and or students to take care of and do not have proper materials at home also as a professional courtesy please inform teachers and staff about County information like Code Orange days prior to releasing it to the public just a just a professional courtesy I'm tired because it seems that the school division does not want to listen to their employees instead of working working with the bargaining team to come up with a contract that will release some stress they're blocking and denying all request I'm asking you tonight to please work for the with the bargaining team to

069come up with a fair livable wage for all employees so that we do not have to stress about finances most teachers have to get a second job just to make ends meet every month we could focus on teaching we could say for retirement or buy a house in the county if given a livable wage please work with our bargaining team to get us competitive benefits so that Prince WM County Schools is a county where employees are proud to work in and a county that attracts qualified teachers to fill the nearly 400 vacant spots please show your employees that you see us that you really see us and that you plan to do the best you can for all of us and give us a fair and competitive contract before December 1st in closing I am

070here advocating for Prince William County School teachers and honestly for our entire dying profession no one wants to major in education these days I am one of your loyal teachers thank you Maggie Hansford good evening my name is Maggie Hansford and my address is on file with the clerk I'm here tonight to speak to Justin Lisa and Adele you three know what it's like to work in the classroom Justin do you believe Educators deserve to have a lunch to have time to eat a lunch do you believe that Educators here tonight deserve a quality of life where they could go home after work see their families plan get ready for the next day or should they be here at your meeting saying the same thing over and over now I ask the Educators in the

071room to stand and I want you all Lisa I want you to look at the Educators in the room and let them know do you believe that they deserve a lunch have you given them a lunch what does it what does it look like when staff does not have lunch they don't have a moment to plan for the next day what does that look like how does how does someone continue to do that every day what does it look like when they're not able to take leave because they're just isn't a sub or if they need to take a sick day they have to go to the doctor as an adult to come back to work one day I need you to look the Educators in the faces because your bargaining team believes it in

072theory but not in the contract why Why can't your employees have a lunch have a planning have the ability to have a sustainable job why Lisa you work in Fairfax I assume you do that like a lot of Educators do who live in Prince William because of the pay because you're paid for other duties as assigned where we're not that we're not paid tonight we're not paid to come here you are this is your meeting we continue to come here because this is the only platform in which you all provide us the ability to speak with you we don't want to come here we want to be with our families we want to prepare for the next day this isn't our meeting this isn't our responsibility we did not run for your seat you did

073and with the responsibility means look your Educators in the eyes and let them know are you willing to stand by your policy are you willing to stand by your policy that says these human beings these professionals deserve a lunch if you believe that then your team will put that in the contract we expect to have a fair contract a fair contract means wages benefits work environment miles McCarthy good evening my name is MIL and my address is on file I'm a sixth grader at lak Ridge Middle School I wanted to tell everybody here how hard everyone worked in our schools most people have jobs that end whenever they leave work um however teachers always have work to do after school and on weekends but my teachers at orridge elementary and Lage middle are always loving

074and um devoted we all know custodians keep our souls clean and safe I know it's a hard job but they do it and always have a smile and say hi to us the Food Service workers always make sure we have healthy meals and the bus drivers keep all the students to and from school every day but I think we could do more for all these workers I know this is because my parents are teachers and all they um and and they work two sometimes three extra jobs at night on weekends and in summers they work really hard for um their students and their family when you make your decisions think of all the people that really make this division school work thank you Katie Jefferson after that will be Kimberly Melman arasco Elizabeth Guzman Madison

075King Shauna Co CER and Chris funder Katie Jefferson hello my name is Katie Jefferson and my address is on file hello Schoolboard and Dr McDade I am going to read um the speech for princess Moss since she was unable because she does not live in the county I am princess Moss an Elementary music teacher and vice president of the National Education Association I meet frequently with Educators administrators parents and students across this nation and if there's one thing I've learned it's this Educators parents and our students themselves want schools that reflect the very best of who they are and the kind of people they hope their children will become the research is clear Student Success is enhanced when educators are respected treated with dignity and included in the decision making when educators are able to

076serve as collaborative Partners collective bargaining becomes an opportunity for labor and management to listen and solve problems that are tough together these essential building blocks help to create a sturdy Foundation that gets us closer to our shared goal of preparing every student to step confidently into a diverse and interdependent World collective bargaining is democracy in the workplace the research is clear when communities collaborate as partners towards reaching a solid contract the area's Financial stability improves and with it home ownership most importantly child outcomes go up which means our students win too two years ago after 40 years of work Virginia made history when school divisions were granted the right to bargon vaa opened that door last year Prince William made history when employees authorized pwa to represent them as their bargaining agent vaa and Nea

077stand with with pwea there is more that unites us than that divides us together let us seize this opportunity to write the next chapter of Virginia history to provide Prince Williams 11,000 education professionals with fair and Equitable compensation to lift the lives of our students for generations to come thank you Kimberly Melman Orosco good evening my name is Dr Kimberly Melman arasco my address is on file as you all know I am one of the three candidates who is running for chair of the Prince William County school board so um over the last couple weeks couple months I've heard the um many of you speak at some of the campaigning events um one of the things that I noticed was that you all seem very very proud of yourselves each and every one of you

078have been very proud in your speeches of what you've accomplished over the last four years let's just walk through that for a moment you seem very proud of what you've done for special education students over the past six months or so you've repeatedly been found out of compliance of federal and state law in response to that did you remediate did you assist these students or did you retaliate against them did you support your special education teachers or did you cut the budget by 25% for special education services do you currently have teachers anonymously posting online saying that they are crying with the impending IEP requirements because the laugh lack of staff and the lack of funding take a good hard look at yourselves for how proud you are in your speech speeches in addition to

079that you've been very proud of what you've done for diversity and inclusion yet you repeatedly have parents coming here talking about systemic discrimination very very proud that you appointed the first African-American um superintendent yet multiple parents are talking about systemic discrimination and in fact at one of these speaking events where you are very very proud the commissioner of the Human Rights Commission here in Prince County expressed that she is afraid that an impending lawsuit is going to bankrupt this County you seem very proud of what you've done for teachers let's read the room I truly do believe that Prince William County has some of the best teachers in this County and I am not endorsed by the pwea if I were sitting where you are I would not be proud I would be embarrassed I

080would be ashamed and I can tell you right now if I were sitting there I would forego my salary until the teachers were paid a fair salary I am appalled and they said that they don't want to be here on a Wednesday night of all days today is my 40th birthday do you think I want to be here I no longer have a kid in this County because I am afraid of you and what you have done I am here because I came about the rest of the people in the county who do not have the means to leave thank you Elizabeth Guzman Elizabeth Guzman Madison King hi I'm Madison King and my address is on file I'm in 9th grade and I go to osor Park High School I'm here advocating for a better

081work work environment for teachers and bus drivers school bus drivers play a very important role in students lives they are a quiet hero of the school the first smiling adult that the children see each morning and the last before they go home every day I want to go on a bus with a bus driver who's overworked and underpaid which might I add may not be my assigned bus driver because transportation is so underst staffed that buses are crowded and these buses are often late which affects the students learning because it causes them to to lose instructional time which is very valuable to the students because when these things happen in some cases it can cause students to fall behind they have to cause they have to start playing a game of catchup and school becomes

082very stressful when I walk into school and I see an overworked underpaid teacher it really shows how much they are undervalued these teachers are so undervalued by their own staff without them we would have we wouldn't have access to the education all the students need and the guidance we would need would be non-existent teachers need to be valued more and recognized for the hard work that they do they give us the best education they possibly can since the beginning of the school year I have lost not one but two Spanish teachers due to them leaving to go elsewhere which caused me had to got go through not one but two new schedule changes which really affects me because I have to start all over with new classes and teachers which once again was stressful for

083me pwcs and the School Board needs to do better for their staff so theud students can get the best education possible because the way things are going nobody's Futures are thri thriving they're actually lacking thank you Shauna coer CER good evening my name is shaa coer and my address is on file I have three children in the Gainesville district and I'd like to speak about the specialty programs and transportation specialty programs in this County are wonderful and they provide students students with an amazing opportunity outside of their assigned school and to seek uh in order to seek challenging and enriching environments with students who are like-minded these programs are a great success and I thank you for offering them during the last year I saw my middle school or my middle child flourish in the

084math and science program at Mar Stellar middle school he was excited to go to school and looking forward to school this year this is the first time in 8 years that he has been excited to go to school so when we were asked this uh last year if we were going to continue into the specialty program we opted into the program for the 2324 school year mere days before school began we found out that his bus stop in our community had been removed this left us no time to change our decision for enrollment in the math and science program nor did it allow for us to explain this to my son that it wasn't going to be a good option anymore no explanation was even provided to us that the bus stop had been moved

085I've logged in Daily looking at the bus stop and just found out a couple days before school started I began calling Transportation the day school started trying to find answers after leaving countless voicemails speaking with only two people neither of which had answers I was finally able to get help and answers two full months later when I was able to reach out to Mr Bach the chief operations officer and vice chairwoman Jennifer wall from the Gainesville District both of them were able to solve my problem in a matter of days it should not take two months and two days for two people to manage something like this during that time my student missed multiple days of school because no one was able to to pick him up uh at the newly assigned bus stop we

086just needed answers the specialty programs rely on Transportation parents make decisions about the specialty program based on Transportation I'm here to ask you to please support Transportation give them the flexibility to be creative and Innovative with their Solutions don't make them charge through bureaucratic red tape to get answers to get our kids to school on time you heard it she's missing classes my sons miss classes because of Transportation it's not fair to the kids help transportation in whatever they need thank you Chris funderberg hello there my name is Chris funderberg and my address is on file uh first I want to thank you guys um you did actually uh get a couple of books pulled out of the school libraries which I appreciate and they were pretty bad uh for those who want to look

087it up it's fun home a family tragic comic milk and honey and the opposite of innocent and what girls are made of however that's a small start uh there's still quite a bit in the school libraries that's um pretty bad uh so to bring you a little bit more light to this attention I I brought a select reading from Red Hood which is in several of the high school libraries uh for anybody with children under 18 I think now is a good time to take them out or uh mute your TV and I'll give you a few minutes to do that I highly recommend it and I really hope that all of you are as embarrassed and uncomfortable with what I'm about to read all right these are remarkable his kisses tracing a path down

088your neck his hands pulling low the sweetheart neckline of your dress his nose brushing your right nipple and then a moment later his lips capturing it his tongue circling circling his teeth skimming and biting not hard just enough to make your hands tighten into a fist and clutch the blanket enough to make your legs begin to quiver and then he pushes up the Tulie and satin of your skirt rustling like wrapping paper coming undone his hands reach and find the lace panties you brought just especially for this occasion and slowly so slowly he pulls them down your thighs and you lift your hips to help them slide them free your feet are already bare high heels abandoned in the front seat so there's nothing to stop your panties from coming off all the way oh

089how much you want this if you guys want to get get rid of this book I'll stop reading but that would be great do you shiver from anticipation for the moment when At Last At Last his mouth Finds Its way to the center of you At Last At Last he's found his way there a hand on each of your thighs his head buried between them and he's not teasing you not now not anymore he's Earnest in his desire to bring you desire and yes you think as his tongue and lips press into you as his fingers pull you apart as you come undone beneath his hands it is important to be Earnest if this is what earn earnestness brings yes the smell of him the sight of him the feel of him all of it

090familiar but not this the hot firm pressure of his tongue against your Center the insistence of this his hands on your thighs the building of Wonder of your pleasure Rising oh that is not familiar that is new brand new you gush that is the word the only word you gush as a pleasure becomes too much to survive that was the longest two minutes of my life thank you tonight uh that will conclude citizen comment time um thank you all for coming out this evening we are now moving on to our student representative time we have Fernando morante senior at Forest Park High School on the Das with us this evening and um Fernanda let's do it thank you Dr L thank you everyone for staying this time good evening Dr McDade school board members in

091Prince William County community I am Fernando morante and I'm proud to serve as one of your student representatives for this year to start off I'd like to congratulate once again the nine pwcs schools who were recognized by the alliance for a healthier generation as 2023 America's healthiest schools Ashlin Bennett Buckland Mills Kilby Marshall Montclair Parkside Piney Branch and Victory Elementary and Middle Schools I also want to highlight that November is National Native American month this is when we call attention to the culture traditions and achievements of the nation's original inhabitants and of their descendants I invite all staff and student leaders from each pwcs school to celebrate our Roots this special time of the year additionally October has been breast cancer awareness month I appreciate and congratulate all high schools having pink out spirit days

