001okay I'd like to call this meeting in the Prince William County School Board to order motion is now in order for the approval of the meeting agenda Miss wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County school board approved the meeting agenda as recommended do I have a second Mr chairman yep a second [Music] okay any discussion please vote much better the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed moving on to the motion enter closed session emotions in order Miss wall Mr chairman I moved that pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 the Prince William County School Board enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss with staff the appointment transfer release assignments reassignment and promotion of specific officers and employees pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711a1 and two
002to evaluate the Ombudsman and approve annual performance goals for the office of the imbalance Ombudsman for 2023-24 pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711a1 three to discuss with division Council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students pursuant to Virginia code sections 2.2-3711 A7 and 8. four to consult with legal counsel employed or retained by the school board to receive legal advice regarding the school division's policies on search and seizure pursuant to Virginia code sections 2.2-3711a 7 and 8 5 to discuss the qualifications and selection of the student representatives to the school board for the 2023-24 school year pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711a 1 and 2 and 22.1-86.1 okay six to review disciplinary matters for specific students that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the Scholastic
003record for individual students and to receive legal advice regarding same as provided by Virginia code sections 2.2-3711a2 and 8 and 7 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 sections 2.2-3711 a 19. do you have a second Mr chairman Miss uh Williams second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed the Prince William County School Board will now enter closed session and return at approximately seven o'clock [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] um the Prince William County School Board is now returning to open session from closed session uh we
004will move on to the closed session certification agenda item 8.01 emotions and Order Miss wall Mr chairman I recommend or I move that pursuit to Virginia code section 2.2-3712 the closed session of the Prince William County school board meeting of June 7 2023 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be it resolved that the Prince William County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge one only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies and two only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board do you have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams a second any discussion please vote the
005vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed moving on to the closed session action items emotion is in order for 9.01 Miss Miss wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County school board approved the appointment's reassignment and releases of specific employees as presented in closed sessions do you have a second Mr Williams or Miss Jesse second was Jesse seconds of motion any discussion please vote the vote is six yes one abstained Latif one absent Ralston motion passed moving on to 9.02 miss Walla motion is in order Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County School Board uphold the hearing officer's recommendation of dismissal and employee case number t23-135 and further that the chairman at large is authorized to provide a written decision to the employee reflecting the school board's decision do
006I have a second Mr chairman any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed on to 9.03 emotions in order Vice chairwall Mr chairman I moved Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County school board approved an annual retainer agreement for fiscal year 2023-24 for legislative lobbying legal services provided by James Council Esquire do you have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams a second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent most Ralston motion passed moving on to 9.04 Vice chair wall Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County school board approved the closed session consent agenda items as presented in closed session do I have a second chairman Miss Jesse a second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston
007motion passed okay thank you very much so now that wraps up closed session action items am I correct okay please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance tonight we have our student representative Chance Williams up here on the diocese with us to lead pledge allegiance one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all thank you chance this is our student representative's last meeting of the school year and that's Chance Williams from Forest Park High School we have also in our audience our other student rep Donya sharifi from Gainesville High School and Christian Daniels from Hilton High School and uh you'll be hearing from them a little bit later okay moving on to thriving Futures Focus we have a big night this evening folks it is time for one of the most enjoyable portions of our
008school board meetings and that is launching thriving Futures we dedicate this time during our meetings to recognize students staff members and students who have earned an honor or an award at the state or national level we appreciate how those these honorees have positively represented Prince William County Public Schools the school and the school board is proud to recognize them publicly for their accomplishments because we are approaching the end of the school year we have several recognitions tonight and I ask our guests to exercise patience and bear with us as we recognize our wonderful students staff and schools We Begin tonight in the Occoquan district with Miss Lily Jesse Miss Jesse thank you Dr Whiskey's last meeting we recognize students who are in first place at the state distributive education Club of America arteca competition one
009of our students had a scheduling conflict but I'm pleased to share that he is here tonight Chuck Sullivan a graduating senior at Woodbridge High School plays first in sports and entertainment marketing for the state Chuck is here tonight with his business education teacher Nicole Healey and Brian carbach administrative intern Mrs Healy would you like to say a few words about Chuck sure good evening Dr Latif members of the school board and Dr McDade thank you so much for taking the time tonight to recognize Chuck for his outstanding accomplishment the DECA sports and entertainment marketing competition required Chuck to take a written test and perform in two events that presented business challenges with role plays the competition Blends the skills and knowledge Chuck learned in class with his application of real world solving problem-solving skills related
010to the industry Chuck earned first place for the state and then went on to represent Woodbridge High School Prince William County schools and Virginia at the DECA International Career Development conference in Orlando Florida Chuck just graduated on Sunday night and he will be studying sports and recreation management at James Madison University in the fall [Applause] thank you congratulations Chuck for this awarding for graduating high school earlier this week thank you Miss Healey Mr cornbreck for coming and we appreciate you joining us now we will move on to our con fellows continuing with Miss Jesse of the Occoquan District wow what an honor I'm pleased to announce that four School four school principals who are selected to take part in a con distinguished principles Fellowship for 20 2023-24 because of this because this is the first
011year Prince William County has participated in the con fellow programs these four outstanding principles represented the inaugural cohort for Prince William County schools the principles are four of just 65 principals chosen Nationwide to be a part of this 2324 cohort the cons program recognized and supports excellence in education supporting strong School leaders to approve education for students the fellowship provides principal with an opportunity to to flourish professionally intellectually and personally one of the four principles hold on guys one of the four principals leads the school of not corn District Elise zivaro principal addict kerrydale elementary school has more than 18 years of experience as a result of Missouri's excellent leadership and collaborative efforts of her outstanding team this year Carrie Dale was recognized as a national Elementary secondary act distinguished group for closing achievement Gap
012in addition kerrydale Elementary earned the first visible learning certified School in Virginia in 20 to 23. several please come forward and say a few words thank you um thank you so much Miss Jesse and thank you to the school board and Dr McDade I'm incredibly proud and honored to be selected as a con fellow for this upcoming school year and represent the division in this capacity I'm really looking forward to the leadership experience and learning from other leaders Across the Nation and bringing that back to the school and also our students and our division so thank you so much for this opportunity congratulations Miss afro the remaining con fellows are located in the Brentsville district with Miss Adele Jackson Mr Dell Jackson will introduce these distinguished principles for us Miss Jackson thank you Dr Latif
013um Dr Mark marinobo principal of Cedar Point Elementary School hello began his career as an educator teaching in fakia public schools Dr marinoble enjoined pwcs in March of 2002 as a teacher at Yorkshire Elementary School from there he became an assistant principal at Vaughan Elementary School and served as a special education coordinator in 2004 he accepted his position at the principal at Triangle Elementary School during his nine years as principal he significantly closed the achievement gap for all subgroups and students Dr maranobo became the principal of wonderful Cedar Point Elementary in 2013. as principal he launched the Tech Lab at Cedar Point to get students involved in technology projects such as coding please come forward and say a few words about your Khan Fellowship award and congratulations all right to the to the school board
014Dr mcday thank you for this tremendous opportunity I wasn't nervous until I could see myself talking on the Jumbotron so that throws it for a loop I'd love to go around and tell stories about each and every one of the board members here and uh some great people around in this room but I was I always told myself I'm always going to call out Miss Jesse I'm very thankful to you Miss Jesse Miss Jesse many years ago when I was um a teacher trying to make that transition to to Administration I needed somebody to give me a chance and an opportunity Miss Jesse gave me that so I'm always in debt to you for that thank you for teaching me everything I know let's give Miss Jesse Ryan Applause We Appreciate You Mr Johnson I
015think in this role as Educators our job is to to look for uh the greatness in others and and find that and uh and that's really the work that we do each and every day so I'm just thankful for this opportunity I look forward to learning with these great colleagues we're very excited about uh what we'll be learning in this next step also thank you Dr Hart appreciate working for you you guys are amazing uh and so thank you team thank you for the opportunity appreciate you next we have Marissa Miranda principal of the wonderful Glenn Cook Elementary School who began a career as a first grade teacher in Germany she continued her teaching career in the United States and became an assistant principal at Dumfries elementary in 2014. Miss Miranda became principal at Glen
016Cook Elementary School in 2017. over the last six years she had made it a place where students and staff can collaborate and find new and innovative ways to accomplish all things eager to share her knowledge and experience with others Miss Miranda has presented at several conferences with the most recently held virtually in February 2023 for reading League professional panel on the topic current practices and evidence-based literacy instruction from the field with 19 years of experience in the field of Education Miss Miranda is a dynamic leader that is student focused and possesses Dynamic communication skills please come forward and say a few words and congratulations thank you so much thank you Miss Jackson Dr McDade all the school board Dynamic communication skills that's a lot to follow now so I just want to say we all
017of us are so excited about this opportunity I can't be more excited I was a teacher in Prince William County and assistant principal of principal I'm excited to bring back all the things that we're going to learn we're very very excited so thank you so much for the recognition [Applause] great our final con fellow is Mr Neal Beach a principal of Gainesville High School Mr Beech is attending his daughter's recital tonight and sends his regrets Mr beach has over 22 years of experience as an educator and is passionate about furthering his impact and his school and his professional communities Mr Beech began his career as a biology teacher at Brentsville District High School during this time he taught biology for students in grades 9 through 12 and achieved a hundred percent pass rate on the
018biology Sol for the 2003 to all the way to 2005 school years after would he accepted the role of Cambridge and testing coordinator at Burnsville District High School and from there he became assistant principal at Osborne parkai for three years before becoming principal there during his time as principal at Osborne Park High Mr Beech was awarded 25 000 Millikin educator award for his work which included increasing participation and AP programs and he's not here today but I'm going to say congratulations again congratulations to our con fellows and before we take a few pictures can I please ask the family members of our award winners to stand to be recognized if you're here please stand I can ask the folks um I think Diane will direct people up to the front for photographs hi [Applause] everybody
019thank you [Applause] all right all right all right well it is now time to recognize our our state level science fair winners after we recognize all science winners Miss Julia renberg the Prince William County School supervisor of Science and director of Prince William Manassas Regional science and engineering Fair will speak on behalf of the students Miss Jen Wall Vice chair and representative of the Gainesville magisterial district will recognize our first group foreign thank you Dr Latif y I'm sorry I slaughtered that is that pretty good A Battlefield High School one first place in Health Sciences and biomedical engineering at the state science fair sabarwal also from Battlefield High let's see where raise your hand there you are one first place in computer science they are here tonight with assistant principal Chris McMillan there he is
020congratulations [Applause] um thank you Miss wall and congratulations to our Battlefield high school students next up is Mr Dale Jackson Miss Jackson it's my pleasure to recognize Ellie Kim sitting at Gainesville High School and the Governor's School is Ellie can yes go ahead I reckon at Innovation Park and faisa Mahan at uh and Madison Nalley both students at Osborne Park High School and the Governor's School at Innovation Park whose team won first place in the competition of biology and translational medicine and grand prize in animal behavior and social sciences at the Virginia state science and engineering Fair the principals are Neil Beach Lisa Marie Kane and Dr Jason Calhoun fantastic and and you know I might add that each year we continue to do well at the Virginia state science fair in in the the
021winners keep increasing so keep it all up folks next um so congratulations to our state science fair Champions we will now move on to the winners of the Virginia Junior Academy of Science Symposium Awards uh Mrs argopore Lisa's report the Kohl's magisterial district will recognize these students MS argopore thank you Dr Latif Laila musafi student at Colgan high school and the Governor's School at Innovation Park Lila Brown attending Manassas City schools and the Governor's School at Innovation Park and Rayanne Ferrer Ferrer a student both at Brunsville District High School and the governor school at Innovation Park make up a team who earned first place in the medicine and health category at the Virginia Junior Academy of Science Symposium there are principles include Dr Catherine Mainz and Dr Jason Calhoun congratulations Armand Latif student at Colgan
022high school and the Governor's School at Innovation Park and arav Patel student at Osborne Park High School and the Governor's School earned first place in environmental and Earth Sciences Rania Sophia Latif student at Colgan High School earned first place in Zoology and earned the is it Vape Vape zoology award at the vjas Symposium their principals are Dr Jason Calhoun Lisa Marie Kane and Dr Tim Healey congratulations but wait I have much more to share about Rania she was selected as the delegate to the American Junior Academy of Science the top four research projects by an individual or team are given in an invitation to represent vjas at the annual meeting at the end of the meeting students are inducted as lifetime fellows into the jajas in addition Rania was selected to lead the junior officers
023of vjas as co-president for the 2023-24 school year but wait that is not all there's more after these messages no uh Rania is one of four students in the nation in the nation to receive the national Neuroscience research prize this award recognizes scientific skill and potential for scientific contributions in the field of Neuroscience this is the first time a pwcs student won this prize rania's research focused on the effects of sleep deprivation and the Circadian rhythm disruptions on a fruit flies lifespan mood and addiction like behaviors and Rania I would personally love to know more about this you're going to have to tell me congratulations Rania thank you Ms argopore and I'm very impressed with our students accomplishments in science and and to wrap up this section first you know we didn't mention all of
024these terrific students have incredibly great science teachers at their schools as well incredibly great folks who are supporting their science fair efforts um at their schools and and and we we have to recognize their parents who I don't know if it's later in my script but uh it is but but anyways great parents I would like to ask Julia renberg and Prince William County School supervisor of Science and director of The Prince William County Manassas Regional science engine for your fair to say a few words and then I'll recognize the parents later thank you Dr Latif and good evening and thank you for stealing my thunder um well I want to begin by also congratulating our students for their outstanding performance and achievements um not so long ago Prince William County used to send only
025one project to international science fair this year there were 11 students representing six jazz so this is evidence of division's commitment to support students in stem and that is critical because work of this caliber is never about one person it takes a team and that's where you stole my thunder so having said that I would like on behalf of the students to thank the school administration science fair coordinators teachers and of course their parents and anybody else Who provided mentorship from the day the student put the project proposal forward to the Regionals to the state and then all the way to Dallas Texas this work deserves recognition and I'm so grateful we're here tonight thank you so much Miss renberg whenever there's a storm coming and you have brought a great storm it's a good
026storm Thunderclap twice is okay we're good with that so thank you so much um and and I and I don't think we should discount and I want to re-emphasize you know five years ago we were sending only one student or one team to the international science fair we have now sent five teams or students 11 students this year alone it is fantastic and it is a great um uh you know Merit for our School Division and in in recognition for our School Division nationally so we can't thank you enough congratulations to our award-winning students in science we are very proud of your accomplishments at this time I'd like the families of these students to stand and be recognized please all the families I think you should stand up and before we make bring in the
027next group to be recognized as the school board members to um okay we're gonna walk to the front take a picture with our science Award winners please um come to the front there thank you very much principles you'll probably have to double that though foreign I'd like to thank everyone again for your patience this is you know as we get to the end of the school year there's so many things happening so many things wrapping up we still have I think last I heard five sports teams if not at the at least five teams still in Champion state championship contention so we might be back here on the 21st with a lot more things going on including all sorts of other things so again congratulations um to all our award winners in science okay we're
028moving on next uh we is now our my pleasure to recognize the nine schools in Prince William County named Virginia music educators Association the vmea Blue Ribbon Award winners at this time I would like to ask Miss wall to recognize her schools Miss wall thank you Dr Latif congratulations to the nine schools from Prince William County public schools that received the Virginia music educators Association vmea Blue Ribbon award this award is the highest award given to schools music programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia and recognizes Excellence achieved in band Orchestra and choral performance each year secondary band choir and Orchestra ensembles perform at the Virginia band and Orchestra Directors Association District concert assessment and Virginia choral Directors Association stage assessment and during these assessments student ensembles perform for a panel of adjudicators who assess students
029on their performance and provide feedback based on specific categories such as tone intonation Rhythm technique diction balance and blend and Artistry and musicianship to qualify for this award all disciplines in a school must receive a rating of superior at the state music concert assessments at the end of the Blue Ribbon recognitions we will ask Ed Stevenson supervisor for finer Performing Arts to say a few words about our amazing music programs but first from the Gainesville District I am proud to recognize Battlefield High School represented this evening by assistant principal Chris McMillan Chris please wait hi Alex we can see you and Bull Run Middle School is also a blue ribbon Award winner right there yes and they are represented this evening by principal Matthew fithian and Connor hoped congratulations thank you Vice chair wall next
030Miss Adele Jackson will recognize the schools in the Brentsville magisterial District thank you Dr Latif I'm excited to offer congratulations to Gainesville High School represented this evening by Andrew button assistant principal Aurora acquire student and and Bao Orchestra student I'm also excited to offer congratulations to Patriot High School represented tonight by David Van gelder assistant principal Elizabeth Selby choir director congratulations wonderful thank you Miss Jackson it is now my pleasure to introduce Justin Wilk of the Potomac magisterial District Mr Wilkes thank you Dr Latif Potomac Shores Middle School has been named The Blue Ribbon Award winner the school is represented tonight by Cassandra di Placido our assistant principal Ryan Burr Ryan Burr and Miles Matt lavish the band directors Andrew Kerper and Lisa flowers are choir directors and Amy ruleman the orchestra director congratulations potentials
031thank you Mr Wilk Miss Lily Jesse is next in the recognitions in the Occoquan magisterial District it's Jesse thank you Dr latita it is my pleasure to recognize Woodridge High School as a blue ribbon Award winner they wrote they're represented tonight by Brian carnbach administrative intern and the wonderful wonderful Taryn Woods you know I love her Orchestra director thank you [Music] thank you Miss Jesse it is now my pleasure to introduce Miss Lisa's argopore of the Kohl's magistral District Ms argopore thank you Dr Latif this is my favorite because I am a music teacher and I'm looking out here and I'm seeing some of my children's teachers I'm seeing my own mentors I've seen colleagues I love all of you I am so glad you are here uh it is my pleasure to recognize CD
032Hilton High School as a blue ribbon Award winner those present tonight include Eric Switzer assistant principal Tommy Tutwiler King Tutt choir director Michael Basham band director and Dennis Brown Orchestra director so wave so we can see you guys thank you from Osborne Park High School Lisa Marie Kane here is tonight with Dominic izo acquired who's our choir director Stephen Kelsey Orchestra director and Stephen Daly or band director please wave gentlemen and finally Charles J Colgan Senior High School represented by Dr Tim Healey and Don McGee band director as a recipient of this prestigious award congratulations wave at us guys all right congratulations Battlefield Colgan Gainesville Hilton Osborne Park Patriot and Woodbridge high schools and bull run in Potomac Shores Middle Schools on this outstanding accomplishment uh before calling Mr Stevenson up here to speak we
033have one more recognition of making music it is my pleasure to introduce Lori Williams Woodbridge magisterial District to share information about a division wide award Miss Williams thank you Dr Latif based on the recognition of these nine schools it should be no surprise to learn that Prince William County public schools has been named a best community for music education by The NAMM Foundation now in its 24th year the best communities for music education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students to qualify for the best community's designation pwcs answered detailed questions about funding graduation requirements music class participation instruction time facilities support for the music program and Community Music making programs responses were verified by school officials and reviewed by the music Research
034Institute at the University of Kansas The NAMM Foundation is a non-profit supported is is a non-profit supported in part by the National Association of Music merchants and its 15 000 member companies and individual professionals at this time it is my pleasure to introduce Ed Stevenson supervisor for fine and Performing Arts to come forward to say a few words Jasmine Hawkins and administrative coordinator for fine and Performing Arts is unable to be here with us this evening due to illness Mr Stevenson thank you Dr Latif members of the school board and Dr McDade uh we as you can see we do have outstanding music education programs in Prince William County that make a big difference in the lives of our students for many of our students receiving a quality music education is truly a life-changing experience
035this would not be possible without our dedicated music educators hard-working students and supportive parents who work tirelessly to make our music program successful I know this firsthand because I am married to battlefields a new band booster president it's going to be a great year anyway I am I am in all honesty continually impressed and humbled by the passion and the commitment of this community and I also know that our Vital music education programs would not be possible without the steadfast support of this school board and superintendent so on behalf of the entire music education community I would like to thank you for everything you do to support quality music programs in our school division thank you foreign thank you Miss Williams and congratulations to Mr Stevenson Ms Hawkins and to all the teachers and administrators
036administrators who contributed to the Nam award I ask all family members for our Blue Ribbon Awards to stand and be recognized if we have any folks in attendance please rise anybody back there I think no one should question the fact that we have been committed as a school board and a School Division to music in every corner of our County and to stem in every corner of our County and you can see that tonight by the representation we have brought here this evening Dr McDade some words thank you Dr Latif I have quite a few words this evening and I'm just Overjoyed at just the level of Excellence that exists in Prince William County across this School Division I want to acknowledge Chuck Sullivan from Woodbridge High School and congratulate him on his State win
037um on behalf of myself and pwcs I'm incredibly proud to be have the first year of school leaders being recognized in the National con distinguished Fellowship we have distinguished leaders in our school Division and it is time for them to be in the National Spotlight to Showcase what's happening here as well as learn and be professionally developed to bring research and practice back to Prince William County a little bit about Khan It's a rigorous application a very rigorous application process the principals who won this Fellowship went through a day-long process where the Khan fellows came out to our school division visited their schools interviewed students parents faculty and staff looked at data evaluations so it was a really rigorous process but it will be in enriching one-year program that focuses on authentic challenges and measurable
038results to more readily apply academic research to practice and for leaders to take an active approach to their learning so I want to congratulate our con fellows because this also is showcasing the Excellence in Prince William County on a national stage the long-awaited results of the science fair has kept us on the edge of our seats and so congratulations to the winners of the Virginia state science and engineering Fair as well as the Virginia Junior Academy of Science Symposium special acknowledgment to Rania Latif the VJs winner and one of only four students in the nation to win the Neuroscience research prize that is nothing to take lightly so I'm extremely proud of Rania and all of our students these honors really reflect the important lessons happening in our division stem programs and the central learning
039of characteristics like those defined in our pwcs profile of a graduate the students that we've showcased throughout this year represent what we believe are the characteristics that will lead to them creating a thriving future for themselves and their communities also congratulations to the nine schools that received the Virginia music educators association's Blue Ribbon award my son is a musician I know the impact that not just music education but Arts education has on our students and it makes a world of difference for those students that could potentially be disengaged from school to be engaged in school and to be able to thrive and prosper so I want to thank each and every one of you because it was a music teacher that inspired my child to re-engage in school so I'm deeply grateful for what you're
040doing for our students here in Prince William County Public Schools it's an honor to be recognized by the National Association for music Merchants as a 2023 best communities for music education wow wow wow wow these Awards punctuate the rich educational experience and prolific environment for our students in band Orchestra and choir thank you so much for your time dedication commitment and sheer passion to serving our students in Prince William County Public Schools congratulations to students family staff and Community who have made education music education part of a holistic education because Arts education is not separate in apart it's a part of the core of what we do so thank you so much congratulations so it uh at this time uh so so we'll have one more launching thriving Futures recognition on the June 21st board
041meeting for uh Robotics and sports day Champions and anybody else that we have to recognize that come up in the next few weeks at this time we would like to take two pictures one with the High School Blue Ribbon winners and one with the Middle School Blue Ribbon winners and Nam thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] say a lot of other people [Music] foreign yeah technology okay thank you everyone so now moving on to the adoption of the consent agenda Miss wall we're on 1201 by sheer wall I move that the print the print agenda second Mr chairman Miss Williams my second any discussion yeah Miss Jackson as I received a couple emails on some of the impact statements I just want to bring to the public attention three impact statements that impact the Brunsville
042district and just point out that decisions are not for land usage or not within the purview of the school board um but you can read why the impact statements why the school board is opposed this three that are coming to the Brent School District are um High Point Strathmore and Bristol Crossing High Point is going to contribute to overcrowding in Haymarket and both Strathmore and the Bristol Crossing will add additional students to already overcrowded Knoxville School um so I just wanted to bring those three things to the attention to the public thank you please vote it's Williams thank you Mr chairman I just want to acknowledge all with all of the HVAC repair I have been very adamant about seeking HVAC repair for our other schools and I just want to take the opportunity to
043let you know that your time is coming we have not forgotten especially Ripon I will continue to keep those on our radar these projects were done under different Financial designations and under different scope but you are not forgotten so I just want to make sure that I mention that as we proceed so thank you please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed okay moving on to Citizen comment time those citizens who signed up in advance or the clerk May address the school board this evening when they're called to the podium the citizen comment period for regular school board meetings is when our citizens may speak on the agenda items or other topics remain to the operations and policies of Prince William County schools please use property corpsman manners while at the
044podium or you will be asked to step aside we ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and refrain from any clapping cheering or jeering to avoid disruption of the meeting if you do not do so the board will recess and I will ask that the room be cleared to restore public order tonight we have 13 citizens signed up to speak I will call your name please come up to the podium and say your name and address for the record we'll start with the first five if they want to come up and grab a seat up front Lori Willis Antoinette McDonald Carl greiten Amanda Locklear and Kimberly Melman Orozco Lori Willis foreign good evening my name is Lori Willis and my address is on file I'm here tonight to speak about regulation 796
045and its current impact on school librarians I am an elementary school librarian and for the last two weeks I have been combing through my collection of 11 000 books looking for any that would meet the criteria in the regulation this is because on May 24th at 5 PM Librarians were given the directive to begin this arduous task in order to have a list ready for parents by July 21st 30 days prior to the start of next school year based on the criteria in the rubric we were given any type of nudity must be flagged this means little kid naked bottoms of no David and Iggy Peck architect go on the list the other books I've been flagging are about indigenous populations ancient civilizations like Greece Rome and Egypt due to their clothing and Virginia history
046books due to our state seal and flag depicting a goddess with her breast exposed all these books now fall under the category of sexually explicit while kissing is not on the rubric sent to Librarians nor stated in the regulation we were told in a team's chat by essential office staff member that the county lawyer said we need to include these books now we are going back to re-look at books to make sure we did not miss any first kisses or kisses between parents and grandparents we as Librarians do not disagree that a parent should be notified about instructional materials and the content they contain in fact this is already standard practice in the county when it comes to mature topics Our concern that is that even the author of the state model policy when meeting
047with Library leaders in Virginia explicitly stated that library books were not a part of this policy School libraries offer students the opportunity to read a variety of books to find the ones that they like these books are books they select for themselves that is not the definition of an instructional material additionally Librarians have been left with more questions than answered answers we have no had no norming sessions and no formal training to look at examples or non-examples over 100 school librarians have been placed in a team's chat to work things out ourselves before our contracts end on June 16th this is nearly impossible and unacceptable as we have had to close our libraries to work on this we are being looked on as experts in our buildings simply because we're the ones conducting the work
048right now I've heard many classroom teachers say that they will not even have a classroom library next year because they do not have time nor do they understand the types of books that fall into these criteria many believe that they are supposed to remove the books from their classroom libraries in closing I highly encourage all of you to please visit School libraries in your districts between now and June 15th pick one Elementary one middle one high school and spend 15 minutes talking to Librarians let us know what happens to our libraries when we don't complete this task in time because it's impossible and we won't what is the plan going forward and what are librarian's consequences for failure to complete or failure to identify a book will we not be allowed to open sections of
049our library I work in a title one school whom I'm already marginalized Community fall further behind due to lack of access to book books please I implore you visit your school libraries and see the first hand the scope of this work thank you Antoinette McDonald my name is Antoinette McDonald and my address is on file greatest evening Dr Latif School Board Dr McDade and our student representative I come before you as a mom of two Prince William County students class of 2019 and 2027 a Community member and also the servant principal of Bel Air Elementary School commitment one learning and achievement for all under the world languages section of our strategic plan reads currently the division offers a dual language immersion program at one Elementary School we will add six more dual language immersion programs
050by 24.25 it is with great pleasure that I highlight the exceptional benefits and share my experience of being the only dual language Spanish Immersion program in the division as well as the importance of the Arts when discussing DLI our dual language Spanish Immersion program has been in full Thrive motion for five years and our first cohort of students are headed to fourth grade with the curriculum that simultaneously teaches Proficiency in both English and Spanish students are given the invaluable opportunity to develop bilingualism and Multicultural competency the advantages of being bilingual are many including enhanced career opportunities improve cognitive abilities in a wider understanding and appreciate initiation of diverse cultures our program success is due to the intellectual property of my DL teachers our site-based dual Language Coach and myself we write curriculum design pacing write
051and Implement report cards design assessments and restructure our Spanish math instruction for optimal language bridging for the Mastery of Standards furthermore I believe the access to full-time art and music teachers is a vital component in ensuring student academic success in dual language programs art and music programs provide students with a well what we heard a well-rounded education that nurtures creativity self-expression and critical thinking studies show that participation in music and arts education is linked to improve academic outcomes as well as positive personal and social development the investment in full-time art and music teacher shows a commitment to cultivating academic achievement and fostering Global individuals but however for the 23-24 school year we will not have this ability due to the budget structures but I asked the board to please consider that part-time Arts Educators and
052their impact on student learning in the smaller schools in summary I remain optimistic about the tremendous benefits that dual language immersion programs offer to all students I look forward to the recognition in the instructional and fiscal inclusion of Bel-Air in the division's expansion of the Dual language programs I hope the board recognizes the essential role of full-time music and art full-time music art teachers for student academic success especially in the smaller schools thank you Carl greeton thank you good evening I'm Carl gretton I live in the Gainesville District Prince William County Citizens are not happy during your tenure all of you up here the following problems have Arisen within the county and school system Prince William County does not need to hear who is to blame for all our problems you as a school board
053need to create and take action to alleviate the problems these problems are budget increases without substance failing scores gender identity Equity over Merit school security social ideology School lockdowns gender mutilation diversity inclusion and equity and indoctrination we need our school system to teach the basics so that our students can excel in comparison to the rest of the world these are all the issues that have increased exponentially in the last two years under Democrat control who is sitting on the school board at that time just turn your eyes to your left and your right shoulder you may say that this does not exist in Prince William County yet you are the same Democrat Party in which these do exist in other states and counties you have had time to correct these wrong songs now the electorate
054is speaking up against the Democrat decisions in Prince William County we can tell you that we have candidates in place to replace you a chair carry rist Brentsville Erica trednick Coles Stephen Spiker Gainesville Jen Wall and the absco Michael petko okaquan Ryan Kirkpatrick Potomac Mario beckles and Woodbridge is coming soon why would you not listen to the citizens of the county in which you represent examine your conscience and do what is right for Prince William County one issue that is occurring in Prince William County is ludicrous why would you rather receive for your hourly pay would you rather receive an average of 21.29 or 15.79 you need a college degree for 15.79 the county pays you to learn to drive a bus for 21.29 yet you need to have a college degree in order to
055be a substitute teacher at 1579. what position is more important driving a bus or teaching the students this needs to change do your job evaluate the issues make Corrections otherwise we have replacements for your position thank you Amanda locked there good evening my name is Amanda Locklear this is interesting because the older I get the more I appreciate people who are straightforward and clear about their intentions morals character and values speak loudly there are a few things that you can't get back in life the word after it is said an opportunity after it is missed and a period of time after it is gone time cannot be replaced yet not all of us pay attention to it a few of us rush it many of us waste it some of us don't have it and
056not all of us are promised it Prince William County schools is the second largest division in Virginia and the 34th largest in the nation with roughly 90 000 students 13 of these students have an IEP which means there's about 11 500 students under the special education umbrella now this does not include students on a 504 plan and it does not include students that are receiving early intervention before they are evaluated for special education the clock is ticking early identification is key we all know the older a child gets the more difficult it is to teach them how to read it's my understanding that if a child cannot read by the third grade odds are that they will never catch up the effects of this can be devastating the clock is ticking the i in IEP
057stands for individualized one program one method one class will not work for everyone the clock is ticking waiting until the 10th day to finalize and send an IEP for Signature waiting until the 45th day to allow parents to come in and view records after requesting after putting in a FERPA request waiting until the 60th business day out of 65 business days which in my son's case was one week shy of three months to conduct and provide re-evaluation data to parents waiting until the 29th day to hold an IEP meeting Etc does nothing to help the child it reminds me of a childish game about running down the clock except there are no winners here the clock is ticking I challenge you to point your moral compass accordingly those of you that are watching I know