092football games and volleyball games um and some other activities in support of breast cancer awareness the goal of this month is to educate those concerned about this disease including early identifications and signs Associated on another note um the PSAT was administered in all high schools for freshman sophomores and juniors today so congratulations to all of those who took it this is a great opportunity not just to see what the actual sat looks like but to also help students Excel academically um as seniors we had a asynchronous day luckily for us um but I do hope everyone was able to check out the senior board activity regarding postsecondary plant as well as a required survey in Navan um and preparing for the upcoming sat offered by the county on October 26th to all registered seniors um

093also I would like to invite all students to participate in the 2024 2025 school calendar survey this is a great opportunity to have a voice and vote in important decisions that the School Division makes every year you can find the survey on the pwcs website and it will be available through October 27th finally I'd like to invite all high school students to participate in the attendance slogan contest attendance is important and is one of the focuses of this year the goal is to portray that in a catchphrase um more information in the submission link can be found in the global announcement section on your student canvas also this past Monday was a second monthly meeting of the pwcs student Senate and representatives we mainly focused in the implementation of student voice Committee in each of

094the 14 high schools and it might be a little bit early to say but I do believe that SVC is going off to a great start and I can't wait to see all the positive change that we will make together one of the topics that came up in one of the small discussions that we had was a rivalry between schools more specifically high schools so I want to remind students that not only do we attend our own base school but we are also all Prince William County students as such it is our responsibility to act as a countywide student body not only as students from each of our base high schools lately there has been rivalry tension and sometimes hatred from students from school a to school B at sports games and social media as

095well I don't think this is part of the profile of a pwcs student and I am sure that together we can Excel as a county in leaving those feelings behind as a final reminder first quarter of this school year is close to an end grading period will close on November 3rd so it is a perfect time to get all assignments and tests in so we can all finish this quarter to the best of our ability good luck to all the teachers who are here today um with the end of the uh first quarter thank you and that concludes my remarks for tonight thank you Fernanda really appreciate it Miss Moran excellent comments um at this time we will do um superintendent Time Dr McDade thank you Dr Latif good evening pwcs is proud to have

09635 specialty programs throughout our schools two at the elementary level four at the middle school level one grade 1 through eight program and 28 High School level programs our specialty programs focus on Career exploration subject area concentration and post-secondary preparation pwcs provides excellent opportunities for students in elementary middle and high school to explore a variety of special programs in our schools these specialty programs give students the chance to investigate careers ranging from the Fine Arts to Building Trades to Advanced Computer Science the application process can be found on our website located under families academic programs and finally Advanced academics and Specialty programs applications for our specialty programs opens on Wednesday November 1st please note the center for fine and Performing Arts application is due on December 14th while all other applications are due on February

0971st for further inquiries please email our Advanced academics and Specialty programs at aasp pwcs.edu or call the Family engag engagement series provides families with resources that will assist with their students success the series is led by the pwcs diversity Equity inclusion and compliance Department in collaboration with other pwcs programs and community and business partners I encourage our families and Community to keep up to date with the numerous sessions we provide monthly the next session will take place virtually on Thursday October 26th from 6: to 7:00 p.m. the focus will be on pwcs social emotional learning overview which includes informing families of how they can help strengthen the homeschool partnership and support students emotional well-being and academic success I hope that you will join us for this event moving on to School Division observances more than

098a decade ago the youth leadership Forum a group of youth with disabilities and established by the Virginia board for people with disabilities requested our state to recognize October as Virginia disability history and awareness month their Creed reads disability history education and awareness will promote positive attitudes in schools creating a culture of mutual respect understanding and equal opportunities for all pwcs also recognizes dyslexia awareness ADHD awareness and learning disabilities awareness I encourage our Educators families friends and students with the disability to visit I'm determined to raise your awareness learn about the history of disability access resources and find ways to engage at I'm determined. org this week pwcs also recognizes America's safe schools week custodial Services employees appreciation week and National bus safety week we encourage everyone to join us in thanking these invaluable employees today

099this week and every week we are grateful and thankful for our amazing staff and their continued commitment to the physical emotional and mental well-being of all of our students next week pwcs acknowledges Red Ribbon Week in honor of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Kiki kamaren who gave his life in the battle against illegal drugs in 1985 we pledge and renew our vow to be part of the creation of a drug-free America this year's theme be kind to your mind live drug-free reminds us that our brain is constantly adapting to our environments and experiences every day we choose to make significant daily contributions for ourselves friends families and communities by being the best we can be because we live drug-free schools throughout our division will carry this message to all students through various activities and remind

100our children that they have the power and fortitude to maintain control of their lives and Futures moving on to our presentation for this evening the state of the schools is an opportunity for us to take stock and reflect on the work that we've done the work we are doing and our future goals before the presentation I want to highlight a few key takeaways the first is we are progressing toward our goals and we must ensure we maintain Fidelity to our vision that every student will graduate and succeed and Achieve while all schools are accredited or accredited with conditions Math and Science scores are on the rise and Benchmark SAT scores have risen we are still not hitting the benchmarks we need to for every student specifically our Hispanic population our English language Learners and our

101students with disabilities every student in pwcs deserves to succeed and you will see from the state of the schools 2022 23 presentation that we are moving in the right direction in most areas coming out of the pandemic however we still have struggling achievement gaps that persist related to learning loss attendance at Family engagement events have have increased 100% of graduates had post-secondary plans chronic absenteeism has decreased but is still an area of focus and problem staff retention has increased student participation in advanced cours work and dual enrollment courses has also increased and there is 100% of school and Department continuous Improvement plans aligned with the Strategic plan although good work is being done in our schools we also saw an increase in Dropout rates specifically for our English language Learners which is our fastest growing

102student population as a school system our moral imperative must be to execute strategies necessary for all students to thrive therefore we have targeted supports to our English Learners to bolster academic achievement across all core areas as well as support our students with disabilities you will also hear about the efforts that we put in place to address specifically the E the L dropout rate our vision is to see every student graduate on time with the knowledge skills and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their Community during today's presentation we will share positive Trends as well as areas of needed Improvement we will also share a few of the strategies and practices that have been prioritized to ensure we meet the needs of all students at this time I would like

103to bring forward our director of research and accountability and strategic planning Dr Tim Neil Dr Neil along with members of our executive cabinet will now share the state of the schools 2 20 2022 23 address good evening Dr ltif school board members and Dr McDade it's my pleasure this evening to provide a brief overview of the state of the schools for 2223 school year so the purpose tonight is really to dive into some of our strategic plan measures uh that we've identified with our with the Strategic plan um Vision 2025 so this report is going to take give us the big takeaways our um and our next steps so just as a little bit as a preview of the overview of the presentation uh we're going to provide a little bit of our regional context

104we're going to give you a quick um reminder about our strategic plan commitments and then we'll go into some data Dives on each commitment along with our key takeaways and next steps so this slide shows the demographics and cost per pupil for for uh the state and our surrounding localities you can see um we are one of We Are The Still the second largest School Division in Virginia uh so Fairfax is larger than us lden county is slightly um smaller than us uh but we are very diverse when you look at how we our demographics break down with other divisions uh in terms of cost per pupil spending you can see that uh most School divisions have a higher um cost per pupil than we do so we are uh second from the bottom this

105slide is intended to provide a little bit of a context for uh how our metrics changed um pre pandemic to current so if you look at 201819 you can see that we are administering um uh close to 50,000 tests in math Andor reading across the division in 2021 that number was almost cut in half this presentation is going to focus on 2021 2022 and 2023 but it's really important that we look at the trends that we compare uh 2122 and 2223 because the pandemic year uh that 2021 was such an anomaly in terms of the number of students tested so our strategic plan is organized into four different commitments learning and achievement for all positive en climate culture family and Community engagement and organizational coherence most of our conversation tonight is going to focus on

106commitment one learning achievement for all but we will hit on every one of these areas so in terms of learning and achievement for all we're looking at providing Equitable opportunities for our students to achieve at high levels preparing students for post-secondary education in the workforce and ensuring that staff members have the support to challenge all students so our key takeaways uh from learning achievement for all uh first all schools in pwcs are accredited or accredited with conditions the overall Pass rates for literacy uh remain consistent with the prior year but we did see a slight decrease in the performance of our Hispanic students uh Math and Science both showed increases in Pass rates for all student groups uh in looking at early literacy the percentage of students that met the Pal's Benchmark at the end

107of second grade increased our ontime graduation rate uh was on par with 2122 but we did know that there were substantial decreases uh in this for our Hispanic and our English Learners and finally uh the percent of students that met the Benchmark for math and reading on the SATs did increase but we do have significant participation gaps for our Hispanic students our English Learners and our students with disabilities so in Virginia uh there are three different accreditation ratings that you can receive accredited accredited with conditions or accreditation denied these ratings are based on multiple criteria or indicators that you can see at the left of this slide some of the these apply to elementary schools uh some of them apply only to high schools uh it is important to note that that for the current

108years accreditation rating a a metric called college career and Civic Readiness index was applied at the high school level this is essentially a measure of the degree to which our high schools have students either participating in advanced coursework or engaging in some sort of Civic or um work-based learning when we looked at at the breakdown of our schools we can see that 93% of our schools are accredited with 7% of them accredited with conditions when it comes to student achievement we've set a target of having 85% of our students in grades 3 through 8 uh past the reading so this slide shows uh the the rates over the last three years and when you compare 2122 with 2223 you can see the rates uh were largely unchanged across all student groups this slide has that

109same information uh for our students with disabilities our English Learners and our economically disadvantaged students with ma mathematics um in grades 3 through eight we also have a target of having an 85% pass rate here you can see there was an upward Trend across all race and ethnicities for mathematics Pass rates and that same holds true uh when we look at our student subgroups uh a particular area of Celebration uh and this is a new set of slides for us for this presentation is science we also have a target of having 85% of our students pass the science so in grades 3 through eight and here again you can see a substantive increase across all uh race and ethnicities and across all of our student groups when it comes to um passing in the science

110in addition to pass rate overall Pass rates we are also looking at the pass Advanced rates in grades 3 through 11 mirroring our overall Pass rates for literacy you can see that our Advanced Pass rates in Reading uh remain largely consistent with the prior year and this pattern holds true across uh all race and ethnicities and student subgroups uh with mathematics the past Advance rates showed an upward trend from last year across all race and ethnicities with with variation amongst our student subgroups and finally when we look at our um pass Advance rates in science again mirroring our overall Pass rates you do see an upward uh movement across all groups which holds true in our student subgroups as well in addition to looking at student achievement through our uh s sols we are also

111looking at other um measures we do have a target of having 80% of our elementary students reading on grade level by grade three so this slide shows um the hmh reading score uh Pass rates the percent of students who are reading on grade level at the end of second grade for 2122 and 2223 and again you can see there was very little movement on this assessment it is important to note that hmh is measuring reading comprehension and so when we look at the next measure of early literacy which is our Pal's benchmarks you can see at the end of second grade uh we had an upward Trend in the percent of students meeting the Pal's benchmarks where hmh measures uh reading comprehension the pal assessment looks at phic awareness and phonics so this pattern for

112Pals um persists across all student groups for high schools we have a target of having 95% of our students uh meet the on-time graduation rate remember ontime graduation graduation is defined as graduating with four within four years of the time that you enter High School um with some uh accommodations made for students with disabilities and our English Learners when you look at this P the ontime graduation rate here you can see that we are largely on par with where we were last year although we did see a decrease um in our in the ogrs for our English Learners another Target in the Strategic IC plan is to have 60% of our graduates meet the SAT college readiness benchmarks for reading and math which are indicators that they are prepared for success in college courses uh

113this table shows the percent of our graduates that took the SAT and it's broken down by student subgroup so here you can see we had about 40% of our graduating class take the SATs but when you look at this U by race and ethnicity you see we do have some significant disparities in participation rates when we look at the the benchmarks um the target is to have a score of 480 in English reading and writing and a score of 530 in math so of those students who took the SAT uh 53% of them uh met the Benchmark in mathematics that is a slight increase from the prior year so there is some improvement which you do see um across many of our groups groups although there is some variation and this does hold true when

114we look at our student subgroups as well with literacy uh on the SAT Benchmark we we perform much better uh 85% of the students have met of who Took the SAT um in the graduating class uh met that 85% uh met an 85% of that Benchmark you can see this is an increase over the prior year and it does hold true uh um that increase when we look at our student subgroups as well the target though is to have our students meet both the reading and the math so these T these this graph shows the percent of students who met both of those targets and you can see that about 53% of the graduates who took the SAT U met both reading and math Readiness Ben marks this is an increase over the prior year