058you're watching and I'm talking to you so you can help your team actions speak louder than words courage is contagious we cannot go back and change the beginning but you can start now where you are to change the ending thank you Kimberly Melman Orozco good evening my name is Dr Kimberly malinurasco my address is on file last time I was here I spoke to you all about a whistled blower teacher who contacted me on March 31st and told me about systemic violations to federal and state law affecting children with IEPs I told you I had recordings of those conversations they were in depth in detail and the only one of you who reached out to me is Mr Justin David Wilk none of you asked us hear those recordings none of you asked to meet
059with me except for him now since that meeting on June 1st the Virginia Department of Education issued a letter of findings and that letter of finding said they we find Prince William County public schools has a fundamental misunderstanding of its responsibility to implement IEP accommodations and has systemically denied IEP accommodations to students with disabilities during admissions related testing and auditions to principality Prince William County Public School specialty programs it went on to say it also appears that pwcps is Shifting the burden to parents by requiring parents to ensure that other pwcs staff are implementing the child's IEP that's a finding from the Virginia Department of Education I'm in contact with the U.S Department of Education their letter is forthcoming after I published this finding on a public Facebook group called our schools pwcs I had
060an outpouring and outpouring of parents thanking me and essentially sharing similar stories one person wrote to me after reading your posts and scrolling the comments I'm overwhelmed with emotion because until someone speaks up you feel all alone fighting for services in this District No parent should feel that they have to fight the administrators in this County for services for children it's called a free appropriate public education another parent said this is amazing thank you so much for advocating not only for your child but for every child with an IEP I know it was hard and it was hard because each and every one of you Wade Anderson Dr Latonya McDade each and every one of you knew what was going on for months and did nothing except for Mr welcome another parent said thank you
061for your advocacy I know this could not possibly have been easy but it will undoubtedly make a path a little clearer for many of us who come after you and it goes on and on and on of parents thanking me some parents said wow Dr Kim with a PhD in criminology imagine what you can do with four years in an actual platform you did this in two months and that's the reason why today as of today I am running for chair of this board I shared this with one of my favorite teachers she said oh Kim I am so proud that you're stepping up to be on the board we all need more parents like you who want the best for children and teachers thank you have a good night the next five will be
062Kimberly Stewart Caroline wrist Carol Fox Ken Michelson Marty Weaver Kimberly Stewart good evening my name is Kimberly Stewart my address is on file first I'd like to take a brief moment to give a huge thank you and appreciation for the hard work and all the members at Haymarket Elementary School and Reagan Middle School for providing my children with an incredible school year we're grateful for the strong community of volunteers families teachers and Leadership among other staff tonight though I am here to urge the board which you have to vote unanimously on the school district's development impact statement uh with high point at Haymarket rezoning that states that the school board is opposed to the subject application this is item 12.14 on the adoption of consent agenda the high occupancy bill will negatively impact not only
063the capacity of hem at hmes and Reagan Middle School by over a hundred percent but the area in which the proposed build would exist does not have the proper resources infrastructure and support to provide its residents with what they would need I strongly believe that the numbers are grossly misrepresented by the data that was provided to the county in the true impact of student population I am not a math teacher I'm a social studies teacher but a 244 unit build that would have a minimum 144 multi-family units does not add up properly to the impact of only 25 students to hmes the assessment states that only 25 students would be added I believe it's inaccurate to say the least our school board in conjunction with our Prince William County government must do a better job
064of ensuring that any new builds that impact our environment and our children's education must ensure that children are never impacted negatively by those decisions no child should have to learn isolated outside a regular school building no teacher should have to teach separate from the rest of their colleagues and no board member or County supervisor should ever approve any new construction rezoning application or corporate build that would result in overcrowding and over capacity of our schools finally I would like to comment on 15.01 proposed code of behavior and briefly state that as an educator trained in restorative practices and one who has seen it in action in my own teaching in my own building and in my own experience restorative practices are merely conversations with no consequence they are not effective the long-term data proves that
065they are not effective children in our schools need consequences for the behaviors conversations help conversations lead to better behaviors but consequences and actions also must be taken to hold children accountable thank you Caroline wrist good evening school board members superintendent McDade chairman Latif I'm Carrie riss Prince William County resident from the Gainesville District mother of Prince William County School aged children tonight I'm speaking as a mother and as an advocate for other mothers and parents and one of the reasons why parental rights in a parent voice is so vital to the success of a child's health and education but I also speak from a position of success first a model which I hope and which should be replicated in our school my children's elementary school we have an exceptional working relationship with our teachers our
066nurse and our school administration which should be the standard across the county May 14 2019 day after Mother's Day I just taken my last Law School llm exam and my youngest who was five at the time was rushed by ambulance to Anova Fairfax Children's Hospital newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes needles insulin test strips and carb counting became our new world and subsequently became our future schools and all of her are her future teachers new world we have learned that diabetes management is hard work it requires effective communication and Trust for those who interact with my daughter and provider care I stand here today four years later as an example of how a child who has special medical needs during school and how we have successfully partnered with our teachers our nurse and our Administration
067and how we daily communicate to deliver the best medical and academic care I found to be successful it takes all parties a teacher voice a nurse voice and most importantly a parent voice we work together however across the county that is not the standard and unfortunately I'm speaking tonight because of friends neighbors and strangers who have reached out in frustration yes every family situation is different every child's needs are different IEPs differ significantly from 504s but what has been concerning and What needs to change and why parents are pulling their children from our schools is ineffective communication lack of trust and disregard for parental rights just yesterday another mom stopped me in the community to share that they're not returning to Prince William County schools because the schools have failed their families with their IEP
068accommodation process over the last year's parents have been told they don't have a say in their children's education that our children belong to the government reflective of actions and policies implemented and I have a problem with those assertions and policies that reflect those statements I vehemently disagree and I argue that my daughter's success in school has everything to do with my parental voice parents rights matter to be successful we need to have a say and to be involved in our child's education thank you Carol Fox okay next Ken Michelson Dr Latif members of the board Dr McDade my name is Ken Michelson and I'm the president and Prince William crew Association so I'm here to talk to you about one thing right off the bat that's not going to cost you any money believe it
069or not and it's not a complaint no money no complaint um I'm asking in the interest of fairness accessibility and inclusiveness that we actually have in the five schools in within the county that don't currently have rowing programs in which we are funding coaches salaries to fill those positions that we start programs in those schools it provides a great opportunity for those that are not members of or have functioned in traditional Sports the act the capability of getting into the sport um as well as I've had those conversations with members of the ads office and they're in full support of it as well for those schools that have it what we need to do is figure out why those five schools that currently are being provided salaries to hire coaches are not doing so my
070organization is has an mou arrangement with the County Board of Supervisors what we do is we oversee we manage we provide the maintenance and we also do the promotion of the sport within the community as well as within the school systems in those activities in those schools that support group 170 schools on the women's side provides scholarship for women at the college level those scholarships can be fractionalized so they're not like football or basketball or any of those other sports they can be fractionalized down to a tenth this provides an opportunity for some of our students who aren't six foot four basketball players who might be a five foot 100 pound cockson to gain a scholarship further their education that may not have been provided to them in any other sport all right part of
071that's also going to rely on some reliable transportation to get younger students to The Boathouse the other point is in our community we have multiple different swimming pools with swimming Lanes we have golf courses which are the other two sports that don't have on-site facilities we have a single Boathouse in the county it's in Lake Ridge Park we have Battlefield parents that are traveling 45 minutes to an hour one way to get their kids to practice a two-hour practice and an hour back home I have currently one member who's saying that their state qualifying boat third place that states will lose half of its membership because they are freshmen they can't drive and they can't get to practice next year please help me with some of these problems I'll work with the ads and the
072schools and we'll move forward thank you Marty Weaver agaquan this situation is just so profoundly wrong let's start with science my science degree included genetics and psychology my husband and I had our DNA tested he's male XY I'm female XX I had enamiocentesis when I was pregnant those results showed XY chromosomes a boy they did not tell me that I would have to wait until my child could talk to tell me how he identified in abnormal psychology there's an example of a young man who believed himself to be a cow nothing could dissuade him until he was told okay that would be he would be fattened and slaughtered he no longer identified as a cow someone can imitate nature but can't change it no amount of surgery hormones or drugs can change what I am
073DNA remains in control and no one can change time but my troubled brain might have me identify as a 21 year old five foot tall thin Japanese male despite DNA birth certificate 50-year marriage 39 year old son in a mirror all that tell me otherwise but I can't see it just like an anorexic who looks in a mirror and still sees fat so at a time when we all should be providing stability to our kids going through normal changes you are sowing confusion encouraging Confusion by telling them that they can be whatever sex they want when they really can't well we hear about increasing rates of mental health issues suicidal thoughts and actions in our eight to ten year olds what are you doing one-third of our kids can't read at grade level but you
074all find the time to fill their heads with 31 Flavors of crazy or harm last month was mental health awareness not celebration we should not celebrate or be proud this month that there are kids and adults who are suffering being harmed with gender affirming care and we should exercise compassion but compassion is extending sympathy assistance to all to Aid their thriving in reality compassion is absolutely not validating delusions of a few and worse demanding the rest of us assist in propping up the delusions and now you threaten and punish kids parents teachers who don't conform to the delusions who don't use someone's revised pronouns made up pronouns who has really got the problem here people who have recognized the obvious for Millennia or a small segment who really needs help I feel like we are
075in a story arc of Star Trek featuring the Borg our nation's vulnerable are being assimilated into a maladaptive World The Hive mentality a social contagion spread by social media and schools I will not be assimilated don't like sci-fi how about the childhood story of The Emperor's New Clothes Society now normalizes is troubled words are given to males over bio females cycling tracks swimming do you have the courage to sever the connection to the board Collective or recognize the emperor has no clothes Do no harm protect the kids protect us all have thriving futures next we'll have the last three Jennifer Roberts Alicia fauser and Jalen custis Jennifer Roberts good evening Dr McDade Dr Latif school board members and Prince William County School leaders my name is Jennifer Roberts I reside in the Gainesville district and
076my address is on file thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about the district's commitment to organizational coherence particularly objective 4.4 which states that pwcs will work toward convergence operating a unified school system with shared accountability for school and division goals to paraphrase Matthew 12 25 A house divided against itself cannot stand our district is a type of house and sadly it remains divided which is hurting students and Families I know firsthand that we employ team members at every level of leadership who are dedicated to the mission of launching thriving futures for all pwcs students however I also know firsthand that we employ leaders who are sabotaging this goal far too often in plain sight with no concern for being held accountable these Bad actors can be hard to spot because most predatory educators
077are not arrogant enough to publicly say I have no intention of serving all of the students in my sphere of influence equitably but daily they close their classroom and office doors and denies students the relationships emotional safety and educational resources that they need to be successful examples include but are not limited to teachers who do not Implement District provided Equity training teachers who knowingly abuse the standards-based grading policy teachers who use humiliation and sarcasm towards students as ways to establish or maintain power staff members who do not apply discipline policies equitably guidance counselors and teachers who discourage students from taking advanced placement or dual enrollment classes by convincing students that classes will be too difficult and administrators who refuse to work with staff members and parents to address and resolve climate and culture concerns at
078their school it is our students who pay the highest cost When leaders refuse to act purposefully courageously and swiftly to hold these offenders accountable and to document out staff members who show that they do not want to serve all students there should always be room for healthy doses of Grace in any Organization for team members who show evidence of working to meet the expectations but there should be no room for offenders who willfully impose their personal preferences on students instead of following the district's established regulations and policies thank you Alicia fauser Alicia G fauzer okay Jalen custis uh hello good evening my name is Jalen custis I reside in the Woodbridge district and I'm here to Advocate to bring back a paper learning I don't know who created the policy to implement computers inside our
079schools I believe it was a good idea obviously for covid but once we got back into school we had the struggles of Youth doing work online all your works on canvas so if your computer goes out you're done and that seems to be a lot of problems and a lot of issues with students uh I don't know if you guys have seen it in action I believe the only people I've seen in action is student representatives and I don't know if they've told you the struggles that happen inside our schools when it comes to the computer work people forget their to charge their computers then you have cords all over the classrooms with which causes a what is it a tripping hazard we need to go back to doing it how we used to do
080it because that's the best way and it's solid and you know what's going to happen because if anything can happen with a computer I remember my uh one student my former classmate she told me she had to take a final exam and obviously that's a lot of time for the for the exam and her computer went out and the teacher said well just wait for the computer to come back on the computer finally came on she had a lot of time but the time was up therefore she couldn't complete her final exam again I believe that we have to either improve this policy or just go back to what was working from the beginning I've been the last two years on computer and it seems to be a struggle at least for me personally again
081there's a lot of issues going on and so yeah thank you for your time my name is Jaylen cusses and I was out in the Woodbridge District okay now we'll move on so um if there's no objection from the board I have um I'd like to make an adjustment to the the order here we have student representative time I'd like to move up ahead now of 14 which is the energy management sustainability update and ahead of the superintendent Services is there any objection to do that I have the students some of them have to go for graduation stuff okay um so at this time without any objection we'll move on to the student representative time and tonight we have two student reps in our alternate student representative with us all three are seniors and Tonight
082is their last meeting we are proud of their accomplishment and successes this year and we'll give each of them time to address the board tonight when I call your name please step up to the podium first and he's already up here is Mr Chance Williams a senior from Forest Park High School who graduated on June 4th and so he's done and joining us tonight on the dice this is overtime for him chance will be attending Alabama a m next year congratulations chance thank you Dr Latif ah well he already said it but good evening this past Sunday Dr Latif Dr McDade Miss Williams Mr Wilk and of course Miss Jesse got to witness me walk the stage and become a graduate of Prince William County Public Schools I genuinely believe that Peter UCS prepared me
083accurately for what comes next I look forward to enjoying my summer before continuing my education at Alabama a m University Huntsville Alabama thanks to my education and numerous opportunities for Prince William County I was able to earn two academic scholarships meaning I will graduate with little to no student debt I would like to thank the board for the numerous conversations in the appreciation you've shown your student representatives from the various football games where I often ran into Mr Wilk it's a robotics competitions is that I'm so glad all of our school board members have invested in one of my goals when I was first elected as student representative was to have an independent conversation with each board member I believe that at this point I have finally achieved that talking with Miss wall at FRC
084competitions talking with Mrs argoport the suicide awareness walk seeing Ms Jackson at nearly everything same with Mr Wilk and of course speak with Dr Latif wherever he may be found I've kept many of the notes I've gained including one from Mr Jesse where she told me I have it I would like to acknowledge my overwhelming appreciation for Mr Lee Jesse Miss Jesse has probably been one of my greatest supporters helping become more comfortable with my college choice of my family as we continuously support my sister I would also like to thank Miss Laurie Williams for her support of me and the robotics program and for helping me feel welcomed here on this board though we are not technically related though we should share the last name Williams I'm happy to consider you family of course
085Dr McDade has been an overwhelming supportive and has quickly become a county favorite being a student representative has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life it has led to make me making numerous connections and achievements this was my first experience with public speaking needless to say I am grateful for my time on this board grateful for the education I receive from pwcs and I look forward to returning during my breaks that's all [Applause] next we have Dania sharifi senior from Gainesville High School who will graduate on June 13th and Donya will be attending Yale University next year congratulations Donya and Donya has the the privilege of maybe maybe one the second person that I remember of being having served two years as a school board representative and two of the toughest years
086probably you know in the most recent American School Board history so you know Dania we we appreciate everything you were with us for the last two years with us through everything and we can't thank you enough for the the support you've given and the way you've represented our students over these last two years they really owe you a debt a great debt thank you Dania board chairman Latif and Dr McDade tonight is my last night as student representative within this County and I am so grateful again for the opportunity to speak to you one last time a sophomore year when I first learned about this position and I applied to be student representative I hadn't really known about what the role really consisted of um just that it would be a great way to give
087back to the community I've been involved in since kindergarten first taking my first steps onto the school bus by the end of the sophomore year I was watching the school board meeting on a live stream when I found out that I would have the opportunity to serve as student representative um through that year um my first junior year as student representative I learned so much about what it means to be the student voice along with the inner workings of the public educational system low income growing as long side with the other representatives from last year Charlotte and mccleat was an amazing experience I decided to apply again at the end of junior year and was grateful to be able to serve a second term my senior year as the year went by I continuously learned
088more and worked alongside with this year's reps chance and Christian and I'm excited for the future reps that will be announced later tonight as this has been an amazing experience to help me learn more about my career and educational goals as it aligns with government education and public policy I also love the collaboration opportunities with the student Senate and for the future I hope there will be more opportunities for students to get involved in such opportunities as I have participated in as my time as a student representative from leadership conference to committee voice planning to overseeing different initiatives I wish the best of luck to our future Representatives thank you to the school board for the opportunities I'm chairman Latif for the continued support and Dr McDade for conversations about women in leadership and thank
089you to Mr girvin and Mrs Viola for being the best mentors these past two years and being the liaison between the school board and Miss B um I'm so grateful to have worked alongside such amazing peers and thank you again to Charlene mccleat um chance Christian and the student Senate you guys continuously inspire me as well I look forward to seeing how our students thrive in the future and how the future reps will go around bringing their voice thank you all and have a good rest of your night [Applause] very good Dania I think we're all going to miss you very much um moving on to our last student and what just happened to my script here oh got it right sorry so sorry um and now we have our alternate student representative Christian Daniels
090Christian is a senior from the Hilton High School who graduates on June 10th and he will be attending Yale as well congratulations Christian [Applause] hello okay so good evening to everyone thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight uh congratulations to both our Prince William County students and staff on completing the 2022-2023 school year to begin I would like to give a big shout out to all the Educators across the county our Prince William County staff has worked so diligently to strengthen knowledge within our student body which needs celebration in addition I would like to congratulate all class of 2023 graduates for persevering through our barriers that were faced during the most recent years most notably coven 19. secondly I would like to thank you all for having me as your alternate student representative this
091year I was able to work with the Senators on special tasks like the student Bill of Rights student voice committees and Leadership conferences throughout my past two years as a senator and student representative I have had the outstanding opportunity to have been surrounded by other change focused youth like chance Donya mccleat and more and amazing advisors that have been critical to my leadership teamwork and communication skills going into the school year this the rest of the student representatives and I were focused on strengthening and working on enhanced inclusivity educational extracurricular opportunities in student voice in princeum County this year we were able to more effectively work with the student Senate in making sure these rules were achieved after various meetings with the student Senate and feedback from other students regarding these topics it is certain
092that the great advances were made whether that be the expansion of cultural clubs projects surrounding Equity leadership events or other general student forums within the county I want to continue encouraging students to bring their viewpoints to areas of higher authority to share their thoughts on how they think our school Community can be improved with other students through this we will begin to see changes that can meet the needs of our student body once again thank you all so much for having me as your alternate student representative for this year I have enjoyed my two-year tenure as first a student Senator and a student representative thank you all so much thank you we so so the board's asking me we're going to take a picture with you through before we leave okay so um so we
093will we'll do that and and and and Christian I I I didn't mention you know I'm glad you reminded us the importance of the student Senate um this student Senate worked with Dr McDade to put together our strategic plan as well and I think that's really important to know you guys have been a model for what I believe has been great um student self-governance and governance by students um of any large School Division in the country and the great work you continue to do helps continue build up our student voice and we can't thank you enough for the efforts you've done and again through some of the toughest times to be involved in um in education and education policy thank you very much I invite you three to um and your families to join us
094up front here for a picture with Dr McDade in the school board and and I have I think someone to take a picture and we have some gifts for you as well thank you thank you foreign [Applause] [Music] thank you all right thank you that is um just a great way to sort of wrap up our school year with those amazing students we can't thank them enough again um okay let's move on to uh we'll go back to 14 1401 Energy Management sustainability program update I'll turn this over Dr McDade thank you Mr chairman uh providing a positive climate and culture is outlined in commitment to of our strategic plan which exemplifies a dedication to creating an environment for our community to learn lead and live and so as a part of positive climate culture
095it's not just about um you know safety for students welcoming environments for students it's also about sustainable environments and so we're committed to creating safe welcoming and sustainable facilities for our students and staff so at this time I do want to invite our chief operating officer Mr Vernon Bach to present an update on the sustainability efforts of the division you know whether we have a superintendent's advisory Council on sustainability and they have been hard at work every year they have recommendations that they bring forward and they'll be presenting some of their recommendations this evening Mr Bach thank you Dr McDade good evening Dr Latif board members and I'm really excited to be here uh and I'm really excited to be a part of the division that is so so forward thinking and uh Progressive with
096issues like energy management and sustainability um we have folks here with us tonight in fact we have the whole team we have nine team members uh who are also in the audience here from the entire Energy Management sustainability team and I don't want to steal too much of their Thunder but these nine folks have saved the division 70 million dollars since 2013 yes small But Mighty 70 million dollars and some of our folks are behind me here in the audience so I want to thank them and so we're here tonight obviously the board passed a resolution for division wide sustainability initiative and our strategic plan includes sustainability goals incorporating environmental literacy using the building as a teaching tool reducing greenhouse gases with high performance construction and maintenance strategies we have Jess Weimer here tonight our
097coordinator and program analyst for energy and sustainability as well as Don Richardson our chair of the superintendent's advisory Council on sustainability who will provide the board with progress updates for energy management and sustainability efforts in the division the presentation presentation will highlight an overview of three concepts tonight energy and environmental sustainability education high performance facilities and Community engagement with a focus on these three concepts Chris William County will be on the path to division wide sustainability and Beyond and with that I'd like to invite Jess Weimer to please join me here at the lectern to present so thank you hello just waiting for the clicker thank you so much all right good evening Dr Latif Vice chair wall members of the school board and Dr McDade Mr Bach thank you for the introduction my name
098is Jessica Weimer and I am one of the energy and sustainability coordinators in the facilities Department on behalf of my team who is all here this evening I will be providing you with our annual program update and highlight the achievements and progress the division has made this year as we continue down the path to sustainability so it has been over 10 years since the energy management program began and in the beginning our Focus was really on reducing energy consumption increasing our energy efficiencies and reducing division-wide utility costs so this effort helped the division return those cost savings back to schools and classrooms and in the last three years our program has really expanded to include sustainability and we sincerely appreciate the board's support with the passing of the sustainability initiative in June 2020 so just
099a few years ago and to Dr McDade and her vision for a more sustainable School Division and including sustainability in the Strategic plan and speaking of the Strategic plan energy and sustainability falls under commitment to positive climate and culture so here we have four goals pertaining to sustainability and together we can really use these goals as sort of a navigational compass as we make progress in the areas of environmental literacy using the building as a teaching tool and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions so our team often refers to sustainability in terms of a pathway or in this instance a trail and there are three key stops along the way and they are sustainability education high performance facilities and Community engagement all leading us toward sustainability so first up is education and we are in the
100final stages of developing a division-wide environmental literacy plan that includes a crosswalk of cross-curricular standards and professional development opportunities for teachers and staff so a resource that has evolved from the development of the environmental literacy plan is the school sustainability measures profile so each school has their own unique profile that includes site-specific data such as waste reduction energy performance and even local Watershed info so continuing in education here we have captured some ways that schools have access to and are currently participating in our program my team has created a series of original activity books for all grade levels and then we have about two-thirds of our schools currently participating in our annual energy challenge which is the program where schools can earn incentives for their contributions to division-wide energy conservation next we have developed a
101series of canvas modules for both students and staff with project-based learning opportunities embedded throughout those modules and finally all schools participate in some form of waste reduction and recycling and last point in education and certainly not least and a fantastic example of how a school can use their building as a teaching tool Freedom High School was recently recognized as a green ribbon school and we do have with us this evening Dr Jessica dwaron from Freedom High School and so Freedom earned this recognition for their efforts in environmental stewardship improved health and wellness and environmental and sustainability education so they will be honored this summer I believe it's early August by the U.S Department of Education in a ceremony our second stop along the way brings us to high performance facilities as we have been doing
102for many years we have four seasonal shutdowns for the purpose of helping save energy over long breaks and we are currently preparing for our summer break shutdown now and these shutdowns are really a fantastic opportunity for students and staff to become involved in our division-wide energy conservation efforts so moving along in the high performance facilities stop We are continuing with our energy infrastructure upgrades and this includes things like our LED lighting projects throughout the division we also have an upcoming geothermal HVAC renovation at Bel Air Elementary School also we have been updating the sustainable design principles for new construction and major Renovations and these updates have led to some high performance projects so just to highlight a couple here first we have the solar PPA where we are in the design phase now we are
103estimating that construction will begin later this summer and then for the Net Zero replacement for Occoquan Elementary School we are finalizing the design for County permitting now and finally we are deploying something called Arc which is a building performance dashboard for all schools that can be used by the schools as a cross-curricular teaching tool so here we have a snapshot of sustainability statistics and as you can see and as Mr Bach mentioned earlier in the last 10 years we've saved over 70 million dollars in would-be energy costs and all of the other values listed here are for this particular fiscal year fy23 and are a result of all of the energy conservation measures that we have put in place to reduce our energy cost per student and usage per square foot all while we continue
104to reduce our environmental impact by decreasing our emissions and by increasing our waste reduction efforts so all of these measures are moving us closer towards our sustainability goals and the third stop on the sustainability Trail is community engagement and the superintendent's advisory Council on sustainability has played a major role in these efforts at this time I would like to introduce the sacs chairman Mr Don Richardson Mr Richardson has provided steadfast leadership for the council over the last three years we appreciate his and all of the council's efforts to provide recommendations for the division's continued growth and sustainability and Mr Richardson will be providing the annual report on behalf of the council this evening and after he speaks I will come back up and share the next steps for the division's energy and sustainability program done
105well good evening thank you very much it's good to be back here again it's been a been a uh very productive year once again for the advisory Council uh we've done a lot of studying about various topics related to sustainability uh we continue to gain new knowledge about emerging Technologies and different strategies that we could be deploying in the future but we we want to come to you not with a huge laundry list but with a focused list of high prior what we agree our high priority recommendations for your consideration with the superintendent for a future uh for this year anyway and the first one is to provide funding for Staffing to support environmental literacy and waste reduction and recycling to break that out a little bit we have a position for environmental literacy coordinator
106that is Grant funded through fy24 and we are asking you to fund that position beginning at fy25 the other one is a waste reduction and recycling specialist to do a comprehensive audit of waste and each facility's waste characterization standardize The Collection process and give some professional development to custodial and support staff on the waste reduction and recycling process as you noted from the earlier slide we've already made great strides in reducing the waste stream and a person to coordinate that effort could make that go even farther across the school division uh a second recommendation we're making is and the background to this is that traditionally the school board has done prototype School designs that are used repeatedly with tweaks at different sites the sustainability Council would like you to consider the possibility of going to
107site-specific design for new constructions rather than prototypes the reason for this and we spent a lot of time talking about this in the council is that each site is going to be different in terms of how you Orient the building and how you design the building for maximum sustainability so we think we think there there needs to be some emphasis on looking at each site individually when you do designs that's something you know for you to consider with the superintendent um the third item is uh and we it was mentioned earlier that Bel Air is getting a uh an HVAC upgrade that's going to include geothermal uh we're excited about geothermal because geothermal is uh one one underappreciated uh way to achieve sustainability in your energy management and so we're recommending that you look at
108all the sites in the CIP to see if they're feasible for geothermal not all of them will be but many of them may be and so that is something to to uh to consider geothermal has the advantage of being hidden it's out of sight uh it's always available whether it's sunny or dark it's always available whether it's windy or not so that is definitely something we ought to look at for the future um the next item is evaluating the feasibility of replacing your fleet vehicles with electric models now we're not talking about school buses uh the technology is probably not there yet to be financially feasible for us to do that but we are looking at the notion that your fleet vehicles uh would be a place to start uh to move to Electric models
109and while you're at it look at the sites around pwcs where you could install EV charging stations to go with that the one example that we had as a pilot possibility was to look at your Courier Fleet and I I remember vividly from my days on this board back when we were still very paper-based and a courier had to come all the way out to my house which is near Bull Run Mountain twice a week to deliver a huge stack of paper and so the couriers have to go all over the county and it's a big County so you could make a significant impact right there if you could go to electric vehicles Just For The Courier Fleet um the last two are related to walkability and bikeability this is an area where we are
110already beginning to work with the county uh The Joint environmental task force has expressed interest in working with us to uh to make walkability and bikeability to School part of the overall County strategy and so we are recommending that you do a study of walking boundaries to find where the barriers to walkability and bikeability are and share that information uh with our Representatives on the joint environmental task force as their counterparts from the county side are also interested in working with us on that and they'd like us to provide us with some information to inform their planning uh and then the final thing is to uh and again you passed several impact statements tonight about various rezoning proposals and we would like to emphasize that if you're not already doing it anytime you do a
111rezoning proposal evaluation that part of that analysis include the impact on walkability and bikeability whether positive or negative of the proposed rezoning and there will be in certain parts of the county there will be some negative impacts so that's just something for you to look at um going to next year we are going to continue to advocate for Staffing and infrastructure upgrades as funds permit uh this is the big one uh we're going to try to develop a plan for Community engagement get this The Advisory Council out talking to people in the community letting them know what is it we're doing and why is it important and what are their ideas we are also going to continue to look at emerging emerging energy technology and sustainability topics it's going to be a matter of continuous
112education for all of us and finally we're excited to be in on the process of the Net Zero design for the Occoquan Elementary replacement which is going to be our first Net Zero ready school so that's something that the advisory council is intensely interested in following so it's uh it's a it's been a productive year and before I step away I would like to thank if we have any whoa if we have any members of The Advisory Council here and also the staff the folks who are sitting toward the back of the room I can't think I can't thank all of them enough for the work they do it's been it's been very educational for me personally over the last three years I've learned a lot about an area that I didn't know a lot
113about and the the council and the staff have been able to work together remarkably well and I think they deserve a lot of recognition for that [Applause] uh and I want to thank Dr McDade and and uh Dr Latif and the board for having given me this opportunity uh for the last three years it doesn't seem like three years have gone by that quickly but they have um it's been very very satisfying for me personally however having said that um this past year I've taken on significant additional responsibilities and leadership in two other organizations and I need to rebalance my life and so uh at this point it's time for me to step aside and let someone else Drive the train but I do appreciate very much the opportunity to serve and I will certainly
114be keeping an eye on what's going on going forward thank you wow very good well Mr Richardson I uh that's a shock to me no one warned me about that um so I'll bring you up for some questions here in a few minutes but let's since we got Miss Weimer I you know just what a great um presentation tonight I'm I'm going to start with a couple questions if no one oh you're not done I'm sorry do your last slide just one more slide uh we just want to thank Mr Richardson and we will certainly miss him being part of the council and we are extremely grateful for his time and Leadership that has surely set us up for continued success in the future so as my team in sacs look into the future our