115and you do see that pattern across most of our student groups and and our student subgroups uh continuing with the theme of post-secondary preparation we have a target of having 100% of our students uh have a having a post-secondary plan uh for either entering College uh the workforce the military or transition services in 2122 uh we were at 98% across the board uh last year every graduate had a post-secondary plan that they created in collaboration uh with their school counselors and this pattern holds true across all groups knowing that uh participation Advanced coursework is also preparation for post-secondary Education we have a goal of increasing the percentage of uh students completing Advanced or dual enrollment courses by by 10% you can see here that we did have an increase in participation in advanced courses across

116all uh races and ethnicities and across our student subgroups as well in addition to um participating in the advanced coursework we have a target of having 60% of our graduates uh earn at least one qualifying score on an AP IB or Cambridge exam earning a dual enrollment credit uh earning an interest industry credential or earning a seal of biliteracy and here you can see we had some upward movement in the percent of students that were earning one of those credentials or um qualifying scores we also see that same general movement when we look at our student subgroups a particular area of celebration for us is are the totals of verified offers that our students have received in 2022 we had a little over $91 million in verified offers for scholarships this means that uh students

117received an offer and shared documentation uh with their schools to confirm that those offers had indeed been made we saw 31% increase in uh school year 23 with uh a little over 119 million offers has made so in looking at our commitment to learning and achievement and for all um student academic performance on math and science tests did improve uh while our literacy scores remain largely unchanged we still see performance gaps um persisting for our Hispanic students our English Learners and our students with disabilities and our on-time graduation rates remained on par with the prior year but we still have gaps for his students and English Learners so to address some of the next steps on actions we're going to take I'm going to turn the podium over to Dr Sullivan thank you Tam good

118evening thank you for the opportunity to share just a few of the strategies that we are using to improve outcomes for students and in particular our students who need additional support in meeting their potential Dr Brown and her team have worked along onside our High School principles to expand equal opportunity schools to all 13 high schools this is really important work this is targeted strategies to ensure that students that are under represented in challenging coursework have access to programs and opportunities and that they experience success in reaching those high standards we know that when students receive high quality instruction in an engaging environment with high expectations that the students who benefit most are those who struggle they have disproportionate gains in having access to that highquality instruction this is particularly important for our English language

119Learners who often miss some of those opportunities to engage in that coursework the Equal Opportunity School System ensures that no student is missed in the coming slides you will see the Dropout rates by ethnicity and by student Group which high highlights the need for more intentional work in supporting students for ontime graduation with a particular emphasis on our English language Learners this fall we kicked off the ontime graduation task force which brings together our level Associates student services and post-secondary success teaching and learning instructional technology and rasp our research team one of the key initiatives was the development of the early warning system this data dashboard allows every school leader counselor and relevant staff member along with central office staff to track each and every student with deficiencies towards graduation but furthermore it requires the

120entry of an intervention plan and the monitoring of that implementation plan for every student this is really exceptional work students will not fall through the cracks in this this system this team is taking an exhaustive approach to understanding our population that do drop out and the use of that information to address root causes for our English language Learners we are additionally working through the processes to amplify the support that our Global welcome centers provide families and schools we are working to ensure that they continue to monitor students throughout their enrollment and assist those at the school site in connecting with families we're also excited to implement the expectations of the Virginia literacy act as a plan calls for instruction rooted in the science of reading we are currently engaged in a training plan based on

121highquality Phonics instruction that leads to pheic awareness and strengthens fluency those foundations are the basis for students comprehending text at high levels this focused in focused level of instruction also AIDS in the identification of students that may demonstrate dislexia and other reading related disabilities strengthening tier one instruction in Reading supports success for all students these strategies are also crucial to the early success of our young English language Learners Dr ryer recently shared the Improvement to our multi-tiered system of student supports for those who require more than tier one instruction schools now have mtss coaches that can monitor and track interventions for students through tier 2 and tier three support an additional Behavior Personnel have been added to eliminate behavior issues as an impediment to learning numeracy is also a Cornerstone in our work one strategy

122that provides direct support to students is tutoring through the algebra Readiness initiative this state program funds tutoring support for students in grades 6 through 9 who may not be on track to meet the algebra standards and although recently shared I wanted to also highlight the work of our Special Education team in providing inclusive environments for our students while providing them specially designed instruction aligned to their specific academic needs one of the ways we are ensuring that schools are aligned to this critical work is is through instructional rounds principles and central office staff work closely together to Target their comprehensive Improvement plans and identified problems of practice through instructional rounds and follow-up discussions these are occurring at every single one of our schools this collaborative process better connects central office resources to school leaders each of

123these strategies are designed to significantly impact student groups who are under performing their peers while simultaneously improving the success of all students and as a compliment to all of the work through the comprehensive Improvement plans thank you for the opportunity to share so we'll now move on to Commitment two positive en climate and culture uh this commitment focuses on providing a learning learning environment that Fosters inclusivity connectedness and encourages social and emotional Wellness for all we're working to have students and Staff feel supported with a strong sense of belonging and have welcoming safe and sustainable facilities so some of our key takeaways uh from this commitment uh chronic absenteeism did decrease over the prior year but it remains higher than pre pandemic levels our Dropout rates increased um but they increase more significantly for our

124English Learners and our Hispanic students exclusionary discipline which includes both in school and out of school suspension uh those rates remain largely uh static compared to the prior year our staff retention rates increase slightly but remain above our strategic plan Target and uh students feeling safe in schools decrease slightly overall but we saw a significant drop at the middle school level so when we look at Chronic absenteeism you can see the blue bar represents the 2021 which was our um hybrid year where some students were in in person many many of our students were virtual we had a very low chronic absenteeism rate coming out of the pandemic we saw that chronic absenteeism rate uh Skyrocket to over 23% we did see a decrease um overall last year uh dropping down to 21 point 7%

125so while we did see the decrease uh that rate is high across all groups in terms of our dropout rate we did see our dropout rate increase uh to 6.9% uh we we did see this rate uh it was V variable amongst races and ethnicities and student groups but you can see that our Hispanic population um had a higher um rate of dropouts as did our English Learners when we look at the percent of students that are receiving exclusionary discipline so this is both in school and out of susp out of school suspension uh those REM rates uh remain largely unchanged for the from the prior year across all of our student groups but you can notice we do have disparities amongst our race and ethnicities and amongst our our student subgroups in terms of

126Staff retention um we had a rate of 91.8% Staff retention last year that is a slight increase over the prior year and it is above our Target of 90% the Strategic plan goal is to have 90% of our students students uh reporting feeling safe at school we have broken this into two different components overall feelings of safety and feeling safe feeling free from bullying this slide shows the breakdown at elementary middle and high school levels of feelings of safety you can see at our elementary and our high school levels they remained largely unchanged from the prior year but there was a substantial drop at the middle school level in the percentage of students that were feeling safe when we look at this um lens through the lens of bullying that same pattern emerges you can

127see at the high school and the in the elementary school level um the rate of students that felt free from bullying remained largely unchange from the prior year but again at the middle school level we saw a decrease so our key takeaways for positive climate and culture um chronic absentee is remains a critical Focus for the entire School Division and we have an intense focus on Dropout rates especially for our Hispanic students and our English Learners uh because they showed substantial increases over the prior year uh to address uh next steps in positive en climate and culture I'm going to turn the podium over to miss hubner thank you so as you can see we are strategically monitoring data around student attendance dropouts um and this is being used to inform our efforts not just

128to look at it but act upon it so a lot of our work is captured in our central office and our school level continuous Improvement plans but I'd like to give you a few specific examples we've recently launched a very um enhanced attendance campaign to increase the student and family awareness and the engagement around attendant as a matter of fact our our students are a part of this as of today we have about 250 entries for our naming contest um for the uh attendance awareness campaign and our kids were talking to them we're hearing their voices we're understanding what the root cause behind them not coming to school is and we hope to use that information to change some of our practices and to encourage them to come to school we have a lot of

129team collaboration going on we have an on-time graduation task force that is between our Central offices and our school teams to provide the support that we need to keep our kids in school we want our kids to stay enrolled so there is a focus on engagement I know that school and Central offices are making a concerted effort to increase the student participation not just in athletics but also after school activities and to promote student engagement in school we also want our students who have left us to come back so we are reaching out and offering opportunities to learn about non-traditional education and alternatives for re re-enrollment events um I had the word today that we had at least seven students that will be returning through the GED process we have increased um support for our

130school-based administrators to identify and Implement disciplinary supports and interventions and I think that's an important piece to talk about the inter interventions behavior in buildings tells the story so we're using the data to get to the root cause and most importantly to implement those interventions this includes additional training for um responding to behaviors and training on related to acts of bullying discrimination harassment this information includes information this includes information on title six of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race color and national origin and other protected categories ensuring our school teams are accessing and using data we've um supported and providing them each school has been provided data that has a um protocol and a tool for them to take a look at it and that is related to the

131student satisfaction survey and we've equipped those staff members with ideas on how to address those concerns under commitment 2.2 you'll see that we are um implementing the UB belong here which is enhancement um to a comprehensive diversity inclusion and Equity initiative and a pilot of upbeat as part of employer retention and satisfaction efforts additionally we're working with our social emotional learning coaches in each school to expand the student and adult Wellness initiatives we continue to support our administrative Leaders with launching the leadership capacity launching thriving careers and Prince swim County Schools leads and we continue to implement teach Prince County which is a robust strategic initiative to build a deer certified applicant pool that reflects a rich diversity in our County through an umbrella program that's designated to increase the number of Highly qualified teachers

132we continue with grow our own programs and to expand our Partnerships with over 50 colleges we want our facilities to be welcoming and safe and sustainable at this time you'll see that we've implemented our weapon screening systems in most secondary school and we will be completed with that initiative by October 20th additionally we have another 106 positions that were approved to directly support school safety and that includes enhancements to technology such as um close caption um cameras and megahertz radio improvements at this time I'll turn the podium back over to Dr Neil so we have two commitments remaining family and Community engagement and organizational coherence I'm going to combine the two of these for the remainder of the presentation so with family community engagement we want to engage families as authentic Partners uh in the

133education process to support academic progress of the students we want to work collaboratively with Community agencies and business partners to support our strategic initiatives and we want to ensure honest transparent two-way communication with all of our stakeholders uh in an effort to build uh trusting relationships when it comes to organizational coherence we are working to create systemic structures for strong cycles of continuous Improvement and we want to remove barriers to communication to facilitate collaboration across offices schools and families uh not only in the spirit of customer service but in order to make improvements to better serve our students so the critical points with these two uh commitments one uh attendance at our family engagement events showed a general upward upward Trend uh feelings of family engagement and positive trust were similar to the prior year

134a majority of our pwcs leaders have participated in one or more professional learning sessions focused on continuous Improvement and all schools and Central offices have continuous Improvement plans in place so our Target is to have 85% of parents report that they have opportunities to engage with their child's school about their learning uh this graph shows attendance from May uh I'm sorry from February to May of 2023 in our family engagement series although the attendance was variable depending on the SE top topic of session and so forth what you can see the trend line which is that dotted line shows an upward Trend and the number of participant that we had 96% of the the participants who attended uh reported that they were better able uh to meet the needs of their students after attending that

135session what's exciting about um these family engagement sessions as well is that simultaneous translations are were provided in Farsi sign language Spanish Urdu Arabic Korean PTO and Vietnamese as appropriate when we look at Family engagement and Trust uh which is a metric on our division-wide climate and culture survey that is comprised of multiple items we see that um feelings of family engagement in trusts are largely similar to the prior year when it comes to our strategic plans you can see that 100% of our schools and 100% of our central office departments uh have continuous Improvement plans that are aligned with the Strategic plan this is the second year in a row uh that we have achieved this um all of leaders have been trained in the continuous improvement process and we have a robust systematic

136progress man monitoring plan in place when we look at the training um provided we had 86% of these trainings had assistant principles or 86% of our assistant principles were present at these trainings 100% of our principles and 100% of our central office departments had representation in syy so for next steps with family and Community engagement I am going to turn the podium over to Dr Brown good evening um thank you for having me here to highlight some of our high impact evidence-based family engagement strategies that we are using to support our students access and opportunity to pursue excellence in education um we have five strategies here beginning with highlighting our family engagement series that was referenced earlier um we're looking to begin these series these series earlier um before the school year so that we

137can give our students and families information to empower them as they prepare for the school year we'll continue to offer The increased sessions um later uh at toward the end of the year last year we moved from two offerings a month up to four uh one each week and so we'll continue that and move to expand our modalities that we're um hosting and facilitating these from not just virtual to inperson in our community um uh hubs as we uh move through the school year next we'll continue to utilize parently aison for direct Outreach to families we're happy to report that all of our schools have parently aison except for one Elementary which we're looking forward to um bringing that parently aison very shortly in the coming weeks um with regard to direct Outreach we mean

138beyond the use of Technology meeting our families where they are with direct calls and conversations in their native language so that we can extend familiarity to them and make them comfortable with um conversing and Bridging the Gap between schools and homes next we'll continue to host and support parent advocacy events across all schools and departments again empowering our families to support their students in their academic experience next we move to um increasing information on support sessions for families particularly our specialty programs across all levels and again making sure that we Empower our families so that they can support access and opportunity for their students and then lastly building on some of the work that comes out of Miss hubner shop with her um support core um expanding this whole notion of uh home visits so

139complimenting what they do and bringing that um that uh piece if you will to our school parent lisons and potentially our family and Community engagement Specialists so with that I'll turn this back over to um Dr Neil so our next steps with organizational coherence we are going to continue uh to refine and offer additional professional learning on the continuous Improvement Concepts and implementation not only to extend the learning from those who have already had this training but to bring those who have not had training uh up to up to speed with everyone else um we're going to continue our progress monitoring and feedback for all of our continuous Improvement plans and I've implemented a process where all the Departments are able to G gain more insight into how we can support uh other departments as

140well as schools in their plans this has come in part through our implementation of plan for learning uh which is our new electronic platform which is allowing and facilitating this communication between departments and last lastly we're going to continue to De the development of data visualizations both for internal use and for external use uh to increase data literacy and transparency with this information so in summary um in grades 3 through eight student performance in math and science improved uh but literacy remained comparable to the prior year our chronic absenteeism rate decreased overall but still remains higher than pre pandemic levels access and performance gaps persist for English Learners students with disabilities and Hispanic students in multiple areas our on-time graduation rates were comparable to the prior year but Dropout rates for English learner students increased

141P lastly uh pwcs offices and schools are engaged in a coordinated and intensive effort to address attendance access and achievement gaps this concludes the uh state of the school's overview be now open to entertaining questions Dr Neil thank you very much Dr McDade I uh first want to commend you on the um transparent um summary of the challenges we Face results are um certainly improved since prior you know re-entering the pandemic and we're seeing some progress being made across the board challenges would drop our rate continue I I I want to focus though I really do appreciate and I think you know I I think it's important for for the board and the public and and everyone and to really take a look at the commitment you guys have made on sats and advanced um

142academics and and the reason I bring that up is in this day and age where folks will you know s comment on you know the lack of rigor or commitment to riger I I think it's important that one of our two of our main goals is improving sat s and advanced um coursework and if you ask any professional for college admissions College admission Deans um VP of enrollment offices counselors they'll tell you that you know to my knowledge and you can correct me if I'm wrong the S Sol's have no predictive value for college performance is that correct not that I'm aware of that's right and so that so my knowledge is that the S sols are testing the basic knowledge that the school division is supposed to deliver to students you pass it then

143you know it's just an example of you receiving the most basic knowledge and some level of competence and what we're trying to get out of here but the SAT scores and um GPA in a rigorous curriculum are the best predictor predictors of how students will do in college and so a commitment to improving our SAT scores and improving our um access and opportunity for students in in advanced curriculum starting even at the middle school really is is critical and I appreciate Dr mcdade's um ambitious goals on this and I think you know in this day and age and I and I think it's really important for everyone to know this day and age where we talk about you know test optional for college admissions you know I serve on the board of visitors at the

144University of Virginia and in discussions with the admissions Deans they will tell you take the test take the SAT take the ACT you know you can submit the score if you want if you feel good about it go for it but it's a really good predictor of how you're going to be able to handle college and it tells us as a School Division how we're preparing our kids and those tests are far more far more rigorous than say the so and and some of the course work we're having so I think you know I commend the work being done I commend the work Dr McDade on expanding um SATs um you know and offering it to all students making it accessible you know our SAT scores you know some will will say you know the

145SAT scores of Prince William County scores schools are are lower than x District but we have far more students taking them and that's really something important because we've expanded that so we have students taking them who maybe in other districts wouldn't be encouraged to take them and so I think it's really important as as we look at the where we are where we've been and where we're going the ambitious goals set out to put forward a rigorous ambition and then let's take a look at the scholarship slide if you want to pull that up if someone can pull that up do we know what number that is Jen um the goal is to to get it to 230 million we're at about 260 2 thank you Dr M 260 corrected by superintendent slide 42 260

146where are we at now Dr mcdad 119 119 so that is an incredibly ambitious goal and you know all of this work I believe will lead to it you know I I and I think Vice chair wall have just put four kids into college over the last 2 three years since you know since in the in and during the and after the pandemic you know admissions is critical the work that we do to prepare our students to look good to the work that we you know make sure that they are learning and achieving and making sure that they are prepared because I was criticized the other day you know by you know folks who say you know my kid didn't feel ready for the first semester in college right that's we have to reduce that

147level of anxiety that our students are facing when they get to that first semester in college we need to make sure we increase our students um graduation rates at college and Community College um the graduation rate at Community College here at NOVA community college is only 28% 28% of students who sign up get their associates degree that's pretty much a standard Nationwide we got to do better than that and we got to send our students in there more prepared to to graduate there and and these are the the goals these are the efforts I think that will help us get there so I can't thank you enough I mean this is you know you have to be um you know realistic when we came out of the pandemic we put forward a uh a re-entry

148what we call the program Dr MC our um our unfinished learning plan unfinished learning plan and our our re-entry plan and then the Strategic plan and all of these are having payoffs the return on investment I believe will be there um we are making Prof progress and and I and I commend all of you and and Dr Sullivan for coming forward Miss hner Miss Brown Dr Brown uh Dr ryer for all the hard work you're doing and all the the groups subgroups all of that is so critical and and I thank the principles and the teachers for um taking a look at our goals and really helping us with this because this is the the real work so you know while while there's a you know discussion out there about lack of rigor lack this

149is the hard work that the in the school board in collaboration with the superintendent are putting together ambitious goals some of these goals we may achieve we may not achieve them but we've set them high and I think it's really important for everyone to understand that the board takes this all very seriously as does Dr McDade so anyways I want to thank you with that and then I'll open it up for questions if any board members have any questions or concerns or thoughts Miss arore thank you Dr Latif I I want to just find out a little bit more about the Seal of biliteracy if I could um and maybe how that could work in conjunction with some of our English language Learners because I just looked it up on vdoe um I have a

150Word document sitting here that there's a bunch of tests it's not it's not about being an AP Spanish 72 or whatever it is right it's not just about the academic Pursuits that our our current students are you know our English speaking students are learning but it's also there's other test there's Arabic Chinese um French Japanese Korean Portuguese goes on and on and on there's pages of it so I'm wondering a couple things how are we identifying students who could be taking some of these tests what are we offering because apparently there's a ton and we can just dip into that um how do we have many students who are taking advantage of it and um I know the seal itself if we if if our division because I think it's I believe it sounds like

151it's left up to the division to decide these things if we go okay this kid passed this test or or adequately showed this measure that they are proficient in another language then the seal is available to us by us applying for it on on their behalf so I'm just curious if we're delving into that much yeah thank you we are um this is an area we're spending a lot of time working on last year we had 213 students that benefited from those exam opportunities and that represented an increase of 124% from the year before um some of the strategies that we're adding this year we're adding a third credit by examination site um which is going to help an access to be able to take the assessment and we have two different assessment platforms one

152credit by exam and one is another third-party opportunity for different languages we have added languages to that this year as well because the Prince William County Community is growing in um its community of of multilingual um participants and so uh we've worked closely with schools and identifying those students students that are demonstrating Mastery and should be referred for for support and for testing um so we we are taking a very aggressive approach um we most definitely think bilingualism is an asset that our students that are coming to us with these abilities are a huge value added to our community so we're helping Target those students to receive those credentials thank you um so I will just Advocate real quick on behalf um Hindi that's that's one or do we do we we do that or

153I I can't say exactly but what I someone get back to me I would love to know I am I'm in the 90% I will absolutely follow up and Arabic for sure all of our top languages are represented we're just continuing to add languages as our population has changed all right Hindi was specifically asked so I I I will absolutely follow up thanks for the questions Mr will yeah thank you I have a couple questions I'll put a timer on so this does not go too long for all of us okay uh slide number five uh so we know the states like Virginia um in Champion inclusive practices for special needs students a cause I very much endorse uh yet the shift of the students on the brink of VAP qualification for standard assessments so

154raises concerns particularly with the recent changes in VAP participation criteria for those with significant cognitive disabilities I fear those student students on the bubble May struggle with their s sols with that chart are we able to disaggregate data for students with IEPs taking the standard s sols versus those students completing the VAP uh yes we can we can pull that uh data for you andate between students with IEPs that took the so and those that participated in VAP perfect thank you uh slide 36 so I brought this up earlier about kind of concerns with postsecondary planning timeline uh because my fear is if we initiate the process too late students May struggle to adjust their plans meet sat deadlines apply for scholarship engage with postsecondary Mission counselors I think starting early is crucial and having

155wellestablished timeline is very important to empower our students uh to make the right choices um could uh Miss hubner could you provide any quick insights on the REM recommended start in overall best practices for Effective post-secondary planning absolutely absolutely we believe it starts at elementary school where you explore career paths through the Virginia wizard we have implemented Naviance in the middle school and conduct many activities to start that awareness around um college and post-secondary planning you know additionally there are tasks that are assigned in there that not only give kids experience but help them see the future and understand how they use the software when they become a high school student when you're getting into the more discret tasks of that path of applying for colleges so we um have as you remember we have

156College and Career counselors now in every high school and we have a very outlined Playbook of step-by-step actions month by month to ensure that our students are getting information it includes frequently visiting all of those experiences that lead to post-secondary success we recently had our College um fairs at both freedom and Battlefield which were well attended and I was personally there and saw students that were as young as sophomores in high school so we're taking many different approaches to that a very comprehensive timeline thank you for that cin I appreciate summary okay it's probably you slide 42 uh a few months back I encountered a gentleman at one of the churches I visit uh and he expressed some frustration over the scarcity of applicants for his scholarship uh learning this I quickly uh promptly told

157two graduating seniors who had worked with me to apply for the scholarship the result two weekends ago was that collectively they earned $11,000 applying for the gospel worship experience scholarship program now I me mention this because I want to know are we using some centralized uh repository for all students to use when it comes to searching for scholarships or are we allowing the buildings to kind of manage that site based uh because my fear is some students may not know certain ones are available if it's entered in one school versus the other so I'm just curious how scholarships are collected and then uh shared to our seniors so as we collect information by way that's the Mr W's best question ever I know and I'm still under five minutes so so as we receive information

158about scholarships it does come from a lot of different Avenues um sometimes it will come from the school where a school's been um contacted by an individual that is all funneled and channeled and entered into Naviance where all of our students are able to access that you'll see on some of the slides that we've been visiting bulletin boards different activities that we do to engage the kids around looking at those scholarships um as a matter of fact in a couple of weeks will'll be having um well recognized national scholarship month and engage in specific targeted activities campaigning contests to get kids engaged to take a look at what the options are so we do organize those in navian so that they're available to everyone okay so real quick I follow up on that one so

159like this person's scholarship or um other ones that I'm aware of is there like a submission form for them to fill out then that goes through a counselor before it's approved to submitted cuz I find like a lot of times there's 's money available but they just don't know who to go to to channel and funnel that money in and say hey here's a scholarship that our kids you know your kids can apply for sure they can look on the website and reach out to me I'd be happy to funnel that in the right direction we also receive scholarships through spark um but really any college and career counselor will has the information and the knowledge of how to get that to our College and Career um Representatives who will enter into Naviance okay excellent