115goal of course is to move closer to sustainability and our Focus will continue to be in those three key areas that we've been discussing here this evening and so for the coming year in environmental literacy we will be Distributing and implementing the environmental literacy plan we will be continuing to expand participation in our educational initiatives and identifying and exploring ways to realize goals for our infrastructure and the progress that has been shared this evening happened because of our Collective efforts as a division and community and much has been made possible because of the time dedication and expertise of the outstanding group of people that I get to work with every day at this time I would like to acknowledge and thank all of the members of the energy and sustainability Team all of our school
116sustainability Liaisons who work with us every day to encourage sustainability in their schools and we are extremely proud to serve and support our students staff and community in all things energy sustainability and Beyond thank you so much for the opportunity to present our program update to you this evening we appreciate your guidance and support as we continue down the path to sustainability thank you excellent Jessica Weimer I can't thank you enough this was an excellent presentation you and Dawn put together this evening um you know the first of all I hope Communications shares this this widely this is a great presentation great slide deck you know so many of our students are graduating and telling me they're going to go on to study environmental science sustainability you know environmental engineering and so you know it
117has become a part of everything we do and in the way you all have woven it into the work we do at every aspect of the division the way we've broken up the Committees and the structures to study this and the recommendations you make I I for one will take the recommendations by this Council very seriously um in in what your office is recommended I you know looking through the slide deck you know things that pop up I mean 58 schools participated in FY 23's annual energy challenge that is fantastic um you guys are getting in with the students with so many different project projects and learning experiences Freedom High School recognizes 2023 honoree tremendous where work you all have done it is you know I I can't thank you all enough your office your
118team you do it you do it with a small staff and you do it really um we we can't we can't thank you enough and I I for one I'm just very proud of this work um and so thank you Jessica uh one thing that I would ask um it well two things so I know you and I may have asked Vern vernbach this question was you know I know on the slide you said we have 70 million dollars in savings since 2013. uh in in I can't remember if we've done this do we have a prediction of how much we're going to save with our sustainability initiatives sort of like predicted over the next five years do we do that did we do that we certainly do forecast but we also average about five
119to six million in savings a year however with the new initiatives especially once we start to realize savings data and also emissions data from some of our things like our solar and things of that nature we do anticipate that to go up every year wonderful and then the last thing just uh I know you in the in the slide deck you talked about we're on we're on track to meet our our Net Zero commitment or sustainability goals correct or getting there maybe and I don't know if we have this and if you can point out do we have a dashboard that says how far we've come where we're going how much more we need to do on that I mean do we like carbon you know footprint that kind of stuff do we do you
120guys have a dashboard yes I'd like to invite my colleague Brian Conrad to come up he would be happy to answer the answer all right Brian Conrad yes absolutely uh one of the things that Justin mentioned was the arc dashboards for all the individual schools um that will show it each individual through waste water so our energy side of things yeah it also we'll show it on um energy and transportation and Human Experience or indoor air quality that'll be rolled up for every single for each individual and then rolled up together collectively for the entire division so that'll be something that everybody at the school and in our office will be able to keep live and updated so everybody is aware okay that's great that that's wonderful maybe we can take a look at something
121like that the next time you make a presentation absolutely it's a very interactive dashboard and the interfaces is very unique fantastic easy to read yeah or send us the link so we can I can take a look at it thank you so much uh Mr Richardson I I think you know this board I can speak maybe for them I I I I can on this we we are grateful for your service for the last three years on top of your distinguished service sitting up on this dice with this school board for many years and doing some of the great work in some of the most difficult and the highest growth periods of Prince William County School history um and then you've come back to help us deal with some of the greatest challenges our society
122faces and you've done it with poise with elegance and with a commitment to working with all aspects of everyone in our community and and I hope you remain engaged to help counsel our next chair our next leaders in this committee as we move forward with still some some very difficult things we have to do oh my thank you thank you very much for that I appreciate that and I certainly will be engaged whoever takes my place I'll be I'll be working closely with them uh to do a good clean pass down and I'm definitely not losing interest in the subject I'm definitely going to stay involved uh watching what's going on uh there is still a lot of work to do but the good news is that now that we have the joint environmental task
123force set up with the county uh and now that the county has its people in place uh staff wise to move their sustainability initiatives forward things are starting to move and they've already identified Dr Dr Ernie Porter as our representative on the Jet and he's actually the chairman of the jet so he is he is driving things forward and there is already some substantial agreement as to what they would like to tackle first so I'm very encouraged because that's something we've been pushing for since the very beginning was to get us on board with the county and working together so it's the future is bright wonderful Miss Richard we really appreciate it and and and the last question I have for you is you know you've served on this board and then you've served the
124last three years and and it sounds like you feel like over the last three years we have made a difference I mean what do you think I mean you know specifically about sustainable sustainability yeah yeah yeah definitely definitely you can't talk to all those others not going to ask you to talk about CRT okay you can just talk about sustainability there are days when I miss being on the school board but generally no all right have your own challenges to deal with as far as sustainability is concerned though I came into this uh more because staff knew that I I like to run a meeting but I definitely am not the brightest person on the advisory Council in terms of sustainability issues I have learned so much from working with the other people on the
125council who all bring their own expertise one way or the other and also working with staff I've learned a tremendous amount so I guess that's uh my motivation is it's it's nice to be involved with something where you're learning something new and you know you should go throughout your life always trying to learn something new and so that's that to me is the rewarding part um but it also gives me an excuse to come down here once in a while and and watch you from the back well we can't thank you enough this board voted on this initiative and to set up this program three years ago or three and a half years ago and you have delivered on the um the promise that we we we we have tried we've tried to make to
126this community into the school division you have validated much of the the work we believe that needs to be done and you've done it with credibility yeah Fidelity and a commitment and a passion that that I that I hope we can continue once you um take your time off it will go forward it's a great team of people they're they're going to carry this forward we're on the roll now thank you so much sir uh Miss Jesse um one I you know I've known you for quite some time I was not on the board with you I've been on the board with everyone else I've been here for so long such a long period of time but I admire the work that you've done I want to thank you uh Mr Bach you know the
127question I'm going to ask yes you do uh oh I think I do actually yeah I think I do yeah I think uh I I won't say that I've known Net Zero about Net Zero but I do think that as the person in this uh who will have a school the first Net Zero School in the county and on slide 10 you talk about feedback for the aqua corn replacement the people in my community I'm sure would like to know more about the school can we develop can you get back with me with a plan of action yes ma'am actually we've we've had conversations and we're prepared to present an update to the board in September uh on the design where we are with things I I will share with you miss Jesse it's been
128an amazing journey this team has been heavily involved but there have been a lot of design meetings with certain stakeholder groups including students faculty staff and community and so we're excited to present an update and we're preparing to present that update in September to you and the rest of the board yeah can I have a personal update please sure I need a personal update before September okay happy thank you happy to do it and I also the incentive plan that you have in the school that money is coming back to individual schools that program is still in place I read in the uh your slides that's great that's great yes we had 58 schools participate this year is there when when you say you've got we received 70 million dollars in uh savings is that
129is that money targeted for anything in the school system and the budget I know that sounds like a question that's maybe yeah I don't I don't think we have that targeted I'm going to defer to Mr Wallingford on that I think that that we realize that savings every year I'm not sure that that savings then gets targeted uh but I'm going to defer to Mr Wallingford here thank you Mr Bock so there's two things that take place one is there's something called cost avoidance and so we're avoiding increased costs that we would otherwise experience that's the first thing the second thing there actually is a reduction in cost as well and so there is a cash savings cash that we actually realize in our bank accounts that number is not 70 million dollars honestly I
130don't know no what that number is standing here right now what happens is on a on an incremental basis each year when we build our budgets we take a look at our utility costs and when we see those numbers decreasing that gets built back into the budget so what you see is costs that might have been spent on fuel or other utilities is now getting spent on teachers or other curricular instructional kinds of issues yeah and getting back with you Mr Bach I just want to have a maybe just something when people in my community say what does Net Zero this Net Zero School we're getting at Occoquan something that I could give them back to sure to explain because I'm hearing bits and pieces of what's going to happen in that school I'm hearing
131that there's going to be something with the cedar Mr maranova's plan that's an instructional piece I just need to have an update so so I can look and tell us happy to update you thank you yes ma'am Miss Williams thank you Mr chairman um I just want to say um first to Mr Richardson thank you so much for all of your service leading as chair for the council um and um thank you for all of your time you served on the school board I think that you provided a valuable perspective to our Council and it's always exciting to me to see people boasting about learning new things I think that's very encouraging for all of us and great leadership so thank you very much I appreciate it um but also from my perspective as uh
132someone who's a Prince William kind of former Prince William County student who I know it's been decades since the dinosaurs roamed when Lake Ridge Middle opened but I remember planting trees and being a founding member of the ecology Club there and it's nice to see that we have students still continuing to lead the way when it comes to sustainability and environmental issues but even more so as a board member I remember when this program was outsourced and we have come a long way as a School Division from having an outsourced to to being in-house and the change and the leadership and the the direction that we've gone in has been Monumental and deserves to be applauded of course I'm biased and and Overjoyed that my school Freedom High School um received the Green Schools Revenue
133designation first um thank you to miss durian I had the pleasure of invading your space uh freedom freedom sorry I can't see um there you are yes Freedom earlier this week to do my board brief taping there thank you for letting me hold a bearded dragon and uh talk all about sustainability issues I love environmental science it didn't have the opportunity to go to school for it but I'm a self-proclaimed science nurse so I always enjoy hearing about it I would like to hear more at a later date about how we are coming on our LED replacement lighting throughout of our schools mostly because I know that impacts our students and our staffs day-to-day environment there's it's interesting when you go down one hallway and it's lit up bright like it's sunny in June outside
134and then you go to another hallway and it's not quite as bright because the LEDs just make that much of a difference and I'd like to also hear about some updates of how we're doing in some of our older schools I know that I am fortunate my district is very fortunate to have a new Elementary for the first time in decades I know we did the Kilby replacement but we're having a new Elementary we're not as blessed as far as Lynn wise as Miss Jesse to be able to have a net zero school there due to the land foundation and some issues there but I I do agree with Miss Jesse I think it would be nice if board members were equipped with some terminology so that we can express it and and talk intelligently
135and and have the ability to communicate with the general public because every time we're able to make a touch point I think that further encourages our sustainability issues and any way that we can speak knowledgeably about it from a very basic perspective I think helps us all and just to wrap up I just want to thank everyone for your participation I know how hard it is to serve on joint councils and and with the county and School Division and just councils in general it's very time consuming and if you're passionate about it it can raise your blood pressure sometimes so I just want to thank all members involved and I just want to give kudos to Dr McDade for continuing this program and for all of us leading the way it really is a joint
136effort so thank you very much okay Miss Jackson I just want to also echo my position for the presentation tonight and the time and dedication of the energy management and sustainability team I know that you also all of you advocate for sustainability issues outside of your work hours and I just appreciate your passion and commitment to the Future for all of our students I know that some of you came to speak to Jet and thank you Miss Weimer for and other pwcs staff for their time on jet which I also serve on and I support the initiatives that you listed and thank you Don for your time on this okay so thank you yeah I'm remiss to thank Adele Jackson for serving as our representative on the jet task force so we we really appreciate
137your work and commitment to this it has been great miss wall all right I want to thank Mr Richardson Miss Weimer and Mr Bach for the presentation the update it's always great to hear what's going on in the school division with energy management and sustainability Ace so thank you very much and for everybody who serves on the committee um I uh I know it's a topic these are topics that a lot of people have a lot of interest in and especially the younger generation there's a lot of good science technology and Innovation um in these in this work and I think it will serve our students well to be literate in this area and also it sounds like it's saving us quite a lot of money and I know that it will continue to do
138so as we go into as we do the geothermal um upgrade at Bel Air and then also the solar panels the composting the LED lighting the water Smart Water Irrigation I mean there are a lot of things I think that a lot of people can get behind so I really appreciate it um I had a couple of questions about the compost pilot the green ribbon and energy challenge to the compost pilot I know we have it at 12 schools can you tell me are we is that funded through a grant sorry I know the answer to that never mind what I want to know is um are we what's our plan to expand composting because we we have it at 12 schools but we have what 97 schools and it seems like composting would be
139a very easy thing to expand yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna just give a high level comment and then I'll turn it over to Jess to add some additional um yes that position it or that funding is through a grant and uh that Grant is coming to an end we will be supporting that moving forward uh through division funds uh and uh you know we've talked a lot about uh you know a strategic initiative coming forward through the budget to expand so I I'll turn that over to Jess and have her comment a little bit more on that I'd actually like to invite my colleague Gina jabera to the the podium she has been spearheading the grant for us for the last couple of years so she would be able to to speak better to that
140thank you thank you um we do have a proud um actually I apologize it's six schools who are composting and we have looked at um we've done a presentation looked at it and it looks like that we are going to be studying the feasibility and getting it done so um we will be continuing it and at some very proud schools who very much want to continue composting so and hope in the future to get it up to as many schools as we possibly can or want to do the program okay great um yeah I hope I hope so too I think that's something that kids can really learn about honestly I need to learn about so um green the green ribbon it looks like we were hoping to identify two schools we have one this
141year right correct so we're gonna double it and then maybe we'll go to four and then so do we how do we identify okay okay now how do we identify additional schools is it like an application process or do we have schools in the queue that we're working with that we're going going to that they're close or we can help them or how we're going to do that thank you yes and um composting helps a lot so um as you as you heard in the presentation we have 58 schools who are currently doing for doing our energy challenge so we have as we've run this program for 10 years we've identified schools who have a very a passion their leadership has a passion for sustainability and um Environmental Education and so we've watched those schools
142and I have um approached them to say would you like to be going through this so yes I do have a queue of schools but I can't tell you who they are um of schools as you ask though um additionally every year in Virginia Virginia can only put forward the entire Commonwealth can only put forward five schools so um when we when we do this so we are looking forward to to but we there you know there are there probably isn't another school district who um does a good job of it um we think but um in terms of sustainability but we do have to let them um shine as well so we're going to continue that um yeah I don't I don't think no we'd be very happy with us if we you know
143took all there we took all their spots at once I've got five that I could probably go but that's not a good idea okay so follow-up wow only five yeah interesting so maybe we need to Lobby Virginia whoever the they are to expand it Beyond five for the entire state of Virginia um every nomination every state um can only have five certain numbers so yeah it's not it's not just it's that's the way the Federal Regulation is that five schools from every state can be recognized excellent I just have one brief comment um I think that the information about the Aqua Net School Net Zero school is a very interesting topic and so um as you publicize that I know Miss Jesse wants the information I think all of us would be curious and interested
144um in that information sure absolutely thank you maybe we'll bring you back to do a presentation in one of the Fall meetings um I know Ms argopore thank you Dr Latif um Mr Richardson thank you for your your time on this committee um I I aspire to be like you you just do so many things and and and you would think this is your job and it was great so thank you for your your service and your service and your service um Mr Wallingford I actually have a question for you um I remember I know I remember attending a joint board meeting where we were talking about our AAA Bond rating and the different things that come into play this energy management and sustainability can actually help with that correct yes it actually can that's
145a that's a very subtle a very good question there's something called ESG and I'm not going to get into great detail on that but the E stands for environmental and it's one of the things that the rating agencies are looking at as far as grading us AAA double a whatever it is it's not something that's very well defined it's still in the process of being defined um but it is something that they're looking at it is one of the criteria when we for example go to New York it's one of the things that they sit and ask us questions about so our efforts here uh are recognized um uh through those processes through the the rating process it's a really good question thank you I think it's important that um we look at the intersectionality
146of different things that this does we're engaging our students we um we are looking at sustainability not just for environmental but even an educational but also a little economic as well I I just I like I like knowing that it it it go it's a it's a deep dug well in this way so thanks Mr Wilk why not I'll just say at the end since everyone else spoke uh thank you all Mr Richardson thank you for your service all of you back there thank you for still being with us tonight um it seems like it's going to be a late night but I appreciate you all staying in um and of course Mr Bach thank you so thank you all for being here tonight thank you Dr mcday thank you Mr chairman um I want
147to first thank Mr Richardson for your service on the on the council early in my tenure when I first arrived to I'm sure you remember this when I first arrived to Prince William County you were one of the first um advisory chairs to meet with me about the work that was happening with sustainability I I and from that point forward you have been all in in the work that we've been doing have supported the Strategic plan development and so much has been accomplished uh under your 10-year in leadership on the council so I just deeply appreciate your service your commitment and your support of the vision that we collectively hold for this work and the support of the Strategic plan so thank you very much um and to the team Jessica and the entire team
148and I don't know if everyone that whole group back there can you guys stand up stand up stand up [Applause] they are a small But Mighty team and they have everything that we have in that strategic plan which is very lofty goals they have been deeply committed and realizing those goals so we are definitely on our way to meeting our commitments in the 2025 launching thriving Futures playing so I want to thank each and every one of you they have a really robust continuous Improvement plan where they've laid out um over the two-year period exactly how they're going to accomplish those goals and they have been on target so thank you so much we are all deeply committed I'm deeply committed you have my 100 support of all of the initiatives that are outlined in
149our plan and I appreciate every single thing that you're doing to advance this work in our school system thank you Dr McDade and I'll I'll do one last Victory lap this board voted on this initiative three years ago and and and it has I think exceeded all expectations and so we are thrilled and Jessica your work Vern your work done we can't thank you enough um you know to the point that um members are report made you know so I I serve on the board of visitors at UVA and this is my seventh year eighth year and seven years ago we voted on an energy sustainability Net Zero commitment to go carbon neutral by 2030 and and we had done it after already being ahead of the prior plan and so we made we recommitted
150um we are one of four public universities in the country with a triple a bond rating and one of the reasons is our energy sustainability commitment and so as Mr Wallingford mentioned the folks on Wall Street the markets are looking at this stuff Prince William County just to remind everyone is one of 56 localities with a triple a bond rating in the entire nation and so this work that you all are doing is helping us save money in so many other ways we get to borrow at a far lower rate than other counties we get recognized in in ways that you know we can sell bonds easier people buy our bonds so on top of us getting better interest rates we sell them really fast and so it's really great and it helps us fund
151all of our construction and the work we have to do and do it in an affordable way that saves money for all the taxpayers in this County so thank you very much and and we applaud you once again thank you all right great so moving on to the office of associate superintendent for student services and post-secondary success 1501 code of behavior Dr McDade thank you Mr chairman um also in the commitment of positive climate and culture the cultural Behavior articulates expected norms and practices to ensure every student is learning in an environment of inclusivity connectiveness and encourages social and emotional Wellness for all and so I do have present this evening our associate superintendent for student services and post-secondary success success Denise Huebner as well as Dara Duggar is here our director and they will
152be presenting the pwcs code of behavior as you know it is required annually for us to review the code of behavior and make updates especially with any changes that may be coming forward from the state level to ensure that we're in full compliance and so they will be presenting The Cult of behavior including any changes that have made or updates that have been made to date so thank you Miss heebner thank you good evening chairman Latif Vice chairwall members of the school board Dr McDade very excited to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to share with you the proposed changes for the coded behavior that will be implemented in the school year 2324. I'm also grateful to have director Duggar here with me who's been leading this work I'd like to recognize those who've
153collaborated on the project specifically our legal team our special education department our Equity office and our instructional leadership team this has been a collaborative effort to make sure that all voices are heard and represented additionally we have significant Community engagement and director dagger will speak to that as well so our code behavioral aligns our commitment to a positive climate and culture and our commitment to a thriving future with actions the goal of this document is to ensure a safe and positive learning environment that results in academic success for our students often people think of the coded Behavior as a document where we outline rules and guidelines for imposing sanctions for our students who violate the rules well while there are rules and outcomes for students that are who are not in alignment with expectations the
154document also contains some very important information for our students and our families the content of the code Behavior includes roles and responsibilities for our school staff parents and students it includes informations on our students rights as well additionally it includes information to ensure our students families understand due process and what supports are available in Princeton County Schools we understand that organizational coherence is important at all levels and that training at the school level for implementation for staff and teaching expectations to students is the key to success as outlined in our strategic plan the goal is to reduce exclusionary discipline through the use of targeted strategies and interventions that set our students up for success I would like to discuss one specific change in our code of behavior and that is the addition of the definition
155of restorative practices restorative practices are preventative in nature but do not excuse adherence to the guidelines set forth or expected behaviors it also does not replace consequences Prince William County schools recognizes that effective implementation of any code of conduct requires provisions and appropriate behaviors to be taught practice across settings with feedback reinforced and taught again based on situations or data approaching School discipline from an instructional preventative basis in a standpoint contributes to a positive School environment and ensures Equity fairness and continuous Improvement as it emphasizes belonging to a community and rewarding positive behaviors rather than negative behaviors which often yields future yields what the negative behaviors often result in suspensions or dropouts restorative practices means applying instructional preventive-based perspective to student behavior and it is fundamental in a multi-tiered system of support or mtss which
156you hear it referred to it recognizes that in order for students to change behavior and learn expected behaviors there must be targeted efforts to address the root cause so that learning occurs from sanctions that are put in place to reinforce expectations it's important to note that restored practices is different from the restorative justice programs that are implemented in the court system currently Princeton County Schools is not involved in any implementation of restorative justice program for criminal offenses committed by our students Prince William County schools continues to take a Firm Stance on the code of behavior and violations that cause a significant disruption to the learning environment or pose a significant concern or safety concern for staff and students egregious violations in particular and specifically bringing a weapon on school grounds will continue to result in
157the recommendation for further disciplinary action to include expulsion and at this time I would like to turn our presentation over to miss Duggar who not only serves as our division lead in The implementation of a coded Behavior but also serves on the vdoe committee that provides guidance to schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia Miss Duggar good evening the code of Virginia requires the Board of Education to provide model policy guidelines for school divisions that set the expectation for student behavior and enhanced school safety provide preventative and age-appropriate responses and supports before resulting to an exclusionary practices requires access to Quality education and behavioral interventions for students who are removed from the classroom encourages Partnerships with students and families to improve learning conditions and sets the requirements of a biennial review of Inc to incorporate policy
158and legislative changes based on the guidelines set forth by set forth Prince William County schools adopted the guidelines presented in Virginia Department of education's model guidance of positive and preventative code of student conduct policy and alternatives to suspension to create the 23-24 code of behavior which promotes a safe and supportive learning environment by setting the expectations for student Behavior clearly defining those behaviors that do not meet expectations and the strategies and interventions of the division will use to reinforce and teach positive behaviors and the process of administrative response when violations occur next slide please the collaborators for the 2324 code of behavior consists of a committee composed of school administ based administrators school counselors teachers central office staff parents and students updates and changes to the coded Behavior include feedback from stakeholders and a review
159of the document through an equity lens additionally updates include changes to Virginia Department of Ed's model guidance and the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session and recommendations from the committee were discussed and supported by the executive cabinet and division Council next slide areas of focus for the 23-24 code of behavior include a focus on instructional and prevention-based practices through the use of multi-tiered systems of support and adaptive and responsive framework that helps schools identify and provide targeted support for students who are struggling academically and or behaviorally and restorative practices which is an evidence-based preventative approach rooted in forming a sense of community and teaching positive behavior with the purpose of deterring students from negative behaviors the use of mtss and RP is not in lieu of a sanction but afford School staff the ability to address
160the root cause so that learning occurs from the sanction and reinforces the expected Behavior cultural competency updated language that is inclusive and culturally responsive integrating bdoe standard six culturally competent standards of self-reflection pedagogy and practice learning environments and Community engagement and Prince William County's Department of diversity Equity inclusions framework which focuses on engaging families and understanding their role rights and responsibilities in the implementation of the code of behavior Title IX updated language to align and compliance with federal guidelines norming responses to the code of behavior violations adopting Prince William County schools dress code dress and grooming policies based on state guidelines clarification of behavior definitions and alignments with Prince William County schools policy and regulations and procedures next slide legislative updates for the 2324 code of behavior include policy changes around the notification of bullying
161from House Bill 1592 and Senate Bill 1072 principals or their designee are required to notify the parent of any student involved in alleged incident of bullying within 24 hours of learning of the allegation of bullying next slide in accordance with the code of code of Virginia Prince William County will offer the following training opportunities to school staff administrative decision making for weapons violations administrative responses to vaping possession and distribution of prohibited substances preventative and restorative responses to school discipline before and after a behavior infraction and the integration of edoes Education educator cultural competency standards for school staff and collaboration with the Department of tiered supports and interventions and the department of diversity equity and inclusion using Behavior categories to appropriately capture go to behavior violations and norming the process for implementation of the coded Behavior
162I will now turn it over to Mrs Huebner who will close out the presentation for the 2324 code of behavior revisions thank you so as you can see there have been some extensive comprehensive changes our goal is to make this document a family-friendly document that allows parents access to information and support and at this time that concludes our presentation Miss Williams thank you Mr chairman um I love coded Behavior it's my favorite I know um I just want to First say thank you very much to um Miss hubner and your team for all the work that goes on for the code of behavior I know you're at the top of the pyramid for this um but I know Daria that you really lead the charge and I appreciate that I also appreciate the fact that
163you wholeheartedly include students and all stakeholders in the code of behavior and this year um I can't be more excited about the code of behavior chart of changes um I love that with Dr mcdade's Administration we include things like indexes and glossaries because there are so much rhetoric out there about a term and what I think we do very well here in Prince William County schools is Define what the term means so that you don't have any misunderstanding around commonly misunderstood things such as Dei what is permissible for student dress what restorative practice practices means being a proactive approach and that we still have discipline I also appreciate that we spend so much time explaining what comes from the state that we are legally required to do when it comes to go to behavior and
164what the state practices are and how we fold them into our practices and are compliant oftentimes I think that is also another misstep in rhetoric that's out there surrounding the public as to where things come from and how they end up in our documents or our policies so I very much appreciate that I noticed all I'm always going to harp on student dress are we going to be doing anything differently this year I know with covet a lot of students wore pajamas and of course fashion trends always change are we doing anything to implement with Fidelity and to kind of remove bias on what it means to dress appropriately in our schools so I'll let director Duggar speak we do have a series of planned ways that we're going to as we have talked about
165teach behaviors and expectations the students all let her touch on that briefly thank you I appreciate it because no matter which depending on which generation you are in and there are four of them now in the workplace appropriate dress can mean very different things so the management of dress and grooming is at the school-based level so the guidelines that we presented today present what our overall division guidelines are and then we will be working with school-based administrators um to kind of work with them to set the policies within their school buildings and how to appropriately manage violations when they occur okay thank you because I I have heard repeatedly over the years especially from some of our minority parents and our our parents or Guardians who have students who develop faster you know you could
166come to school two same students could come to school wearing identical outfits and they appear completely different on their bodies so I would like to for us to be able to do our due diligence and if we're going to do one for one one individual we do the same for the other because I know it has a dramatic impact on our students self-esteem and enforcement definitely varies so I'm very proud of the fact that we are going to be implementing those things with Fidelity and I'm sure a lot of our young female students will also be very appreciative of this as well so that's all I have for right now I know this is on for information and we'll vote next week so thank you very much Jesse hi culturally responsive restorative practice culturally competent
167and the question I have is it and it's the same question I asked you when we were talking earlier I am very concerned with how this thing is going to roll out and how teachers are going to perceive it and whether or not we're going to have any Fidelity or consistency or norms for how to run these groups who's going to do the training I think the last at our meeting we talked about principals doing the training that really does concern me but who's going to train the principles and who's going to be the person to oversight this and the second question is will teachers look at this and say well can I can I still send them to the office because uh at the end of the day I could I can just I
168guess because I've been out there and I've seen people run groups and those groups are unwell but if there are no parameters and you have this little group meeting and everyone's talking and nothing happens at the end and the kids are still misbehaving I just I'm just concerned about these terms and you know we have questions about standard based learning and whether or not we're consistent with that and we also have teachers saying there's too much in service so how do you guys balance all that I know I'm asking several questions but it's probably the same question what's going to happen what is it going to look like so the implementation of mtss NRP is through is a collaborative effort so we'll be working with the Department of tiered and instruction as well as our
169Dei Department who will roll out the implementation and planning and support not only for a school-based administrators but also School staff so it's a it's an ongoing effort I do have my partners here with me this evening but again it's a collaborative effort and the goal is to certainly work at my level and in within my department to focus on the sanctions and norming the practices but the support for teachers and implementation will come from the other departments you know when we talk about professional learning communities and teachers getting into the groups to discuss what they're going to do during the planning sessions there has to be norms and I know that there has to be Norms because at the end of the day you run into a discussion about what what what did you
170go where did you go last night or you know without Norms nothing happens in these groups and I'm I'm still very concerned about I know you keep guys keep saying using this term collaborative collaborative what does that really look like I'm just concerned that teachers are going to say another thing to do is too vague for me and again can I still send them to the office so miss Jesse the the it I hear your concerns and it is our goal to make sure that they're you know everyone's educated and that we have a systemic way that we Implement our coded Behavior we are going to provide not just a one and done training but ongoing training we do have um access to our school administrators through our level Associates are supporting this effort it's
171not one person it's multiple it's all of us so the collaboration means that it's not just miss Duggar writing the code of behavior and saying implement it it means that we all own an important piece of this and that the focus really is creating that safe and positive environment I hear you that teachers need support we need the classroom to be focused and so the norms and the expectations that you're talking about are really the framework that's what the code of behavior does we understand that at the school level teachers need to be able to approach that with their administrators each School may have different needs significant needs and those will be addressed in staff meetings but there is a common set of expectations of what we want to see for implementation so this is
172a normed expectation that can be implemented at the school level Missouri I just saw Miss Jessie's face there that just the the look on her face at the end um uh the division I work for actually calls this students rights and responsibilities as a teacher in the classroom and I've been doing a lot of this in the past few weeks more than ever before because it is the end of the school year um I remind students that they're there to learn and that when you get in someone's way you are interfering with their right to have a free and appropriate education as a teacher I have dealt with very difficult classes before in my career I've dealt with classes that were just perfect and awesome and you want to record and repeat those right so
173I think some of the things that some people may be thinking about and this is to tag a little bit on to miss Jesse is that um sometimes teachers don't feel supported in their classrooms sometimes there are bumps in implementation we we all have experienced things like that but I also think that it's important that you know we talk about parents making sure that they're involved in this as well too so um you know I don't want to be the teacher who you know sends home the emails and does the phone calls and I don't hear anything back I want to work with the parents and make sure that we're working together to support our students so that everyone can learn inside the classroom is could you speak just a little bit to how important
174that partnership is it's it's not just you know we drop the kids off in the classroom and we you know hope no one gets referral and everything goes okay it's we all work in this together and you did say collaborative but could you speak a little bit more about um you know supporting our students supporting our teachers supporting our parents through these kinds of things okay so again there's a there's various different parts to the coded behavior and you know legislation says that yes we have to be preventative we have to teach but a large part is making sure that learning is happening within that environment and so our goal and our approach is to give staff and administrators the tools that they need to be able to appropriately address those behaviors but at the