160okay a couple more one more and at under five okay you keep having good ones like that you don't there's no time limit no no I'm trying I'm trying to set an example here slide 53 uh regarding the improved retention rates among our teachers and staff I think this is great I'm curious um if we have any anecdotal reasons behind the positive trend up um and you know when looking at delving deeper into the factors of climate culture um I'd like to explore the number of applicants who are teachers from neighboring divisions who are applying for position positions uh within our system so a general comparison over the past couple of years I think would provide valuable insights so three years ago if 2,000 Fairfax teachers last year 3,000 this year 4,000 I think that

161would you know be very helpful obviously I'm not asking you to do it right now but I think that is something that could be beneficial thanks Mr wil um in terms of anecdotal data that may exist regarding um The increased retention rate um we currently you know spend more of our time doing exit interviews but this year which is the opposite side um so we have plenty of data regarding exit interviews and why our employees have exited however this year we did do a launch of stay interviews um and it's really in a pilot stage at this point we have posted all the resources on the Launchpad uh as an administrator toolkit as part of our retention efforts um we did provide some PD to the principal's advisory committee as well as um the toolkit

162with the resources necessary in order for building leaders to conduct stay interviews we have not collected that data from a system perspective however I'm sure it exists at schools who have conducted stay interviews um in addition as Miss hedner discussed this year we are um launching upbeat which is an administration of a survey with research-based questions regarding teacher retention um they really the the questions are really meant to measure the level of Staff satisfaction and engagement and once the datas received back from those interviews um building administrators will be work with a a coach that will help them design action plans in order to improve culture and climate and retention and engagement of their teachers so we have about 30 schools in that pilot that will be launching um the upbeat initiative this fall um

163and in terms of neighboring School divisions we don't track that data but I did talk with um Mr molandra who is our director of benefits and retirement Services because when we hire new employees if they are previously worked at another District um we have to transfer their vrs okay if they're in a Virginia School Division and so we're going to explore whether we can pull that out of it's called The vrs Navigator out of that system whether that data is just you know once it whether we have access at after we've made the switch from the employee say from you know Lowden to Prince Williams so we are going to explore that excellent okay under 10 minutes thank you you sure Mr W feel free brother um I got uh the they're all excellent fantastic

164work um we have Miss Williams next oh my it's hard to follow that um I just want to say overall thank you very much for this present ation um I I will agree with the sentiments expressed earlier by my fellow board members I think this very much counters the um the rhetoric that we're hearing in the open public space it's nice to have some s hard data data to look at to see exactly where we are um I am interested to know and I I know this data isn't available now but after um maybe this year and going to next year at the end of the school year what we the feedback that we're receiving from the students in regards to reasonings for why they're dropping out because I know that's information that we are

165currently collecting um as well as um some of the face the challenges that our English uh language Learners are facing I know some of those groups overlap um I know that that's the target of that's our main target right now and we're in the process of trying to do everything that we can to support those students um so I think that finding out that information would um for the board be helpful I'd also just like to note and just state that I think this board put a lot of emphasis thanks to Dr Latif on focusing on math and science and I think that we very clearly see these results um in what was presented this evening and I think last year all we heard was Math and Science um and it it just goes to

166show that when we all um share the same lens and focus that we do meet our goals or at least there is notable Improvement in that area um and I think that's worth taking a pause to congratulate all the hardworking staff from the Kelly building all the way down to the teachers and our parents and families I also would like to um take a moment to congratulate the division Dr M and all of your staff for the um tremendous increase in parent engagement the opportunities at all levels is truly amazing um as a parent myself right now of an elementary schooler I don't I don't have any other children right now in any other grades which is odd um but I can sincerely tell the difference in just two years um not only the amount

167of text message that messages that go out but um at parent camps parent engagement nights Title One family nights um everything from uh food banks surveys and not just the the program at the programming that's available but the fact that it's available in multiple languages is um so impactful you can I can visibly see when I walk in schools um as a board member but also in my own student School the increase and and the number of parents who do not speak English who are able to actively participate in their students learning because we make that information accessible easily digestible and comprehensible um for them that's so impactful um as someone who grew up here in Prince William um and started I guess you could say my path to being here as a PTA president

168and remembering what it it was like to um extend the opportunity to our pet program parents who who were in the building the same time as our PTO met and seeing the increase because we made a second language available to them and knowing now that that is something that we do division wide and um not just foreign languages but also sign language for our hearing impaired I mean it's just I I really want to thank you and your staff for all of the hard work that they put in I've seen um from just simply a few translators to sometimes the devices that did not used to work to devices that work and then on top of it we've done such a good job of hiring staff that if we have a device that doesn't work

169there is somebody there to speak the language um I just can't tell you how impactful and meaningful that is to me as a board member but also as a parent uh I would like to um have a little bit more information about the types of training and how we're using the lens of equity when it comes to our student disciplinary rates um it's something as a board member that I have focused on my entire time I know it's had a roller coaster um sort of uh scale and over the years but I see that we're sort of back up on the top end and I want to be sure that that's something that um we are addressing in an impactful way I know that um we are um we have more minorities now in our

170school division than ever um but I think that there's still some attention that needs to be focused on um student disciplinary actions when it comes to our minority population uh and that is has always been an area of focus for me so Dr M I think you going to say something um just about that piece um so we we've started that process even you'll recall at the um the meeting where we presented where uh Denise presented the code of behavior we talked about looking at the Fidelity of implementation of the code um and norming practices across the School Division and so we started with some training at the legal conference and that's continuing as a matter of fact there was just a training at the um October this week at the level meeting with all

171um administrators so we are continuing that throughout the year and taking a look we've been doing audits kind of pulling um infractions and seeing how uh discipline is being um executed across and making comparisons to see where we see some opportunities to refine practices and Shore up training um and looking to make sure that across the board there's better implementation of the code so uh to your point about training that is in progress thank you I appreciate it Denise did I miss anything you I I definitely see it with the um lack of parent input I have about no trespass um being handed out especially at the high school level so I know that there is significant work being done and that our our staff is um improving in those areas but I it wouldn't

172be me if I didn't say something and I don't want to give the impression that you know we're there yet in terms of implementation but certainly this year it is a a big focus on that um in comparison to prior years and recognizing that you know we have to make sure that across the board we're not seeing an infraction at one school being um disciplined one way and that another school the same infraction U being handled very starkly differently so we're we are taking a hard look at that this year thank you I appreciate that and I know coming out of the pandemic that's especially hard with all the other things that are going on because as a community we are healing um and I appreciate the work that's being done with that regard um

173and I think that's it thank you very much Miss Williams I'm sorry I just one more question I'm Sorry Miss Jesse if we could get an update too I know that it's been discussed previously um and we talk about preparing students to to be in dual enrollment AP level classes and Miss humer just said that a lot of that work begins in elementary and I know that there was a focus on algebra in this tonight's presentation but if we could get an update or I would say more of a reminder of what other act what other uh strategies we're implementing at lower level um grades so that our students are prepared because I know as M humer just said that the work does begin in elementary school um what other practices we're putting in place

174to ensure that students are prepared and then what work um is being done sort of on the counseling angle so that we're reaching the students and their parents to ensure that they um value these courses as opportunities that are meant for them and that they are capable of um enrolling in don't need that right now but I think that paints a little bit Fuller picture and then there's only so much that we can cover in one night so thank you I appreciate it Jesse good good evening uh Mr wallford you didn't think you want to get out of here without me asking some questions right I want to talk because you are the expert uh I you know I've heard so much lamenting about the budget and you know how we're not providing teachers with

175the money that they need and I the the the slide I think is slide three or four on the demographics could you show me that one NE Dr Neil you put that up okay perfect would you explain to me and for the public to understand how we come up with this I noticed that we're still one from the bottom $15,750 for Teacher prer ratio for peral cost I'm sorry could you explain to me why we're still at the bottom and how do we come up how do we how do the how does the the budget from the Board of Supervisors and our budget how do we come up with this figure what what are the parameters uh so first of all Mrs Jesse thank you for the opportunity to speak at my last it's a

176good question right it's a great question right it's a it's a fantastic question question and in fact all of your questions Mrs Jesse have been fantastic over the years but um on this one it is a good question the the cost per pupil is really a function of how much revenue we get and as everybody on this board is aware we get Revenue basically from three places uh from three sources one is the county the one you mentioned the other is the state government and then we get a smaller amount from the federal government so your question is how do we get that cost per pupil up how do we spend more money well it's simply a function of uh where do we get more money and what control do we actually have over that

177and as a School Division uh in Virginia we really don't have a lot of control we have two things that we can do we can Lobby our state government uh to make all kinds of changes um and some of those like the support cap this year was actually modified to provide us with some additional Revenue uh as a result of the special session that just happened a month or two ago uh the other source uh big source of funding is the county and to the extent uh the county can generate Revenue we currently have a share where we receive a little bit over 57% of that total revenue so those are the two you know those are the real two impactful ways that we can generate additional Revenue Vue or others can for us and

178uh creates the ability for us to spend more per pupil one other thing I'd note and you mentioned this already and so did Dr Neil at the beginning his presentation that is uh we are out of the northern Virginia localities as measured by a variety of sources but uh the Washington area board of education is one we are um second to last out of about 10 localities nine or 10 localities in our spending and that's even after having increases of five seven five and and 7% over the past four years and putting more money in on top of that uh in the form of about $20 million last year and about $6 million this year so we've spent a fair amount of money improving um uh pay not just for teachers but for all staff

179in the School Division so there's been a real effort to to increase that cost per spending not just in salaries but in other places as well I was looking at one of the comparisons of uh the increases for the other counties and it seems that we increase but all the other counties increase is it because uh I'm looking at Arlington does Arlington's Revenue source is it different that's why they have a lot more money to spend on their their student well the the reasons other localities spend more per pupil than us is varied Arlington County is one of the Richer counties in the state and so their locality actually has to contribute more to their total School Division on a per pupil basis than for example Prince William does we actually get more money from

180the state than does false church and Arlington and Fairfax that those and Laden County those wealthier counties so last year in the budget last year the Board of Supervisors gave us a great deal more money right correct you recall how much money we received of the difference I I can't tell you off the top of my head what the the increase in County revenue was but I can tell you the total increase in Revenue over the past two years has been 180 million uh going into 23 and going into 24 the increase in Revenue uh was about 120 million and so $31 million increased Revenue over the past two fiscal years so it's been an outstanding from a revenue standpoint it's been an outstanding two years where our prior years the biggest Revenue increase year-over-year

181we would have experienced is in the range of you know 50 51 52 million so what Dr Latif I mentioned earlier this evening it's true this this last two years really has been from a revenue standpoint very good for us thank you thank you very much I appreciate it for your last question thank you for all you've done for this County and thanks for putting up with our crazy questions I love your questions Mrs Jess thank you thank you I just want to add a couple other things tonight uh I have gone through here's my list of about 20 questions I asked during the 2 by two so I'm not going to ask them tonight but I do want to share something with you tonight uh I've been in this County for a very long

182time and everything has changed and I I am tired of hearing all the the lack of uh growth that we're having as a School Division you think the sky is falling but I was here when I was Title One supervisor and they gave me the money and the only thing they asked me to do was not to misspend the money they did not ask about student learning and it has changed and I wanted to just to tonight to spend my time complimenting Dr McDade and her staff uh you know I had last time I had this the little phrase that said this dog won't hunt and it's not about attacking other people but highlighting the action ual real things that's happening and one of the things I I do a lot of research I've been

183a national researcher and I know that basically they say that strategic plans don't work except this strategic plan seems to work because your staff Dr MCD you guys have actualized it it's reflected in how you present the data to us is research base for example daytime uh tutoring during the day is aligned with the research not after school tutoring uh we are in fact on this this report the Wy report one school in one School Division here spends $20,000 almost on their performance but we outperform them now I look at several sources of data one of which is the Wy report I look at that I look at the vdoe data but my favorite source of data is not Nichi it's not great school it is school digger because school Digger shows you the data

184and I want to share tonight with what we're doing as a School Division according to school Digger which looks at standard scores we're outperforming Stafford we're outperforming Spotsylvania we're outperforming Montgomery County we're outperforming Fairfax we're ranked 40 out of 211 schools so we're in the top 19% and Alexander is in the 100 is 100 out of 21 so I want to know want you to know that I appreciate everything you've done and when I came here I asked the four questions which are research-based questions are children learning now are they being taught are they learning how do you know what are you going to do about those who didn't learn and you've got this in all your data and what about those who already know so those slides where you showed the uh the uh

185difference in students at the higher performing levels was really important and you have actually embraced the fact that we're not perfect but you have isolated and indicated where we need to improve so I'm very pleased so with that is Lori where is Lori Lori is supposed to be my Lori Lori Williams ask her to come okay where is Lori ask Lori to come in she's failing her job so you guys know that I run around and give these uh gratitude cups to everyone not to everyone I'm very selective I give them to teachers and so tonight I'd like to give the first gratitude cup to this staff so I'm asking all of Dr MCD staff blue one Dr McDade staff please stand and I started giving this week I gave a rotational Cup and the

186rotational cup means you get a cup and you pass it on so for the uh staff you have a blue and white cup that I'd like for it to be rotated now who's G to rotate this cup Dr McDade who who do you think should start should start with the cup yeah um do I have to pick John oh John and then John will have to pass it along um on his date of retirement so let's start with John Wallingford John Wallingford you're going to pass the cup my gosh isn't that wonderful [Applause] yeah okay you go thank you very much for all that you've done please pass it along thank you now I have a second cup for Dr McDade and I actually bought this cup and I love the cup so much that

187I want to keep it but I didn't so I think it's a beautiful cup and to you for all that you've done in this system and for all that you are going to do I'd like it's a beautiful cup I think please come over and in closing I just want to say that this school division is doing well and under Dr McD's leadership and the staff and I know she's working you to death I don't know if you can drink from this cup because you don't have time she doesn't either but I appreciate everything that you've done for the kids in this County I've been here a long time and I know that we never got this kind of comprehensive data especially quarterly data and with that I know I've gone over my five minutes

188but I think it was worth it thank you thank you Miss Jesse thank you so much um I think Miss wall is next how do you follow that up thank you um yes how do I follow that up that was amazing um I um love talking about this topic I am glad that we have this on our agenda I value data um because of what it can tell us for how we can help students achieve um so I'm really thankful for the opportunity to talk about this tonight I understand that for some this is a stressful topic um not everybody loves to see you know where we're falling short um most of us love to see where we're exceeding our expectations but I do feel that it is the most important work that we're doing

189and at the end of the day it's what matters most it is the core of why we are here and why every single person has a job here in Prince willm County Schools is to help children succeed so it is my belief that all children can and will learn and that they deserve they all deserve quality teachers and um because of that I'm encouraged by in particular slide 44 and slide 57 the ones that say you know next steps now that we see the data and where we are you know what what are the next what are the next steps um and I'm encouraged by the real concrete um it looks like we're going to 44 um educational strategies um that we have here in particular I wanted to highlight the ontime graduation task force

190I think that's really great um I think the expansion of equal opportunity schools to all 13 high schools is really great um specifically I have a question on that I believe it was seven or eight schools I don't remember exactly how many schools were in our pilot of this do we do we are you referring to EOS yeah EOS so this with this new year um all 13 isn't that correct Dr Brown yes so everyone the first the first year was um 11 yep and so now we're in the full two more so with the EOS um opportunity equal opportunity schools I I I love that initiative because it's the the point is to expand the number of kids who are willing to take rigorous classes correct and willing to get into some advanced classes

191and push themselves and increase the rigor in their schedule and I wanted to ask have we seen good results from that and we can be General because I know I'm asking are you are you saying so we won't really have result this will be the first year of all of our high school so that we can actually get some results now what we're what we are seeing um is that we have increased the number of students so remember last year we had that Target number of students to um enroll and so we have now seen more students enroll um in advanced coursework and the in the end of the year will provide a better picture of how they're fairing with both grades as well as earning the Early College credential so the end of the

192year will be a better telling sign of whether or not because we don't want them to just enroll we want them to actually be successful and earn the Early College credential as well so um we'll have more of that data because last year was really an onboarding year um and so what we should have more data available at the end of the year with the first kind of sign of results is there anything um you want to add Dr Brown nope I think you've got it okay excellent because um you know I especially like to see those kinds of efforts because I think when we challenge kids and we give them really rigorous curriculum but we also support them then I think they can succeed um I had a question about scholarships um kind of

193building after off of what Mr W was saying I know when I've had so I've had kid three kids go through the process of trying to you know graduate and apply for scholarships and sometimes it is really hard to find good scholarships that your kids qualify for and and a lot of times that information is in Naviance and other places where you the parents are trying to work with the kids and the kids are maybe resistant they don't want to do it they don't they're you know they have heavy classes or whatever and they they don't really care they don't want to look or you know you kind of have this tug-of-war sometimes between parents and kids where parents want kids to apply and find the scholarships but parents don't have access to Naviance at

194least I don't think I did um but I um it's a it is a particular challenge I wonder if there is a way we can help parents help kids um with that process because applying for college can be overwhelming and applying for scholarships can also be overwhelming for for kids so um I know we can't do everything we we are amazing we do a lot of amazing things but that is a particular challenge that I've experienced and I've seen other families struggle with it as well it's just trying to work with those High School seniors and get that information into their hands and get them motivated to do it I don't know what my question exactly is I'm so sorry well I I think I can speak to that what strategies do you have to

195centralize or allow us access I mean if we're going to go for 260 we're going to all have to pitch him right it can't be something that we're all looking here and there for so I guess Miss wall might be asking what are we doing for that sure it is an overwhelming time as the parent of to adult children I don't have anymore um I remember that as being a very stressful time so what we have done is helped kids access that process earlier um even this summer we were having workshops and information sessions to help kids get a head start on the things that would be needed for um you know the application process we know with the Common App at our college fair um this past week we had sessions to help parents

196kids could come with their parents so I believe it's truly a mindset so we've made the information more accessible we're creating that mindset that it is possible we are featuring you've probably seen them we have the scholarship spotlights that come through in our scoop um we publicize those in the school buildings lots of posters but really helping kids believe that the scholarship is actually attainable by celebrating those kids who have achieved those scholarships and and reflecting back and sharing on that so there are a lot of different things that we can do in making the process more manageable and allowing more time then for students to seek those scholarships as a Next Step okay that sounds great great and I hope we can make it easier for parents and kids to find those scholarships I

197had a question about um I mean obviously the data is showing that our Hispanic students and our English language Learners are areas where we can really focus and Target um some interventions not interventions but supports and and so um looking at that data is there are we attempting to puzzle out the particular reasons for the challenges that our Hispanic I'm assuming we are um our Hispanic students and our English language students in particular are having um because it is a very noticeable area um and I feel like there's probably some qualitative and there's probably some qualitative data there too like we have the quantitative data you know the numbers and everything else but the qualitative data what are we finding um that um what are some of the root causes and um maybe some of

198I know we some of the things that we have in here are designed probably to to attack the problem yeah Dr Neil and I have actually recently had extensive conversations on this topic and one of the first things we're doing is splitting out our Hispanic data so that we are seeing the performance data of our Hispanic students who are English language Learners and those aren't because uh those issues can be conflated often and uh I ran some data just this morning and it told an interesting picture in one of the sols our student achievement data from our Hispanic students who were non-l was 75% and our L was 25% so already the issue was separated and allowed us to look deeper um so we're doing that work as we speak I literally just learned how

199to do it this morning um and so working with Dr Neil on those analysis he and I have already talked about revisiting all this data from that lens because we also don't want to expend energy when we're not accurate on the problem right so it's super important for us to deeply understand the problem first um as we're looking at our eel data for dropouts that's that's a really great example of this work we have 328 kids who last year in the class of uh 2023 who were El dropouts and so I I I've told the team I want to know what they had for breakfast every day I want to know every single thing there is to know about these students one of the first indicators that came up is the vast majority of those

200dropouts um were August dropouts meaning non-enrolled which was a different narrative than what we were thinking in terms of at the end of the school year um and so working closely on where the numbers tell us it does tell a story I love qualitative data too and interviews and questions and and meetings uh with students but there's more that quantitative data can tell us also we're looking at um the four-year pattern rate of students and when they uh when they drop out so oftentimes those dropouts actually precede the senior year there their ninth grade dropouts 10th grade they're just revealed in the data in their senior year so now we're able to look at those live along the way so we've already worked with our high schools on students that withdrew prior to this year

201that may not have been on their radar and that's where that re-engagement process comes in um we've looked at the English language level of our students and uh as you can imagine the level one English acquisition students are a pretty high population but we're also super stagnant in our level three students so we're not seeing the growth in that space that we want to see um we are seeing increased exclusionary discipline in our English language students um we've highlighted that data for our schools and our level Associates and having those discussions on how these things um correlate um Denise uh heer's discussion on sense of belonging importance and access and feeling Community is really important um so helping our schools navigate what I think is a pretty awesome new normal for Prince William County schools

202and and helping them look at creating that sense of belonging a little bit differently those storytelling deeply into literally the month of withdrawal the time span the number of credits for example uh out of last year's dropouts um during the school year not just seniors their average Span in the system was four to six months um so that's another story too and so we are leaving no stone unturn to really understand the picture understand where um the vast majority of our students are not succeeding and how we can provide way more support to those schools that have a higher number of those students um and so we've added graduation coaches in just those three schools we've added additional resources and my hopes with the global Welcome Center will provide more interview opportunities because they're really

203having meaningful one-on-one and have an opportunity to work with families Mo most often in their native language that is all very encouraging and I appreciate all of the efforts of you and your staff and everybody who's looking at this challenge because at the end of the day I really do you know believe that every child can learn we just need to figure out how we can keep them in the system in the school and give them the supports that they need so that they can be successful um I have no further questions thank you Miss Jackson all right um thank you uh I appreciate the time taking to put the data together um I appreciate the transparency and the increase in difficult conversations some of these gaps are historical and change comes from these discussions

204and all the work that staff is put in I also appreciate the research SP initiatives have been put in place and then tracking to make sure it's implemented with Fidelity the 2x2s um were helpful um because some of my questions were included in the presentation so I appreciate adding the explanation for Pals and um hmh so and some of my questions were already kind of asked by other board members this has been a great evening of questions so I'm just going to picky back on the different questions and and so my will be quick to reiterate um Miss zago's question about the Seal of um by literacy um I have one question and then one thing I'd like to advocate for so um one is I can't recall I know I asked this during the

205Strategic plan but a is ASL included as a CEO of biliteracy yes okay and then the other thing I just would like to advocate for is introducing the seal by literacy which you might already be doing um in middle school when people start taking like um High School level language classes and that possibly considering including the seal by literacy on their diploma standards that people hand out in IP meetings for transition plans you know when you reach in middle school students participate and start planning for transitions I think including the SE by literacy if possible on the transition the diploma options would be a great way of advertising love it thank you um so then I also my next question was on VAP and so scores so I just want to re reiterate my support

206for um breaking down that data for future discussions and then um I had a question about um you know how we were addressing um the elll um Dropout rates and um you already kind of address with breaking down um the Hispanic um subgroup into different like El and versus nonel um so and and you kind of already hit on this as in regards to level of um like level one level two level three but I just want to just um I'm not in support of adding more tests or adding more work for staff but I would like to see at some point like I just want to advocate for more discussion about um waa scores being included um because it is a measure of comprehension and we're looking at Pals and hmh and they're taking

207waa so it would be nice to include it it's thank you that's it and I again appreciate everything so I guess I is it possible to consider waa Force yes ma'am we can we can take a look at that thank you thank you Miss Jackson hope you feel better uh Fernando morante thank you um I have a question about how we're addressing the big percentages like the difference between um Hispanic and El students um and uh the rest of the student body um especially with Dropout rates are we reaching out or talking to their families and I know especially for El students um a lot of them if not most might be immigrant students and I can speak about that myself um my first year in an American education system was sophomore year and everything

208was very different and it was very helpful to have um staff explain to me and my family how to go about like taking classes and graduation requirements and all that stuff um so um is there a process that we follow with that or is it kind of just like if it happens it happens and if if it doesn't then it just like gets lost thank you Fernanda for asking that question and for sharing your own Journey um it's essential and so I'm going to give you uh two answers one yes we do have a process for that again we work uh really closely with our translation team and the global Welcome Center in particular however I will certain say it's insufficient and so it's definitely an area that we need to Target better um because

209most definitely All Families wants a great education for their children and they want to be involved in their children's education and if we aren't taking the steps to talk about what that's like how it's different and how uh we encourage that level of involvement then our parents of course won't know because many of the environments that people come from have very different expectations and different standards so it is important for us to be very explicit very focused and very intentional about that work we have work to do um so we we are definitely um analyzing every aspect of that experience for our students and that's one of the ways that we are currently insufficient but we will Target I really appreciate you bringing that up um is there anything that you think us as students