175same time letting them know and helping them to understand what that litmus is when that behavior needs to be escalated to the next level and that it's okay to you know sometimes reach outside of the building for those supports that you might need to be able to address those behaviors as long along with the parents in our collaboration with the Department of Dei and tears instruction we're doing a series to support them and understanding their rights and roles and responsibilities and supporting schools and their ability to know what's happening with their student to be notified when those things are happening and then how we will be addressing those things as those behaviors escalate so it doesn't you know leave students in the classroom to behave inappropriately for various long times without any support but letting
176folk know that there are other mechanisms by which there's those supports come and but we're expecting to teach and support you wants those things and hopeful that those things will go well before we have to go to those measures so hopefully that gives a little bit more clearance to how the three departments are working together and supporting students supporting parents and supporting the school staff and managing those behaviors thank you and um just I know bullying comes up a lot uh and and there was something in the presentation that talked about um a change that things must be reported within 24 hours is that both for potential perpetrator and potential victim is it like anyone involved in an allegation of of bullying and then do we have a process for what that's going to look
177like um or um you know if you if if I'm a parent and I receive information that my child was bullied or if I'm a parent and I receive information that my child may have bullied someone do we know yet what we can expect in that process so the notification definitely has to happen because that's state law what that process looks like there's currently a process in place now but that will also include what that notification looks like norming that across all schools and at all levels so that everyone's aware of when these things are reported it's you know documented appropriately and then those things are notifications are sent out to families um as stated and can we also recognize that we we know that sometimes something happens where an adult it doesn't catch it
178in that moment a child might say something much later what well what what might that look like so I want to just make a note that in your document that you have the draft of the coded behavior on page 15 it talks about the right for free to be free from bullying discrimination and harassment it also refers to our regulation and the process for reporting so on the back part page 45 to 47 is a very descriptive um process if parents have a concern I also want to be clear that it does not take a written notification School administration is expected to follow up on any allegation of bullying parents will be notified of anyone who's involved in that allegation within 24 hours there will be Communication in writing we have specific process that will
179be rolled out to our administrators as part of the professional professional development and training this Summer that there are specific steps there will be guide and parents will be able to look at that revised regulation once it's posted in August but for now you could look at the end page 45. last thing I promise thank you for that I also know that we're trying to make sure that there's links to things for parents and and everyone get to much more easily so thank you so much for doing that because it is frustrating trying to like Google for information sometimes thanks Miss Jackson all right thank you for the presentation tonight and um for all the accompanying documents um I just wanted just before I ask my question just kind of say that then as you
180probably are aware that the number one thing well top three things I hear from staff are Behavior concerns and I appreciate the that there are going to be places where people can discuss it in staff meetings but um I know from personal experience sometimes it's difficult to have those discussions so I hope that and I know you probably are at creating safe spaces for these discussions to be had in alternate spaces outside of staff meetings so it might add you the same questions about that Ms zagabor had about bullying because I think I I look at this and I'm wondering how we're going to do this in 24 hours um and like what processes we're going to follow to ensure compliance and I was just I'm not advocating for more training I'm not but um
181I know that everybody has a different and I know that the definition for bullying is in here on page 47 and 45 through 47 but I know that everybody has a different definition for bullying will there be a way to make sure that both staff parents Guardians and students are informed of the bullying outside of reading this to make sure that everybody has a common definition and then I again have the same concerns that Mr Good Boy mentioned so Our intention is to provide this every parent receives the opportunity to review the code of behavior as part of the start of the year the back to school packet additionally we're working with our family and Community engagement staff in the equity office to make all of our information more parent friendly and available it is
182it will be included in our regulation as I said you can find it currently the definition on page 20 as part of the coded Behavior I think that one of the confusions we often have is there are bullying behaviors but bullying is a different definition bullying is repeated over time with an imbalance of power and I think sometimes that is difficult to separate the two none of it is acceptable you know I want to be clear that I hear you I know the difficult I've been a teacher in the classroom it's been a while it's been you know a bit but I can remember the frustration with you know maintaining order student behaviors we understand that teachers need support and we understand that our administrators need to be there to create a lot of different
183avenues for both parents and staff to understand what is included in the code of behavior and how we can end behavior that is not appropriate and promote positive behavior so I don't have a one and done answer I can't say this is the thing that's going to happen but I will tell you that we'll be approaching this from multiple Avenues um you know information on our website information in the coded Behavior information when parents attend back to school of night there's a lot of opportunities for parents to seek that out but we're also going to be pushing that out in you know in part of our notifications and our publication so that it gets to the parents parents don't have to seek it out on their own I appreciate that thank you Mr Wolf I've
184been waiting um and I've kind of already warned you I'll be voting against this again um I think we have a like Wade said you're a hardliner on Behavior to me a second ago and I am and I don't know fundamentally clearly that doesn't go with probably the notion of all the competing forces of what we're doing here um and and really it comes down to I just don't think the consequences are severe enough I think until I'll say it again until we start inconveniencing parents for those repeat offenders for the ones who just continually disrupt class and cause that learning environment to go Haywire whatever you want to say until their inconvenience I think this is going to continue to persist and you know I I like the the I believe we're doing a
185lot of good things but again I think there's a lot of gray area uh in here and I think when we sometimes leave things open to interpretation a common feeling that I hear from parents whether again it's real or not a feeling is that sometimes they believe their principles hands are tied that they would do more and suspend more or enforce harsher punishment if they felt like their principal could and I'm not telling you that's again I don't have the facts behind that I'm just telling you something that can been resonating with me throughout the year and unless we have in some sense defined kind of instead of gray but black and white I I don't think we're ever going to get past this and and so ultimately the end I know there's not like
186some quick change or something in two weeks you're gonna make that's gonna you know have me switch my beliefs and ideas on this um and I again I appreciate your guys time I know this is not an easy thing um but that's where I said that's my philosophy on this a zero tolerance approach and again I know that may not be kind of the direction the state's going and such but that's where I stand and that's probably why I'm going to continue voting against the code of behaviors until we move more towards that hard line approach who's next Williams thank you Mr chairman um I just wanted to ask if we can consider um maybe utilizing some of our technology to remind parents and Guardians and other members of Prince William County School families because
187everyone doesn't have parents um that um to check the code Behavior maybe a couple times a year a lot of the comments that I hear could directly be answered if we referred back to the coded behavior um and I think that would be also very helpful because it's one of those documents you read the beginning of the year so to check mark off and then like when your student gets in trouble or there's a disciplinary issue or there's a whatever issue the answers are often found in the coded behavior and I know we can't make parents read it or guardians or even students past that initial time if they make it through all 47 pages but I do feel like it a lot of the resources that answer the questions are there I mean just
188in the the document that accompanies it with the charter changes talks about Mr Wilkie may want to check this out the uh that that research for so frequent out of school suspension Zero Tolerance policies and get to approaches to school safety are ineffective and increase the risk for negative social and academic outcomes especially from children from historically disadvantaged groups so I know there's a lot of good information in here and I just think it would be helpful if we could use some of our technology just to remind our school family members and community that the information is there for them to utilize thank you Miss wall all right thank you um I want to Echo some of the comments that have been made about behavior um in our schools it's definitely one of the topics
189that I hear the most um I think it's been hard I think that we have a lot of challenging behaviors I don't know all of the root causes if it's technology or cell phones or YouTube or Tick Tock or or covid or parenting lack of follow-thrown parenting I have no idea I think there are a lot of causes um but I will say it is something we really do need to we need to keep working at because it is a big concern of families and teachers I hear it from families and teachers and kids kids who don't feel safe in school because of the things that they see and they see that kids are getting away with things that um that they shouldn't be getting away with and I know there's probably a critical mass
190in a classroom if you're a teacher and you have one or two kids who are acting out you can kind of keep that under control but if you have seven or eight now now you you have a bigger problem um so I think it's worth that we you know we keep chipping away at it I'm I I will be looking through this entire document um I just want to say I some of our answers might be even more um revolutionary um for instance a school I visited in Washington DC when we walked into the school there were cell phone Lockers in the entryway in the vestibule and all of the students there had to put their cell phone in the locker and they couldn't have it with them the entire day now I know in
191Prince William County that probably wouldn't go over well but I will say from the conversation I had with people at that school staff at that school it made a huge difference because a lot of things that are going on distraction cyber bullying you name it is happening with distractions of cell phones and um so revolutionary idea I know probably you would never go anywhere but worth talking about I think um and another thing might be even something like uniforms and I know that one well either but again you know you remove a lot of the distractions and problems that can be caused um but I guess I'll wrap up by saying you know setting the expectations for student Behavior I think this is a this is a problem or a topic that we will re
192will require everybody getting on board not just the code of behavior but the teachers the administrators the parents the students I think there's no way we're going to make a change if we don't have commitment from all of those all of those stakeholders and and it is a topic that everybody is concerned about at a very um at a very practical level so um I know I mean I agree with Mr Wilk that you know sometimes we have to just get really tough and I don't know what that looks like I don't know all the research um but I do appreciate the work that's gone into the revisions of the code of behavior and complying with state guidelines and and other things like that I just hope that it's in that it's going to move
193things in the right direction because I feel like right now it's been a really rough year so anyway those are my comments thank you very much to work all I want to say um I think thank you Miss wall um I think you know linking studies and such is great I would just encourage other parents to ask other parents or even teachers how they feel about discipline and behavior right now and I think that'll answer a lot of my concerns okay thank you very much appreciate it we'll see you in two weeks thank you thank you Mr all right um at this time it is time for superintendent's time no no no no 1602 appointment is that right 16.2 appointment and announcement of student representatives for the 2023-24 school year and we will now move
194on to this and emotion is in order Vice chair wall oh okay oh all right Mr chairman I move that the Prince William County School Board appoint Isabella aversano and Fernanda moronte Escobedo as student representatives to the Prince William County School Board and appoint Jacqueline Garcia as the alternate student representative to the Prince William County school board for the 2023-24 school year Miss Williams I like to Second Miss Williams seconds of motion discussion I would just like to point out that the school board does not itself make these selections I think it's important for everyone to know that there's a process and students are asked to apply in this process each High School will make um will interview candidates and and I think nominate towards the central office and then our central office has a
195committee that goes through the nominations from each of the high schools and I think we had a record number of students apply I think over 120 or plus students apply county-wide and so it's a it's a great process that the school board actually itself does not weigh in on this is done by high schools and central office staff so thank you please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed all right moving on to superintendent's Time Dr McDade thank you Mr chairman the authentic engagement of students is vital to the success of pwcs and student School Board representatives and the student Senate serve a crucial role in amplifying the voices and perspectives of our student makeup and I'm really pleased with all of the work that has happened with ours our students
196both in the Senate as well as the school board and in schools because we do have a commitment to having a student voice voice Committee in every single middle and high school and and we also have student leadership committees in elementary school currently so I'm really excited about what I'm seeing I got a chance to visit T Clay Wood today they are a leader in me School and the students led a leadership day facilitated a full leadership morning and it was just phenomenal so there's a lot of great work happening with our student leaders and the student board Representatives um this is a really important role because of their engagement with the board and representing their respective student bodies so I would like to thank the 2022-23 student Representatives Donnie and sharifi from Gainesville High
197School Chance Williams from Forest Park High School and Christian Daniels from CD Hilton High School in representing themselves our students and pwcs they have really worked with honor tenacity and care and I am grateful for their contributions and thankful for their service to Prince William County schools and wish them well in their future endeavors as they depart from Prince William County and pursue post-secondary success for the 23-24 school year I'm really proud to welcome our new student School Board Representatives Isabella avasano from Gainesville High School School Fernanda moronte from Forest Park High School and Alternate Jacqueline Garcia from Osborne Park High School and I had an opportunity to see Fernanda in action and she is just a really dynamic student leader so I'm excited about the leadership that these three will bring to the board
198we are excited to welcome our new student voices and eagerly looking forward to working with them to fulfill our mission to see every student graduate with the knowledge skills and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their Community grounded in commitment to positive climate and culture pwcs is dedicated to the inclusivity and celebration of our students families and staff the diversity of our community is our superpower it is how we see Solutions and create resolutions which is why along with the school board I'm proud to recognize June 2023 is lgbtq plus pride month we have staff and students who recognize that month and in the spirit of inclusivity we are recognizing that month we recognize our students and staff because we care we are committed to inclusive supportive and encouraging
199School environments for the safety security and belonging of everyone and we want all students and staff to feel like they belong in Prince William County and we ask our community to join us in celebrating all staff students and staff inclusive of gender identity gender expression or sexual orientation pwcs is committed to a respectful safe and welcoming environment for all of our students and staff um an encouraging example of our division's work of inclusivity may be found in our robotics program currently we have 79 schools participating in the robotics program 13 high schools 16 middle schools and 50 elementary schools over three years pwcs robotics has seen a 106 percent increase in student participation and within the same three years 116 percent increase in female participation proudly 38 percent of our 1905 students are female and
200the inclusive engagement with robotics is thriving we are so proud of our expansive robotics program and next board meeting we will be recognizing our robotics teams but tonight I want to present a short video highlighting just the tip of the robotics iceberg [Music] thank you can you guys put it up it's not showing on the screens music's great can we start it over please [Music] sorry thank you very good [Music] thank you [Music] double underhook are all things we brought from last year's rld so back to our current iteration you can see the similarities the last version but with plenty of new things here's a quick design explanation for our ROV the motor movements are here with the slow Motors foreign [Applause] thank you Mr chairman that concludes the superintendent's time thank you Dr McDade
201okay moving on to committee updates we have Miss wall school health Advisory Board a school health Advisory board on May 21 Miss Jackson and I were there um the how did the health school health Advisory Board advises the school division on a broad topic of or on specific aspects of the health program and our meeting on the 26th um we received a very good and comprehensive mental health awareness update which I thought was fantastic and and I would actually recommend that we perhaps bring that presentation to the board it was it was very informative and very helpful helpful for understanding mental health mental health situation in our schools and in our communities we also got an update on immunization non-compliance so this always catches families unawares because there are certain immunizations that are required before
202students um can enter school and sometimes families procrastinate it thinking that they'll just get an appointment you know the week before school but then everybody has the same idea and then there aren't enough appointments but it's really important that families be aware of what immunizations are required for school and get those done early and I know the nurses are working really hard to get that information out to families and I would just encourage any families listening that you pay attention to those notifications and that you get those immunizations done early because if you wait you may run into the situation where your child is not allowed to come to school and I believe they're going to be pretty strict about that this year so it's just something to be aware of also Teresa Polk is
203retiring so that was her last meeting with the school health Advisory Board and I just want to say thank you for her many years of dedication and service to Prince William County schools and to Growing our nursing staff and nursing program and all the great work that she has done and we had a great time visiting with her and um it was a good meeting and I think that like I said it would be great to hear more about the mental health awareness data that was shared at in this meeting I think it's something that could possibly benefit a lot more people so I don't know if there's anything else that Ms Jackson wants to add but um it's a good committee and I'm thankful to the people who serve on it Miss Jackson um
204I just want to Echo I think that was a great summary um I also agree that the presentation on Mental Health was exceptional and it would be at some point be great to have more people see it and I also want to thank Miss Theresa Polk for her service so thank you Miss well for this summary outstanding thank you okay up next is 1901 revision of policy 737 search and seizure first reading we will have a number of these up for first reading so um I don't know do we have anybody up for what's that Mr Anderson Division Council please this is me so uh the revisions to policy 737 are fairly minor but they're uh uh in court they're designed to incorporate the school board's decision to implement weapons detection systems so it asks