210that are already um familiar with the system yeah can do um to help uh English language Learners and overall all the Dropout um specific specific minorities that have the highest Dropout rates uh most Mo in particular are English language Learners and yes thank you for asking that question we just had a wonderful presentation for our principles um with an esteemed Professor um is really an expert in that field she presented a lot of research and data that talked about the importance of those PE peer-to-peer interactions and interviews um from countless of students that talked about what helped to bring about that sense of belonging so our students play a really big role in that um and and can really help a student feel a part of the school community and give their peers something to

211look forward to when they come to school and so uh many many students would probably say they're most excited to go to school to see their friends and do lunch and those things and that's where you guys guys have a leg up way over the adults and so um I would love to talk to you more and talk about ways we can mobilize our student communities particularly in those schools um that have large numbers well even if it's one child right how how we can create a greater sense of belonging so yes we want your help on that we may be able to this may be a good idea to start with the student Senate um and work with them and then we do have some schools that do have some some great um peer-to-peer

212uh programs one particular that comes to mind is at Osborne Park so uh we could we can replicate some of that but I think starting with the student Senate so um maybe Dr solivan that's where you can maybe present to the the student Senate and and get some ideas perfect yes thank you thank you Fernanda Fernanda thank you your perspective is critical as you have a window to this world that many of us don't and didn't and and need to know more about uh Miss wall has one last question and then I'll wrap up my last question um was kind of going back to the um cost per pupil um chart or table which I think was on page four um I know um we have had a lot of um outstanding increase to revenues

213um and we've increased our cost per pup and so has everybody else because other other divisions have also had the same windfall of Revenue so to speak um but I do remember from past years um through you know when I when I was in law school and took an education Law class we spent a lot of time discussing the relationship between cost per pupil and student achievement and I know sometimes it's sometimes there's a correlation or causation but sometimes there's just a correlation sometimes there are other causes and for instance in Prince William County even though we are um relatively at the bottom with our Rich Neighbors we we if we compare ourselves to our poor neighbors we were higher but we we managed to achieve nonetheless like Miss Jesse was saying according to school

214Digger um we we're doing quite well with the dollars that we have per pupil which I think is a c is a point that needs to be made um you know student achievement as measured objectively by test scores graduation rates college readiness College persistence and so forth um may or may not really correlate directly with cost per pupil but cost per pupil in my mind is is a function of tax revenues that come from the state and um local governments tax rates right um and some federal dollars and some other things and then Divi divided by isn't it basically how much money you take in divided by the number of students that you have essentially and so um you know if we're going to look at cost per people and equate it with Student Success

215I don't think necess I guess my point is I don't necessarily think that there's a direct causal relationship because we are a case in point we are relatively poor compared to our Rich neighbors and yet we we we achieve at quite high levels nonetheless and uh anyway um do you have anything to add to Insight onto that point of discussion or I can just let it be a comment as well if anybody wants do you have any thoughts on cost per pupil correlation to Student Success I mean certainly we know that with more dollars we could have a lot more resources um in our schools especially schools that may have um lower enrollment um and so you know they are unable to sometimes offer some of the programming that um you know and I'm not

216I'm not just talking about the core programming you know math and science and um reading and social science just overall we know that students who participate in um you know find and Performing Arts and extracurricular activities and Robotics and all of the the experiences that make up a really robust educational um experience you know all of those things come into play so certainly I am for you know more funding for our schools and for our students um because it it just would allow schools to do more than just the ba the basic needs that are met in the classroom or basic Staffing models um for you know core classes and sometimes not having the ability ility to secure more tutors um not having the ability to secure Specialists that support um those kinds of things

217are important and we do see that when you do have more Investments students do you know Fair better than if you if you have less so there's no argument there and I think that there's there's a full body of literature that supports that notion so um certainly is something that we're always looking to improve upon it's hard like uh Mr wallinger talked about in terms of as a School Division we don't we don't control Revenue but certainly I'm always an advocate for us having more and yes and I think um Dr Brown can speak a little bit to this too because that's one of the reasons that we have the um Equitable Equitable budgeting task force and that's something that she and Mr Wallingford are exploring right now which is resource Equity um and it

218it there's and she can talk to the research I don't know if you want to share anything Dr Brown here but I know you shared a wealth of research with the budgeting task force around the fact fact that um resource Equity does matter and it does have a positive uh there is a causal relationship between um you know improve student achievement and the amount of Investments that we're making in our schools that goes beyond the classroom to even include infrastructure right to include our facilities so um I don't know if sorry to put you on the spot but I know you've done a lot of U of research around this and I know that this was something that when we launched the budget task force you shared a wealth of research and data with the

219budget task force around the need for stronger resource Equity right and so I won't say much because you've captured it very well but I will add that there of is strong empirical evidence to support the Strategic investments in increased um dollars over time do have a direct impact on student achievement for the very reasons that Dr McDade said across um 10 evidence-based um Dimensions or areas within resource equity which is a key domain of our Dei framework so I would just add okay thank you very much um well listen I I the presentation was great I I think you know there weren't that many questions on special ed this week because we spent quite a bit of time at the last meeting on special ed so thank you Dr ryer I I think it's really

220important for the public to know we have um taken our our most important topics very seriously as we've launched the school year um I Mr Mr wil I was at the college as well I know um Dr Miss heer said she saw maybe a sophomore there I saw middle schoolers there I went to both of them so um that team who did the the college fair and a shaver your counselors all of your College and Career coun excellent job it was outstanding and it was just so well-run and you know you know I I don't think this board would want to give you any indication that we don't support counseling and we're interested in in continuing to support it at at the highest levels we we can if that's what's necessary um so I I

221want you to to know that um I you know I am concerned about the bullying at middle schools I mean when I get emails on bullying it really is at that Middle School level that's where I'm seeing and hearing a lot of it and I'm not a big fan of middle schools um you know let me be clear like I I think middle schools in in America where we we we somehow decide that we're going to just blame everything on kids and their hormones and stuff and we sort of I don't know we throw them into this place and and I I just feel like they leave fifth grade and everyone's happy and they go to middle school and something just happens and I and I and I I really believe we can do more

222at at Middle School whether it's with counseling whether it's with scheduling whether it's with curriculum whether it's with homework I mean I really do think you know I I and and I say this just asking that we you know make a commitment to making sure that we're doing the best we can in middle schools for our kids and and I and I just I get that's the where I get my highest number of emails on bullying is at the middle school level so I don't think you have an answer I don't know if you have an answer but I don't other than yes Middle School it's that developmental piece where kids are you know changing and sometimes not self-regulating but I just want to reassure you that we have already had extensive um training this

223year on bullying and we've crafted you know a new regulation we are in compliance with what the state says about reporting and really encouraging peers to think about their actions through our counseling lessons and just day-to-day kindness and interactions we have to treat one another you know with respect and kindness regardless of the situation and so I your your voice is heard and we will work on that yeah okay great thank you and and I don't want to you know spend a lot of time on that and then back to scholarship dollars I mean I I do I have seen just a tremendous improvement over the last few years on emails coming from counselors with levels of resources and I just I hope that I'm not the only one seeing them at our school so

224you know I think if we have best if we have exam examples of best practices it's got to be shared and in I in in and I would even encourage you to mandate the best practice meaning if in and if we're seeing certain counselors certain schools sending out better quality information packets about scholarship dollars resources links this that on a regular basis I mean I think we we have to model all our schools all have to model that right we can't just do that on site based management I me I really think you know if we can have a central rep atory and a commitment um you know cuz I'm the tiger dad tiger mom I don't know what happened to wall I think we have access to my kids navian I mean we're looking

225at it all the time but but it you know and and and and and so I I do think that that is critical and so whatever you need there support-wise I I think this board would would would throw it your way you know I think it's really important thank you and Dr Latif just so you're aware you will see standardized practices across the division this is the first year that we have implemented our K12 um playbook for counsel are Shing practices highlighting at you know monly meetings practices that are reaping good results and you you see them on the slides here the pictures those are examples of what we're doing so we are we are working on that yeah no I I really appreciate it because I've seen some amazing stuff come and um and

226and already with with results and I think you know Mr wil brings up a good example I mean I think all of us as parents have had that experience where we see the scholarship somebody wins we go to the award ceremony and there's all these scholarships people are winning and we're like we didn't even know we could apply for that one right like we we qualify for that we didn't even know that one existed and they're naming all these ones and and you know you look across the room at parents and they're like I didn't know I didn't know right and so um I I just think we can do a better job and and we want you to hit that 2 290 320 450 million what was it oh I see 260 are way

227off 260 that that 26 60 Target right so so what whatever we can do I I just think it's so important and and and parents do appreciate it I mean look parents appreciate it and and you know looking at all the different scholarships available you don't have to be number one to win these right like there's so many different ones where like oh are you interested in it are you interested in art are you interested in you know like there's so many different ones and um it is overwhelming as you point out Miss hner I mean it it really is and and uh but we can do so much I mean I I told you the other day a great example of a link that we got from our school about uh the Virginia Department

228of Health created a a task force advisory Council for students from across the Commonwealth many students applied from our County and I think a number of students got it right it was like I would not have seen it otherwise if our school and so I can't tell you how much um this stuff really means and the work you're doing is so important I mean I I I I just I mean I I don't know how to say it any more than that but it is so important um and then it does make a difference in the lives of our children and I I I can't thank you guys enough so anyways I've talked too much and we're going to move on to the next agenda item thank you Miss evener thank you guys great work

229team I really appreciate Dr McDade that I think concludes superintendent time yes that was a long one okay um we are moving to what do we have next do we have something next or we done okay is there any committee updates Miss wall update on safe schools yes um so I have an up on safe schools advisory Council um there was a meeting held in um April on April 24th so I'll um ask Miss zaror to talk just a little bit about that one and then I'll cover just briefly what safe schools did in our meeting on Monday night thank you Miss wall um so safe schools uh meets once a month throughout the year and there is a moment in the beginning if the citizens want to come and make comments they can they

230can bring citizen comments time there too um at this particular meeting there were no citizens making any comments but what the big presentation that evening uh was about the threat assessment process by uh Dr Robinson and I just wanted to make sure that the public understands if you look at our website and you just search for threat assessment there's a whole page um under student management and alternative programs so you can get information there about threat assessments different pieces of information links that'll take you to get you other information so that's um that was kind of part of the presentation we we received recommendations for different you know issues and topics under safety uh in our schools so there were recommendations uh for the superintendent for the yearly report um and we talked a little

231bit about membership and um Vern Bach is our facilitator so we're looking forward to seeing him this year again so um Miss wall would you like to talk about this week's meeting meeting yes thank you so um the safe schools advisory Council met on Monday October 16th and um the purpose of the safe schools advisory I'll just read this because I think it's helpful to know the council supports students staff and school safety through discussions on policy questions and collaboration with various stakeholders and it strengthens the relationship between pwcs government agencies and the community on safety matters with established guidelines including auditing and safety related reports um and so um Mr Bach is our new facilitator this year so welcome to him and our meeting he was it was his first meeting and Miss hner

232was our facilitator last year and thank you to her for her extra time and attention to the council um the meeting held uh on Monday we held officer elections we approved our minutes we also were um treated to a beginning of the year Safety and Security update by Mr Ron Crow which was very comprehensive and very impressive um and a lot of the information can be found in a security similar to a security update that we received last spring I believe here in a school board meeting because I will say one thing that we have really done in the last two years um as a School Division and also on this committee is to elevate the importance of physical safety and there is a laundry list of um really impressive things that we have done

233to increase safety at our schools and within our schools not just outside of our schools but within our schools as well and so that was a really good presentation and a good meeting introduction because there are a number of new members on the council this year and so that was I think that was part of it is to get everybody kind of up to speed what we have done up to speed with what we have done and what we still what we still need to do um also there was a discussion about um as a as a an extension of its school board established Council so Foya requirements that apply to the school board also apply to that Council so we also received some education on that um and that was um provided by our

234assistant division Council ER Eric um Carlson Landy so thank you to him for coming in and talking to the board about the importance of being a government um body and and our obligations under Freedom of Information laws so with that we adjourned and it was it was a it was a great meeting and a good start to the year thank you m wall um moving on to board matters tonight we'll start with Miss zapor oh gosh thank you Dr Latif um so it's been um you know busy busy weeks um with finishing up back to school nights I got to go to several concerts I went to see op's Coral concert and their strings concert I am very sorry I missed the band concert had a vet appointment for my kitty cat um got to

235do the coin toss at the Hilton football game I'm looking forward to Friday going to osor park it is my 35th class reunion so I will be there um hopefully recognizing people I'm sure we look exactly the same um I feel like I need to correct the record though from this evening um as a music teacher in a neighboring District um there are some things that I do wish to see in this school division um but I do not receive stiens for my job um I'm about to embark on our our All County Chorus rehearsals I don't get money for that I don't get paid for the day that the actual Festival is I don't get paid for the extra meetings um and it would be nice to be honest it would be very nice

236to to receive stiens so I do support those things um I do also think that we need to know what positions people have as teachers and supporting staff and extra things that they're required to do so um not against that at all but I want to make sure people understand I I don't we don't I not in a position that does receive stiens however our middle school music teachers do in in Fairfax County now there's a difference between that job there and the job here in Prince William our middle schools are sixth seventh and e8th grade unlike Fairfax County and in sixth seventh and e8th grade here we require our kids to take a music class in both sixth and seventh grade that's not the same in Fairfax County Fairfax Middle School teachers who are

237um who are music teachers have to recruit for their jobs so not all those positions are full-time uh can be very difficult they might be working between two or even three different schools so it's a little bit different position and I just want people to just understand it's a different County and I do support stens for our staff uh doing extra things for our kids for sure we want to make sure that you're compensated for it want to make sure you get home to your own families want to make sure that you have time to do your planning and spend time having a work life balance of course I'm looking forward to the game on Friday at op next week I hope to be meeting with a few more um parents who have uh requested

238some meetings and some students in fact um there was a student who came here catala from believe it was forgot the element uh which element Kyle wils she is interested in um having recess in middle school so she wanted to uh to to have a further discussion I can't wait to meet with her to hear a little bit more about that I hope everyone has a great week thank you Miss Williams thank you Dr Latif I like this little change up of order um first would like to start by congratulating Kilby again for receiving a 2023 healthiest schools designation and for seven categories believe they led the pack I'm always very proud of all of my title in schools um they just do amazing things and that was also reflected tonight in our state of

239the schools report just very proud to be their representative this past weekend I was able to attend uh the title one Family Camp which is one of my favorite all uh activities every year it was absolutely packed um there were sessions for uh adults parents um everything from social emotional learning advocate and supporting your student specialy in gifted programs after school activities and sports and my personal favorite this year was the Apple adaptive technology session I learned so much um and I'm pretty technologically fluent but I believe there's always something to learn and it really was amazing and an impactful session uh I also enjoyed getting a sneak peek into the kids camp they had a magician um who would perform shows they also got the opportunity to to um play with robotics and do

240some coding and the robots were the little round spheres it was just amazing and I appreciate the community collaboration from all of the different Community groups um and resources that were available for adults that line the hallways I want to spend a SP send a special shout out to all of the staff that made that day possible I know that there's a tremendous amount of work that goes into that half day program it's just chocked full of information resources and fun and also to the Junior ROTC Cadets that came to help out throughout the day for the programming um next up earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit Toto's Market uh the uh location off of River Ridge Boulevard I just want to thank uh Mr Carlos Castro is the owner of toos

241for partnering with the school division to expand transition programs for our special education students um the the work that is being done between the school Division and our Community Partners to ensure that our special educ special needs students have the opportunity to go out in the world prepared with some Workforce skills already in place and um I know the sense of relief as a parent that that must bring is just an amazing opportunity and I look forward to the seeing this program continue to expand um I lastly want to well the 32 seconds I have left I just want to welcome the new cohort of student Learners to the Human Rights Commission um from they are students from all over Prince William County and I especially want to give a shout out to Dr McDade

242for being the keynote speaker this year here um look forward to attending Freedom High School's Homecoming this weekend um as a graduate of whbr senior high school I was at Miss Jessie school which is also mine uh for their homecoming but more importantly to celebrate the life of Coach Davis and participate in the memorial service um there's an absolutely amazing P plaque and a tree that will um forever live on at webridge senior high school he was so impactful to so many lives of the students who were there mine especially and so it was just a really nice opportunity to be there and just wrap up by saying I'm sorry for all the events that I missed while I was Ill but I look forward to attending more in the future thank you m CH

243good evening I hope I'm close enough to the mic uh I I think I have a slide would you put it up please ha this is going to be the new aquan elementary school it is gorgeous and it is a net zero School uh and we had a presentation on Tuesday evening I think it was and we are we got a snapshot on Tuesday I think we're planning to show at the school board on the first week in November am I right yeah okay so I'm asking Mr ver M Mr Bach please be the presenter I love your presentations because you really know elementary schools and you know the the aspect of the school is that it is a uh you notice I can't you can't say that the beginning but the tribes but I

244want to talk a little bit about aquan elementary it's a series my my series is called this dog uh won't hunt and aaan Elementary in US News and World Report is ranked number is 93% of the schools scored at or above proficiency level in math and his overall score is 93 out of 100 and it is a title one school so I gave a cup to that school I think as the second slide this is wow I look awfully dark right is not a great photo but this is catlyn frell and we started I started this rotational cup because the schools on their own decide to R rotate the cup around so this is a rotational cup I gave two cups to schools I have two schools that are 9990 math reading and Science and

245they were 990 in reading and math and so I gave this cup to her and I want to read their school Dicker scores aaan Elementary ranks better than 68.4% of elementary schools in the state of Virginia and is 26 out of 64 elementary schools in Prin William County I just want you guys to know that it's not just my schools I I would dare you guys to go to school Digger and look up your schools and you're going to find that many of our schools are scoring much higher than we're given credit for so with that I want to say thank you I also want to say for the Woodridge High School um homecoming it wasn't a good homecoming game because your team I think last I left when I left was 69 62 nothing

246I don't think we got any scores but I want to thank the staff for recognizing me and uh the fames parents who care for the stadium and for the track that we were able to get there and for the gym thank you very much Mr will I'm debating about if you don't have something nice to say don't say it at all for correcting records tonight so I'm going to move on from that um a couple highlights um from uh the last couple weeks um on October 5th I did my last two back to school nights Washington Reed and Ashlin so I did all 15 schools one traditional and one k uh prek program it worked out this year the schedule was much better and I was able to actually hit them the way it was

247divided so it was great um on the 10th um I was able to attend a a present a parent presentation of Rachel's Challenge um it's a program we've been doing for a while it's all about the story um and what occurred uh at the horrific acts of uh the Coline Massacre back in 1999 um and uh the story of Rachel is a story of passing on kindness she was the first victim of the event and it's a great program being implemented in many of our middle schools it's been around for a while uh when I was a teacher uh we were doing it at Gainesville uh the 12th I attended the Covington Harper PTO meeting um I also went later that night and spoke to a group of Cub Scouts for one of their badges

248on the 13th I attended the Forest Park football game uh and then last night uh I was able to go to the triangle book fair and family night from there I went uh to spoke to another group of Boy Scouts in Montclair Elementary and then ended the night at the Forest Park chorus concert so with my time remaining I yielded uh to Lily I'm just kidding Miss wall you can yield it to me if you want I often need it um I'm going to do something a little different I'm not going to talk about places I've been but just some things that have been on my mind um Red Ribbon Week is coming up on October 23rd through the 31st that week began in the 1980s to highlight the dangers of use and abuse of

249prescription and illegal drugs I don't think that there's a family out there that hasn't been impacted by illegal drugs or alcohol abuse in some way I know my own family has been impacted everybody I know has at some point somebody they know um that has been impacted by this please families talk with your children don't just assume that they're just not going to do anything or be exposed to anything wrong or harmful they will and help them understand why they should avoid the use and abuse of drugs and get help if needed the month of um October is dyslexia Awareness Month also um and I'm encouraged by the efforts to improve not only the identification of Dyslexia but also efforts to improve educational supports for children who are experiencing dyslexia I want to um recognize

250the efforts of parents teachers reading Specialists and other professionals who assist children with dyslexia and related learning disabilities thank you for what you do you are so very important to each of the children we are struggling with this these learning learning disabilities October is also bullying prevention month bullying harassment discrimination whatever form it may take be it verbal physical online harassment or bullying it's a serious problem we who are connected with children in schools um we need to make a continued effort to address bullying and harassment of all kinds so that all of our students can learn in a safe positive and supportive environment it begins with each one of us I believe um parents and Educators and community members to lead by example in this really important realm and um on that note um

251the tactics that have have been used to pressure and shame the board on the progress of collective bargaining have been Relentless however in my observation the tactics are not having their desired effect rather it is serving to alienate parents St staff and community members who otherwise are in support of collective bargaining and for those who were not initially in support those pressure tactics are evidence for why the effort was resisted um and validate the warnings that were given the teachers union through great effort last year won their seat at the at the bargaining table having won that seat I wish to point out where that table is as has been the case all along the negotiates with the school division not with the board and that negotiation happens at the negotiation table not in the

252boardroom I will close by saying thank you to everyone who is working so hard to help children learn I acknowledge your efforts I appreciate your dedication your time your commitment to helping educate the children of Prince William County we value you and you belong here so thanks everyone and have a great night okay thank you um just to remind everyone uh so it was a great week two amazing college fairs one at Freedom one at Battlefield extremely well attended I mean you couldn't get in the parking lots the gyms were crowded the Halls were crowded it was exciting parents were there students were there middle school students high school students our counselors were there congratulations to anade shaver Denise hner the entire team on a fantastic effort um in a really success launch to um

253our College season uh second I have to say this I went to see rent at colan and colan is now a member of the Cappies program which recognizes um great theatrical performance at schools students from each school um participating in the entire um DC Maryland Virginia area participating they write reviews of each other's plays and they go around and so because kogan did a fall play it was one of the first plays um of the year and last year four of our schools participate in the Cappies and Woodbridge took home uh an award at the Cappies it's very prestigious and and so it's not just our find and Performing our school all of our schools have tremendous theater programs great theater teachers great Voice coaches great orchestras and bands and oh my gosh they're showing

254it but I have to read you some of the um the lines from the reviews so I want to congratulate I went and saw rent it was fabulous um I want to congratulate Mr uh workentine the director he's also a teacher for the cfpa musical theater Miss Staley who's the musical director she's also cfpa voice teacher um the reviews were written by Naomi Bautista and Cat Cat Pascal both at Fairfax High School who came to watch it um let me just read you some quick lines kogan High School's production of rent school edition invited the audience to a Viva Lavi bohim with a Larger than Life cast and no qualms approach to this Tonia win award-winning show uh kogan's production was filled with passion joyous energy while handling each sensitive topic with care care starx

255ability he's the lead actor in the show one of our I think a senior Junior ability to make big acting choices without fear endeared him to the audience with his use of body language to build relationships with those around him and his captivating hilarious energy in laia bohim from the moment she climbed on the table and you I wish they were playing it again this weekend but uh Danielle Sano Bremer who played Moren which if you've seen rent Moren is a a central figure in the show here's the review on that from the moment she climbed on the table for her performance of over the moon Danielle Sano Bremer commanded attention with a larger than life stage presence and a vocal vers versatility that had the audience cheering with her comedic timing and pure Charisma

256Sano Bremer filled the stage with her uproariously funny energy playing up the dynamic energy between her and Joanne her who was Julia sapek her cons her consistent Powerhouse vocals proved that this Diva needs her stage they talked about the sound mix allowed each of the ensemble's members voices a shine in all their harmonious Glory costumes designed by Julia sapek Elena Turon Casey Williams channeled the '90s grunge while adding to each individual's character development scene transitions were crisp and well done and a testament to the excitement of stage management of autumn Parish assist assisted by Kenzie Forbes Kate olssen Riley Russian delivering on a truly Brave undertaking colan High School's rent was filled to the brim with bohemian Bohemian spirit that highlighted that the best way to measure life is in love great show congratulations to

257Tim Healey the entire the the cast the students were spectacular um and and I tell you that all of our high schools put on these amazing Productions I can't be more proud of the work that our students are doing in every aspect that the School Division offers and it truly is a pleasure and a privilege to to get to see them and I believe that Co should be in the running for a Cappy and if they don't win I will not be happy okay I'll just leave it at that um excellent uh you know playoffs are starting for uh all of our fall Sports um watch them follow them you know um support our students um college applications are due soon for early decisions in November 1 and um and I'm hearing great results uh

258at Benton Middle School on their results with students not being allowed to use cell phones throughout the day so I would encourage enage our school division to continue to look at that thank you all very much meeting is adjourned