205that the superintendent create regulations for the usage of those systems as administrative searches um and that you know certain things be done like posting notices on the buildings that those are in use things like that just the details necessary to implement that so it's a pretty minor change to the actual policy the regulational spell out how those weapons and section systems uh will be operated okay so if you have any questions please contact division Council over the next couple weeks and the public certainly can take a look at it and send any questions or concerns and we will vote on this in two weeks 1902 um so I'll take if it's okay Mr chairman I'll take 1902 and 1903 yeah yeah go for it brother um so these are essentially technical changes that are required
206by the changes to your call that um recently we adopted uh to go into effect July 1 uh a pretty substantial revision to our social media policies and that was after a year or two long effort to spearheaded by former Council division Council Mary McGowan and her staff to go through and really make our social media policies more robust and these are technical changes for Conformity sake okay again with these policies please contact division Council for the next couple weeks if you have any concerns and again with the public same um okay at that point that brings us to board matters tonight we'll start with Mr Wilk and then to remind the board members we will oh he's gone he left oh he's on break that's fine we'll start with Mrs just to remind board
207members we will be re-entering closed session to finish or we could not complete earlier on the agenda for closed session items so a reminder okay Ms argopore all right thank you Dr Latif um so parents or families and and Educators played crucial role in shaping students behavior and their collaboration is essential for holistic development of a child of the child when parents and teachers work together they can create a strong support system that benefits the students in numerous ways parents have that in-depth understanding of their own children their personality their likes or dislikes weaknesses strengths and all that and the teachers have the expertise in the educational and classroom management so together we need to be working to make sure that our students are successful in schools just a reminder it is graduation week for
208many many students I know when the parents first put their kids in school they hope that their children like their teacher make friends and learn something and as they learn and grow through the through the years it gets to 12th grade and all of a sudden they're graduating there's something that I do with my students I only see up to sixth grade in my school but I get kind of choked up thinking about where are you headed at this time of year so I'm going to share the lyrics to a song that I think is um I don't know just it's one of those things may you have it's uh Jason it's a Jason Mraz song um I want you to or have it all is the name of it um so here's just a
209few of the lyrics so to the class of 2023 may you have auspiciousness and causes of success may you have the confidence to always do your best may it take no effort in your being generous sharing what you can nothing more nothing less may you know the meaning of the word happiness and may you always lead from the beating in your chest may you be treated like an esteemed guest to may you get to rest and may you catch your breath May the best of your day todays be the worst of your tomorrows and may The Road Less paved be the road that you follow so here's to the hearts that you're going to break here's to the lives that you're going to change here's to the infinite possible ways to love you I want
210you to have it all good luck in your endeavors class of 2023 whatever it is you are doing whether it's a gap year or you're working or you are off to college or you have a job lined up or you're serving in the military I wish you luck and success thank you thank you Mr report Mr welcome um thank you um just a couple highlights of things that have occurred that um you know it's a special time of year so like Ms agapore was talking about obviously the graduation ceremonies are really special last Sunday night uh Forest Park uh this Sunday next pass whatever Sunday night Forest Park had their graduation ceremony and it was it was very nice it had a kind of a unique kind of theme because the principal's son was graduating
211and his speech about adjusting to changes in life and pivoting was his word um it was just it was a really compelling emotional night and I just thought it was great for that special touch it's great to see also all the teachers who have their kids graduating and you know um like Miss wall um yeah I saw you in that photo too but yeah so I just think it's a really exciting time um and as like Lisa said no matter kind of what pathway or what you're going to do next um and you know I just think it's a really exciting time anyways um a couple of things Montclair Elementary School a couple events I went to I'm not going to go through them all again I give them credit they did their first Spring
212Fling as their ptcl I always appreciate when schools try to start an annual tradition so they did that I thought it was very successful Patty had their big uh very exciting PTO Bingo night and kind of launched my birthday weekend um it was fun it was exciting a lot of families there so it was nice to be there uh Swans Creek I got to be there not just as a school board member but as a parent and see my son interact at the school day it was really cool and nice when it comes to some of the academic stuff Potomac High School invited me to be in their AP government class as their AP senior students were presenting their final kind of Capstone projects it was very informative a couple good presentations that I was
213able to win this one about halal food the Cambridge program handicapped parking spaces I just thought the students did a great job with the research and what they did trying to just pick some different schools here Ashland I was there back to back they had an artist come in from Washington DC Mr Melvin Dr Melvin Nesbitt Jr he presented and did a kind of a whole little seminar I guess for the students and the families there they had a strings concert the next night which was great the teacher retirement ceremony whereas Williams was all of us were we mostly all not you no I'm just kidding but most of us were there but it was a good event and uh yeah I know it was a greatest ceremony and then lastly um I was able
214uh Miss wall ventured all the way over here to Forest Park there was a nice Regional Championship Match um with uh Battlefield and although we lost it was really cool you got to present that trophy I thought that was a really special moment cool anyways thank you all Miss Jackson okay um thank you to all those who came and spoke tonight the last few weeks have been extremely busy with many events celebrating all students congratulations to those who are graduating from high school middle and elementary school is an exciting time and I wish you all the best on your next step just want to take a moment to thank Christine Wade for her pending service of the special education advisory committee Christine taught for eight years as a special education teacher in a self-contained classroom
215in a local District she is a background in ABA therapy and worked as a private ABA therapist she has kids in Prince William County Elementary School she works as a substitute where she worked as a substitute part-time and now as a teacher assistant in our County and a preschool setting with a variety of needs in the classroom and it offers one-on-one assistance when needed she is well versed in special education and I'm extremely thankful for her service I also want to say that I'm very grateful for the partnership of many businesses within our County they provide vital assistance and support to students and staff policies are inclusive and updated to ensure that Integrity is maintained it is important for all stakeholders to act with Integrity when acting when interacting or representing the school division while
216the School Division did not have did not know about the flyers distributed I'm calling on the school division to monitor all closely all future collaboration with the data center industry I have significant concerns regarding the proposed rezoning in Brownsville district and I encourage all constituents to review the impact forms posted in today's board Docs congratulations to the finance team on being awarded I think I saw something about the association of school business officials for certificate certificate and excellence in financial reporting congratulations and congratulations to all three principal principals for the Khan Fellowship Awards it was an extensive process and I wish them all the best in the next step and the knowledge that they will bring back to the division will be invaluable love and respect to everyone and drive safely and good night Miss
217William thank you Mr chairman um as we know June is LBGTQ plus and questioning pride month PTSD Awareness Month gun violence Awareness Month Alzheimer's and brain awareness month and immigration Heritage Month as well as a host of celebrations that occur on specific days I would just like to take this opportunity to remind the public and to thank my fellow board members because we kicked off our term in 2019 by updating our policies to prevent guns on school school grounds um and we also did the first ever Pride resolution for Prince William County schools and I will always be proud advocates for both of those things um I just want to issue a congratulations again to our student Representatives I don't think um that myself or Miss Jesse could have even envisioned how successful this program
218has has been for our School Division when we came back from nsba several years ago and begged our former board members to implement this we were met with a lot of um a lot of resistance and I can say that we have far exceeded I think our expectations and I'm proud that we have student Representatives on our board and now student rep and a student Senate has grown out of that um so congratulations to our three Representatives who are leaving and the three new ones who are coming on board there are some events that I went to a special shout out to Potomac view tailgate I promise if I'm here in 2024 I will get in that at dunk take with the principal and the students May throw as many balls as they would like
219it was fun times there at the tailgate I also want to thank Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated for their community health Expo at Freedom High School they did a wonderful job of kicking off the immunization season I also attended like with my colleagues at Prince William County retirement ceremony my heart is especially excited and a little Bittersweet for some of those who are retiring this year and I hope they will come back and romp with us my one of my favorite events during the year is the CTE signing day I just want to say thank you to all the trades and everyone who participated in that Mr Wright is also retiring and I wish him all the best and hope he continues to come back thank you to my distinguished rat Brothers of Phi Beta
220Sigma fraternity Incorporated who held a town hall this weekend on education and nonpartisan Town Hall I want to thank PowerMax a company for holding a Stop the Violence Community event that I was able to participate and many of the graduations that I I attended over the weekend and we'll look forward to attending soon especially Independence in Hilton I just want to give a special shout out to a few graduates from Hilton my goddaughter and then to say I am so excited to celebrate Juneteenth it is a holiday that I look forward to and I'm thankful that it is a state and federal holiday and it's also my youngest birthday who's not happy about that so big shout out to him and with my last few seconds since it is closing in at the end of
221the school year I just want to say very quickly a big shout out to all the kids who didn't win an award or make honor roll or barely made it through the school year big hug to the moms dads grandparents caregivers foster parents and stuck by them as they maneuvered through the school year you are worthy of a pet on the back and a Facebook post don't forget those kids kindness creativity and tenacity often don't get the recognition that they deserve so thank you Miss Jesse this is the 50th anniversary for Rockledge Elementary School and so this is a shirt t-shirt thank you very much and uh would you please put the first two slides up I think oh yeah well now this slide I love the slide it's a photo of the graduated ceremony
222chance and uh Dr we were we were getting into good trouble because I said to Dr McDade later we did a group thing I said to documentary would you like to be in a picture and she said no because you guys are violating protocol so I want to say I'm sorry that we were organizationally incoherent during that time and then we'll start that's true Miss Jesse that's true tradition oh this is the anniversary slide for Rockledge and then the next slide I think is of the donut tour these are the donut chores we've gone on five uh we've given out 70s about a thousand donuts five does it to the elementary at ten thousand to the middle and this morning we gave 15 dozen to uh the high school and finally I want to the
223last I think the last slide that we have is the da slide you know I wrote an article uh for the the my newsletter and years ago 40 years ago I guess this lady from Connecticut said to me everybody has to have a tada and I think that every student everyone the donuts all these things are Tada moments so this is a job to Doug Wright he's a founder of our career program the welding program the plumbing program Dominion uh electric he helped me start that main aviation maintenance program and I want to report that Piedmont Airlines has given us a thirty thousand dollar scholarship to one of the students at Woodbridge High School and so to Doug Wright he didn't ask me if he didn't ask for my permission to resign or to retired
224neither did Jocelyn and all these other people but I just want to say that I appreciate everything that you've done and I'm done thank you Miss Jesse Miss wall all right um wow it's we're here we're at the end of the school year I can't believe it it's it's awesome it's amazing this has been a great year I was so excited for the start of the Year back in September because we were able to begin a normal year and the excitement and energy at all of the back to school nights and the first days of school was just palpable and I feel that way about graduation and everything that's happening at the end of the school year now it's just so exciting and so amazing I've attended some graduations last night was Battlefield and my
225own son graduated so that was especially sweet I also have attended Unity read in Brunsville District High School graduations on Pace West Graduation which is a very special and unique experience I'm looking forward to celebrating with families and students across the county um it's just one of my favorite things to celebrate when students cross that finish line I also was able to go to Bull Run Middle's National in your Honor Society induction ceremony and I was able to speak there which was really a great honor I love talking about academics I love in celebrating Student Success and some of the graduation walks at the elementary schools have been absolutely awesome to see the older kids go back into the elementary schools and to see the elementary school children's faces when they see those graduates come
226through I mean they're rock stars they're so amazing and the kids just love it so I've been able to do now four of those I'm also looking to some fifth grade promotions I want to say congratulations to Battlefield boys soccer region Champs I was able to give that trophy to them which is the first time I've done that it was really exciting they were so so excited I'm super proud of Alvey Elementary's nine-year-old speller CSM poth she was one of 121 spellers nationally who advanced to the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and she's a nine-year-old so she she she's are going to be our secret weapon guys next five years she is very eligible to keep going no pressure um I um have run out of time already so I'm going to skip
227to this part um just congratulations to all of the retirees our distinguished retirees across the division teachers administrators principals um and some of our executive cabinet your knowledge and experience will be greatly missed best of luck in your future endeavors I hope to see many of you as rappers in our schools because you are so valuable to all the graduates I congratulate you you've worked hard to achieve this accomplishment showing resilience and determination in the face of difficult circumstances class of 2023 you have had only one normal year if you can count this year as normal all three years of your high school were disruptive in some way so I just want to give a shout out to all of you and as you go forward I wish you the best success in pursuing your
228personal goals you will have many opportunities for future success as you continue to work hard and challenge yourself and I hope this moment in your life is a benchmark in a lifetime of noteworthy achievements and in the words of A.A milns Winnie the Pooh promise me you'll always remember you're braver than you believe you're stronger than you seem and smarter than you think congratulations class of 2023 thank you Miss wall all right well tonight I'm going to present um some comments and in my case for public education good evening I want to congratulate all of our graduating seniors and their families for their remarkable achievement I want to thank all of our families for sticking with our School Division throughout the pandemic we are thankful for your continued trust and commitment to public education throughout
229our history we have idealized what American public education has done and can do for us without a doubt even with its shortcomings it is the main reason for American dominance in invention Discovery and Leadership we know that education can increase civic participation reduce prejudice and discrimination and increase lifetime earnings David Berliner editor of public education defending the Cornerstone of American democracy writes about tax-funded education systems in 1700s Boston Thomas Jefferson believing that Universal education was essential to the functioning of our democracy and Horace Mann the father of American education and his belief in the common school after the Civil War all states enacted laws to ensure public education we know this did not extend equally to all that took nearly another hundred years and is still a work in progress throughout industrialization the great Wars
230desegregation and digital Highway and now a great pandemic we have continued to face social upheaval and our schools have been centers of controversy and change as they play a vital role in our society our schools are not perfect reports such as the nation at risk in 1983 and the No Child Left Behind in 2001 are examples of school reform efforts to address achievement inequity the covid-19 pandemic spotlighted these issues and exacerbated many of them we are at an inflection point for public education in America we have tremendous work to do and we must recommit to high standards equity and accountability as we look to reform educational practices we must fund education with the same fervor we speak about education let me say that again we must fund education with the same fervor we speak about
231education we cannot expect a discount deal to provide a first class experience first class experiences cost money and we must be willing to make those Investments and do it so that resources ensure Equitable opportunities for all I have been and continue to be committed to this vision of public education because I still believe education increases Civic engagement reduces discrimination provides thriving Futures and as Jefferson put it essential to the functioning of our democracy I will leave you with a quote from Amanda Gorman's poem the hill we climb she read at President Biden's inauguration I think it is instructive to all of us as we wrestle with how we reform public education together in this County and this country she says and yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn't mean we
232are striving to form a union that is perfect we are striving to forge a union with purpose to compose a country committed to all cultures colors characters and conditions of man and so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us we close the Divide because we know to put our future first we must first put our differences aside thank you all and have a great night the board will now I will accept a motion for re-entering closed session Miss wall if you want to go ahead and read the motion okay sure miss Miss Williams that pursuant to Virginia code 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 the Prince William County School Board re-enter closed session for the following reason one to discuss what staff to Performance of specific officers and employees pursuant
233to Virginia Code 2.2-3711 A 1 2 to evaluate the Ombudsman and approve annual performance goals for the office of the Ombudsman for the 2023-24 year pursuant to the Virginia code 2.2-3711a13 to discuss with division Council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students pursuant to Virginia code 2.2-3711 a 7 and 8 and 4 to consult with legal counsel employee or retained by the school board to receive legal advice regarding the school divisions policies on search and seizure pursuant to Virginia code 2.2-3711a 7 and 8. do I have a second um Miss wall seconds any discussion okay please vote foreign yes one absent Ralston motion passed okay we'll re-enter closed session and I'm not sure when we'll be back thank you all right let's um all right folks we
234are now entering open session for everyone to know the doors should be open thank you thank you officer to Patty um we are now entering opposition we need to vote to um certify closed session Ms wall motion when I move that 3712 the closed session of the Prince William County school board meeting of June 7 2023 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 a 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 any
235discussion please vote she might have left we have corn right she's not been there what's wrong with you Justin are you voting yes yes I voted for you the vote Yes the vote is six yes one not president vote Jesse one absent Ralston motion passed all right at this point the Prince William County School Board will adjourn